Can one hallucinate their entire faith in a religion? (figures, texts, etc.)

[Ben_Sinner]

I had a thought pop into my head today while driving and it’s really disturbing me and making me anxious. I’ve been obsessing over it all day and it’s actually making me kind of depressed. I had a thought that maybe all the things I heard and read about Christianity are a hallucination that only I (my mind) makes up. Outside of myself, Christianity doesn’t exist.

What I mean by “exclusive hallucination” is everything else I experience (other people, objects, etc.) are actually there, but anything that relates to Jesus and the gospel is a random hallucination my mind creates for some reason. Even somebody else affirming what I’m seeing is really there is a part of the “hallucination” to program my mind into thinking Christianity is true.

Here is an example of what I mean.

I’m on my computer looking up the Catholic Answers forums. I am actually in the room. The computer is actually there. The chair I’m sitting on is really there, and everything else is really there. The only thing that isn’t there and is a hallucination in that room is the Catholic Answers website telling me how one can be saved by Christ. I wonder if what I’m seeing is actually true so I ask somebody to come in the room and look at it as well. They see the same thing…but THAT person is also a hallucination my mind created to make me believe that Christianity and it’s teaching actually exist.

So basically I’m worried at the possibility that my mind creates exclusive hallucinations specifically that conjure up some “Christianity” when in fact all those things I hallucinate about are not really there.

I mean it has been prove to be perfectly possible for somebody to have exclusive hallucinations while everything remains intact. For example, a person will hallucinate a cat being in a room full of people who are actually there. The person sees the hallucination and the room full of people who are really there. I’m worried about Christianity being my “cat” in this situation.

 

[tjaugustine]

This is Satan trying to confuse you

 

[Gertabelle]

Oh, how clever the evil one is!



No, I am not part of your hallucination – you are part of mine!

And further more, I doubt I’m actually on the computer at this moment, or actually 49 years old, or actually in my house. Personally, I think I’m a shriveled up old woman in a nursing home who is simply reliving the only memories she has left – those from her child-rearing years.



Or perhaps you and I are the only real ones anywhere, and we’re sitting in the same room with our backs to each other as we communicate via the internet, and everything else – EVERYTHING! – is an hallucination.

OK, seriously, make an act of faith and get on with your day. Unless you’ve been diagnosed by a doctor as having hallucinations, this thought experiment is all just a very entertaining distraction from real life. You know the difference between waking and sleeping. You know the difference between physical reality and imagination.

Now get off the internet and go make a difference in the world!

God bless you!

 

[friardchips]

I had a thought pop into my head today while driving and it’s really disturbing me and making me anxious. I’ve been obsessing over it all day and it’s actually making me kind of depressed. I had a thought that maybe all the things I heard and read about Christianity are a hallucination that only I (my mind) makes up. Outside of myself, Christianity doesn’t exist.

What I mean by “exclusive hallucination” is everything else I experience (other people, objects, etc.) are actually there, but anything that relates to Jesus and the gospel is a random hallucination my mind creates for some reason. Even somebody else affirming what I’m seeing is really there is a part of the “hallucination” to program my mind into thinking Christianity is true.

Here is an example of what I mean.

I’m on my computer looking up the Catholic Answers forums. I am actually in the room. The computer is actually there. The chair I’m sitting on is really there, and everything else is really there. The only thing that isn’t there and is a hallucination in that room is the Catholic Answers website telling me how one can be saved by Christ. I wonder if what I’m seeing is actually true so I ask somebody to come in the room and look at it as well. They see the same thing…but THAT person is also a hallucination my mind created to make me believe that Christianity and it’s teaching actually exist.

So basically I’m worried at the possibility that my mind creates exclusive hallucinations specifically that conjure up some “Christianity” when in fact all those things I hallucinate about are not really there.

