Your research has helped save me from the great unknowing. Did I save you so that you could save me….and many others….from the great unknowing?

And yes, it was so nice to see you in the documentary.

I hope people keep making good shows.

John

Thanks for the great comment… and sorry it took awhile for me to post it. I didn’t get the usual “Pending Comment” alert on my blog’s dashboard that I usually do.
Anyway, now that you’ve been approved, any future comments you make will be posted immediately. Thanks for your patience!

The title of my post may be a bit misleading, suggesting big changes to the latest DSM. I was referring to the big changes that I wish would be made in a future edition… even if only an appendix of frontier or “fringe” ideas that many people (such as myself) believe to be important to mental health. In this case, the presence of spirits impinging on our world and on our lives.

I like (a lot) your lucid and concise explanation of the current state of psychiatry–the working together of mental health professionals, insurance companies, and clients (not to mention the pharmaceutical companies!) in a sort of win/win situation for everyone. I think the win/win will be many times richer and more rewarding once our spiritual nature is added to the mix! Would love to see that in my lifetime… but I, too, digress… and probably dream….

I’m delighted that you like “Spirit Faces.” Being an introvert (there’s another recent book out called “Quiet” about introverts, by author Susan Cain), I’ve never enjoyed public presentations… even while giving hundreds of them at conferences, seminars, and workshops. Never got to the point of being comfortable in a crowd… especially as the focus of attention! Also, when Polaroid quit making their 600 film, the spirit face phenomena came to an end. Digital and 35mm cameras didn’t capture the spirit faces with the same consistency as Polaroid film, for some reason. So… no, I doubt if I’ll be coming to NY to give seminars. Fact is, I decided last year to quit giving public presentations and interviews (except maybe in rare circumstances)… in order to devote more attention to my writing.

Getting back to mental health and spiritual influences for a moment, how open would professionals like you be in terms of a new technique that would immediately remove spirit influences from a client? It involves a series of mild shocks along the spine… mild in comparison with electroshock therapy. You see, I believe that the stabilizing effect of electroshock therapy to many patients is not so much the result of changes to their neurochemistry, but of the instant release of attached spirits. Spirits attached to a carnal body feel intense pain when the body is subjected to electric shock, and they typically bolt out… at least for awhile. A technique that involves a series of shocks to the spine, I believe, would be as effective as, and far less excruciating to the client than electroshock therapy.

Well, thanks again for your good comments,

Mark

This is a very interesting train of thought. I’m a mental health professional myself and was eager to hear all about supposed drastic new changes to the DSM-V. I agree that the conclusions of each diagnosis are typically based on discussions that come from a think tank of psychiatrists and other various mental health professionals without conclusive evidence from studies that provide quantitative and qualitative results.

I believe that all of our brains are wired very differently compared to the person standing in front of us in line at the grocery store, for example. It is difficult to categorize a mass amount of individuals into one strict category such as Asperger’s, Bipolar Disorder, etc. that has very specific symptoms. Typically, when diagnosing an individual, he/she must meet certain criteria for that specific diagnosis. On average, the individual usually needs to meet at least six of the listed symptoms in order to be diagnosed. In today’s world, many people are desperate for a diagnosis in order to be prescribed a “quick fix” (medication) to find a solution to problems that have been building for a lifetime. Mental health professionals are quick to give diagnoses in order to get insurance companies involved in the the process as well. It is a win/win situation for both the mental health professional and the client/patient.

I digress! I find the spiritual piece of mental health diagnoses to be quite fascinating and this opens a door to many, many possibilities. Perhaps when we say, “I’m not feeling like myself today”, maybe this is true in a sense? I have read all of your books and I’m currently reading The Project. I must say that Spirit Faces has been my favorite thus far! I was wondering if you will ever return to New York for a Spirit Faces seminar in the near future?

Thanks for your consistent insight, Mark. I always enjoy reading your thoughts and ideas when it comes to spirituality. Keep doing what you’re doing!

Karen

Thank you for this! I watched it and loved every bit of it. It’s just more and more evidence stacking up in favor of our spiritual reality. Eventually, that stack is going to become so large that it will spill over into our “modern” realm of scientific thought. I put the word “modern” in quotation marks because it may be only a short time before our current, as you put it, ‘newtonian’ scientific views of the world are considered primitive in light of our acceptance of a much grander reality that is measured by our very consciousness.

Was this video released to youtube very recently? It was wonderful to see that you made an appearance!

Thank you for your work and thank you to all others that remain focused like a laser beam on spiritual enrichment for the pure informational benefit of others who may not have had any awareness of the subject of what waits for us on the other side of that thick, stubborn veil.

Ricky

Thank you Mark, my kind sir.

(Here’s a link to that article by Dan: http://www.tcm.phy.cam.ac.uk/~bdj10/scepticism/drasin.html)