I am Pagan, Psychic.......Crazy?

Recently, someone that I know has come out of Valkenberg Psychiatric Hospital. This blog is not about this person. But the experiences (visiting there) and the research around mental institutions and mental patients that I have done. All this  got me thinking. I am also busy watching a series called ‘United States of Tara’, which is about a woman who suffers from D.I.D. Disassociative Identity Disorder. This is the new term M.P.D. Multiple Personality Disorder.

It got me think because many years ago I spoke to people that has been admitted to psychiatric hospitals and I have spoken to doctors and nurses that has worked with these patients.

Valkenberg Psychiatric Hospital

The General consensus is that half the people that are in the hospitals are wrongly diagnosed. There is apparently nothing wrong with them. I have heard also that there are so many psychics that have been booked in.

(the sound of an LP scratching to a halt)

That is exactly what caught my ear. Psychics in psychiatric hospitals?

Less politically correct, a malhuis? What does that say about psychics? What does it say about Pagans? What does it say about me?

Now I am no expert on this topic, but this is me woffling because I committed (no pun intended) to write at least one blog a week and I am experiencing writers block, so let me woffle and philosophise. Who knows this might even be a good thing to discuss amongst your Pagan and Psychic friends.

When I went there to visit my friend, I was very aware of the people around me. Some of them seemed like extremely nice people. Some of them had that look about them. You know that look that, well that makes it obvious that they are there for a very good reason. They interact with each other and they do their thing in the confines of each ward. We were visiting in ward 3. This is the ward you get sent to before you get discharged. Or so they say. I personally do not think that some of those people are even close to being ready to be released. But that is my opinion and yes I am aware of the fact that I am not a doc or a nurse.

Back: T, Alice. Front: Shoshana, Tara, Buck

While there, I listened closely to what kind of things these people spoke about to each other. One girl claims that her dad is the head honcho Judge at the Cape  High Court. But looking at her and her clothes (because you can wear your own clothes) you would say her dad is a barman at the local Stones. Also if this was true, why is she not in a private facility? Why a government facility? But I listened to the stories and I see how the people believe each other, or at the very least, listen to each other.

I don’t think they always believe each other’s bullshit. I think it is more a matter of having to believe what sister Jane says, because if you call her out as a liar or ‘crazy’ that means that you can also be called out as one. I also know from experience (dealing with people who are mentally unwell, I am not going to mention names….Jonathan) that they will never admit that they are mentally unwell. This of course makes being called out a real threat. Lets face it; no one wants to be locked up for, Goddess knows how long, in the malhuis. The only reason for this is technically because of the stigma that has been created around it. A stigma that we keep fueling because we are to stigmatized (?) to really get into the detail of it.

So me being a psychic, the person I went to visit started to point out all the psychics to me. Rather, the apparent psychics. The one lady I will admit did give off a vibe and I thought that she was a woman whom I could be a friend with. She looked really sweet and was apparently there after she lost her marbles due to a hijacking incident. Who knows if that is true? But the rest I didn’t pick up nadda.

Then of course there was the one African woman who kept on staring at me while dancing to Mafikizola. She just stared at me like she had never seen a man in her entire life. A coloured woman hung around our table where she kept on asking for a skuif (a cigarette) and then proceeded to chase everyone else away who came to close to us. Crazy eyes, the one that kept on staring at me, eventually came to scratch in our ashtray and was also chased away by the Shuif. So now that you have the picture, I honestly didn’t pick up on any psychics in there.  Except maybe for Highjack, as mentioned.

But lets say that I was wrong. Lets say that there is indeed a lot of Psychics and Pagans in there and that they are misdiagnosed.

This is a huge threat for us then.

I am going to get real with you. I am a pretty normal person. I am stable, I  am logical and

realistic. I do however take a mood stabilizer every morning. If I didn’t then there would be a few less people in Cape Town. (I am not gonna mention names……….Edward)

But being a psychic, I hear voices, I see things that are not real, I experience things that other people do not. Does this mean that I need to be committed to an institution as well? And if so, then all Pagans should be. Are we Pagans then just really part of the worlds crazy population? Yes we joke about being crazy but do I belong in a ward with Crazy Eyes and Skuif? I’d like to think that I don’t. But the system would not agree with me.

What do you think is going to happen when you start telling your psyc-doc about the voices you hear or the things you see. You will be locked away so quickly it’s unreal? That’s probably the reason why I don’t go to see one.

Keeping this in mind then, are we experiencing a new and different kind of Burning Times? Considering that we still need to hide some parts from some people in fear of some form of persecution. Of course all in a modern 21^st kind of way.

Ok I have woffled and woffled, but maybe I have given you something to also woffle and think about. Maybe even something to discuss at your Sabbath celebrations this weekend.

Have a wonderful Mabon (Southern Hemisphere) or Ostara (Southern Hemisphere).

xxx