DMT-Nexus member
Posts: 2151 Joined: 23-Nov-2012 Last visit: 07-Mar-2017
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So this fascinating: apparently people who believe in an angry, vengeful God who is out to punish sinners tend to have a higher tendency towards anxious and depressed mental disorders. Conversely, those people who actively believed in a kind, loving and forgiving God tend to be generally happier, and more at peace with themselves. I found this especially interesting in light of the new research being done into magic mushrooms and depression. It seems to make sense that if you have an experience that triggers, even subconsciously, a belief that someone Up There is looking out for you, you'd be a happier person. A lot of members of the Nexus have reported similar experiences with everything from LSD to DMT. Based on my life history, I see a lot of (annecdotal) truth in this. I've suffered from anxiety and depression my whole life, and lived in terror of a vengeful God who planned to send me to Hell for most of my childhood (even though my family wasn't religious). Just recently I had a mushroom trip in which I saw God and saw Him (Her? It?) and realized that they were much closer and more paternal then I had always thought, and since then, most of my depression and anxiety symptoms have gone away. Here's the full text and URL: http://www.rawstory.com/...ety-of-mental-illnesses/Quote:People who believe in an angry, punishing God are much more likely to suffer from a variety of mental illnesses, a scientific study published in the April edition of Journal of Religion & Health finds.
The study, conducted by Marymount Manhattan College Assistant Psychology Professor Nava Silton, used data from the 2010 Baylor Religion Survey of US Adults to examine the links between beliefs and anxiety disorders like social dysfunction, paranoia, obsession and compulsion.
To do this, Silton viewed the data through the lens of what’s called Evolutionary Threat Assessment System Theory, which posits that parts of the brain specifically evolved to detect threats, and suggests that many anxiety disorders may be a result of dysfunction in the brain’s perception of those threats.
In keeping with prior studies on this very subject, she queried the data on three types of believers: those who see God as angry, those who see God as neutral and those who see God as loving. Controlling specifically to weed out the non-believers, Silton found that a belief in a forgiving, loving God is associated with positive psychological traits, “almost protecting against psychopathology,” she told Raw Story.
But for those who think God is angry and preparing punishments for sinners, “that belief seems to be very much related to these negative symptoms,” Silton said.
“If you look at the previous research, they’ve connected it to depression and all sorts of other psychiatric disorders,” she said. “We were looking at social phobia, obsession, compulsion, paranoia and a lot of features of anxiety disorders.”
One thing Silton stressed is that her study should not be construed to have found a cause for such symptoms. “We are not looking at casual findings here,” she said. “We are looking at correlational findings. That means we’re not saying belief caused psychiatric symptoms, but we see relationships between beliefs and these psychiatric symptoms.”
Silton said that while her study was mostly quantitative in nature, she’s looking forward to “asking more qualitative questions” in future work, specifically “to look into what else belief systems might be related to.”
“We’d like to look more specifically at depression and eating disorders,” she said. “Do different beliefs in God relate to eating disorder symptoms? So, [we want to be] looking beyond just anxiety disorders.” I found this on the web and wasn't sure what subform to send it too (Spirituality? Health? Science?) so I'll post it here. Mods can feel free to move it. Peace ~Nathanial "There are many paths up the same mountain."
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DMT-Nexus member
Posts: 3207 Joined: 19-Jul-2011 Last visit: 02-Jan-2023
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very interesting. thank you for posting My wind instrument is the bong
CHANGA IN THE BONGA!
樹
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लीला
Posts: 152 Joined: 12-Dec-2012 Last visit: 03-Dec-2013 Location: بابل
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Wow, In my mind that totally makes sense and explains a whole heck of a lot about people in general. good post. “Music is the voice of God traveling through ten-dimensional hyperspace.”
― Michio Kaku
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DMT-Nexus member
Posts: 1955 Joined: 24-Jul-2010 Last visit: 12-Jan-2025
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not sure if your statement isn't a "Cum Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc" fallacy. It could be that people who are mentally stable and happy just tend to believe in more positive higher powers and those that suffer from mental illnesses or depressions have darker worldviews due to their mental state. So causes reversed. Really just becuase there is a correlation doesn't mean one causes the other, as the researcher also stated in that quote. I'd be very careful in drawing these kinds of conclusions from statistics / surveys. Maybe these things are related to certain "mental energies", meaning that if you are in state "mental energy state X" you are more likely to feel depressed, anxious ... and believe in an angry god. Buon viso a cattivo gioco! --- The Open Hyperspace Traveler Handbook - A handbook for the safe and responsible use of entheogens. --- mushroom-grow-help ::: energy conserving caapi extraction
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DMT-Nexus member
Posts: 2151 Joined: 23-Nov-2012 Last visit: 07-Mar-2017
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Enoon: I never claimed that anything was absolute, one way or another. I merely said that people who believe in a vengeful God tend to be more likely to be anxious, depressed or otherwise impaired. I accept the possibility that it could just be that depressed people are more likely to believe that the universe (or God) is turned against them. I would raise the point that I have known depressed or anxious people who started going to church, or practicing some other kind of spirituality directed at a higher power who found the presence of God to be a great comfort. You could say that maybe it was getting out of the house, or the community, but the two I'm thinking of both point towards the new presence of a loving God in their life as the source of their comfort. Now, I'm not coming out in favor or against any God (Abrahamic, Hindu or otherwise), just that this is a trend that I've seen in real life, and that the evidence seems to corroborate. You could be totally right, but given how fundamental spiritual well-being seems to be to people's psyches, it seemed worth investigation. "There are many paths up the same mountain."
