DIAGNOSIS OF MENTAL ILLNESS FOR NEW

AGE RELIGIOUS AND POLITICAL BELIEFS

©2002 Dr Romesh Senewiratne (MD)

In 1995, the World Health Organization sponsored an Australian university (the

University of New South Wales) to compile and publish The Management of

Mental Disorders, Volume 2: Handbook for the Schizophrenic Disorders. It was

distributed to selected doctors, free of charge, by the Belgian drug company

Janssen-Cilag. This drug company markets Haldol injections, tablets and syrup

(haloperidol) in Australia, and in the book, haloperidol is recommended as a

treatment for schizophrenia and other “psychotic disorders”. In the same manual,

on page 12, a list is given of questions that should be asked by health care

workers to diagnose “unusual thought content”, which in turn was to be regarded

as indicative of “schizophrenia”

.

The list of questions for diagnosis of ‘’unusual thought content”, taken from the

Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS), which is being promoted by the World

Health Organization (WHO) is as follows:

1. “Have you been receiving any special messages from people or from the way

things are arranged around you?”

2. “Have you seen any references to yourself on TV or in the newspapers?”

3. “Can anyone read your mind?”

4. “Do you have a special relationship with God?”

5. “Is anything like electricity, X-rays or radio waves affecting you?”

6. “Are thoughts put into your head that are not your own?”

7. “Have you felt that you were under the control of another person or force?”

It adds, that “if the individual reports any odd ideas/delusions” the following

questions should be asked:

1. “How often do you think about (use individual’s description)?”

2. “Have you told anyone about these experiences? How do you explain the

things that have been happening (specify)?”

Above the questions is a list of the kinds of beliefs that should be regarded as

odd/deluded/bizarre ideas requiring an increase in antipsychotic medication (of

which haloperidol is one of the most commonly prescribed):

“Unusual beliefs in psychic powers, spirits, UFOs or unrealistic beliefs in

one’s own abilities”

The manual instructs that the rating of the “severity” of the “delusion” should be

based on the level of conviction with which the belief is held (rather than how

untrue the belief is). In other words, it instructs health care workers, including

doctors, nurses, psychologists and social workers to diagnose madness on the

basis of whether people have particular religious, scientific and political beliefs,

despite this being against several United Nations treaties, laws and covenants as

well as Australian state mental health laws.

In the 1990s there was a sudden explosion of what were called “New Age” beliefs,

including several organised systems of belief that could best be described as

“religions”, in Australian cities. In fact, the “New Age religion” as a whole, had a

more unified system of beliefs than that of the Christian Churches. “New Agers”

tended to believe in telepathy, “psychic powers”, “animism” and “spiritism”. They

tended to believe in reincarnation and the benefits of vegetarianism. Some “New

Age” writers also claimed to have expertise at “channelling”, sometimes from

“ascended masters”, sometimes from God, or from angels, and sometimes from

extraterrestrials and “metaterrestrials” (beings from “other dimensions”). Many

“New Agers” extolled the virtues of crystals, often ascribing them near magical

powers or frankly magical powers. New Age adherents frequently visited “natural

therapists” and “herbalists” for their medical needs, and maintained a suspicion

towards the “establishment” including the government and medical doctors. They

were an important part of the youth movement in the 1990s, and had their own

distinctive culture in Australian cities.

In terms of religious beliefs, the New Age religion was extremely complex and

constantly being redefined and added to in a way that other older religions have

not experienced in recent times. A plethora of magazines and popular books

exhorted the benefit of “spirit guides” and “affirmations”, “meditation”, chanting

and the possibility “astral travel”. The New Age religion can best be summarised,

however in the list of Harper-Collins’ “Aquarian Series”, published in the 1990s by

the Murdoch publishing empire:

1. An Introduction to Graphology

2. Colour Therapy

3. Dowsing

4. How to develop your ESP

5. Incense and Candle Burning

6. Invisibility

7. Levitation

8. The Power of Chi

9. Meditation: the Inner Way

10. Practical Visualisation

11. Understanding Astral Projection

12. Understanding Astrology

13. Understanding Auras

14. Understanding the Chakras

15. Understanding Crystals

16. Understanding Dreams

17. Understanding the I Ching

18. Understanding Numerology

19. Understanding Palmistry

20. Understanding Reincarnation

21. Understanding Runes

22. Understanding Tarot

If these books were read and believed, they would produce a complex belief

system that would satisfy the most careful and rigorous psychiatric evaluation

as indicative of “schizophrenia”, according to widely accepted textbooks, as

well as The Manual of Mental Disorders, Vol2: Handbook for the Schizophrenic

Disorders.

