[WhiteClouds]

I've always been conflicted about knowing when it is gifts of the Spirit or psychosis? Your Dr. asks,"Do you hear voices?" Uhhh, yeah. When God speaks to me. This is a normal occurrence for those who believe in gifts of the Spirit. Your Dr. asks," Do you have nightmares?" No not really. But I do have dreams with spiritual significance of something going on in the spiritual realm. Dreams and visions are a common occurrence for those who believe in gifts of the spirit.

The common theme I find that help me to know the difference between the two is simple. The Word of God. God's teachings. If I'm on the mark about something, the Lord will lead me to a place to confirm what he has placed on my heart or shown in a dream.

Is this an issue for anyone else? Trying to know the difference or explain the difference to your Dr.?

[blur]

hi whiteclouds. i also hear from God in similar ways: his voice in prayer, spiritual dreams and very rarely visions. mostly, i get dreams these days but they are getting harder and harder to discern from my regular ones. i think God is trying to train me or something. i think how you are discerning yours from anything that might not be of God sounds totally right on. i have never experienced psychosis though.

i did see a christian T years ago who was very familiar with the spiritual gifts but when she sent me to a pdoc for an anti-depressant she told him i do hear voices. i don't know exactly what she explained to him because he brought it up with me. despite him not really being spiritual he was quite open-minded about it and realized i wasn't experiencing psychosis. i think if a pdoc had asked me if i hear voices i would have just said no in my case because it is a bit tough to explain. i think the way you've explained it is great though: just telling them that for those of us who believe in the spiritual gifts within our faith this is actually quite common and normal.

take care!

[WhiteClouds]

Originally Posted by blur

hi whiteclouds. i also hear from God in similar ways: his voice in prayer, spiritual dreams and very rarely visions. mostly, i get dreams these days but they are getting harder and harder to discern from my regular ones. i think God is trying to train me or something. i think how you are discerning yours from anything that might not be of God sounds totally right on. i have never experienced psychosis though.

i did see a christian T years ago who was very familiar with the spiritual gifts but when she sent me to a pdoc for an anti-depressant she told him i do hear voices. i don't know exactly what she explained to him because he brought it up with me. despite him not really being spiritual he was quite open-minded about it and realized i wasn't experiencing psychosis. i think if a pdoc had asked me if i hear voices i would have just said no in my case because it is a bit tough to explain. i think the way you've explained it is great though: just telling them that for those of us who believe in the spiritual gifts within our faith this is actually quite common and normal.

take care!

Hi there Bloom. Thanks for responding. I've never been diagnosed with psychosis. However when I look up the clinical definition, it does sound similar to what one would experience in the spiritual realm. I guess in all things of the spirit we must remember the importance of discernment. I asked because I wonder is this how my T view it? As I have some sort of problem. I sure hope not. In the mean time I will continue to be "Spirit Led & Spirit Fed".

[blur]

Originally Posted by WhiteClouds

Hi there Bloom. Thanks for responding. I've never been diagnosed with psychosis. However when I look up the clinical definition, it does sound similar to what one would experience in the spiritual realm.

hi clouds. that's interesting. i do think it's possible that sometimes people are tapping into the dark side of the supernatural realm when they are hearing voices as relates to things like psychosis. i'm sure there are physiological causes too, but so many people in the western world just don't have a worldview to make sense of the supernatural realm and thus discount it entirely.

when i explained to a doctor once about receiving prayer for healing and then experiencing healing he quipped that it was great because the prayer was non-toxic and had no side effects. haha. this was a different doctor than i mentioned before so some are at least intrigued if not open-minded which is nice.

I guess in all things of the spirit we must remember the importance of discernment. I asked because I wonder is this how my T view it? As I have some sort of problem. I sure hope not. In the mean time I will continue to be "Spirit Led & Spirit Fed".

yeah, it's a tough subject. do you feel comfortable asking your T what they think about it?

i try to be careful as to what i share with people depending on where they seem to be with the gifts. i don't like when people try to debate my personal experience, especially when they have no experience in those things.

bless you.

[Thunder Bow]

Religion is Head based and consists of words. It is about control. Spirituality is Heart Based, and is based on feelings of "oneness" with all there is.