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DMT-Nexus member
Posts: 1955 Joined: 24-Jul-2010 Last visit: 12-Jan-2025
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Indeed I agree, I'm sorry I came off as overly bashing-your-idea. Just wanted to point out that the noted correlation, which incidentall I too find interesting, does not imply a cause. belief / faith to me is such a strange thing... I just can't wrap my head around it. Buon viso a cattivo gioco! --- The Open Hyperspace Traveler Handbook - A handbook for the safe and responsible use of entheogens. --- mushroom-grow-help ::: energy conserving caapi extraction
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"No, seriously"
Posts: 7324 Joined: 18-Jan-2007 Last visit: 09-Feb-2025 Location: Orion Spur
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I think we need the original article before we start discussing it: Beliefs About God and Mental Health Among American Adults That way we get a better picture of the whole study and makes that we do not have to the make assumptions we always have to do with a shortened version. Kind regards, The Traveler
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DMT-Nexus member
Posts: 1222 Joined: 24-Jul-2012 Last visit: 10-Jul-2020
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Wow. Amazing. Thanks for posting man. "Think more than you speak"
"How do you get rid of the pain of having pain in the first place? You get rid of expectations"
"You are everything that is. Open yourself to the love and understanding that is available."
"To see God, you have to have met the Devil."
"When you know how to listen, everyone becomes a guru."
" One time, I didn't do anything, and it was so empty... Almost as if I wasn't doing anything. Then I wrote about it. It was fulfilling."
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DMT-Nexus member
Posts: 2151 Joined: 23-Nov-2012 Last visit: 07-Mar-2017
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Thanks, Trav. I, at least, can't spend $40 on a research paper, but here's the abstract of the piece for anyone who wants to see it: Quote:This study examines the association between beliefs about God and psychiatric symptoms in the context of Evolutionary Threat Assessment System Theory, using data from the 2010 Baylor Religion Survey of US Adults (N = 1,426). Three beliefs about God were tested separately in ordinary least squares regression models to predict five classes of psychiatric symptoms: general anxiety, social anxiety, paranoia, obsession, and compulsion. Belief in a punitive God was positively associated with four psychiatric symptoms, while belief in a benevolent God was negatively associated with four psychiatric symptoms, controlling for demographic characteristics, religiousness, and strength of belief in God. Belief in a deistic God and one’s overall belief in God were not significantly related to any psychiatric symptoms. I really wish I could see that paper. "There are many paths up the same mountain."
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DMT-Nexus member
Posts: 2277 Joined: 22-Dec-2011 Last visit: 25-Apr-2016 Location: Hyperspace Studios
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It's easy to draw causal conclusions from information like this. But I would tend to believe that a person's mindset will color their views of all things, including any picture they may have of a creator. But even this is an oversimplification: someone raised by parents with a strong belief in an angry God will likely have their general outlook colored by that. So we can see the web of interrelations going in both directions: outlook colors beliefs, beliefs affect outlook. I knew a fellow who came from a rough background: killed people with his bare hands in Vietnam, came home and joined a bike gang (the only place he felt welcome), where he witnessed further atrocities. At one point he found God and left the gang to start a new life. I came to know him during the honeymoon period of his faith, where he felt forgiven and absolved and was able to get on with life and leave his past behind. But this didn't last. Things kept going wrong in his life, just one thing after another, which I think colored his worldview and perhaps tested his faith to the breaking point. And over the decades he became an increasingly angry and hateful person, quick to go into fire-and- brimstone rants full of political paranoia. I think he was falling into mental illness during this time, and his picture of God changed radically into one of a punishing God who only accepts those who follow the One True Path, all that kind of familiar crapola. Eventually we broke off our friendship ("I can't know you anymore because I care about you and know you are going to hell"  . Spoken red-faced, spittle flying. Did religion make him this way, or could it have prevented it? I don't think so in either case. I think a person's picture of faith is inseparable from their general mindset. Of course the two are deeply related, but it is not a one-way relationship. Like most things in life, it's much more complex and subtle than that.
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Knowledge is power, at the price of losing the bliss of ignorance
Posts: 370 Joined: 19-Apr-2013 Last visit: 30-May-2018 Location: The Singularity
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This does make some sense but regardless what people need to realize I feel, is that no matter what religion typically God(s) have 3 things in common regardless of polytheism or monotheism: *All knowing *All seeing *All permeating These three things explain matter... an atom, an atom is one individual molecule yet together they (many) create matter and the physical, empty space is still connected by gaseous bonds. An atom would permeate all due to this know all and see all due to its connection, also physics tells us atoms exist and don't exist at the same time, which is already a strange idea to conceive as I said this is all regardless to polytheistic or monotheistic beliefs. Also what a coincidence that the word Atom represents so closely the word Adam with changes in language and pronunciations every turn of the century things like this could be misconceived or misunderstood during a story telling, I'm not religious but I am spiritual I study many religions to find the common truths, and the truth seems to be by some molecule or another we and everything we are is combined into one entity. And every growing more conscious, and changing. In reality though back on topic I feel that if all the atoms within a single entity are negatively perceiving reality consistently then they are more likely to have a negative mind set, and vice verse for a positive mind set. As I have in my signature, something DMT has taught me, honestly one of my hardest trips taught me during the come down when a motherly spirit picked my broken soul back up that: Nature knows no EVIL, Nature knows no GOOD, people know these things, because we perceive these things, with the gift of senses given to us at birth. A good or bad experience is simply a bridge to a another existential time frame, so always live in the moment and make every one a positive moment! Understand: Nature knows no EVIL, Nature knows no GOOD, people know these things, because we perceive these things, with the gift of senses given to us at birth. A good or bad experience is simply a bridge to a another existential time frame, so always live in the moment and make every one a positive moment!
Any and all posts or interactions are to be held as my fictional writings/short stories or dreams. I may even have some delirium setting in, I've never been tested for it. The only exception to this is the statement about nature above, I feel this is a fact!
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