There is something that is very obvious, but is rarely being mentioned.
Which is that the symptoms usually associated with "mental illness" mirror the sensations associated with alternative states of consciosuness. And there are some conclusions to draw from that.
Let's take a closer look at this.
Anxiety
Many people suffer from anxiety. The symptoms associated with this are usually an intense feeling of panic, stress, and further feelings such as being afraid to "lose control" or "lose one's mind". Now, therapists usually will say that the latter result from the former; you feel so much fear, and because of that, you think you are gonna lose your mind. This is pretty much - dogma. But is this conclusion so obvious? Could it not rather be that anxious people feel fear AND the feeling of losing one's mind, control etc.? Or maybe even - that the actual main feeling is that strange feeling of the mind, and the fear is actually the result? You feel you lose your mind - of course this feeling makes you panic.
The thing is that all these sensations can also be very typical of experiencing an "alternative of consciousness". The feeling of one's mind changing, of it sort of slipping away and losing control of one or another part of your mind or body, and so on. Also, fear and panic can be typical of an alternative state of consciousness, which in "drug lingo" is then called a "bad trip".
So maybe "anxiety patients" are NOT experiencing mere panic attacks, but experiencing alternative states of consciousness?
John C. Lilly was a neuroscientist who explored alternative states in the 60s and beyond, both in himself - and plenty of others.
He designated the states with numbers such as +24, +12, +6, -24, -12, -6...
The smaller the number, the "higher" the state.
He noted that the higher the state, the more of a loss of "mind", "self", "control" and so on was experienced - which again reminds us of the "mind losing" anxiety experiences.
He used positive and negative numbers to differ between postive and negative experiences (the "bad trips"). +3 was an extremely positive state, +3 an extremely negative one.
What is interesting is that he stated that positive and negative experience are essentially the same: +3 IS -3. They just differ in the way they are experienced and in the way the person reacts.
To simplify things: if someone did not give in, tried to hide from, turned away from a state, it became a negative thing. Lack of "submission" and trust led to -12, -6, -3 etc.
This gives the idea that the "negative" feelings associated with "anxiety" may be caused from people who reach an alternative state (which they falsely call "panic attack"), but try to turn away from it, try to make it go away.
If they just let this "anxiety", or rather, state, happen and let it take itt turn, they could rather enjoy it and maybe learn something from it.
Depression
Depression might be less obviously connected to symptoms of a "state" or "trip" than that flashy, sudden, mind-altering anxiety experience during a "panic attack".
In order to explain this, we need to make a further connection, which many people will disagree with this.
Which is the idea that what is usually called the "religious / mystic experience" is linked to alternative states of consciousness.
Let's face it - when you see a burning bush talking to you, as in one of the stories of the bible, you are clearly "hallucinating".
Through ritual, meditation or other methods mystics reached alternative states of consciousness.
Now let's look at what the mystics wrote down or teached, taken from the feelings / insights experienced during these states.
There is a common theme in religion and mysticism that - "life is suffering", anything in the world is painful and vain, all that exist is a huge nothingness, and so on.
Doesn't that mirror the notions of people who "suffer from depression"?
Could it be that that those that are called "depressed" - rather are experiencing alternative states of consciousness, are in touch with insights associated with alternative states of consciousness?
You might say that "mystics" also have positive things to say while "depression" is purely negative. But that's not the case. Many mystics expressed notions such as that there really is merely "nothingness" and "suffering" in this world. If you looked up the texts of some mystics, you would really find a lot of content that would be considered as being of an "extremely depressed" nature.
But more importantly, remember what John C. Lilly said about +6, -6, etc.
"Depression patients" fight the states and the insights. So it turns sour and negative. If they would let them in an build on them, they indeed could reach those "positive" states too. And the insights labeled as "negative" could be completed with more positive ones.
Psychosis
Psychosis is essentially an "endless bad trip" and I doubt anyone one will deny the similarities of this experience to alternative states of consciousness, so I won't use much words here.
Conclusions
These were three examples. If the idea presented here is true then it would be wrong to assign people with terms such as "suffering from anxiety" or "depression".
What rather is going on is that while many people - even "mystics" - need drugs, meditation, and other methods to attain alternative states of consciousness, some people go into these states regularly "on their own", "by themselves", and this can happen on a train, or at work, or while taking a walk, and is then mislabeled as "anxiety", "depression", and so on.
The problem is then that the treatment is all wrong; because these states are denied and given other terms, and the point of the therapy is usually to get rid of these states. But because these states are not actually "anxiety", "depression" and such, and because these "patients" have a natural inclinination to go into these states, this "therapy" won't help much then.
Regardless of what therapists say, people who got "anxiety" or "depression" usually have it for all of their lives - and what is said above explains why.
Another issue is that handling these states is problematic in itself. Most "mystics" stress you need a guru or a similar person to properly get through these states. During the 60s, when people experimented with these states they usually had a guide who helped them during the experience too (it's interesting that the first "LSD guides" often actually where certified therapists!). Getting into this state on your own can be very frightening, confusing, chaotic. Especially if it happens when you are in public, or attending a meeting at work and so on.
I don't have an easy solution for this problem either; because contemporary society is simply not prepared to deal with alternative states of consciousness, and those that experience them on a regular basis. Maybe the old Sufi statement of having to live "alone in the crowd" is a helpful indicator. And people who deal with this "problem" have to find solutions to it - on their own.
What would be helpful, too, is to remove the "mental health problem" stigma. A person calling people with "anxiety" or "depression" mentally ill is like a cat calling a bird "physically ill" because it is able to fly while the cat has to walk and crawl all of its life. Similary, most people live in "ordinary states of consciousness" and don't understand those who do not, and whose minds "fly off" now and then.
So, there is still a lot of work to be done, and progress to be made. But getting a better understanding of this topic can be a first step.
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