Be a light unto yourself, not a light lit by another.

A light doesn’t compare itself with anything; it is light!

Introduction

Please note at the outset that the essay that follows this opening explanation regarding holistic living which is mentioned throughout the article will be unfamiliar to readers who may be expecting to find contemporary thinking via reason and logic (cause and effect) understanding of mental illness/disorder as medicalised pathology.

It is not pursuant to pathological thinking; so what other manner would be appropriate to consider? It is written from an oblique perspective of “intelligence patience” which is a wholistic approach meaning it is different from future linear projections of thought-formed problems and solutions shaped by reference to prior knowledge or experience as reactions against what is actually happening now.

Main text

What can a family do when faced with an idiomatic mental illness diagnosis with no known causation or cure?

This perplexing situation is the living nightmare many, if not all, families are thrust into following referral of a family member to public and private psychiatric institutions for assessment and treatment in Australia. In Brisbane, the capital city of the State of Queensland there are only a few private psychiatric hospitals operating due to the costs involved etc, so the public mental health facilities carry the bulk of the professional inpatient and outpatient workload.

Making sense of the system

As a layperson, there’s no point in challenging the validity of professional competence, it is what it is.  In any event families and patients have no equivalent professional standing on which to mount a serious alternate viewpoint. If you voice any opinions or questions of an existentialist context, you will likely be told you “lack insight” (like the patients) and you will have an opportunity to attend the Patient Review Tribunal hearing convened within a timeframe regulated under the Mental Health Act pertaining to the State in which you reside. 

This is all standard procedure.  I have taken up this offer and found out that, although it is purportedly an open review, it operates like an inquisition so it is adversarial. To call the proceedings ‘therapeutic jurisprudence’ is questionable. An argumentative position on behalf of the marginalised patient might see the privilege afforded to the prevailing medical report of the psychiatry representative as hermeneutical injustice, but the Tribunal is not likely to give it credence. The expert input is essentially the treating psychiatrist’s advice backed up by the psychiatric panel member and therefore it is really an exercise in rubber stamping the original assessment outcome.  It couldn’t be otherwise.

The issue has been completely taken over by the relevant legislation enabling psychiatric treatment teams to intervene either voluntarily or involuntarily. The patient and you no longer have control over the situation. So the diagnosed person is now faced with a medical and a legal determination and that means there are multiple hurdles to leap over in order to be considered ‘well’ by authorities in charge of the mental health sector.

Interestingly, the treatment with psychoactive medications begins after an initial assessment of the patient by psychiatrists who are empowered to issue a treatment order. This order enables the immediate introduction of the medication regime, whether the patient agrees or not. Therefore the Patient Review process is a post-facto superficial quasi-legal mechanism to portray the sense that some sort of community safeguards are there to protect against unethical practices. The legislators probably put this review phase into the mental health laws to allay the public’s fear following the release of films such as ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’.

Getting into the regime of treatment

What usually happens following the commencement of treatments is that a Social Worker will approach you with some friendly advice on where you may obtain further information regarding the treatment regime chosen for the patient and where advice for carers is available to help you adjust to the new situation. The pharmaceutical companies marketing the medications used in psychiatry produce pamphlets extolling the benefit of the psycho-medical application. That’s hardly surprising!

In Australia the dominant unchallenged psychiatric mantra is: “Early intervention in psychosis”, so schools are asked to be alert for potential evidence of children at risk of developing mental disorders/illness. This may explain the huge increase in diagnosis of conditions like ADHD and Anxiety which can lead to overmedication of juveniles.

Noted that consensus-acquired authority is going to assert itself vehemently against your natural tendency to exercise any power of veto by your own choosing. From my experience, any scratching of the surface of professionalism will unleash a venomous reaction to curtail your ‘right’ to question their privileged elitism positioning. This, of course, exemplifies the defensive tactics employed assertively to ignore its inherent ignorance. Something is clearly lacking, especially when speaking about adverse effects of the prescribed medications when complaints are either dismissed outright or given scant attention by psychiatrists.

Changes in general health associated conditions after medication onset, like type two diabetes, weight gain and dental problems occasioned by cavities, teeth grinding, jaw soreness and dry mouth issues which are not uncommon, are not sufficiently recognised by psychiatrists as distressing new symptoms attributable to the effects of the medication. It’s more likely to be attributed to advancement of the underlying pathology, without any evidence to support that particular excusing attitude.

Generally speaking, many questions lie outside the purview of science/scientific presuppositions; limits are part of the game – ‘paradox’ includes ‘seemingly’. Try putting this observation to a professional?

Social consequences

Following a diagnostic conclusion, there is an unforeseen stigma that takes over the social aspects of your daily living situation very quickly and it’s really immovable. Despite attempts by well intentioned ‘do-gooders’, there’s nothing that removes stigma, it spreads by oral rumours and the consequences for the liberty of your family are emphatic. Your relationship with the community has changed due to the psychiatric labelling.

Medical terminology is now driving the emotional response to what is happening because words such as ‘schizophrenia’ and ‘psychosis’ are given a frightening meaning in our verbal lexicon. Can the language influence be fundamentally understood thus enabling you to use words unemotionally and not necessarily be driven into victim status by scary words? Consider the following statement from J Krishnamurti: “The moment the mind is not caught in the word and symbol, and therefore is free of the word and the symbol, it becomes astonishingly sensitive. It is in a state to find out.”

Absorbing the shock

At this point you are experiencing a lot of things that you would never have expected to occur even in your worst dreams.  You will be in a state of shock for an undefined period.  This is the grief and loss response similar to the reaction following a death of someone you were close to.  This is to be expected, but the feeling of sorrow doesn’t end even though you are encouraged by other carers and professionals to accept things as they are and do the best you can to get on with your life. To gain insight into what prevents sorrow from ending, please refer to my comments on Pathogenesis Verses Salutogenesis further into the blog.

Initially, I followed the traditional pathway while keeping close contact with my son “D” who was now called a consumer by the mental health system. However, instinctively I was engulfed by the feeling that the system was leading us into a dead end gully with the likelihood of a seriously diminished societal future for all concerned to endure. So, accepting the nasty taste of powerlessness means resignation and that’s the half-closed door option that may suffice for some people, but that’s living according to the arbitrary opinions of others and therefore a secondhand life, which has no freedom at the heart of it.

Intrinsically, psychological powerlessness happens when your self-organising randomness, which operates holographically as a qualitative adaptation to the living environment is overtaken by an interventionist over-standing quantitative authoritarian system or particular thoughts which corrupts natural freedom of self autonomy by imposing conditional constraints.

Being a light to oneself – standing alone

“It is no measure of health to be well-adjusted to a profoundly sick society “

—- J Krishnamurti

What is fundamentally important is to find out yourself what is going to mitigate against falling headlong into the fog of ‘learned helplessness’ that the clinical message is apt to deem for you and others facing similar scenarios. You see now what is happening? If any trouble arises I go to a psychologist or therapist. In any family trouble I go to somebody who will tell me what to do. Everything around me is being organised, and making me more and more helpless. Consequently, I have abnegated my cognitive responsibilities to another. Therefore, I am now living in a second hand mindset.

Standing resolutely on your own feet isn’t easily understood because the mental health system, which is adamantly unchangeable and un-negotiable is attempting to feed you with information and terminology that seems on the surface to be helpful, but in fact it is loaded with limitations, particularly contradictions, that only become obvious in the light of the reality of your daily living situation. What I mean by this statement is that the methodology adopted by applying the pillared philosophy of biologically-specific reasoning, theory and logic needs to be approached sceptically because the moment to moment actuality of life (psychologically) is itself not fixed within the parameters of codified versions of past knowledge and experience that are used as benchmarking of trajectories which signify problems by the mental health system.

“Give up knowing, And the questioning springs to life. In it, that which is asked — is not asked by you. And you, who have let go of knowledge, are now free — not to wait for an end, or to initiate a start. Free to not.” …….Quote from Observing Beauty

Living on, searching for answers

Many years have now passed and somehow we kept on keeping on. In 2016, my wife became seriously ill and subsequently died from Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma. Not long after this D’s tenure in community rental housing was terminated and he came back to living with me in the family’s house.

Right from the beginning of this journey, I have felt an abiding discontent that this is all too neatly packaged up as insoluble. I was not inclined to rely solely on the authority of others no matter how highly credentialed they purported to be. I could be wrong, however something that’s noticeable about psychiatry is that it won’t openly admit its limitations.

To guard against criticism about the blinding uniformity of its protocols, psychiatrists are encouraged to say “No, we are an eclectic profession”, but there’s very little evidence to support that claim, in practical observations. Where’s the creative disagreement that signifies true science? It doesn’t apply to the practices adopted by psychiatrists who work in the public mental health system because they work in organised ‘teams’ to keep uniformity in place, under the strict supervision of the team leader (consultant psychiatrist) assisted by the team’s nurse manager who organises the nursing input.

It’s a powerful censorship as all over-standing cultures have understood historically, then any dictate that says: Thou shalt not speak otherwise. Then you’re already caught in the trappings of “ignorance”. It’s very subtle, what you want is that it’s not a thinkable thought – no one has to tell you to stop because the hierarchy ensures it won’t start. This effectively prevents any innovative thinking from emerging within or outside the team structure. Teams often harbour mediocrity.

