Is being enlightened & feeling ‘special’ akin to being schizophrenic or ‘mentally ill’?

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Well, yeah. But not schizophrenia. It’s closer to what the DSM-V calls a “Cluster B” mental disorder. But that’s not to say there’s not a touch of the psychotic to the experience.

Most of the people you will find that call themselves enlightened are not, they’re rather narcissists. Prone to grandiose delusions about self. If you’ve never encountered the real deal, you’d be forgiven for mistaking that for all there is to say about the subject.

In any place where people interested in spirituality congregate, you’ll find people interested in manipulating others. If I was able to convince you that I had a million bucks, I could convince you for only so long. But it’s so much work, you know? Buy you just enough presents to keep you occupied, eventually it’s just too much to keep up with. But if I could convince you I’m enlightened, oh totally different game! I could string you along for ages!

One of my favorite topics of study is the old-timey charlatan “medicine men” of the mid-late 1800s, shortly before the modern age destroyed rural American life. These purveyors of folk medicine didn’t know a damn thing about medicine, but they knew a darn lot about setting a scene, working a room, and keeping a crowd’s attention, particularly dealing with hecklers. They brought hope, news, and a little bit of adventure to the dreary lives of the farm folks they visited. John D. Rockefeller’s father was just such a “doctor,” one of the last.

And so throughout history, all over the world, you’ll find all sorts of miracle and magic workers who pick at the thread of human wonder. Jesus himself was one of many faith healers wandering Israel at the time. We call Jesus’s feats miraculous, but the witnesses and those who wrote about them didn’t make a whole lot of fuss about them. Until Jesus rose from the dead, all of his previous deeds were just kind of things that happened. Rising from the dead, that was special, that caused people to really stand up and take notice. Turning water into wine? Eh, that’s nice, the doctor from the last village could shoot the eye out of a coin he threw in the air!

Miracles, deeds, fantasy, has always been the province of human imagination. If you want to be heard and listened to, you need to pay attention to it. Jesus knew it, the charlatans knew it, people who are really enlightened know it, “enlightened” narcissists really know it, and you do too.

Bill Rockefeller maintained two families. Both of his families suspected his misdeeds. Can you imagine how the indignation must’ve weighed on his son John’s mind? Bill never really accepted the olive branches John offered to him later on after Standard Oil became the juggernaut we knew it as today. John remained a devout Christian his whole life. His daughter involved herself with Carl Jung’s pseudoscientific “psychology.” One can only imagine what went on in John’s head when she saw his daughter following the footsteps of Bill into crockery.

Enlightenment has a real body of knowledge behind it, you can study and grasp it and apply it to your life. It’s hard because it’s not just knowledge, it’s practice. It’s also got scores of people who just want cash money without having to walk the walk, just talk the talk. John donated millions of dollars to real medicine. That’s kinda how you have to do it if you want to get on top of it. Get rich doing something else, then apply your money to sorting out the real from the fake. There aren’t any more old-timey charlatans, but the old psychologists eventually made a useful body of knowledge.

And so did those Indian yogis and philosophers. You just have to go to them, they’re not going to come to you.