A knee-slapper sent in by a reader...
Subject: Holy E Mail
One day God was looking down at Earth and saw all of the rascally behavior that was going on. So he called one of His angels and sent the angel to Earth for a time.
When he returned, he told God, 'Yes, it is bad on Earth; 95% are misbehaving and only 5% are not.
God thought for a moment and said, 'Maybe I had better send down a second angel to get another opinion.'
So God called another angel and sent him to Earth for a time.
When the angel returned he went to God and said, Yes, it's true. The Earth is in decline; 95% are misbehaving, but 5% are being good.'
God was not pleased. So He decided to e-mail the 5% that were good, because he wanted to encourage them, and give them a little something to help them keep going.
Do you know what the e-mail said?
(scroll down)
Okay, I was just wondering, because I didn't get one either.
Friday, April 3, 2009
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Overmedication of America
I read a book recently, titled, “Comfortably Numb: How psychiatry is medicating a nation,” by Charles Barber, a lecturer in psychiatry at the Yale University School of Medicine. Barber contends that Americans are horrendously overdosed in psychiatric medicines, and provides facts and stories to back up his case.
Some quotes from his book:
“In 2006, 227 million antidepressant prescriptions were dispensed to Americans—more than any other class of medication—and up by 30 million prescriptions since 2002.”
“Americans are responsible for almost half of the world’s prescription drug sales….In 2006, Americans—about 6 percent of the world’s population—bought about two-thirds of the world’s psychiatric and neurological drugs. In 2006, 66 percent of the global antidepressant market was accounted for by the United States.”
“To say that we are the most medicated nation on earth is an absurd understatement. To say that we are the most psychiatrically medicated nation on earth is a prodigiously absurd understatement.”
Barber is not arguing that the medicines should be done away with, but that Americans are putting too much faith in them. He gives examples of how advertising campaigns lull consumers into believing doses of these drugs are healthy for them, when quite the opposite is true. He also contends that Americans are sanitizing themselves with drugs to avoid dealing with the highs and lows of human experience. They are practicing a form of escapism rather than working life's problems out constructively.
He wrote:
“It has been widely observed that the SSRIs [form of antidepressant drug] put many people at a sort of remove from reality, a distance from the self. I’ve seen SSRIs block out both the good and the bad, numbing us to the pandemonium of life….The emotional highs and lows are excised from experience, and one exists in a slightly foggy middle ground….They function; they don’t get too excited or too upset. They get by. They come to inhabit an inauthentic and less challenging existence and embrace a uniquely American form of emotional sanitation.”
This last observation is what I have noted in people on antidepressant drugs. They are not themselves anymore. They are drugged into a state of semi-individuality that loses touch with reality.
Of course, there is a need to help people out of depressive states of mind that cause them to struggle, and healing is possible through prayer and spiritual treatment of thought. There is one Mind, and it’s a happy healthy Mind which everyone is divinely designed to express.
Heavy and dark states of mortal mind may seem to weigh that joy down for a spell in the human mind, but it cannot endure. Christ is ever-present in human consciousness helping each individual find the light that brings genuine joy back into their experience.
Barber still advocates medicine for severe depression, mostly because he knows no other way to cope with it. He’s willing to compromise on the tough cases. But for the most part, he encourages his readers to deal with life’s realities rather than trying to avoid them through drugging.
Amen!
Americans are way too overmedicated. Books like this help snap lulled consumers out of complacency and acquiescence to ever-increasing doses of medicine that do great harm and avoid dealing with the real issues of life through logic, reason and spirituality.
Everyone has a right to live an authentic life! But it won’t be found in a drugged-up state of mind. It’s found through spiritual growth, increased spirituality and consecrated prayer.
Some quotes from his book:
“In 2006, 227 million antidepressant prescriptions were dispensed to Americans—more than any other class of medication—and up by 30 million prescriptions since 2002.”
“Americans are responsible for almost half of the world’s prescription drug sales….In 2006, Americans—about 6 percent of the world’s population—bought about two-thirds of the world’s psychiatric and neurological drugs. In 2006, 66 percent of the global antidepressant market was accounted for by the United States.”
“To say that we are the most medicated nation on earth is an absurd understatement. To say that we are the most psychiatrically medicated nation on earth is a prodigiously absurd understatement.”
Barber is not arguing that the medicines should be done away with, but that Americans are putting too much faith in them. He gives examples of how advertising campaigns lull consumers into believing doses of these drugs are healthy for them, when quite the opposite is true. He also contends that Americans are sanitizing themselves with drugs to avoid dealing with the highs and lows of human experience. They are practicing a form of escapism rather than working life's problems out constructively.
He wrote:
“It has been widely observed that the SSRIs [form of antidepressant drug] put many people at a sort of remove from reality, a distance from the self. I’ve seen SSRIs block out both the good and the bad, numbing us to the pandemonium of life….The emotional highs and lows are excised from experience, and one exists in a slightly foggy middle ground….They function; they don’t get too excited or too upset. They get by. They come to inhabit an inauthentic and less challenging existence and embrace a uniquely American form of emotional sanitation.”
This last observation is what I have noted in people on antidepressant drugs. They are not themselves anymore. They are drugged into a state of semi-individuality that loses touch with reality.