I admit that I’m probably one of the few who’s a sceptic about the unfettered conduct of the psychiatric institutionalisation’s system including its methods and the practices adopted regarding the objectification of people who have been diagnosed with mental illnesses or disorders. And, I’m not a follower of the Church of Scientology either.

Apart from the family and friends of psychiatric patients, nobody else seems to care much about the fate of these patients over the long term because the general public are confusingly frightened by the prospect of a psych patient residing nearby. Politicians, in particular, a former Premier of Queensland, seem to favour locking all patients away while they are receiving treatment in hospitals, assuming that they are potentially dangerous to the outside world.

The firing up of heightened fear if a patient who was given approved time away from hospital and subsequently is late in returning and consequently regarded as AWOL, attracts vast lopsided commentary by television, radio and print media whose appetite for reporting on conflict “in the public’s interest” is insatiable. At the same time, they (politicians and media) make separate public statements about reducing stigma around mental illness. Such hypocrisy is breathtaking.

Questions regarding research

Fact check: “The Pathophysiology of Schizophrenia is Still Unknown“…… Dr Christoph Corral – Prominent US Psychiatrist 2023

Research aimed at finding a biological cause has been around for 100 years or more, worldwide. It has been unsuccessful, yet psychiatrists tell me that the missing proof is just about to be found by new neuroscience or genetics. The fact is that the unsolved causality problem is driving the frantic efforts of a plethora of researchers who are speculating about an endless range of hypothetical clues in a race to claim the prize (Nobel) for solving the mystery. Of course, all these endeavours are conditioned by reductionist biomedical methodology, not related to holistic perspectives on the workings of the human mind.

How often do we hear someone from a professional standpoint exclaim: Research indicates…… followed by positive hypothetical explanations referred to as evidence based knowledge.

For myself, I cringe whenever someone in a professional capacity introduces a science of mind or ‘spiritual’ conclusion with such words because it usually means that a statement of belief or some meta-analysis statistical compilation using algorithms will follow, not incontrovertible facts.

Psychiatric Professional Practice

In the absence of empirical evidence of disease causation, a layman’s common sense can’t help but observe with scepticism that, given the propensity for downright confusion about what constitutes mental illness/disorder, presentations of patients exhibiting non-normal behaviours and disassociated thinking patterns enabled the fellowship of medical practitioners sufficient ambivalence in which to conclude, by consensus, that a specialist profession of psychiatry was appropriate. I’m referring to this in an ideological perspective, not historically.

Due possibly to opportunistically manipulating strategic ambiguity, this collegiate initiative of the American Psychiatric Association seized upon the concept of compiling a comprehensive list of diagnosable human conditions into a systematic collection to purposefully guide clinicians into fixed standards of diagnostic methods. This culminated in the DSM psychiatric ‘bible’ used universally in today’s professional practices.

It simultaneously paved the way for the large scale development of suppressive pharmaceuticals used worldwide by the profession to treat the patients over elongated periods of time culminating in what, for the majority of cases, are deemed terminal illnesses by the psychiatric profession. Psychiatrists insist on starting a continuous stream of medicalisation with powerful drugs that persists indefinitely for the recipients so diagnosed. Consequently, there’s a constant flow of large quantities of monetary funds that feeds into the insatiable coffers of the pharmaceutical industry. Sorry for sounding a bit cynical here!

In reality, the alignment between high-end medical exclusivity (psychiatry) in partnership with highly profitable pharmaceutical companies, when examined dispassionately, begins to perceptively appear as a complex “gain of function” matrix where the welfare of patients is relegated into inhumane ‘objects’ that conveniently sustain the quasi-scientific collusive mental health practices which profits handsomely from the prolonged suffering and deteriorating overall health prognoses of its patients.

These prescribed pharmaceuticals are very expensive products which low income or disability pensioners cannot afford. However, the government of Australia has a public pharmaceutical benefits scheme that enables the patient to pay only a small nominal fee for dispensing their allotted prescriptions, while the remaining portion of costs are met by the Australian taxpayers.

Future developments

It is common knowledge that to overcome the shortfall in availability of fully credited medical doctors in general clinical practice, moves are underway to train nurse practitioners to provide medical dispensaries for minor ailments. Further changes have been introduced allowing pharmacists to administer vaccines for Covid and influenza prevention. It probably won’t end there. It’ll pave the way for registering nurses to enter into prescribing psychopharmacology meds, because the pharmaceutical industry is pressing the governmental authorities into believing that the pharmaceutical treatments for minor psychiatric problems are effective and harmless.

Soon the diagnostic messaging will be interpreted by Artificial Intelligence search engines and nobody in a professional capacity will risk offering an alternative explanation. The authors of AI will simply convert Psychiatry’s DSM configuration into a virtual server computerised system. Big Brother with no face will be taking over the diagnostics and Big Sister (nurses) will prescribe the meds alongside General Practitioners who are already prescribing serious psychiatric medications. Sounds scary, doesn’t it?

Information shortfall

Naturally, families hold great hopes for researchers and clinicians who have the advantage of tertiary knowledge and anxiously await news of something to help end their turmoil. In the psychological sense ‘hope’ is suspended time, a state of semi-paralysing inactivity waiting for some alleviating factors to suddenly appear and restore normality or instigate recovery.

Homogeneity is deeply embedded within our models of social interaction and it is engrained into the so-called ‘norms’ that define almost everything that we regard as a worthy basis on which to apply our values, knowledge and practices. So there’s a strong pre-rebuttal acting unconsciously to resist the urge to seriously doubt what is already determined by conventional authority with its positive spin firmly in place.

The ideological implications are to stay positive and optimistic about the future. However, over time the positive approach gets seriously challenged outwardly and inwardly and looming doubt appears on one’s psychological horizon. And it’s real. There’s further comments doubting the effectiveness of positive psychology’s approach to ‘fear’ towards the final paragraphs.

Security concerns

One feels lost, isolated, insecure, frightened, confused and to counter that feeling of dread there’s a serious hankering for certainty. But, the search for certainty, whether in trusting the psychiatrists or psychologists or turning to religious beliefs, ends up in uncertainty, not certainty and therefore the primary feelings of loss etc. are exacerbated. There’s a feeling of having been cheated or deceived. What’s worse is this personal sense of guilt that one contributed to it oneself. Commonly, one’s resolve is weakened and it gives way to these powerful emotions which make you feel neurotic, anxious or depressed, and then seek professional help to alleviate the stress of being a carer. What happens is that a circling sequence is formed: seeking certainty, becoming uncertain, then seeking certainty and again experiencing uncertainty and so on and on. When given the choice between complex uncertainty and comforting – but wrong – certainty, we too often choose certainty.

Where does one turn next? Alternatively, one may see that the via-negativa notion of remaining obliquely with the fact of uncertainty is worthy of consideration. Uncertainty is then synonymous with psychological discontent which has no causation. But, this requires an insight that is not likely to be forthcoming from professionals , so you have to go it alone and that’s very scary at first glance and often carers don’t understand enough about holistic aspects of consciousness to persevere with it no matter what.

Seemingly, there’s a risk attached to entering the unknown by leaving the optimal fold created by the mind professionals, because we are programmed to look to them to rescue us from ourselves – they are the ones that are supposed to know what to do and how to do it, but they have blind spots too which aren’t apparent at first glance. Perhaps the primary oversight is that the brain in and of itself is programmed to create mental problems and then it attempts to solve its own problems. This is common to collective consciousness. But, the professional approach lays the foundation for mental problems on the part of individuals with a propensity for pathological tendencies as evidenced by their symptoms.

So, a creative action that means you taking back the reins and beginning to look within instead of outside maybe worth considering. And, intelligence might follow you in ways that once seemed impossible.

Is there any psychological security in life at all? The word implies a sense of wanting to be permanently out of harm’s way. To examine the question of insecurity, not as an opposite of security, but to look factually at why I am feeling insecure is the beginning of intelligence.

When deeper enquiry reveals the whole field of what is false and what is true and when the false is removed, that’s intelligence manifesting itself in security. In that inquiry, which is examining the whole spectrum of human psychological factors, there may be a mutation taking place in the brain itself of which one is unaware. This is really the case for unbeknown experiential meditation involving awareness of the whole spectrum of human existence, arising negatively. A common response to this suggestion is to consider it either impossible or just too hard and ignore it or simply give up and accept the old conditioning in its entirety.

Finding out there are no relatable answers, only unending sensitivity

Notwithstanding that, I began to look into things sceptically and started investigating if there was anything apart from these fixed stereotypes that pervade the mainstream mental health system.  All the while I was running the gauntlet within my own mind to fight off the conditioned messages that this is a waste of energy, that it will lead nowhere and I will be sorry in the long run.

Essentially, I was looking for wisdom apart from the orthodox sources structured around illness-centric pathological thinking. I maintained a serious questioning of anything I felt was unclear to my sensitivity, which seemed to be expanding with the depth of my enquiry. 

Perhaps like any anthropological enquiry, my curiosity wouldn’t abate. There are new matters arising the further it goes on – it’s quite strange, I don’t know how to describe it. 

But what is central to my curiosity is my interest in the vast compilation of the teachings of Jiddu Krishnamurti and Professor David Bohm, who together and separately presented talks, dialogues and writings that explore much of the psychological arena that I can relate to in my own lived experience, and then apply to my relationship with my son. There’s more on relationships in the final paragraph.

