I wrote the following essay without considering autism. I'd like to hear anyone's thoughts as to how or if the autism spectrum fits in here.
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Psychiatry and Hinduism
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The label "schizophrenic" comes with a lot of baggage, most of it negative. The label itself is misunderstood by the patients who have to undergo the life-changing diagnosis. One's own mind is called into question.
There needs to be a way for doctors to explain quickly and clearly to an average person, what the label actually means.
As far as I can tell, schizophrenia is all-encompassing fear. It's like a phobia that never ends and never has any reason to be. This fear makes it difficult to survive in as complex a world as ours.
To change gears, the Hindu religion speaks of seven primary lotuses, or chakras, along the human spine. There are hundreds of chakra points throughout the body, but for the purposes of clear communication, only seven are relevant.
At the base of the spine lies the basal chakra. When it is open, one is able to handle affairs of life and hygiene with competency. Fear can block it up; the goal of psychiatry is to keep it open, with chemicals if need be. A basal blockage is schizophrenia.
Next is the sacral chakra. It is blocked by guilt, and when blocked, leads to difficulty dealing with pleasure. This is major depression.
Further along is the solar plexus chakra. It deals with the ability to choose one's own path and to be self-confident. The block that keeps this closed is shame, which causes worry. Psychiatrically, it is known as anxiety.
There are further illnesses, but I don't believe it is useful to treat someone medicinally after they are capable of making moral decisions. Psychiatrically speaking, only the basal, sacral, and solar plexus chakras are relevant.
The question is whether or not someone with a blocked 4th chakra, heart, is capable of being moral. This chakra deals with love and self-love, altruism, kindness, and respect. It is blocked by grief. Grief makes it difficult to be open to new love; it blocks overall feelings of morality. Someone with a blocked heart chakra is sociopathic. Can animals be moral?
After sociopathy, the challenges relate to deeper spirituality. The throat chakra, number five, deals with truth. Learning to discern truth from lies is the primary challenge. Just as the heart chakra teaches us compassion, the throat chakra teaches us logic.
We have traveled from the depths of the purest Physical plane, through the Astral plane of dreams, the Celestial realms, and the plane of Balance. Now we look to the Human realms.
As Alexander Pope said in his Essay on Man:
"Created half to rise, and half to fall; Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all; Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurled; The glory, jest, and riddle of the world!"
Above the plane of humanity is the plane of austerity, signified by the third eye. It deals with intuition, and thus is set against the falseness of illusory being. One sees and one understands. One's higher-level ethics (justice, fairness) sits here.
The final chakra is the crown chakra. It is blocked by attachments. All that has to be known is known at the sixth, brow chakra. The crown chakra manifests when the understanding of one's oneness gifts us with an occasional feeling of infinity. Although it is a shame that one cannot be cosmically aware at all moments, this is only because all things pass. Even the bulk of experience will occasionally fade into the past, and enlightenment will be realized again.
14 Dec 2016, 6:34 pm
