You seem to be forgetting many lizards are female…
It’s even harder to circumcise a female lizard.
I was not involved in the attempted circumcision; as I said that was Abraham. I would say more but I have not yet made up the lie.
Huh…I thought it had something to do with pigs and ponies…
Does that explain Bad Dragon, the site for ordering fantasy saurian dildos?
I’m here by invitation 
…
OK, let’s posit, for the sake of argument, that my mind is different. Not different in the “everyone is a special snowflake” sense but where for the most part you all end up seeing yourselves as having a lot in common with each other, mind-wise, that sets you all apart from me, and vice versa. POLARIZINGLY different.
It may or may not have a biological/physiological correlate. (Certainly as a logical possibility, it is possible that such a difference in mind could exist and not manifest biologically or physiologically, even if you opine that in real life this logical set is an empty set). For now, let’s say it does.
That correlate may or may not be the CAUSE of the problem. That, in turn, could be due to a different original cause GENERATING or GIVING RISE TO a change in brain chemistry (for example) which then goes on to manifest as the mental difference. An example of this would be the hypothetical case where one was raped repeatedly during the Rwandan genocides and that it is held that as a consequence of this one has developed a clinical mental condition that does indeed have brain-chemistry correlates. (With me so far?). Or the original cause could be directly causing the mental condition and IT, in turn CAUSES the difference in brain or biochemistry, in which case the physiological correlate is simply NOT the cause, not even indirectly, it’s merely a symptom. In other words maybe those repeated Rwandan rapes drove the patient into a mental state and the mental state manifests on the biophysical level as measurable changes in her biochemistry. The point being, it’s a massive oversimplification to state that mental illnesses CONSIST OF, or are CAUSED BY, “chemical imbalances” or any other biological or physical condition of the brain and its workings.
Now, let’s posit that I consider my own mind’s condition to be unfortunate. It’s a problem for me. It’s an unfortunate condition, in my own assessment. Is it an illness? I suppose. I’m wary of a label that originates in biological medical bodily conditions of an unforunate nature being extrapolated to situations that are far less certainly of that nature, but that’s probably a bit of a lost cause.
But what if I do NOT consider my own mind’s condition to be unfortunate? That whether it is a problem for you folks or not, I’m happy to be in this condition and I do not want to change. Here, perhaps, is SmashTheState’s ‘visionary schizophrenic’. NOW is it an illness? No. Just a difference. For the same reason that you (whoever you are) don’t get to decide that being gay is an illness, you don’t get to decide that my difference constitutes an illness. You can decide that I am a public nuisance, perhaps, or a threat to public safety, and if I violate any actual laws you can go beyond holding on to that as an attitude and do something about me. But not until, babes. At least you have no legitimate business doing so.
Yes, but They Live is a lot closer to Icke’s story.
The reason I said “If you’ve seen it” in my post is that if you have seen it, and you have a fair idea of what Icke says, it’s obvious that he’s practically quoting the movie. There are other films/books/TV series that are similar, but Icke/They Live aren’t just similar stories, they’re an exact match.
I remember watching V with my mom as a kid. (The mini-series?) Was that the one where the little blonde girl with the lizard tongue strangles the other girl?
I guess you solved the problem. You were able to speak with the patient and make other first hand observations that her symptoms match migraine related hallucinations? The truth is we can’t really know what Hildegard’s problem was. You might be right, but, who knows?
Edit: Not that I believe she was actually receiving visions from God.
So we seem to agree that someone with that condition, who is impaired by it, and who is unhappy to be so impaired has an illness. Let us assume that it impedes your function within the society in which you live, but that you are still happy to be living with that condition. Is it then a disability (or perhaps a disorder) even if not an illness? And does the answer depend on whether or not the functional impairment exists in your assessment or only in the eyes of others? (Please note, this remains hypothetical and implies nothing about your real ability to function.)
It’s not that it’s not a real answer in the sense that he might be mentally ill. But I was asking for how he explains in his book how he arrived at this ‘truth.’ I wanted an explanation of how it got incorporated into his worldview perhaps through some experience or encounter. Instead it was a lot of speculation about how he’s schizophrenic. My question was really about how the reptilians fit in in the context of his own narrative (and his discovery of them) rather than with regards to how the reptilians fit in with reality as most of us see it
V had Lizard Aliens taking over the world and the lizards lived in human skin suits so that they could blend in amongst the populace. I don’t recall I haven’t seen the show since about 1984 or so, but that very well might be it.
Yeah, that was it – I just think I remember that one scene, where one of the lizards was disguised as a little girl, and she bit another little girl with this long tongue. (The human girl was safe, she was just really freaked out, and was crying and hiding under the bed)
Icke’s version of events is that it’s basically divine revelation. Icke says he has been in contact with the spirit world and the Godhead and they pass information to him. Initial contact was made in 1990 when Icke was told he would be receiving some important messages. This information was subsequently passed on to Icke over the next few years and included the information about the reptilians.
He mentions about how it all started on earth with the anasazi(sp) and hes studied a lot and after he got his revelation, people contacted him telling him he was right.
What is the Godfoot then?