Fundamentally, Krishnamurti points out – the art of seeing, the art of listening and the art of learning go together to enable self investigation into the root cause/causes of psychological reality. Perception is based on looking directly into the awareness of the mental processes as consciousness unpacking itself without being burdened by past references to fixed parameters of biological markers acting as predictable codes of abstract knowledge.

In order to go far with a psychological inquiry one must start very near and there’s nothing closer than oneself. Accurate, honest self knowledge is a precursor to observing the fundamental movement of consciousness in another person whom you are interacting with in close proximity. However, such perception isn’t essentially quantitative comparison or measurement, it entails observing the living quality of daily relationship that is changing in and of itself from moment to moment.

Reality versus Actuality

It’s important to understand the difference between projection of thoughts as reality and perception of actuality. Thought projection is a cause and effect conceptual process that thinks it reflects reality. It is commonly associated with the simulated movement of knowledge and experience as ideas or ideals through the prism of time.

There’s a mechanism known as PEP (pattern explanation principle) which works as a system of symbolic concepts driving particular and general thinking processes that acts in substantiation of approximated knowledge and experience held in collective memory. What’s not apparent is that PEPs are always trajectories linked with the past (dead) matter which is directive by its influence, not creative in any way, shape or form – rendering it’s obsolescence as useless information, not helpful in the current context of ‘what is’, whatsoever.

Mere observation of the repeated distortions in thinking agendas utilised by mentally challenged patients shows clearly that they are caught in particular patterns time and again, often in attempts to make mind changes. However, the same evidence of following patterns is observed in the treatment practices of professionals too. If not with regard to diagnostic criteria, but certainly with the attribution of standardised prognosis outcomes. Obviously, a pattern is not a change at all; it is merely a modified continuity of what has been. Swapping med A for med B or strength low to high often makes no perceived improvement. So, fundamentally, the psychiatrist’s thinking patterns are not very different from the patient’s thinking patterns; therefore no significant changes occur, frequently. Hence, the psychiatrist usually resolves the dilemma by categorically stating that the patient is deemed treatment-resistant. Blaming the patient may be convenient for the doctor, but leaves the patient feeling more vulnerable.

Perception, on the other hand, is wholly seeing or listening instantly without cause and effect past referencing. The test for real perception doesn’t invoke time – it is so (true) or it is not so (false), that’s all. There’s nothing that can be assumed, presumed or otherwise predicted in perception or observation without an observer representing the reiterated past.

Consequently, attempting to reduce perception by a process of compartmentalisation is not viable from a holistic perspective. It’s simply a matter of perception for the sake of choice-less awareness, timelessly. It relies on the austerity of clarity for its validity. Is this a state of mind that is simplified by wordlessly observing the fractal movement of consciousness?

The explanations which comprise the academic sciences of the human mind are consolidated formulaic complexifications that have evolved over time. The elitist (expert) opinions associated with theory of complexity cannot stand simplicity. However, in simplicity there may exist the intelligence of great subtlety. Intellectually, there is virtually no subtlety at all in attempting to solve psychological problems, it’s mainly operating by making concerted efforts to change from ‘what is’ to ‘what should be’, gradually involving time/thought which is a mechanical process.

False or misleading Theory

The history of psychiatry is littered with many examples of fabricated false information concerning what’s referred to as plausible theory of possible causes and methods to treat abnormalities. The most prominent use of ‘fake’ information that spread like wildfire throughout the world is ‘chemical imbalances’ in the brain. When questions about the seemingly lack of evidence were raised, the elite collegians of the American Psychiatric Association went into damage control. Ronald W Pires MD made the following statement: “In truth, the ‘chemical imbalance’ notion was always a kind of urban myth — never a theory propounded by well-informed psychiatrists”.

Newer evidence warrants consideration

Catecholamine theories of mental illness – e.g. that depression is caused by a lack of serotonin or psychosis by an excess of dopamine – have now been debunked, but we’re still using drugs developed when those theories had legs that have profound effects on neurotransmitter balances.

Antipsychotics are theorised to work as a sort of titrated chemical lobotomy that interferes with signals along the dopamine D2 pathways linking the amygdala with the prefrontal cortex, which the dopamine hypothesis of schizophrenia theorised had become overstimulated, thus ‘causing’ psychosis. But in 2015, NIH research led by Andrew Holmes found that a good link between these centres was vital for processing traumatic memories and healing from post-traumatic stress. This suggests hyperactivity along the D2 pathway (and consequent psychotic symptoms) isn’t a cause of mental illness but a response to it.

Sure enough, substantial research by several other groups – most famously Harrow et al – has found that while antipsychotics might have uses as short-term emergency treatments for acute psychotic episodes, their long-term use is associated with reduced recovery rates and impaired functioning across a wide range of measures when compared with those of similar symptom severity who don’t receive the drugs or are weaned off them after a short treatment period. This is exactly what you’d expect if the drugs were suppressing the healing process rather than treating the disease.

Warning signs

Beware of false knowledge; it is more dangerous than ignorance! Question everything including language and yourself! Always remember that the word is not the thing it refers to.

The use of psychopharmacology to correct so-called brain chemical deficiencies is happening because it is the most convenient and easiest way for clinicians to treat (subdue or sedate) patients from a relatively safe distance, without being encumbered with the intricacies of their life’s travails. The prevailing attitude appears to be – prescribe necessary suppressive medications and stay away from the exigencies of their living situation, including the family arrangements. Therefore, it follows that the doctor-patient-family relationship is mostly disingenuous.

From ‘what is’ or ‘what should be’

From an holistic perspective, the crucial thing to note is whether the psychological centre (me) can be seen as the agent provocateur who is organising (for it’s own sake) reactions from past memories and projecting future probability. In other words, moving forwards and backwards along a programmed nervous thread-like arterial pathways consisting of strands of knowledge connecting ‘what was’ to ‘what is’, to ‘what isn’t’, to ‘what should be’ automatically as a reflex. Another way to describe it is time travelling. Of course, we are cognisant about time travel as an imaginary concept featuring in science-fiction stories.

To see the fact that thought from past memory is akin to authority generating its own time-bound mechanical space, causing limited action with contradictions built into itself, is of course elusive.  After all, it’s content is merely a series of abstract patterns carried over from the ashes of the past, although personalised thought processes selectively remembers certain portions for it’s particular convenience and presents it to consciousness as if it is the full actual reality.

The relevant question is to explore the fundamental nature of thought so as to see its mechanical configuration, particularly regarding the self-centred images that pervade the psychological functioning of past remembrances. Thought is a material process, it is essentially a movement in time not some higher order (souls) following a divine pathway organised by heavenly influences. If psychological time is illusory, then it’s associated thoughts will similarly be non-factual, just fragmented ideas drawn from the abstract zone of past remembrances.

Now, from a holistic perspective wherein the life of man is comprehended as a whole affair, psychological movement is non-fragmented so awareness takes effect differently to the dualistic space/time structure that’s central to the fragmented processes of conditioned brain functioning adopted by brain specialists under conventional principles of scientific theory.

Insofar as the wholeness of perception is concerned, there’s an immediacy that’s self evident and sufficient in and of itself, it doesn’t require any references to or intervention by another authority, whatsoever.

Intelligent perception

Intelligence has nothing to do with causality or any connection between the ideological trajectory of opposites. Intelligence is attention to ‘what is’, it is the uncovering of the false information against that which is. Intelligence is instant action by way of outright rejection of the false. Intelligence is insight that has no cause. Therefore it doesn’t concern itself with the opposite of what is happening, because there isn’t anything opposing that which is factual, it doesn’t lack anything. It proves that to invent something opposite is an illogical usage of time, thus the idea of psychological opposites is contradictory, non-sensical and delusional.

What is so powerful about reading transcripts of Krishnamurti and Bohm’s dialogues and talks is that what you are reading is being mirrored so that you are reading about yourself.  As Krishnamurti reminds his audiences, ‘the Observer is the Observed’ not separate.  You are reading the book of your own life, not the life of Krishnamurti or Bohm. And, the book of your own psychological life is simultaneously the book of the life of humanity.

When the art of seeing, the art of listening, and the art of learning are understood, self knowing grows in sensitivity, exponentially. The essential quality of learning from the holistic perspective is the ending of the divisiveness that affects the traditional culture of quantitative learning which is more accurately described as memorising.

Immediacy of perception is the hallmark of psychological intelligence. A mind that listens with complete attention will never look for a result because it is constantly unfolding and enfolding itself, naturally. A mind that is a light to itself, it’s completely awake, it is not tortured, it has no formula, it has no proportional time.

“You cannot go to the place you are now, obviously” Alan Watts — The Truth of Reality.

On the question of what constitutes intelligence, Krishnamurti stated:

“Intelligence has no evolution.

Intelligence is not the product of time.

Intelligence is this quality of sensitive awareness of ‘what is’ ”

Knowledge based reasoning Vs Self inquiry

Why does the investigation into a question or subject matter differ in regards to the approach by Krishnamurti? And, what is it that makes it relatable to my particular enquiry into psychological perspectives that involves disturbances in thinking?