The ideas and philosophies espoused in the Harper-Collins “Aquarian Series” of

New Age paperbacks did not appear in a religious and philosophical vacuum,

nor were most the original ideas of Rupert Murdoch’s publishing empire. They

are a collection of ideas, crafted into a “religion”, derived from “occult” beliefs,

“mysticism”, “spiritism” and two eastern religions, in particular – Hinduism

and Buddhism. They are also a series of beliefs actively proscribed by both the

Anglican and Catholic Churches. In fact, Bishop George Pell, the Archbishop of

Melbourne, warned his flock, not long ago, that reading these New Age books

could release “elementals”, evil forces that required secret exorcisms by

Catholic priests to get rid of them. He warned about the Tarot, “Oija Board”

and other “occult arts” as being the work of the Devil. This is fully in line with

the official doctrines of the Catholic Church.

The Protestant Church also takes a dim view of New Age religions and regards

the tarot cards, palm-reading and attempts at communication with the dead to

be dangerous, bordering on evil. Parents who find their children experimenting

with Tarot cards may well consult a priest before turning to a psychiatrist.

Belief in reincarnation is common to the Buddhist and Hindu religions but is

contrary to Christian teaching that after death one “ascends to Heaven or

descends to Hell”. Belief in reincarnation is, by this token, a seriously heretical

idea according to Christian orthodoxy, as is communication with “spirit guides”

with the possible exception of “angels”.

In the World Health Organisation-promoted “Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale”

(BPRS), some of the questions of which were given at the beginning of this

article, health care workers are encouraged to rate the “delusions” according

to severity on a scale from 1 to 7. Grade 7, or “extremely severe” is to be rated

if “full delusion is present with almost total preoccupation OR most areas of

functioning disrupted by delusional thinking”. “Severe delusions” are regarded

as more than adequate reasons for involuntary commitment to public hospital

psychiatric units and forced injection with Haldol or another

dopamine-blocking drug if the person refuses to take the drug voluntarily. This

is widely accepted as appropriate treatment for the treatment of “relapses” of

schizophrenia, and also for treatment of “mania” and even for “first episode

psychosis”. It is also taught, in Australia, that people with these “diagnoses”

are notorious for not regarding themselves as being mentally ill, let alone

being in need of drug treatment. This is termed “lack of insight”, which, in a

circular argument, is itself is regarded as a “typical sign of psychosis”.

What does this mean for transcultural psychiatry in Australia and around the

world? Haloperidol is marketed by the drug company Janssen-Cilag (then a

Belgian company, now a part of the American giant Johnson and Johnson) as

an “antipsychotic medication”. Doctors and nurses in Australia dutifully explain

to their reluctant “patients” that Haldol injections are good for their mental

health, and will help them “get better” or “stay well”. This is frankly untrue –

Haldol is a crippling chemical restraint that causes permanent brain damage

when repeatedly consumed, whether by mouth or whether by “depot

injection”. The result of this form of permanent brain damage by dopamine

blockers has a name – ‘Tardive Dyskinesia’.

Tardive dyskinesia is one of the most stigmatising and embarrassing forms of

movement disorder and does not occur naturally or as the result of anything

other than dopamine-blocking drugs. Sufferers are plagued with repeated

tongue protrusion, puffing of cheeks, facial grimaces, weird movements of

their arms and hands, and abnormal walking gaits. A person with tardive

dyskinesia is unable to run without falling. Frequently, this iatrogenic

collection of strange, involuntary movements is regarded as evidence of

madness by members of the community, family and friends and even by

victims themselves, who are rarely forewarned about the fact that these

“medications” have been known, for decades, to cause tardive dyskinesia.

