Emerald Vang - Week 5

I read "What a Shaman Sees in a Mental Hospital," and upon reading it, I realized I had read about this before. My thoughts on this reading are that it's interesting the way the Western world sees mental health as; mental health is seen as something that should be corrected and is unnatural. However, Dr. Somé explained people with mental illnesses as people who have been chosen to be mediums for the spirit realm. At first, it made no sense to me, but I thought more and rationalized this concept. Reading the schizophrenic section of the article allowed me to understand why mentally ill people get put into those states. Because of their awakening as a medium, images and information flow into their minds, scaring them and making them unable to perceive reality; which is what the illness is described as. After, Dr. Somé claims that people suffering from their symptoms need their energy field to be cleansed in order to rid them of fear. Another way to look at mental illness is the toll of the body having trouble accepting the energy of a healer into their body. With energy alignment, people don't have to go through any more psychotic symptoms. This way they are normal again, but the difference is they are tapped into their role as mediums. What Dr. Somé shares make sense and I want to believe that what he says is true, especially because what he says about his village dealing with psychosis and healing from energy alignment to become mediums. If they are healed through these steps, then the West's problem is that they are not taking these steps and reject the idea of spirit mediums. They strongly believe that mental illnesses are flaws of the human mind and need to be obliterated through drugs and other therapy. I think we need to start allowing these types of alternative healing and beliefs to enter the medical field so that people are getting the healing they really need. If what Dr. Somé claims is right, will the medical field really start to consider this approach to psychosis or will they be ignored because of differences of belief? Hopefully, more information about the spirit realm and articles like this one bring awareness around the world in hopes that it will make the world better to live in. Also, are psychotic murderers really the result of the mind and body dealing with spiritual emergence or is murder a choice? Can this be explained rationally by Dr. Somé's beliefs?