Religious Vision

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Sacred_Heart_1

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I’m a Schizoaffective person who suffers hallucinations and experiences that involve religious visions, such as; the Virgin Mary, Jesus, crosses of light, angelic spirits flying through the sky…

My question is do you believe that this is solely my illness or do you think that it is possible that God could be present, on some level, within these experiences?

I care to mention that I accept these experiences as delusion and have dealt with them and am stable. I’m just curious as to what people think in regards to the experience of mental illness (especially Schizophrenia) and the religious aspect.
 
I would think if they go away with medication, they likely are more related to your illness. But I guess one never knows. God does work in mysterious ways after all…
 
I think you should approach your priest/confessor with the issue. It could be a result of your illness or not, and there are a great deal of factors to consider. I don’t think trying to find a diagnoses to it on an internet forum is likely the right way to go about it.
 
IrishRush said:
I would think if they go away with medication, they likely are more related to your illness. But I guess one never knows. God does work in mysterious ways after all…
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I sometimes wonder if it was God that helped me through my illness through what I experienced. I’ve been Catholic my entire life but I never really came to the faith until I became Schizoaffective. I started experiencing these religious visions and it drew me into the Catholic faith.
 
bmullins said:
I think you should approach your priest/confessor with the issue. It could be a result of your illness or not, and there are a great deal of factors to consider. I don’t think trying to find a diagnoses to it on an internet forum is likely the right way to go about it.
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But the question is do you think that God can manifest himself to the mentally ill through their illness? Like the Schizophrenic’s hallucination of religious vision, can God actually be present within the experience?
 
If God sends an apparition or vision to somebody,
he will make it absolutely crystal clear that’s what he’s doing. It would serve no purpose to leave the person in doubt and confusion.

Since you’re not sure what’s happening, I would say the visions are not real.
 
empther said:
If God sends an apparition or vision to somebody,
he will make it absolutely crystal clear that’s what he’s doing. It would serve no purpose to leave the person in doubt and confusion.

Since you’re not sure what’s happening, I would say the visions are not real.
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I’m sure what’s happening. I know my senses and I know what I’ve seen. I have my senses and I know them. I just regard them as visions. I am seeing divine images beyond the limits of ordinary perception, plain and simple; whether I’m Schizoaffective or not. My question to you is is this a valid religious experience? Rather, is God found working within the hallucinations of a Schizophrenic?

I know what I think.

But I’m curious to find out what others think about Jesus visiting the mentally ill. And if you don’t think Jesus can visit the mentally ill can you please explain to me why not? It is a good philosophical question.
 
The very fact that you’re interested in religious matters,
and that you’re on this website,
shows that God is calling you,
as he calls everybody, because he “wills all men to be saved”,
but he has millions of ways to do this.

I doubt that he’s using visions. I’ve never heard of a vision in which the person receiving the vision wasn’t a child, such as Bernadette of Lourdes, Joan of Arc, and the three kids at Fatima,
or somebody already strongly committed to religion such as Paul.

It seems to me that performiing the miracle of a vision would be less benificial to the person than curing him of mental illness. I would say he wouldn’t do one without also doing the other.

Talking to somebody on the internet is not very useful. What, a stranger on the internet you’ll never meet? :eek:
You need to talk to somebody face to face. 👍 Good luck! 🙂
 
empther said:
The very fact that you’re interested in religious matters,
and that you’re on this website,
shows that God is calling you,
as he calls everybody, because he “wills all men to be saved”,
but he has millions of ways to do this.

I doubt that he’s using visions. I’ve never heard of a vision in which the person receiving the vision wasn’t a child, such as Bernadette of Lourdes, Joan of Arc, and the three kids at Fatima,
or somebody already strongly committed to religion such as Paul.

It seems to me that performiing the miracle of a vision would be less benificial to the person than curing him of mental illness. I would say he wouldn’t do one without also doing the other.

Talking to somebody on the internet is not very useful. What, a stranger on the internet you’ll never meet? :eek:
You need to talk to somebody face to face. 👍 Good luck! 🙂
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You say that “performing the miracle of a vision would be less beneficial to the person than curing him of the mental illness.” What if the mental illness is the cross that I must bare, what would you say to that?

I’m not trying to magnify myself. I’m just saying that I’ve had these visions that have directly strengthened my belief in the Holy Spirit. Logically, if I am being strengthened by the Holy Spirit through these experiences then wouldn’t it conclude that they are God’s hand at work?