Of course, there is a need to help people out of depressive states of mind that cause them to struggle, and healing is possible through prayer and spiritual treatment of thought. There is one Mind, and it’s a happy healthy Mind which everyone is divinely designed to express.
Heavy and dark states of mortal mind may seem to weigh that joy down for a spell in the human mind, but it cannot endure. Christ is ever-present in human consciousness helping each individual find the light that brings genuine joy back into their experience.
Barber still advocates medicine for severe depression, mostly because he knows no other way to cope with it. He’s willing to compromise on the tough cases. But for the most part, he encourages his readers to deal with life’s realities rather than trying to avoid them through drugging.
Amen!
Americans are way too overmedicated. Books like this help snap lulled consumers out of complacency and acquiescence to ever-increasing doses of medicine that do great harm and avoid dealing with the real issues of life through logic, reason and spirituality.
Everyone has a right to live an authentic life! But it won’t be found in a drugged-up state of mind. It’s found through spiritual growth, increased spirituality and consecrated prayer.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
No long drawn out suffering
I struggled with a little health issue for a few days recently that ordinarily would vanish with a short prayer. It was not a big deal, but I got a bit bothered by why it hadn’t yielded quickly this time.
Then it struck me while reading the newspaper and noticing several articles on how the present economic recession is the longest since the Great Depression, and so on, that the prolonged bodily trouble was mimicking a form of recession. Not a financial recession, in my case, but a mini-health recession.
The media is currently permeated with economic prognosticators predicting increased prolonged financial suffering over the coming months. There is no acceptance that the economic calamity could instantly end, today for instance. It’s assumed by just about everyone that suffering is to continue and grow worse for a long period of time.
Well, this is not a Christianly scientific position to take. It’s all error of reasoning, and ignorance of God’s economy which is abounding in supply right now. But the majority of people believe this depressing assessment of the recession, and thus the symptoms prophesied continue to grow and accelerate.
I thought, if a person accepts the claims of recession financially, wouldn’t he also be susceptible to accepting the claims of recession in other ways in his life, perhaps in the form of a “health recession,” or a “marital recession,” or a "joy recession," and so on?
Aw, this was enlightening! As I said, the health issue was minor for me, but suddenly I realized a very large spiritual lesson I was to learn from it that would benefit me and the people I help everyday. And it’s this, don’t buy into any recessionary claims, no matter how far removed they may appear to be from you financially!
God’s economy never goes into recession. In fact, it’s all about expansion, ever-unfolding views of infinite goodness and supply. There is no withering away of substance, disappearance of adequate supply, or lack of opportunity. God is infinite. God’s economy is infinite. It never shrinks, diminishes or causes suffering for its inhabitants. It’s an economy of Mind where Love provides without fail. And this truth can be applied and demonstrated in the full spectrum of human experience, from business activities, to social, familial, marital, mental and health conditions.
So, I encourage you to not accept long drawn out suffering for anyone, even if you feel fine. Evil suggestions need to be put off and replaced with spiritual truth to prevent suffering for the benefit of all. God’s love is present and adequate to the need of the moment for everyone.
I presently like to think not in terms of being in a recession, but in an ever-expanding view of God’s infinite love and care for all of creation.
Oh, and yes, the health nuisance vanished…
Then it struck me while reading the newspaper and noticing several articles on how the present economic recession is the longest since the Great Depression, and so on, that the prolonged bodily trouble was mimicking a form of recession. Not a financial recession, in my case, but a mini-health recession.
The media is currently permeated with economic prognosticators predicting increased prolonged financial suffering over the coming months. There is no acceptance that the economic calamity could instantly end, today for instance. It’s assumed by just about everyone that suffering is to continue and grow worse for a long period of time.
Well, this is not a Christianly scientific position to take. It’s all error of reasoning, and ignorance of God’s economy which is abounding in supply right now. But the majority of people believe this depressing assessment of the recession, and thus the symptoms prophesied continue to grow and accelerate.
I thought, if a person accepts the claims of recession financially, wouldn’t he also be susceptible to accepting the claims of recession in other ways in his life, perhaps in the form of a “health recession,” or a “marital recession,” or a "joy recession," and so on?
Aw, this was enlightening! As I said, the health issue was minor for me, but suddenly I realized a very large spiritual lesson I was to learn from it that would benefit me and the people I help everyday. And it’s this, don’t buy into any recessionary claims, no matter how far removed they may appear to be from you financially!
God’s economy never goes into recession. In fact, it’s all about expansion, ever-unfolding views of infinite goodness and supply. There is no withering away of substance, disappearance of adequate supply, or lack of opportunity. God is infinite. God’s economy is infinite. It never shrinks, diminishes or causes suffering for its inhabitants. It’s an economy of Mind where Love provides without fail. And this truth can be applied and demonstrated in the full spectrum of human experience, from business activities, to social, familial, marital, mental and health conditions.
So, I encourage you to not accept long drawn out suffering for anyone, even if you feel fine. Evil suggestions need to be put off and replaced with spiritual truth to prevent suffering for the benefit of all. God’s love is present and adequate to the need of the moment for everyone.
I presently like to think not in terms of being in a recession, but in an ever-expanding view of God’s infinite love and care for all of creation.
Oh, and yes, the health nuisance vanished…
