Blog of Andreas Eschenbacher

DELUSIONS (I)   OH YES , they nourished all these special dreams These visions from God, these foretelling gleams And were so sure that it all had to be A gift from the One that would set them free   OH YES , they could find confirmation and proof In scripture and prayer and under the roof Of houses and temples and firmament And were blatantly proud about what it all meant.   OH YES , their plans would change the face Of the earth and prepare for the Kingdom of Faith Inspire the flock and keep them on board Obedient and eager to wait for the Lord.   OH YES , they labored so hard to plant the seed But somehow failed to stay complete In hearts and minds and private life Because they had this ‘over-drive’ That drew its power from the fact That God Himself had signed the pact And gave them wondrous gifts and signs Yet they had missed the finer lines That pointed to a different way And would have burnt their selfishness away But they avo

Now, as ‘promised’, I’d like to come to the book ‘On Delusion’ (2011) by Jennifer Radden.  Radden is Professor of Philosophy and a former Chair of Philosophy at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, USA. She is well known for her work within philosophy of psychology and psychiatry. She describes a variety of Clinical Delusions (like hallucinations, strange body experiences and the like) and illustrates various states of psychosis. In one chapter, Radden focuses on (spiritual) leaders that insulate their delusional personality with a charismatic aura. And believe me, they are Masters of doing so. She further differentiates between ‘delusional’, ‘delusion-like’ and ‘overvalued’ and explains how these ideas get disseminated (social contagion, group delusion, madness of the crowds). Her book is quite demanding and I do not claim to have understood everything well enough (on the contrary). One chapter focuses on ‘Spiritual Delusions’ (of the dangerous kind). Of course   - as you may

Later in life, I came across two interesting books: ‘Brain Fiction’ (2005) by William Hirstein and ‘On Delusion’ (2011) by Jennifer Radden (see forthcoming blog). Hirstein is an American philosopher primarily interested in philosophy of mind, philosophy of language, metaphysics, cognitive science, and analytic philosophy. He is a professor of philosophy at Elmhurst College. The book is quite demanding (I seem to like such books) … so, here are some (abbreviated) statements that were of interest for my own understanding. Hirstein’s aim is to explain and define the topics centered around false memories, confabulation and (self-)delusion. Hirstein describes many examples of clinical confabulation where pat ients have problems with proper self-awareness and act (speak) in a way that contradicts their situation. For example, someone who has suffered from a stroke with the result that one side of the body is paralyzed (hemiplegia), may speak in a way as if everything is in order. When aske

Bastards of God   S ubtly sly and tempting P reachers of the Sword I njecting holy venom R eeling off the Word I mpounding all who listen T rapping thoughts and mind U pholding their positions A s idols for the blind L eaders of destruction M agicians of the Ghost A buser of their power G reedy for a boast I mpostors of the dove C hameleons of love (C) Andreas Eschenbacher

Now to me and how I came to experience hat ‘burning ring of fiery delusion‘ (kudos to June Carter Cash and Merle Kilgore): Young, naïve, and hungry for eternal wisdom and foresight, I started reading and hearing a lot of such stuff. It felt like an revelation, as something that was ‘otherworldly’ and pretty much overlooked be common folks. It helped me find my place in history and prepare myself for the forthcoming apocalypse, like a pregnant woman who would soon enter the labor phase. I felt convinced and did my best to spread the good news (not just this one, but others as well). It was a time of change, religious uplift and elation. Finally, everything will come true – soon. So, better be prepared. Well, fortunately, I do seem to also have an analytical mind (surprise) – and a good (though slow) sensing of delusional points of view. Actually, it helped me a lot that at that time I had a friend who was diagnosed as schizophrenic, and so I came to visit psychiatric institutions an

The first topic is about Delusion. The Thesaurus Dictionary defines as follows: A false belief or opinion Psychiatry: a fixed false belief that is resistant to reason or confrontation with actual fact: a paranoid delusion You may ask,  what in the world is he talking about. Uhm, yes, you are right to be suspicious. Well, I had to  deal a lot with religious delusions (as I would call them) during my lifetime. The reasons are manifold. Born and raised in a not so religiously interested family, and due to my own troublesome childhood and adolescent experiences, I had a vacuum to fill and to ‘becalm my inner demons’ – however, with much limited success – actually with none  ... and fell prone to some powerful religious delusions. And they were many of them. For starters, I would like to describe a prominent example  and then deal more seriously with the problem of religious delusions  - and how to get (hopefully) untangled. The Four Horsemen   - depicted on the Midnight Call mag

Hi, and welcome to my blog. As you will see, this blog will cover a wide variety of subjects (over time) – not just for fun (yes, also) but mostly because these are topics that mattered most to me during my life. And as you might imagine, most of them are quite unpleasant as they deal with troubling and emotionally unsettling topics. Anyway, this is what I would like to present. Most parts will be written in English, but some possibly    in German (due to be being a German – which might make things worse). And furthermore, I like and write poems – as you will see (and hopefully like) -    because this is my preferred way to express my thoughts, feelings … and follies.