In every investigation, Krishnamurti began observation from scratch with not knowing or as he called it — “freedom from the known” and proceeded to unravel facts step by step looking, as if for the first time, at each emerging thought or matter closely. Either it is so or not so. Be careful when examining for psychological facts — ‘not so’ hasn’t any connecting link with ‘It is so’. There’s no bit by bit factor of change, gradually. Time has no effect on the choiceless observation of the matter.

No cognisance is given to ideas or theory from other sources whatsoever. So the enquiry is not dependent on any authority, scripture, dogma, traditions or knowledge/experience of an historical nature. He maintained that all such knowledge was acquired by thought processes that are limited and therefore contain ignorance coupled with partial understanding which is rendered incomplete by the very nature of reductionist principles.

So, is there a coherent approach that looks into the question of psychological circumstances apart from the traditional scientific principles? Clearly, the standard fragmented/conditioned arrangements are proving incapable of getting to the root of any psychological dilemma, there’s only an uptake of interest from professionals concentrating on symptoms. That’s what they are trained to do and there’s no going beyond the boundaries of the system that encapsulates the training they received. This is a fact, therefore from a holistic perspective, putting all of that aside completely is an intelligent position, not a lack of insight. To operate the thinking process whilst in some incomplete or imprecise state of mind only results in mediocrity which prevents clear observation.

Authentic scientific assessment in the classical tradition demands that any hypothetical ’cause or causes’ must be both sufficient and necessary. Shouldn’t science also be about non-consensus so that a wide variety of views are canvassed, particularly having regard to the uncertainty of causes question? Apparently not, concerning the way psychiatry consolidates all theoretical ideas tightly within the umbrella of biological pathology. It appears to lump correlation with causation for the convenience of professionals offering treatments that are, at best, partially reducing the burden of dis-ease from stressors, but falling way short of anything that could reasonably be regarded as a medical cure. It’s public objective seems to be aimed at policing the patients’ psychosocial mental capacity by altering their brain’s chemistry for purposes of containing psychosomatic behaviour ad infinitum.

To some, this may seem to be an over-critical assessment of psychiatric professionals, but it’s fairly obvious that there is an absence of clinical methodology for coming off prescribed meds which is being regarded as a weakness of the system by a growing number of professionals who have broken ranks with the mainstream majority of practitioners. In Australia there are very few professional dissenters, but internationally there‘s highly qualified voices like Professor Peter Gotzsche, Director of the Nordic Cochrane Centre who claims that psychiatric drugs do more harm than good in the long term. Gotzsche presented a talk on the subject of “Overdiagnosed and Overmedicated” at the State Library of Victoria, Melbourne 11 February 2015 which is available on YouTube. Gotzsche is certainly not a sole voice on the dangers of long-term use of psychiatric drugs.

Consider also this comment made by Dr Elissa Epel, Professor of Psychology at University of San Francisco, California: “I don’t discourage people from trying the medications because if they’re lucky and they work on their brain then that’s great, it’s just that for most people their kind of cost/ benefit analysis is not great, meaning that the benefit is minimal, if any, and the cost is side effects. So, there are definitely different side effects. There are some of these drugs that are used for different mental health conditions that are blatantly addictive and really hard to get off, and people just suffer and the drug companies don’t really admit how problematic these drugs can be. So, Effexor for example is one that’s terribly difficult to get off……”

Turning to the world wide proliferation of anti depressants in the form of SSRI‘s marketed by big pharma as ‘wonderful’ remedies for depression, its patently obvious that the public were kept in the dark about the risks associated with withdrawal from the drugs, particularly the permanent loss of sexual function (PSSD).

Awareness in holistic perspectives

Krishnamurti offers an alternative approach to understanding consciousness that is freestanding and it works negatively by discarding false premises, thus enabling self evident facts to emerge from the depths of self enquiring dialogues. Fresh attention, without conclusions, brings renewed energy that enables ‘reading between the lines’ that is so necessary for seeing ‘what is’ from moment to moment. I liken it to the wisdom in the words of Leonard Cohen’s Anthem: “there’s a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in”.

“Your mind is your predicament. It wants to be free of the obligation of life and death. But change is law and no amount of pretending will alter that reality”……Socrates

I find that some statements by Krishnamurti illuminate and awaken or sharpen my thinking. My favourites are:

• Freedom lies in the beginning of enquiring not at the end

• The first step is the last step 

• The word is not the thing it refers to

• The past gives meaning to the present, therefore the present has no meaning

• ‘What is’ is ever new, it never was nor never will be

• The most intelligent action is total inaction 

• Your name is only important for communication purposes 

• The mind is prone to self deception 

• The particular and the general are not divided

• The inner and the outer are the same movement

• There is no such thing as psychological time

• The ending of sorrow is the beginning of compassion 

• Love is not desire it’s meaning has been corrupted 

• There is no psychological security in the realm of the known

In addition, there are many other insights not included above.1 These awakenings leave me not in some static state of mind. I find that there is a distinct possibility of inhabiting a state of mind that is constantly aligned with the momentum of living, although not necessarily with definitive conclusions, but a sense of real freedom. It is this freedom that helps me to face the complexities experienced by my son.

Human relationships are key

Since my wife died, I have more time to devote to finding a new way to deal with the reality of my relationship with D, particularly the question about my part in the dynamics of daily contact with him as his significant other person as well as his father. This obviously is the interface where any fundamental change may or may not eventuate.

There are some interesting correlations between ‘teaching’ and ‘caring’, particularly in relation to the very confrontation of the Self with the Other. Ludwig Wittgenstein wrote about it in his “Philosophical Investigations”. The philosopher understood that learning — of a concept, of ourselves, of each other — is the undertaking of a whole life. Wittgenstein was referring to the teacher–pupil relationship. Similar confrontations are a common occurrence in relationships between a Carer (parent) and son/daughter who from time to time exhibits symptoms of mental dissociation etc. while living under the same roof.

On the surface, indications may suggest nothing worthwhile is likely to happen and therefore things will stay much the same or even get worse.  However, I am of the view that I have invested considerable energy in finding new approaches to my participation in his situation, and I am certainly going to persevere with it no matter what happens.

Is this also fanciful imagination to allay my feelings as a victim in the whirlpool of emotions surrounding prolonged suffering which is part and parcel of ‘mental illness’ scenarios?  I really don’t know. However, this much I feel strongly ‘enough is enough’ of suffering. Suffering is dualistic conflict within the psyche, me separate from sorrow. To deconstruct categorised sorrow, is it possible to see the cause-effect movement of this conflict in its entirety? The seeing involves clarity of the depth of sorrow, not related to biomedical methodology. This demands unburdening my mind of anything that my enquires cause me to suspect is feeding the problems of psychological sorrow. Action at this point of understanding involves the awareness, of ‘what is’ completely and aligning with insight that negates false propositions, not accumulation of positive ideation or pragmatism. There’s an excellent video on “suffering” available on YouTube from a site called Observing Beauty that is very informative.

Coming to grips with the reality of the situation

Psychiatry’s interest in D is no longer directly active. Psychiatrists regard him as “treatment resistant” and have handed over ongoing prescribed treatment to D’s GP, who also has inherited the deterioration in D’s general health. This is very concerning in itself because the physiological effects coalesce with the psychological effects, there is nothing separating both of these factors.

The question stated at the beginning of this blog presupposes the notion that doing something is needed to relieve the pressure inherent in the ‘hope v fear’ loop implied in the language of ‘no cause’ – ‘no cure’. This results from the literal thinking process – every problem must have a solution. Conditioning tells us this automatically.

The mind immediately goes searching for an answer. If it turns out that no solution is forthcoming – bad luck. The medical profession frequently refers to prognosis of incurable illnesses this way not only in the field of mental illness. That’s dead end thinking which takes you nowhere and dumps you in a void by the roadside.

Carer groups offer consolation ‘you are not alone’. Sorry, consolations are emotional band aids that aren’t addressing the core issues.

The danger of duality in psychological consciousness

The corridor of opposites or binary mindset enables the making of amazing technical advances in building computers and numerous other new inventions – here there is no room for argument. However, when considering psychological consciousness, duality seems to be the grounding for conflict and contradictions. Do we ever watch anything with clarity or do we interpose between the observer and the observed a screen of various prejudices, values, judgments, comparisons, condemnations?

Dualistic thinking is not really helpful at all in facing the three active principles operating in the inner life of humans – ‘fear’, ‘the pursuit of pleasure’ and ‘sorrow ‘. Trying or wishing, which is the dualistic positive instrument to alter the effects of thinking about something is only an illusory movement desiring something other than what it is.

In the Second Series of “Commentaries on Living ” Krishnamurti wrote, on the subject of ‘The Storm in the Mind’, — “The diamond cannot be separated from its qualities, can it? The feeling of envy cannot be separated from the experiencer of that feeling, though an illusory division does exist which breeds conflict, and in this conflict the mind is caught. When this false separation disappears, there is a possibility of freedom, and only then is the mind still. It is only when the experiencer ceases that there is the creative movement of the real”.

Attachment, possession and identification

The effect on the psyche of words with negative emotional connotations is surely freedom denying sorrow/suffering. Now, is this suffering personal (particular) or is it non-personal (general). Psychologically, human beings right across the world also suffer in various ways so it is commonplace, except when we feel it emotionally we think it is mine. Bohm and Krishnamurti liken it to the discovery of sodium – it’s not called your sodium or my sodium; it’s just sodium.

