# God, religion, and can thinking about it bring on DR???



## mulder (May 8, 2005)

The basic question is this. Has anybody else here had strange effects from thinking and talking about God too much?

I was brought up slightly in the ways of the Church of England, in that we didn't go to church much, but I was christened CofE, and I went to Sunday school for a while. Also, the Vicar's wife used to look after me and other kids sometimes, although I was so young I barely remember this.

Sometime when I was very young, I had a dream about angels (complete with beards and long hair, but no wings AFAIR) comming down into our back garden and talking or singing in a strange way. This scared me, I would describe it as a nightmare really. This was the first of a few strange religion related incidents.

When I was 15, I'd pretty much given up religion, but I still had a thought that God might exist, and I was always unexplainably scared of the occult, ouija boards and the like. Anyway, I was up one night watching TV and some rubbish about Madonna having satanic messages in her songs came on. They played the parts of the songs on the TV, and I got really scared by it. I couldn't shake the fear off, life felt dark and heavy, I couldn't take any joy in anything, and even listening to rock n roll in the car on the way back from my grandmother's on the following evening scared me.

I'd recently made friends with a Jehovah's Witness at school, who I explained my fear to. I ended up having a bible study with him for 5 years, and towards the end of this period I was doing the whole door knocking thing and everything, except I hadn't been baptised. It was never really something I was 100% in, but it did serve a purpose. It kept me out of trouble (not that it stopped me getting into trouble later in life), and gave me something to battle the fear of the occult with.

Problem was, I was rather obsessed with fighting the occult, as anybody I met who was into ouija boards or anything connected with predicting the future or contacting spirits would get a mouthfull from me about it. I messed a friendship up over it at college too.

I'd never had a girlfriend and I wasn't really getting on with anybody my own age in my JW congregation. I knew at the back of my mind that I didn't really want to be baptised as a JW and live my life like that. But I carried on anyway.

Then, when I'd left college and was going through a period of only having a part-time job so I spent a lot of time in town wandering about bored, I met a girl. She and her friend claimed to be satanists. Well, I fancied her, and so what do you think I tried to do? I asked her out and preceded to try and convert her. Now, when I look back, it was obvious she had a big fantasy about all this satan stuff, it wasn't real, and she was also quite weird in other ways, but I was going through a big change in my life here, getting my first girl and not wanting to loose her due to my low self esteem. I think my low view of myself also kept me clinging to a religion that I didn't really want in my life.

There were some strange things that happened though. First, I was sat on a bench with her, talking about God and satanism and how I was going to get her out of it all. All of a sudden, I had what I can only describe as a slow-motion moment. Everything went a bit grey and a bit deja vu like, and people were walking along in slow motion. It is difficult to tell, as it was so short, but maybe this was my first little taste of DR?

Also, I was asleep one night, I think I was having a dream, but I don't think it was religious, and suddenly I woke up and it felt like my head was being pushed up to look at the wall opposite me. I started spouting a load of jibberish, like I was speaking in tongues. This freaked me right out. What the hell was going on?!?!? I suppose I'll never know. I don't believe this was a case of brief posession anymore, but at the time, it was the only explanation I had.

So, in the end, we split up but got back together when I quit the religion a few weeks later. I'd found my self confidence, realised I was letting other peopl control my life and I went for one last try with somebody I wanted. It didn't really work out, but hey...

But, anyway, has anybody else had strange 'religious' experiences like the above? Could they be DR/DP related? What might have triggerd them?

It weirds me out to this day about the speaking in tongues thing. I can just put the other things down to a dream that gave me a feeling of God's existence, and fear of the devil, and a moment of DR brought on by something in my coversation about God and satanism (although why it would make me DR I don't know).


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## LOSTONE (Jul 9, 2005)

Very interesting.
First of all, girls are a big problem when you are trying to live a witness life. As you may know that temptation is the #1 reason witnesses get disfellowshipped. I have my own experience with trying to help a girl come to the truth, did not work! If you were using religin to try to get close to this girl I think it is a possibility your dp/dr is connected to that. 
About your obsession with argueing your point against the occult.
I think it is always a bad idea to argue about anything religous. Even more so if you are on your way to getting baptized. You should tell people what you know but not argue. If they don't like what you have to say than don't say any more. Even Jesus would not argue his point, it is a wast of breath. look up Mt 10:14
If you truely did not believe in the religin than I think it is good you left.
You could have done more harm to the religin by becomeing a hypocrite "liveing a dubble life". 
As for haveing crazy thoughts about religin in general, I must say I fully understand. Many times I have walked into a kingdom hall and started thinking the most wrong thoughts possible. A few times my thoughts got so bad I had to get up and leave. I would go home crying, wondering why I couldent control my thoughts and why god wasent helping me with my mental problem. I must admit I have had my ups and downs with God. 
At my worst moments of dp/dr I felt as if I were possessed, as if satan was right ther with me in my consciousness. This is a possibility and likely, because as witnesses believe, satan and the demons have been thrown to the earth (1914). Wich means that they are even more focused on us humans. Also if you have messed with hypnosis, spirit mediums or even mind altering drugs you open yourself up to them. There is no way to know for sure if you have had demons in your head or not. 
I myself no longer fear demons or satan at all. I am not conserned with them I am conserned with God. I fear God because he is the only life sorce. I also fear dp/dr wich is why it is so hard for me to become a witness but I am ready to fully face that fear. I see no real point in the current life I am living, except something to be judged by. I am only interested in the next life.
Check out http://www.watchtower.org once in a wile it is a helpful website.


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## LOSTONE (Jul 9, 2005)

I forgot, as for your speaking in tongues thing. You should know this is not possible, it is just in your mind. This is probably due to dp/dr. 
look up 1Co 13:8, 14:5, 14:22 14:6
Tongues was never mindless chatter like you see in movies. It's only purpose was so the Apostles would be able to preach to people of diffrent tongues. 
I have had experiences where I get the chills and my neck will snap to the right or left. It feels as if someone is trying to break my neck. I know this is a result of my dp/dr though.


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## mulder (May 8, 2005)

> If you truely did not believe in the religin than I think it is good you left.
> You could have done more harm to the religin by becomeing a hypocrite "liveing a dubble life".


Exactly the reason I knew I should leave it and explore the world before I made any decision to commit to the religion. After 5 years of study, it was pretty clear that although I was interested, I didn't want to be tied down by it and didn't have the love for it you'd need to stick to it. I'm not sure I believed it all. I'm still watching for those signs of Armageddon though.

The DP/DR has only come since 2003, and this all came to a head in 1996, so I know my major 24-7 DR problems are not anything to do with this. They were triggered by my anxieties about being too stoned one night.

However, I do think that it's possible to be so caught up thinking about God and religion that you could get a DR state come on. I think it's possible to get quite anxious about God, and people you care about not being people you think God would approve of. Although I don't remember being anxious about talking with my girlfriend about God, maybe deep down there was a fear she might reject God and me and she'd be condemed by God. This could've brought on the short DR like state I experienced in that moment.



> I forgot, as for your speaking in tongues thing. You should know this is not possible, it is just in your mind.


When I said about that, it was just a figure of speech. I don't really think I was speaking in tongues, but there was something about that experience that felt like I was not in control, but something else was controling my head and mouth. Could this be down to anxiety again?

OK, let's not call these religious experiences, or link them to religion now. Let's just say they were strange happenings which might've been brought about by too much thought applied to a religious subject. Has anybody else had any?


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