I mean it has been prove to be perfectly possible for somebody to have exclusive hallucinations while everything remains intact. For example, a person will hallucinate a cat being in a room full of people who are actually there. The person sees the hallucination and the room full of people who are really there. I’m worried about Christianity being my “cat” in this situation.

I think you are trying to grab the concepts of those from the so-called Age of Enlightenment where certain philosophers (or whatever the term is) went over such subjects as this.

There is also something called Existentialism that has it down that we are only here in relation to experiences had about us. Only in relation to those experiences do we actually exist.

None of this is an avenue particularly worth exploring because they miss out so many other factors.

One can have visions mapping out things in the future: this is Biblical. But going into all these other ways of analyzing are probably not going to be of great benefit.

God is in the facts (spiritual and physical).

Hallucinating is not the same as having good or evil visions - hallucinations are not real.

 

[Crusaderbear]

Try changing the hallucination, you probably can’t. What you are experiencing is reality, and stress. Nothing wrong with little thought experiments like this, just don’t let them ruin your life! Praying for you.

 

[USMC_Convert]

You know I have had my own personal doubts, not that the faith is a hallucination but doubts. Every time I have a doubt I say you know what, if everything turns out to be false I don’t care. I want to live my life as a Catholic, and no matter what happens after death I’ll be happy that I lived as a Catholic. I want to give my all for God, and if I invested in the wrong stock then I’ll be happy that I was part of such a good, compassionate loving and giving organization.

But don’t worry, it’s all real!!!

 

[Beryllos]

The hypothesis of lifelong hallucination is too complicated. It has too many dependencies and too many loose ends. Rather, I would accept the simplest explanation, which is that our perceptions come pretty close to reality. That’s not to say we cannot misunderstand what we experience, get it wrong, or just be confused. These things happen because we are imperfect beings in an imperfect world.

Use your God-given eyes, ears, mind, and hands to live in this world with faith, hope, and love.

 

[Ben_Sinner]

You know I have had my own personal doubts, not that the faith is a hallucination but doubts. Every time I have a doubt I say you know what, if everything turns out to be false I don’t care. I want to live my life as a Catholic, and no matter what happens after death I’ll be happy that I lived as a Catholic. I want to give my all for God, and if I invested in the wrong stock then I’ll be happy that I was part of such a good, compassionate loving and giving organization.

But don’t worry, it’s all real!!!

But the thing that keeps this fear going is the uncertainty that I may not be saved, because I am following a “false” religion “Christianity” or not observing the moral code of a “true” religion. I can’t comfort myself in anyway knowing that I could be going to hell for an eternity and don’t have the security to know that will not happen.

 

[Ben_Sinner]

Basically I’m trying to figure out a logical fallacy for this line of thinking, and to see if it would be impossible to have a dual sense perception of constant seeing things that are and are not there together.

Remember, with somebody like me, a very low probability is the same as being a great chance of it being true. That’s how my anxious mind works and always has. This is the only life I have known, so I can’t assume anything.

 

[Beryllos]

But the thing that keeps this fear going is the uncertainty that I may not be saved, because I am following a “false” religion “Christianity” or not observing the moral code of a “true” religion

Interesting. There are people who follow false religions and worship false gods, but usually not because of hallucinations, and certainly not because of selective hallucinations that blend seamlessly into their everyday lives, and continuing every day of their lives.

As I said before, I think this story is too complicated, with too many dependencies (like the source of the hallucinations, who or what causes them) and too many loose ends (e.g., how can hallucinations fit perfectly` with non-hallucinations, so that there is no apparent discontinuity or contradiction between the two). Keep it simple.

 

[St_Francis]

Basically I’m trying to figure out a logical fallacy for this line of thinking, and to see if it would be impossible to have a dual sense perception of constant seeing things that are and are not there together.

Remember, with somebody like me, a very low probability is the same as being a great chance of it being true. That’s how my anxious mind works and always has. This is the only life I have known, so I can’t assume anything.

Do you learn things you could not have figured out on your own? If so, then the knowledge is not from yourself, and we are not figments of your imagination.