If the psyche is in fact a universal phenomenon, then the widely held idea of a uniquely individual consciousness is incorrect. Therefore, there’s nothing to suggest that personal attachment or dependence on others is worthwhile for the sake of attaining psychological security, but that’s certainly not what conditioned thinking concludes. From infancy onwards society promotes ‘help’ from and reliance on traditional sources for personal knowledge and social wellbeing, exclusively. So to stand alone in daily life is discounted and rigorously discouraged. To be free of attachment is to be beyond the network of words, psychologically.

Jiddu Krishnamurti

Value of undivided perception

Can we seriously perceive deeply that the particular and the general thoughts and feelings are not separate therefore consciousness is not a uniquely individualised phenomenon, it is one undivided human consciousness including content of the whole of mankind (holistic).

The traditional programming for thinking about solving problems is the barrier to fresh perception, although it frames the issue according to the traditional question — answer linear thinking processes, automatically. Looking further into the process of problem solving, it may be observed that when anything becomes a problem we are caught in attempting to reach for the solution of it, and then the problem becomes a cage a barrier to further exploration and understanding. This is because the activity of analysis has moved from the question to its proposed solution, reflexively. So with insight into the limitations of problem solving concepts, awareness reminds me that –“As long as I work pro-actively on a problem, there must be duality of cause separated from effect”. And therefore, can I look at a psychological disconnect without any form of problem solving techniques? And it is only possible when the usual thought process comes to an end, which is to bring a stop to the dualistic movement of choice involving time.

Breaking through and going beyond problems (holistically)

Seeing the limitations of dualistic choices allows for choice-less perception without the reactive identifying/naming enables the fact to be revealed. Facts aren’t subject to change which means there’s nothing to do. Nothing is done and yet nothing is left undone. Nothing to do when total attention is given to a psychological problem is inaction against the impulsive urge to react in the face of threat seemingly occurring with ‘problems’. To understand the intelligence of inaction, it may be best explained by resorting to metaphor in the following way: Sailing (freedom) through and beyond the stagnant fixed state of fragmented thought (problem) to disavow the sticky nature of thought-induced issues. The relevant question arises – What are the characteristics of thought as it stagnates; and how does allowing it to move without interference relate to sailing by, freely? The significance of complete inaction lies squarely within allowing troubling thoughts to pass without interfering. Non-interference allows the primary natural state of freedom, symbolised by sailing, to persist. Undoubtedly, this is holistic meditation! 2

Total awareness, without a thinker at the centre, is a living dynamic which doesn’t work via ideology aimed at fixing psychological problems, including bio-active application of prescribed psych medication. So, understanding in the context of seeing the totality, not relatively, adjusts itself naturally to form a stable state which is pliable and therefore meets a diagnosed psychological so-called pathology without leaving a residue that operates as an extension of memorised time. This is not a theoretical principle for disentangling contradictory ideas in the mind. Having been already entangled, there’s nothing that can disentangle or reintegrate them by any pro-active means.

However, what is being proposed here is the direct action (inaction) of seeing what’s happening immediately, self-evidently in daily living. Seeing (wholly) comes from the mirroring effect of relationships. Clearly, there’s a vast difference between ‘doing’ and ‘happening’. Doing implies a doer who is rationally or irrationally implementing a preconceived motive or direction in the projected activity of doing. The doing agent is the conditioned entity also known as ‘me’ or derivatives of my ego-centric image/s.

The whole notion of doing is the ongoing result of dualistic conditioning, it is not just a particular or personal reaction, it’s the gathering of everything that mankind has created or invented concerning what to do about problems. So, whatever a conditioned mind chooses to do to fix or manage any psychological dilemma, the cause of it still remains intact. Attempting to act on symptoms means that the root of the problem is unaffected.

When this fact is observed fully and all problem-solving techniques are dismantled, there’s psychological space for a different state of energy to act involuntarily. It can only happen independent of a doer and a receiver. It’s actually choice-less awareness (intelligence) seeing the relevant fundamentals of the actual situation.

Observation of the whole of consciousness organically without a separate observer, reveals the quantum zero point. Incoherent thinking with choices has ended, replaced by non-verbal choice-less awareness (without motive or direction) emanating from organic nothingness – the state of innocence. Awareness without choice is total understanding; such understanding is immediate non-separate action, not understanding first, then translated into a concept and then action which implies psychological time. Action, including inaction, is without duration (timeless) and leaves no mark in memory. This has to be tested in the midst of daily living, not from intellectual expertise as skill. Holistically, it is the phenomena of involuntary meditation acting on reality, in spaciousness. It isn’t directed meditation or guided mindfulness practices. Sadly, few people are interested because it is devoid of profit and power. 3

“Inaction is the highest form of intelligence” — J Krishnamurti

Clearer thoughts on mental (and social) illness

My views about mental illness and social disorders are a little clearer.  It seems that it’s perhaps a matter of the scales of life – one side necessity, on the other side contingency. Bohm contends that quantum theory and the biology of human consciousness are alike, organically.

Now seeing mind processes through the lens of necessity like applying biological sciences means that it cannot be otherwise, but actual application of clinical intervention shows up limitations and consequently the solutions are incomplete in and of themselves. Alternatively, the contingent approach is based on the nature of what is happening as movement from moment to moment and therefore the meaning, although often appearing as noisy or melodramatic, ultimately involves outcomes that don’t really matter too much.

Krishnamurti points out: “Reality is a peculiar thing; it is there when you are not looking, but when you do look, with greed (wanting), what you capture is the sediment of your greed, not reality. Reality is a living thing and cannot be captured, and you cannot say it is always there”……

Thought, thinking it represents reality, may be rational or otherwise irrational, but the bedrock of it is only drawn from a correct or incorrect use of language. The fact is that thought can’t go where the roads of language have not been built. Clearly, the interference of the ego is operating, predominantly in a manner that is self-construal and self-protective. However, non-personal insight spotlights what is happening as transitory/temporary in nature and therefore impermanent.

Psychiatrists often label their patients as having concretised patterns of thinking. Thought exists in the form of general (collective) thinking and in the personal (particular) thinking. The collective is the abstract evolutionary residue of knowledge and experience that is regarded as the basic ground for understanding that is relatively static. However, it’s actually moving organically in a flow that isn’t perceptible to the conscious working mind that draws its reactive images by means of comparison with knowledge from the fixed symbolic representations of the general background. This is what professionals refer to as ‘normal controls’ for the purposes of their analytical diagnostics. However, it’s not objective science because there’s no unequivocal scientific test applicable to the term ‘normality’ in the biological structure of human beings. It’s only a conventional designation like a reputation that can mean anything in the eyes of the beholder. Symptoms may indicate a disruption in the machinery of the biological system, but the machinery is not the root cause and there may only exist room for determination of the symptomatic machinery which doesn’t reveal any causal evidence.

Turning to the personal or internal thoughts of persons diagnosed with mental illness, it seems like there is a continuous movement in the content of consciousness between representation (memory) and presentation (verbalisation) of abstract images, similar to the fictional production of a movie’s story line. Now, because the desire to ‘become something in life’ is so strong, if the demand for attaining some imagined ego-centric exaggerated sense of power or special attribute is overwhelmingly ‘absolute’ as a personal goal, the necessity to succeed or fulfil, when thwarted, causes an internal crisis or chaotic breakdown in normal daily functioning.

The psyche is built around psychological concepts that are part of the thinking mechanisms of the brain. Thinking per se doesn’t consist of substances, it is formulated by thoughts that have movement according to sets of concepts that are abstracted by reference to past events or experiences registered in memory and given identification or names for the specific purpose of an intending schema or action. So, the brain can be programmed into predicted expectations based solely upon the probability of past information being replicated in terms of the known abstractions. In the technological sense words used to describe concepts are usually literal descriptions that don’t upset the sensitivities of the psyche. However, when descriptive words and concepts are applied in the participatory context of self-imagery, the psyche can be defensive of its own self interest, thereby making for conflict and contradiction when interacting with others and even with delusional splits within itself.

Obviously, none of these predictions are guaranteed to happen exactly as expected, so the outcome has to be verified somehow and the psyche has to be open to understanding that the process is flawed in ways that are not easily seen. It means that if the psyche is completely convinced that something has to happen in a particularly favourable way, and if something otherwise happens, then it’s likely to be flummoxed and then seeks to accuse others of interfering with their chosen prediction. It mistakenly believed that it had the situation under the control of its premeditated thinking powers. At the centre of all this messed up mental state is the selfish image of the “me” that refuses to acknowledge its ignorances or limitations.

Unfortunately, this gets registered in memory and reified over and over in thought resulting in behaviour that is distorted in relationships of self-centred images, with another and sometimes society at large.

Some ideas on why treatments are ineffective

The patterns are extremely rigid and prove difficult to alter, in spite of the interventions of Psychiatrists with their psychotropic medications.  The patient’s internally induced sense of a permanent self is formed around survival of the popular Cartesian ideological I am beliefs, opinions and protestations, at any cost.  To him or her it is felt as a life or death struggle of the whole organism. Any advice to the contrary will be rejected.