No simple answer, good question.
a) The deaf community has some activists who recharacterize being deaf as “a difference that is not a disability”. They claim to be unimpeded except by societal attitudes. I’m not ready to agree with them but I’m willing to listen.
b) Being gay can impede your ability to function within a homophobic society. No two ways about it, it can get in your way, all other things being equal. We are (a decent number of us at any rate) willing to nod in agreement that this is “artificial”, an artifact of homophobia not an aspect of being gay in and of itself. I’ll go so far as to suggest that even if a tightly controlled study were to be conducted showing that gay people exhibit certain specific behavioral and personality manifestations that differentiate them from nongay people, and that furthermore a second study doing its dead-level best to control for influences of homophobic attitudes still shows a general negative reaction to those same behavioral and personality manifestations, such that we are now talking about an objective (as much as possible) demonstration that being gay generates an antipathetic reaction in a significant number of people, that we would still mostly say "So fucking what? It is how they are, they were born here, and no good and a hell of a lot of bad would come from trying, once again, to define their difference as a disease, a disability, an impediment, hell anything negative that implies that the problem inheres in THEM not in people’s shitty reaction to them. Because they aren’t doing anything wrong. They’re just being who they are.
Well dammit, schizophrenics and bipolarites and so forth are entitled to the same consideration. And we’ll get it, assuming we can ever get our fucked-up political organizations organized. (You have no IDEA how easy herding kittens can look in comparison…)
c) Having said that, there are some activists in the movement who are very heavily pushing for conceptualizing us as a variety of the disabled, insofar as disability law is increasingly geared towards the least restrictive alternative and the maximum possible opportunity for societal participation alongside of nondiscrimination clauses. I can certainly see the attractiveness thereof. EXCUSE ME, but has your company employed any schizzies recently? NO? Well are you prepared to show that you are not maintaining a workplace hostile to schizzies? Will you accomodate an otherwise qualified schizophrenic by making some allowances in other expectations?
d) I keep mentioning gay folks because I am convinced they are the movement to emulate. They are totally my heroes. I want a Schizzy Pride march down Broadway. I want the sense of community founded on an attitude of affirmation and embrace of this identity. It most closely matches how I personally feel, and in our movement (although the most widespread attitude is still to deny that mental illness exists at all except as a social construct, i.e., that it is as real as witchcraft): despite the real existence of a lot of suffering people, the active movement people have a collective attitude that is not so much Oh Poor Me as Yeah I’m a Lunatic, So Fucking What? And I think that is good for us. Even the historically chronically depressed, finally furious at what we’ve been through within the system, saying (as Janet Gotkin did) that as bad as depression is, THEY can’t fix it and what THEY put us through is even worse and we have the right to be left alone if they have nothing better than that to offer. The diagnosed bipolar folks in our ranks (such as Kate Millett) have declared their right to their roller coaster and said that by far the worst aspect of their trajectories have been well-meaning folks’ intrusive interventions, and again just want to be left alone. Those carrying the label schizophrenic*, even those with argumentative voices in their ears and disturbing visions in their head, have often said that this is the one and only reality they’ve ever known, aside from the gauze-wrapped numb non-life of being on psychdrugs, and that whether it results is us being crazy-savants and spiritual visionaries or just loonie crazy spacy people, we get to choose and embrace this, and maybe we’ll quit being paranoid when you stop coming to get us, ya know?
- that would include me, in case you’re curious
This is a mistake. If you want to avoid the reptilians, stay away from low dark places.
I have thought it might be fun to get a few people together in lizard costume to trundle by David Icke’s apartment building on dark foggy nights. Pssst! David! The Queen sez How do you do?
AHunter3, I don’t know anyone who has been more perceptive about my own mental state and experiences than you. You have a way of getting right to the heart of things. But is that in spite of schizophrenia rather than because of?
You are certainly unique among those I’ve known who have been given this label. I’m thinking in particular of one friend who kept seeing people being murdered right before her eyes – at any time – every day. She was so desperately sad. Most of the ones that I’ve met have been unhappy.
SmashtheState, since you are new, this is meant to be helpful. I don’t intend it as an insult to you.
It is standard operational procedure at SDMB to provide cites for just about anything that you claim to be true unless you are talking about your own experiences. This is especially true if the information is controversial. You have only to look around you at other posts – especially OPs – to see the truth of that.
Providing the name of a book or an author’s name isn’t really a sufficient cite. What you need are actual quotations that back up what you have said.
No one is insulting you when they ask for a cite. When you acknowledge that you are not providing a cite and have distain for people who ask for cites, then the requests that you get are likely to be a little hostile. That’s understandable.
Don’t expect to be able to post outrageous claims here without backing them up. We are expected to do the same thing.
And don’t tell us to look up your proof for you. That isn’t how it’s done.
You are going to keep running into these problems as long as you post the way that you are now. It shouldn’t take hours of research to come up with just a quote or two from a reputable source.
AHunter3,
Thank you for that answer.
Separate questions.
The high suicide rate among schizophrenics has been mentioned in this thread. Is it your impression that such is the case because of societal reaction to schizophrenics or because of the discomfort of the schizophrenia itself?
Many in society are afraid of what schizophrenics might do and you, rightly I believe, posit that one must not limit rights because of perceived future risks. But statistically what actually are the risks? How much above average citizen rates is an individual diagnosed with schizophrenia to do something that may significantly harm another individual (if at all)? And how much is only an impression based on a few publicized cases?