I dont know if I saw the freakout in Jerusalem. I know I read posts from that time period. All I can tell you, as a guy who has felt something similar and chooses to believe it is God, is to be careful. It can either be a rewarding experience or it can end you up in the loony bin. I've watched it swallow people whole. The hospitals in Israel are filled with psych cases of people who suffer from what is now a recognized psychiatric disorder called "The Jerusalem Syndrome". People are overcome with a sense of religious rapture and euphoria, and lose the ability to distinguish what is real from what is in their imagination. It can happen if you force your brain to process too much too fast, and if you dont keep one foot in reality and stay aware of yourself.
I consider myself a more well developed person for having explored that side of me, but to each his own. I've known plenty of very good people who spent their entire lives as athiests.
Indeed, although I'm not thinking its a jerusalem syndrome thing as it is something I've been dealing with or more accurately been avoiding dealing with for a long time now.
jerusalem syndrome is more of an extreme example of how getting carried away with it can land you in the nuthouse. At least if you're in a country that takes care of its people. Here in the states we just let our nuts plagued with similar delusions run loose about the rural south. In any case getting carried away with it is more common than people typically give it credit for. Just pace yourself, that's all.
I read the post you mentioned; don't know if I made it as far as commenting, but I certainly thought about it for a long time.
I feel connected to something larger than myself at the oddest times, in the most unlikely places. I've been somewhere dark for a while now, and would probably welcome a connection, a calling, whatever. But, the absence of one leaves me to my belief that it is just me, here.
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I consider myself a more well developed person for having explored that side of me, but to each his own. I've known plenty of very good people who spent their entire lives as athiests.
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That would have me leaving tenatively around the 10th or 15th of September.
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I feel connected to something larger than myself at the oddest times, in the most unlikely places. I've been somewhere dark for a while now, and would probably welcome a connection, a calling, whatever. But, the absence of one leaves me to my belief that it is just me, here.
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