The relationship between the psyche and its physical/societal environments condition the mind in a certain direction. It is true that the way a person thinks is going to be affected by his whole set of relationships. But that doesn’t explain why the conditioning is so rigid, and why it resists outside influences. If it were merely outward conditioning, it should be more easily changed by introducing some other outward condition. That has been tried unsuccessfully by the concept of diversionary therapy. Separating one’s thoughts from one’s self is a so-called therapeutic process called defusion. Both concepts (defusion and diversion) are aimed at intentionally separating the thinker from his thoughts or in other words the observer from the observed. Isn’t this separating principle already a primary factor in the so-called pathology itself? So would further separating actually be therapeutic or just a way of trying to trick people into believing that something beneficial might happen?

There is something fundamental about the inner ethos which is registered in the brain that holds, that vehemently resists change. It seems likely that the “me” image has adopted, inwardly, psychological patterns that are very isolating and strongly defended by primal fear. Without right relationship there is conflict not only between two people, but in the world, because the psyche has an egotistical tendency towards overcoming whatever regulations, rules and orders are placed exteriorly. This means that the inner ethos of the psyche has learned over a long period of time to repeatedly override the outer environs resulting in extreme forms of self-deception and even debilitating forms of self-hypnotic sabotage.

Apparently, the perforce of the psyche, using the conditioned positive powers of aggression juxtaposed with the defensive power of veto (which also operates positively in reverse) sets up an impenetrable inner sanctum which gives a separated sense of security and control over everything else in life. In so doing, it collapses the whole of its internal and external psychological and physiological existence into a very narrow confinement where it feels it can be safe and secure via extensive patterns of mind over matter, but unwittingly it has built its own graveyard. However, when life in the bunker becomes unbearable and chaotic, it resorts to the same positive/negative conceptual methods of struggling and fighting against its perceived enemy outside its reach and succeeds only in prolonging its personal arena of wounds and ever deepening problems. What can breakthrough and end this psychologically regressive malaise remains the mysterious unanswered question? Not gradually, but in one fell swoop. Otherwise, the root cause of conflict remains alive – sustained by the distancing factor of time. What the ‘me’ image doesn’t understand is that it is its own time-maker. In other words, I make my own time, it doesn’t lie outside in some passive place awaiting my utilisation of it (time). No, there is no psychological time unless I make it for the convenience of myself in wanting to become something other than what I actually am now, or move to somewhere else.

Dualistic thinking separates the centre (me) from what I think about (thought). Now the thinker is the old brain and when it thinks about becoming something other then the old patterns it looks at new ideas, but it in itself remains the old and only the ideas are apparently new. However, the old memory (me) stays intact and it overrides its own proposed new ideas, so changes aren’t carried forward as complete new actions. The central image built on the known past resists becoming the unknown new. It creates new ideas and ideals, but keeps living under its own shadows. The centre, by its own reactionary rules can not by force of will change itself into a state of humility. It may know what humiliation feels like, but that’s not the same as authentic humility that comes about when the ‘house’ of daily living arrives at a state of order without exerting effort to arrive there.

Neuroscience

Referencing what neuroscience researchers are trying to understand about brain networks may provide an insight into the mysterious phenomenon that is happening in dis-associated neural circuits. The connection between the brain’s Default Mode Network and the Executive Control Network may be showing critical clues to unraveling of what’s actually occurring. However, this research is based on researchers’ interpretation of what the fundamental mechanisms of these two networks are used for, and there is apparently ambiguity about the relationship. Past knowledge as fixed judgments impedes the validation process. The mystery will continue until researchers can approach the phenomenon without a-priori deterministic inference. Reductionism and associative determinism is likely to be the factor that is causing contradiction in meaning, instead of producing clarity.

Then again, studying the brain’s internal biology and biochemistry may not necessarily explain the mystery in terms of physical causation. An alternate holistic perception for why there is disorder may be scientifically intangible due to fractal variation in social interactions between conceptual thoughts. A psychological concept by itself doesn’t necessarily deceive, there is a deeper intention to self-deception in order to defend something of supreme value that has a secretive positive agenda or desire.

Neuroscientists admit that it is not possible to find the instigator of disorder in a self-organising system as in the brain of the patient. Therefore there can’t be a planned psychotropic treatment that prevents the range of symptoms that works every time. So, psychiatry’s answer is to label patients who don’t respond in expected ways as treatment-resistant. On the other hand, it may be interpreted as non-disclosure that the available medications are actually not fit for purpose.

In a videotaped discussion titled “What is Integrative Mental Health”, Dr Elissa Epel when talking about the traditional medical model for treatment of mental health issues with medications as the primary first line of treatment, commented: “there are just disappointingly so many problems with that approach”. She went on to explain that: “for example as many people know now depression is not easily treated with drugs. In cases of severe depression we can see effects that are better than placebo, but with all the rest of common depression that most people have, some meta-analysis suggest that it is similar to placebo or not much better and so that’s terribly disappointing …..”

Strangely, the principle of evidence-based practice is set aside and these non-effective treatments continue to be prescribed for treatment resistant patients anyway.

Pathogenesis V Salutogenesis

There is a movement underway in General Medicine that aims to substantiate the fact that an integrated (non-fragmented) approach is often far more effective than a reductionist (fragmented ) approach. Dr David Rakel MD, Professor and Chair, Dept. of Family and Community Medicine at University of New Mexico – School of Medicine is one of the notable practitioners who is involved with moving the focus of medical treatments away from Pathogenesis to Salutogenesis which emphasises the health of patients in lieu of sickness (suffering) modularisation.

This change is of vital importance to the diagnosis and treatment for mental disorder/illness. Why is it so? Please consider the following law applicable to the nature of thought: “That to which we give attention grows”. The word ‘attention’ may be interpreted in certain ways, the way attention is used in the area of education means to concentrate attention (pay attention) on the thing/s being taught by a teacher. Similarly, where medical information is given by a doctor, the patient would be encouraged to comply, unquestionably.

In regards to the mental health milieu, the identifier (words) carries, intrinsically a specific sense of condemnation (crazy) right from the point of determination and pronouncements. The simplest way to describe it from the recipient’s perspective is that the diagnosis represents ‘a shit sandwich’ which has no alternative meal on offer. Furthermore, if the patient refuses to accept the diagnosis, it’s interpreted as a secondary symptom of the disease. How about that for a miscarriage of natural justice?

Condemnation as a form of negative feeling grows and gathers strength every subsequent time that the labelling is mentioned by professionals, patients, pharmacists and family members of the particular patient. Now, the psychiatrists, nurses, social workers, administrative workers fail to understand that each and every instance that they engage with, by verbally addressing the patients/ families using nomenclature describing the diagnosed person as having such and such disorder/illness, they are unwittingly strengthening the feelings of condemnation and so it grows exponentially as an unresolved emotional problem. Clinically speaking, it seems to be an unavoidable side-effect and professionals are totally blindsided to it and would most likely dismiss it as an issue not worthy of consideration. But, is that so?

“You always become the thing you fight the most”…..Carl Jung, Psychologist

What Jung Is pointing out can be tested in daily living. Popular idioms can be misleading, take for example the ordinary phrase “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” which is bandied about in social circles and many people take it seriously regarding psychological stress – hence the idea that fighting dis-ease like cancer is the optimal means for overcoming it. Now, there’s no correlation between physical strength and psychological strength. Psychological strength is a misnomer because it is related to making extra effort to supposedly gain greater strength of the psyche which means prolonging psychological distress that increases in intensity proportional to the level of effort. This is not the intended effect, surely. However, it is the outcome of the cause and effect mechanised thinking application. The global rise in anxiety and depression is very concerning for the mental health industry which hasn’t yet comprehended holistic psychological health.

Emotions are at the heart of the discontent anyway, and the situation can’t realistically improve so long as the emotional problems are being strengthened by ongoing identification and attachment. This is a simple fact of life.

No wonder that patients and their families feel trapped in a never ending cycle of emotional travail without any light at the end of their feelings of being trapped by an enveloped darkness, psychologically. However, when one fully understands the fact about this ‘law’ which means reading between the lines of the spoken word, then its pervasive hold over you is broken instantly and the struggle ends, by natural holistic awareness, without effort.

Families (carers) can get the gist of it only when they are aware of it as an incontrovertible fact, not just a concept or an idea. With patients, it is virtually irreversible because they have been repeatedly coerced and pressured into believing that their human existence is synonymous with the diagnosis attributed to their symptoms and therefore needs to be treated with psychopharmacological meds for the rest of their life by the system of Psychiatry. Unfortunately, that’s the result of the linear cause and effect Pathogenesis mode of thinking that is currently practiced by around 90% of medical practitioners, as explained by Dr Rakel.

Insofar as the Psychiatric System is concerned, it is incumbent on intelligent people connected with the medical profession, like Peter Gotzsche, David Rakel, Dan Siegel, Johanna Moncrieff and others to carry the lantern to their colleagues. Truth will prevail, ultimately.

Truth about the duration of psychosis is clouded by ignorance on the part of professionals who make arbitrary assumptions regarding the severity of distress experienced by their patients. A schizophrenic patient who spoke at a world-wide conference reminded the audience that: “psychosis lasts for 30 minutes maximum, not all day long ..>..”, so why should treating psychiatrists persistently ladle out medications that have long-lasting effects?

Looking into fear

Fear has its roots in the imprint of time, and goodness cannot flower in the field of time. Unlike chronological time, psychological time is not a universal constant. Remember that I am my own time-maker, so I am my own fear-maker too.