Long before they develop tardive dyskinesia most people who are injected

with or swallow haloperidol experience other movement disorders – notably

“Parkinsonism” and “akathesia”. Parkinsonism refers to dopamine-blocker

related reproduction of the symptoms of “Parkinson’s Disease”, a

degenerative brain disease characterised by difficulty initiating movement,

tremor, muscular rigidity and psychological depression. These symptoms are

caused by all dopamine-blocking drugs in a dose-related fashion. Large doses

are more likely to cause severe Parkinsonism although there are differences in

individual and racial susceptibility to this effect. It has been reliably reported

that dark-skinned people are more susceptible to movement disorder with

dopamine-blocking drugs, due to the biochemical links between dopamine and

the skin pigment melanin.

Akathesia, another common “side effect” of dopamine-blocking drugs is also

liable to be seen as evidence of mental illness. When suffering from akathesia

one is unable to keep still, feeling a constant urge to pace. If provided only

with a locked room, the victim paces up and down, unable, as a direct

physiological response to the drug, to sit still for any period of time. The

combination of producing akathesia and then confining patients is commonly

practiced in Australian psychiatric hospitals, where there is an inordinate focus

by staff on preventing people from escaping treatment and forcing them to

take “tranquillisers”, “mood stabilisers” and other drugs. The fact that so many

want to escape is a reflection of how cruel the medical treatment given to

those deemed mad in Australia is.

The term “schizophrenia” is used by doctors and other health care workers

around the world, however, application of the label varies considerably

between nations, and has changed considerably over time. When the term

was coined in the early 20th Century (by the Swiss psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler in

1908) he constructed the word from the Greek “schizo” and “phren” meaning

“split mind”. The symptomatology, or as psychiatrists call it, the

“phenomenology” used in diagnosing “schizophrenia” was not new, however –

it was adopted from Emil Kraepelin’s criteria for the diagnosis of what the

German Father of Psychiatry called “dementia praecox” (derived from Latin,

rather than Greek roots, and meaning early-onset dementia). Bleuler taught

that schizophrenia/dementia praecox is characterised by the “four A’s”:

ambivalence, loosening of associations, inappropriate affect and auditory

hallucinations. In the 1950s the German psychiatry professor Kurt Schneider,

who had worked on the development of “personality disorder” labels in the

1920s and 30s, prior to and during the Nazi holocaust, produced what he

called the “First Rank Symptoms of Schizophrenia”. There were 11 criteria,

each of which Schneider claimed was “pathognomonic” (definitely indicative,

in themselves) of “schizophrenia”:

1. Auditory hallucinations in which the voices speak one’s thoughts aloud

2. Auditory hallucinations with two voices arguing

3. Auditory hallucinations with the voices commenting on one’s actions

4. Withdrawal of thoughts from one’s mind

5. Insertion of thoughts into one’s mind by others

6. Believing one’s thoughts are being broadcast to others, as by radio or

television

7. Insertion by others of feelings into one’s mind

8. Insertion by others of irresistible impulses into one’s mind

9. Feeling that one’s actions are under the control of others, like an

automaton

10. Delusions of perception, as when one is certain that a normal remark

has a secret meaning for oneself

Belief in telepathy and belief in prayer can easily be described as “believing one’s

thoughts are being broadcast to others, as by radio or television”. These are both

common New Age beliefs. “Insertion of thoughts into one’s mind by others” is

surely what television advertising, and programming, more generally, is designed

to do. Implanting ideas to buy products people don’t at first believe they need is a

principal motive of all advertising. It is easy to see how commonly manipulation of

people’s thoughts and actions occurs through television and radio programming,

and by the media generally, yet Schneider proclaimed that “insertion by others of

irresistible impulses into one’s mind” is indicative of incurable mental illness along

with “feelings that one’s actions are under the control of others, like an

automaton”. The latter is even more outrageous when one considers the range of

involuntary movement disorders that are caused by the drugs routinely used in

the treatment of “schizophrenia”, “mania” and other supposedly “psychotic

disorders”.