[WhiteClouds]

Yes it is Thunderbow. As I prepare myself for a spiritual journey, I'm making an effort to listen more than anything. Most of all not to expect to learn only that which he knows I will understand, utilize, and share.
I'm very cautious who I tell certain things. I've explained to my T about certain aspects of my spiritual life. For instance the dreams, visions, information I know about people I have no way of knowing, feeling the emotions of others I may be in close physical proximity to, the visitation of Spirits who need to relay information to a relative. Ironically, my T keeps insisting that I please start a business or write a book with this information. I've come in 2 weeks after seeing him and began to randomly recite a poem. It scared him to death, he then explained he was reading the poem that morning at breakfast to be encouraged. I explained my being led to recite the poem was a form of confirmation & acknowledgement that he was heard. I told him about a dream I had about an elderly man who was no longer alive, giving me a message for his grandson. The next morning my H came home & asked me to pray for a co-worker who had loss his grandpa. The man in the dream was the grandpa & I gave him the message. 2 months later the message came to pass. The grandpa will was read 1 week after his death& it said exactly what I had told him.

Thank goodness I have a T that understand, acknowledge my spiritual gifting. Most importantly he respect what they mean to me.

[Dreamy01]

There's a very blurred line between the supernatural and psychosis because the realm of the subconscious basically taps into the same thing. Spiritual experiences can cause people to doubt their sanity too which is also a contributing factor. Psychosis can be the experience of split off parts of the subconscious mind which take on separate form and torment the person.

In my experience, everything is energy so the subconscious mind will attract whatever energy it is reasonating with. I'm not psychotic yet when I'm in a fearful place I do now have very dark dreams about negative spirits. Most of the time my spiritual experiences are very positive and I tap into external energies that reflect the same.

Trust your intuition and know that the voices you hear are from God or your higher power. People will always put their take on it...especially Western society as someone else said. I'm very psychic and I know people would say I'm psychotic etc but my experiences started overnight after meditation and I know that I'm perfectly sane.

I do speak to my T about my experiences but luckily she's very open. She sometimes attempts to analyse dreams and visions in a way that doesn't resonate with me but apart from that I don't have any problems talking to her about spiritual stuff.

[Thunder Bow]

In a Tribeal Culture you would be considered as a Shaman. To bad about our Modern World.

[blur]

Originally Posted by WhiteClouds

I've explained to my T about certain aspects of my spiritual life. For instance the dreams, visions, information I know about people I have no way of knowing, feeling the emotions of others I may be in close physical proximity to, the visitation of Spirits who need to relay information to a relative. Ironically, my T keeps insisting that I please start a business or write a book with this information. I've come in 2 weeks after seeing him and began to randomly recite a poem. It scared him to death, he then explained he was reading the poem that morning at breakfast to be encouraged. I explained my being led to recite the poem was a form of confirmation & acknowledgement that he was heard. I told him about a dream I had about an elderly man who was no longer alive, giving me a message for his grandson. The next morning my H came home & asked me to pray for a co-worker who had loss his grandpa. The man in the dream was the grandpa & I gave him the message. 2 months later the message came to pass. The grandpa will was read 1 week after his death& it said exactly what I had told him. take care.

hi again white clouds. i didn't see this post of yours before. hmm...i'm not sure the experiences you are describing here are from the Holy Spirit. i hate to say this but it sounds like they could be from familiar spirits instead. if you do a google search on that the first link will explain what they are. one thing i've found is that even people following God who do hear from Him can also be hearing from or experiencing spiritual things that are not from God. i've even had this happen myself. i used to be on another forum and for some reason i used to have a sense when an online friend of mine was also online. i couldn't think of any reason why God would be giving me this info so i renounced it and sure enough i didn't experience that again. so, if you have any doubt as to if something is from God then keep asking him for confirmation and it can also be a good idea to just renounce it and ask God to completely take it away if it isn't from him.

[James_from_Idaho]

Hello, I am both Christian and schizophrenic.. When your doctor is asking if you are hearing voices, he is not talking about the voices inside of you.. He is talking about auditory voices.. I know cause I have experienced this on one occasion.. He is talking about voices coming from the outside.. It is like somebody is talking to you, but there is nobody there.. And I be very careful what I tell my doctor.. I tried to tell my counsellor one time that demons were bothering me.. I know it to be true, but he just saw it as I was hallucinating.. So, I be careful.. I don't want to go to the funny farm.. lol.. Hope that helped.. God bless