How do we inquire, how does one penetrate into things? Do you consciously, deliberately look? Does it reveal anything? Through the exercise of will, the urge, the desire, the compulsion to search out will you find it? Will you find all the implications of fear? Will you gather it little by little, page by page or will you understand the whole thing, totally?

Apart from self–protected fear (physical survival), every form of protective reaction is the cause of fear. Can the mind, through this positive inquiry unravel the ways and means and the knot of fear? Not having an argument about who is right, but what is the fact? About a fact you don’t have to argue or be convinced. So the so-called positive approach, inquiry, activity, is essentially prolongation of fear. Now, if that is not the releasing factor, then what?

Now, the inquiry into ‘what is‘ is not a reaction to the positive fact, to the positive process. The inquiry which we know as the positive process does not free the mind from fear, for it maintains time, time as tomorrow which is shaped by the influences of the past, through the present and that process can never free the mind. See it! If you see the truth of it or the falseness of it, then your inquiry into something else is not a reaction to that. Being afraid, I react and develop courage and so-called resilience, but it’s still within the same fearsome field.

So a fact emerges from this, which is seeing it as false. Seeing the false as the false holistically is immediate negation. This is the final stage of mutation ending the old psychological dynamic of change by choice. In turn, space emerges which opens up a new choice-less dynamic that is wholly organic undivided perception. It sounds complicated, but it is really very simple if you’re awake to it.

Understanding that ends fear

Can we be aware that fragmented thinking processes result in psychological duality (division) that sustains fear in relationships? The divisive mentality that inspires the ideology of winning the ‘war’ against fear doesn’t appear to be successful!

Krishnamurti had this to say: “One cannot understand intellectually, verbally, argumentatively, or through explanations, a state of mind in which the observer has no longer the space between himself and the thing observed, in which the past is no longer interfering, at any time. Yet it is only then that the observer is the observed, and only then that fear comes totally to an end.” 4

Fear is the result of conditioning, the past knowledge and experience held in memory. Please note that the observer is the conditioned, not the observed. Therefore, observing without the observer is completely free of the influence from the past. The observed is the ‘what is’ seen afresh. The observer represents the dead psychological past, that is an incontrovertible fact. It’s non-localised, so why does traditional conditioning work heavily on reinventing itself. Anything that is dead cannot touch a living thing, full stop. Now as it is. As you are. Time cannot penetrate that. This is so throughout the Cosmos, therefore why has mankind removed itself from the living organic fact that is glaringly obvious?

The relationship question for carers 

Krishnamurti points out that in order to go far with investigation into relationships one has to begin very near: “In relationship, the primary cause of friction is oneself: the self that is the centre of unified craving. If we can realise that it is not how another acts that is of primary importance, but how each one of us acts and reacts, and that if that reaction and action can be fundamentally, deeply understood — then that relationship will undergo a deep and radical change”.

Something for patients to take note of

Psychiatrists are not exchange merchants! They won’t negotiate with you under any circumstances. You can never talk yourself out of their purview, even when your family tries to advocate on your behalf. Their professional position is unassailable.

Psychiatrists are not priests! They aren’t inclined to offer you forgiveness for your sins. Realistically, they operate inquisitively to compile a psychiatric dossier on you which will be submitted to a Patient Review Board for secondary examination. In this regard you may expect to be treated adverserally during the hearing of the review. The doctor will not appear as your friend. Expect to be choice-fully prosecuted in terms of meanings applicable to psychiatric assessment which you probably won’t understand.

It may be worth noting how the patient review hearings are conducted. It is structured as an inquisition whereby the patient is persecuted for their conduct while undergoing psychiatric treatment, not the assessment process which is over and done with and taken for granted, but it looks at your responses to the treatment and determines whether you should be further detained within the inpatient facility or if you are deemed able to be discharged. So, you are statutorily entitled/required to be reviewed regardless of whether you seek to challenge your predicament or not.

Nowhere else in the ordinary practice of medicine is the doctor whom you’ve trusted to provide care to you, turned into an adversary. It’s a striking contrast that bewilders and blindsides you, leaving you flummoxed with extreme disillusionment and loss of confidence with the inpatient treatment regime offered to you. It triggers trauma in itself which is ignored by the treating team of professionals. To them, it’s just what the legislation requires them to perform. Too bad if you are psychologically hurt by the procedure. They are trained to put their interests first and build an ideological wall separating themselves from others like you and your family or friends. The gap often remains unclosed. It this respect they are virtually untouchable. They have ‘standing’ within the system and you don’t, unfortunately.

The strange thing about the Mental Health laws is that they’re proudly regarded by society and the legal profession as “therapeutic jurisprudence” and part of the humane participation in the supposed ‘war’ against stigma, whereas in practice, it actually increases stigma and distress to patients and their supporters. Governments ought to be extremely cautious in using statutory authority for social engineering purposes.

Don’t feed Psychiatrists any ideas about what you think they want to believe about you. They make their own decisions regardless of what you put forward for them to consider, always.

Psychiatrists are constantly evaluating you and awarding you a psych-related reputation similar to when you attended High School and the teaching staff gave you a good or bad character assessment which ceased to have effect when you left school. Be aware though that the psychiatrists’ version of your reputation is recorded on your personal health records that last for the rest of your life. When your general health practitioner writes a referral for you to see another doctor for a specific reason, the referral includes references to your mental health records, there’s no confidentiality between professions.

Related quotes

“The discovery of instances which confirm a theory means very little if we have not tried, and failed, to discover refutations“

— Karl Popper

“Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored“

— Aldous Huxley

“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”

— Albert Einstein

“Voluntary exposure to that which freezes and terrifies you (in measured proportions) is curative.”

— Carl Yung, Psychologist

“When you lose all sense of self, The bonds of a thousand chains will vanish, Lose yourself completely, Return to the Root of the root of your own soul.”

— Rumi, Sufi poet

Finale

The final paragraph belongs to exposing ‘ego’ because it’s the conditioned consciousness that constitutes mankind’s psyche:

“Ego is a structure that is erected by a neurotic individual who is a member of a neurotic culture against the facts of the matter. And, culture, which we put on like an overcoat, is the collectivised consensus about what sort of neurotic behaviours are acceptable.”

— Terrance McKenna (1946 – 2000)

Note of appreciation

Thanks for your patience in reading to the very end of my blog. — Graham.

Footnotes:

1 The books or video references I recommended are “The Ending of Time” chapters 9-13 and “Truth and Actuality” which both contain valuable insights from both scientific and religious backgrounds.

2 “The Heart of Stagnation” (metaphor of sailing) Amihai-Loven, Observing Beauty YouTube

3 Can humanity change?” – Jiddu Krishnamurti

4 From Saanen 1967 – talk 6 – Jiddu Krishnamurti

Can Personal Problems be Solved, and Fragmentation End?

In my first blog, I introduced the notion of distinguishing between two dimensions of perception or consciousness, now this theme is explored in more depth; on one hand an individual psychological structure for each person from birth to death; on the other hand an holistic psychological non-structured consciousness including all humans. In this regard, everyone is a part of the whole. However, the whole is not the sum total achieved by adding together the individual thoughts of each person in a linear context, either horizontally or vertically. In other words, the part (being limited) can not approach the whole, but the whole (unlimited) may influence the part through the intelligence of impersonal insight. Holistic insight is not yours or mine; it’s just insight.

A scientific account of the manifestation of consciousness has been provided by Professor David Bohm in many interviews. I found his explanations about “coherence – incoherence” in thought processes; “wholeness and the implicate order” and his views on “dialogue” most interesting. 1

Psychological evolution

The evolution of mankind (including women), particularly in the modern era moves according to the first dimension explicitly and implicitly and therefore manifesting into what is known as a unique individual (me and mine) separated from others who also have their own unique individual consciousness (you and yours). This of course begins from the earliest gathering of experiences by children with toys etc. It carries through in family interaction and subsequently education, social development and society. Everything you and I know or experience is recorded in brain memory cells this way as bits of knowledge in the form of abstract simulations. Subsequent presentations or expressions of the represented images is usually retrieved verbally. Being largely word based or symbolism, the brain’s retentive memory translates every new sensation as compatible with old registrations thereby altering the orientation of incoming stimulus. Remembering thoughts is adduced by means of the past participle.

The effect of measurement and comparisons

Since the ancient Greeks first discovered measurement, the western world has advanced rapidly in technological evolution culminating in the latest inventions we see today. Some are beneficial to mankind eg. computers and surgery and so on, whereas others like weapons for warfare have frightening effects we see examples of in the destruction of many civilisations on nightly news reports. The story of using binary methodology for technological advancement doesn’t need further enunciation; its good, bad and otherwise.

Turning now to the psychological structure in humanity, the story of evolution along individualised lines is not so clear cut or beneficial. The underlying divisions between me and another is perhaps the source of all and every disagreement whether person to person, within families, tribes, races, religions, cultures, nations and so on. These disputes have been around since time immemorial and obviously lead to conflict and ultimately wars. So humanity has not really evolved or progressed at all psychologically and it’s still going on seemingly without end.

The role of society

Society’s structures built around competitive institutions that regulate or impact our daily lives are also manifestations of duality writ large or small and we are conditioned to compete in every aspect of life according to the Darwinian principle “survival of the fittest” at the expense of anything else.