Returning to the World Health Organization’s more recent publication, and the

Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale, it recommends that health care workers increase

the dopamine-blocking drug dose if people express a conviction that “electricity,

X-Rays or radio waves” affect them. Apart from the fact that they do, the political

and economic factors involved in stifling warnings about the danger of man-made

radiation are worth considering. It is obvious that the electricity and radiation

industries do not want people to worry about using electricity and radiation. They

want to sell more electricity and radiation, despite any risks posed to the public of

cancers and other health problems. Yet it was known a hundred years ago that

man-radiation is dangerous, and that, specifically, it causes cancer (especially

blood cancers). There is conclusive evidence that microwave radiation damages

the eyes, causing cataracts, and that television-watching increases violence in

communities. There is also considerable evidence that living under high-voltage

power lines increases the risk of brain tumours and possible blood cancers (such

as leukaemia) and emerging evidence has suggested a risk of brain tumours from

mobile phone radiation. Public knowledge of such scientific and medical

information could result in legal action for compensation by the public against the

radiation, telecommunication and power industries.

The “New Age Religion” espouses many ideas, and rather diverse ideas, about

“God” and “gods”. These range from ideas that God is an invisible spirit being to

belief that God is an inner force, ideas commonly held by Christians. Others

believe that there are many gods, an idea derived from Hinduism and Paganism.

Some believe that God is a male, female or androgynous entity that exists within

plants and animals and within the natural world. Some believe that God

communicates with them through “angels”, whose voices they claim to hear, see

or be otherwise influenced by. Many aspire to having a “special relationship with

God”, as do many Christians of all denominations.

It seems extraordinary, then, that the World Health Organization and the

University of New South Wales should suggest that people be diagnosed as

suffering from “schizophrenia” if they believe themselves to have a “special

relationship with God”. At best, this is a situation where the interviewer’s own

religious views are pitted against those they will surely label as “deluded” if they

disagree with them. It is also a blatant example of religious discrimination and

labels of madness being applied on the basis of religious beliefs and opinions. In a

similar vein, young people who suddenly convert to Hinduism or Buddhism in

Australia are liable for a diagnosis of “schizophrenia” on the basis of widely

accepted religious, scientific and philosophical ideas found in the religious texts

and teachings of these ancient religions.

The question “can anyone read your mind?” is an unequivocal attempt to label

belief in telepathy and “ESP” as indicative of mental illness. Regardless of whether

telepathy really exists, it is a widely held belief around the world, including in

Australia. It is especially commonly accepted as a “scientific fact” by most New

Agers. Claims that belief in telepathy is indicative of “schizophrenia” date back to

the 1950s and before, when Schneider listed as “first rank symptoms” of

schizophrenia belief in “insertion by others of feelings into one’s mind” and

“believing one’s thoughts are being broadcast to others”. Belief in telepathy can

also cause two other “first rank symptoms”: “insertion by others of feelings into

one’s mind” and “feeling that one’s actions are under the control of others”. The

latter, can be misused in other ways, too.

“Feeling that one’s actions are under the control of others” obviously means

different things to different people, ranging from “demonic possession” to belief

that one is subtly, or covertly, under the control of a range of forces, including the

New World Order, media, body politic, banking corporations, oil companies or

drug companies. It is left to the health care worker to decide whether the “feeling

that one’s actions are under the control of others” is “bizarre”, “odd”, “unlikely”,

“held without adequate evidence” or “ridiculous”. If judged to be so, the World

Health Organization, Janssen-Cilag and the University of New South Wales

recommend a diagnosis of “schizophrenia” and drug treatment with

Janssen-Cilag’s injectable chemical restraint, Haldol.

Romesh Senewiratne (MBBS, Qld, 1983)

20.9.02

Addendum:

The World Health Organization (WHO) is the public health branch of the United

Nations Organization. The UN also controls the World Bank and International

Monetary Fund along with a range of other organisations, including UNICEF,

UNESCO and the UNHCR.