Like if you pray you say that God is at work there. I say when I have a hallucination of divine images (inspiration) God is at work there. A divine image is the truth about God. It is a symbol of that truth. If I am seeing divine imagery, within my hallucinations, am I not receiving inspiration of the Holy Spirit; and therefore, experiencing God at work within my delusion? Or can you not separate the mental illness from the genius (distinctive character or spirit)?

I know it is hard to see past the mental illness but if faith is true then my argument is sound.

I’m not looking for help or for answers. I just want to know people’s prejudice against such things as mental illness and the religious experience. I’m betting that everyone says and thinks that it is impossible for the Schizophrenic to have a genuine religious experience. That is because no one on here has ever had a religious experience.

You say he has “millions of ways to call people (to faith)”. I’m telling you I was called through a Schizoid delusion. So my question to you is can God work through a Schizophrenic’s delusion?

Are the visions valid if they are of divine images?
 
Sacred_Heart said:
I’m a Schizoaffective person who suffers hallucinations and experiences that involve religious visions, such as; the Virgin Mary, Jesus, crosses of light, angelic spirits flying through the sky…

My question is do you believe that this is solely my illness or do you think that it is possible that God could be present, on some level, within these experiences?

I care to mention that I accept these experiences as delusion and have dealt with them and am stable. I’m just curious as to what people think in regards to the experience of mental illness (especially Schizophrenia) and the religious aspect.
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Ask God with all your heart and all your mind. Asking to give you a specific sign to show that it is him there influencing these visions or not influencing your visions.

Believe it cos it works.
He has never done me wrong
 
Ask God with all your heart and all your mind. Asking to give you a specific sign to show that it is him there
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Visions or apparitions are called private apparitions because they only appear to one person, or a small group as at Fatima,
but it appears that visions and apparitions are done to influence many people.

Millions of people have been inspired by the apparitions at Lourdes and Fatima.
Paul’s vision on the road to Damascus had profound effects on the New Testament and Christianity.

Joan of Arc’s visions led her to save France as an independent nation and set up 600 years of European and New World history as we know it.

This is the sign that a vision is from God,
that it influences many people.
 
I don’t think we should discount any vision without an immediate impact as not from God. I do think that we should be rightly skeptical of a vision, especially if we have a condition that causes us to see things.

If I were to have a vision the first thing I would ask myself is what does it mean, is it biblical? Does it fit tradition? Is it asking something of me that God would not ask of me? Is it helpful to my faith or harmful? In other words, is it from God or not?

I do believe God can give us visions. I believe he can guide people specifically, even to do something as small as go somewhere and talk to one person. While a vision might be, like you said above, something that creates a movement or has a profound impact on Christianity as a whole… when God is concerned, he is willing to go after that one lost sheep.

Like I said above, if I truly had questions about something I thought my be a vision I’d go and talk to my priest. He knows you better than we do, and is likely better able to discern if it has a meaning or if it is something to be ignored.
 
Dear Sacred Heart,
I’ve read your posts and I feel in my heart to say Praise God! For how he is working in your life and touching you and leading you to Him (trinity).
I visited convents for three years and had some “experiences/visions” of christ bleeding on the cross. The Benedictine nuns said these special moments are “gifts” from God. Once I talked to a formerly unknown priest at a retreat, and he shocked me by asking me if I was on drugs or mentally ill. This floored me and significantly jepardised my belief. I went back to the sisters of st benedict (indiana). They were dissapointed with my severe reaction and said follow god what’s important is that I need to believe it myself regardless of what anyone else said. They have had some experiences too.this was around 1995-1998. The sisters also said “it’s not the doing, it’s the being” in response to my question of “what do I do to seek Christ?” Meaning its not what I do that’s important, its what I become.
In 2003 I was diagnosed with schizoaffective and am on meds.

The only answer I can give is Jesus’ words, “you shall know them by their fruits”

This verse is very important to me in decerning things thru the veil of my illness.

Of course God is present in your experiences that lead to goodness! Trust Him, he has chosen to reach out to you, to show His love for you! You can believe it. Trust Him, He will take care of you.

Please pray for me; I will pray for you
 
I think, my guess is, God is calling you to Him. No more than that.
 
I would say to be bear with them since you are gifted. You can learn how to communicate with them through the time and you will learn your lessons.
 
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