Maybe you should get some help for your anxiety, as it seems to interfere with you a lot?

 

[jaimeleglise]

Jesus is real. Ancient history texts by Josephus and others confirm his existence.
There are several eyewitnesses to His empty tomb which had an enormous boulder rolled back, His Ascension into heaven, as well as people seeing Him walk in His glorified body.

Additionally, He performed miracles that no one else could do, healing of the sick, restoring an ear cut off, raising a man from the dead.

If Christianity were a lie, it probably would have died out long ago. The martyrs would not give their lives for a false god.

The Catholic faith is the true one because it is the original church that Jesus started.

I believe that you truly believe but the devil is tempting you. Just ignore him.

I recommend a good rest. You are under a lot of stress. If your symptoms persist, see a priest and a doctor. Ask the Blessed Mother to help you. She will.

 

[Usagi]

I agree with the person who advised you to seek treatment for your anxiety if at all possible.

This idea is way too elaborate to be plausible, and you (under the influence of your anxiety) have carefully constructed it so that is unfalsifiable. All I can really do is poke at it from the outside, and I’m not sure if your anxiety will let you accept anything I say. (I speak as a fellow sufferer; before I got mine treated, I would imagine vast conspiracies of everyone I knew colluding just to mock and humiliate me, so I know how a messed-up brain can make the most bizarre thing seem plausible.)

Exclusively hallucinating a cat is one thing. Exclusively hallucinating the existence of a vastly influential world religion and everything associated with it – in such a way that it is impossible to notice that only you are aware of it – is another thing entirely, and I greatly doubt it has ever happened. Given that you know the nature of your mental illness, isn’t it far more likely that it’s this fear, rather than Christianity, that your brain has conjured up?

 

[Brassring]

is it possibly you’re hallucinating the responses to this question?

 

[dshix]

This question seems quite arbitrary. You could apply the same doubt, that is, that you may be hallucinating something, to everything.

Are my parents real? Do I really own a car and have a job, or do I hallucinate that every day? Is the sky really blue is is it really red? Do I really have two arms and two legs, or do I merely imagine it?

As you can see, this is a pretty ridiculous train of thought. And it is equally ridiculous to apply it to religion. It isn’t logical to fear something for which there is zero evidence.

 

[Jomann]

You’re describing a kind of solipsism.

 

[ericc]

I had a thought pop into my head today while driving and it’s really disturbing me and making me anxious. I’ve been obsessing over it all day and it’s actually making me kind of depressed. I had a thought that maybe all the things I heard and read about Christianity are a hallucination that only I (my mind) makes up. Outside of myself, Christianity doesn’t exist.

What I mean by “exclusive hallucination” is everything else I experience (other people, objects, etc.) are actually there, but anything that relates to Jesus and the gospel is a random hallucination my mind creates for some reason. Even somebody else affirming what I’m seeing is really there is a part of the “hallucination” to program my mind into thinking Christianity is true.

Here is an example of what I mean.

I’m on my computer looking up the Catholic Answers forums. I am actually in the room. The computer is actually there. The chair I’m sitting on is really there, and everything else is really there. The only thing that isn’t there and is a hallucination in that room is the Catholic Answers website telling me how one can be saved by Christ. I wonder if what I’m seeing is actually true so I ask somebody to come in the room and look at it as well. They see the same thing…but THAT person is also a hallucination my mind created to make me believe that Christianity and it’s teaching actually exist.

So basically I’m worried at the possibility that my mind creates exclusive hallucinations specifically that conjure up some “Christianity” when in fact all those things I hallucinate about are not really there.

I mean it has been prove to be perfectly possible for somebody to have exclusive hallucinations while everything remains intact. For example, a person will hallucinate a cat being in a room full of people who are actually there. The person sees the hallucination and the room full of people who are really there. I’m worried about Christianity being my “cat” in this situation.

How do you know you are not hallucinating the hallucination?