Psychologically, this continuous struggle utilising mechanisms of thought to create and seek solutions to problems is never ending. Because thought is a material process relying on accumulated knowledge and experience, it must be limited as everything it draws on is only a facsimile of an original hypothesis or experience and therefore subject to modifications over time. This means that knowledge is always accompanied by ignorance – there is no complete knowledge of anything.

Deterioration over time

Like any machine repetitive movements wear out the motor, in this case the brain structure supporting time bound mental processes. Psychologically, we carry on repeating thoughts driven by the network of words as things desired by choice, completely unaware of the deeper effects which are accumulating until they reach overload and breakdown causing crisis within and without. What is described here is not restricted to just a few people who find themselves needing help from psychologists, counselling agencies or psychiatrists. Everyone is potentially suspect to deterioration (entropy) mentally and socially due to the mechanical nature of thought processes.

The evidence of these effects is borne out by the growth in incidence of human anxiety and depression, just to name two well discussed areas. But, the list goes on including dementia which is more common as people are living longer nowadays.

Remedying the fallout

Professionals advise “early intervention” is required to address the malaise. The number of professionals operating in these fields is growing like mushrooms. Good for them, these are highly remunerated careers and they have a virtual monopoly over the territory, having largely replaced organised religions as the go-to place for troubled souls. However, treatment is usually on-going as there is no offering of an end to suffering or a complete cure.

What’s wrong with this you may ask, isn’t this all there is available to address such situations. The trouble is all these professions begin working from symptoms, analyse retrospectively and form conclusions (diagnosis) around the notion of pathology in what is assumed to be biology. The fragmented thinking process, being intangible, is not recognised for the cause and effect role it plays in the pleasure and fear roundabout in consciousness.

The question of opposites

What’s difficult to understand is the movement of becoming or positive psychological conditioning (like v dislike) which assumes that opposites are separate objects in mentality. So a desired thinking mechanism based on values automatically tries to retain ‘liked’ and get rid of ‘disliked’ objects and ideas. The mind has accumulated a basket of clever tricks to aid in reaching the desired goal.

The superficial aspect of the becoming movement gives an appearance that the above mentioned activity works – a triumph for will power, even if only temporarily. Now, the unseen factor that’s important is the fact that opposites in mind aren’t really separate; they arise out of each other and retain that linkage in the world of reality. This link is not permanently removed by movement from ‘what is’ to ‘what should be’ because the residue of whatever started out as the problem still remains. For instance, psychological violence (fact) is not eliminated by non-violence (non-fact). Violence when perceived totally can be ended without resorting to a method for achieving non-violence. Therefore psychologically, ‘to be’ and ‘not to be’ are two sides of the same coin. In fact, movement within thought is merely appearance via images requiring a driving energy sourced from friction, an effort gross or subtle.

The question then is, as this is regarded as the normal approach to problem solving, is there another approach which is without effort and therefore not energy sapping? Little attention is given to investigate whether fundamentally there may be clues tracing back to the original question about consciousness itself. Why is it that humanity is ignoring something that is evident if you are open to seriously looking, not from dualistic individual backgrounds and therefore caught in abstract images. What is overlooked is the fact that consciousness is not a uniquely individual phenomenon, it is actually one undivided consciousness including all humans and possibly other sentient species.

To say ‘oh good’ this means the general mindset of society is what’s being referred to in preference to an individual particular mindset, is a fallacy because when you investigate deeply it will be seen that the particular and the general are not divided, psychologically. To put it into the language of jury’s verdicts – ‘so say you one, so say you all’. One doesn’t need to look far for examples of the herd mentality in everyday life.

The flame of discontent

If you are like me burning with the flame of discontent and yearn for freedom in itself, not freedom from something or other, may I point out respectfully that the flame of discontent is your own best friend never extinguish it – question everything.

Krishnamurti had this to say: “Contentment is never the outcome of fulfilment, of achievement, or of the possession of things; it is not born of action or inaction. It comes with the fullness of ‘what is’, not in the alteration of it. That which is full does not need alteration, change. It is the incomplete which is trying to become complete that knows the turmoil of discontent and change. The ‘what is’ is the incomplete, it is not the complete. The complete is unreal, and the pursuit of the unreal is the pain of discontent which can never be healed. The very attempt to heal that pain is the search for the unreal, from which arises discontent. There is no way out of discontent. To be aware of discontent is to be aware of ‘what is’ and in the fullness of it there is a state which may be called contentment. It has no opposite.”

To understand the complexity of discontent is to see its connection with the ‘mystery of what is’. To truely understand discontent and the relationship of content/discontent with ‘what is’ in daily life is what Krishnamurti referred to as meditation. This meditation is the psychological alchemy that ameliorates the affects of conditioning and ultimately brings freedom to the inner consciousness.

Emotional memories

To see the intricacies of the mind’s remembering process clearly is made difficult due to the emotional factors accompanying thoughts. Emotions are part of the thought process, not separate as commonly regarded. Feelings are influenced by the superstitious or sentimental meanings often attributed to language passed down through the ages by cultures and societies. Can we use words to communicate facts without being driven by the power of words in our daily relationships? The actual never conditions the brain, but the theory, the conclusion, the description, the abstraction, do condition it. 2

Holistic effect of ‘what is’

Having carried out a thorough investigation into the affects of conditioning on every day psychological exigencies, it’s incumbent on oneself to consider seriously the question of whether to remain aligned with the traditional mainstream socialisation or to opt for an alignment with an alternative holistic perspective. Part of the process of conditioning is to resist the ending of the hold it has cultivated on the mind. So aligning with the holistic state is a radical step indeed, and it can only be undergone after seeing the limitations inherent in fragmented thought movements as an incontrovertible fact.

What is necessary is to unburden your individualistic psychological memory bank in order to perceive the fact of one undivided consciousness completely. Don’t worry no harm will come by doing it. We rarely act holistically because the conditioned thought process swiftly intervenes to replace what is actually happening in the present moment to fit into it’s internal database of ideas held in memory just like a computer. It is always moving away from ‘what is’ to ‘what was’ or ‘what should be‘ and in so doing it’s seeing everything through a prism of the past automatically as a reflex and from it projecting a future state of being. Probably, everyone remembers numerous occasions when future predictions were largely inaccurate.

Learning about fundamental change

So now who’s up for finding out more about holistic thinking? Or does it sound like too much trouble, just stick with what I and others are accustomed to and continue to compete for the spoils, thanks. It’s entirely up to each person, be aware though that traditional institutions are never going to relinquish their power bases for some new changes that might upset the applecart which has taken eons to put together. Self interest and group interests prevail; always has and will be. Evidence of harm inflicted by traditional power bases on innocent people is being uncovered almost on a daily basis. Sitting on your hands and hoping for some divine intervention is unlikely to benefit your life situation. Change in the psychological sense can only be effected by you acting in your own interest, holistically.

Jiddu Krishnamurti and Bohm have done all the groundwork in this respect which means that we don’t need to retrace each of their steps as an academic study, As Krishnamurti points out Columbus underwent a difficult journey over wild seas to discover America, now you jump in an aeroplane.

Jiddu Krishnamurti with David Bohm in one of their regular dialogues.

Photograph by Mark Edwards. Copyright © Krishnamurti Foundation Trust Ltd

Everything you need to discover for yourself is available at no cost on the YouTube website. Be warned, you still need to do the testing work in your own daily life. It is certainly not an informational help line.

There is much to learn, you may be curious as I was to discover that ‘what is’ may be the key to unlock the mystery of holistic consciousness. This is not a scholastic enterprise, nor propaganda nor theoretical nor philosophy nor a new religion or ideology. There are no silent retreats or special courses in mindfulness to attend. It is couched in plain English language without techno jargon or intellectual descriptions. Therefore it is easily understandable to anyone with a reasonable general educational background and a thirst for wisdom. Even if it seems a bit strange at first, just listen with all your attention and let it find it’s own home within consciousness. It doesn’t help if you try to translate while listening or viewing.

Here’s the good news, you don’t need to seek out an outside authority for expert help. They are conditioned to the individual mindset and their knowledge base also acts according to the same fragmented structure and patterns as yours. You don’t have to lead a second hand life, psychologically – be a light unto yourself, not a light lit by another. Be acutely aware of your own thinking patterns with complete attention and you are on the journey to learning the history of yourself which is also the history of mankind.

The key question to release the grip of conditioning

When the question: How do we change? was put to Krishnamurti, this was his reply: “ Only complete inaction, only the complete negation of ‘what is’. We do not see the great force that is negation. If you reject the whole structure of principle and formula, and hence the power derived from it, the authority, that very rejection gives you the force necessary to reject all other structures of thought – and so you have the energy to change! The rejection is that energy.” 3

This is not intended as an invitation to engage in some form of physical revolution, the targeted area is the internal structure of your mind, brain and body’s nervous system. That’s as much as I can share in a blog and I do not want to lay any claim to knowing all about it. There are no conclusions in the usual sense, only a living, moving dimension continuously flowering and dying. This movement is the true natural life meditation and the doorway opening to freedom.

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1. The Millennium Interview; Interviews with David Suzuki – Renee Weber et al on You tube and The David Bohm Society’s website.

2. Krishnamurti to Himself Ps 108 – 110

3. Can Humanity Change P 197