| Author | Message | ||
     JC (aka Sam) Advanced Member Username: ching Post Number: 348 Registered: 9-2003 |
I found this interesting to know. 'According to an essay by J.J. O'Conner and E.F. Robertson, Nash believed aliens were communicating with him through encoded newspaper messages' Great minds often carry burdens http://www.presstelegram.com/Stories/0,1413,204~21474~1845781,00.html "$1.69 for a spatula..." | ||
| nomadrat Senior Member Username: nomadrat Post Number: 8739 Registered: 2-2001 |
It's a well known connection(mental illness and genius) for those of us that travel in the autism in the family circuit. (Message edited by nomadrat on December 26, 2003) "Does anybody really know what time it is? Does anybody really care?" -Chicago | ||
| Kate Junior Member Username: kate Post Number: 51 Registered: 12-2002 |
I'm schizophrenic and from my perspective some of what Nash believed was probably true though it really isn't covered much in his biography or the film. Still, in order to live decently it's important for schizophrenics to take care of themselves and not get too lost in the unknown. As a mathematician, Nash wanted to take the unknown and fix it into a recognizable pattern. Imagine how frustrating it must have been to have contact with another sentient species, contact that made him fall into delusions...mental illness can wipe a person's credibility. Nash's schizophrenic brilliance certainly carried a heavy burden with it but at least he had something to show despite his illness. Most schizophrenic are not so blessed, though they may be bright and creative. My question is, if the aliens are connected closely to schizophrenics, what is their purpose? Is it a classroom for aliens to study the human psyche? They must get something from the interchange. | ||
| JC (aka Sam) Advanced Member Username: ching Post Number: 366 Registered: 9-2003 |
It could certainly see how that could be true. If the visitors were sending him messages, I wonder what the messages were. I wonder if anyone ever seriously looked into that or just disregarded it as mental illness. "$1.69 for a spatula..." | ||
| Patricia Davis Senior Member Username: patricia Post Number: 571 Registered: 10-2003 |
I think that only a very thin line seperates geniuses like Nash and ones like PJ Ganeir (sp?), who wrote the online book "Bewilderness." PJ said that she KNEW that she was certifiably crazy, but was able to hang on to enough of our consensual reality to cope with a job and stay out of institutions....even while enduring extremely frequent abductions by grays and nordics and others. I'm no genius, but I was so terrified that my own shrink would reccomend hospitalization for me that I kept my abductions secret from him for YEARS! My amnesia around such subjects helped, but it was happening often enough back then that finally I broke down and told him about the visitor type ones. I was afraid that the military/visitor ones sounded so totally paranoid that I never told him about them at all--both my grandmother on one side of the family and my young aunt on the other side were hospitalized for severe depression and I'm STILL scared that I'll end up that way. I'm afraid that our mental institutions are full of people--brilliant and otherwise-- who just happen to be tuned into other realities  The above is just my opinion at this point in this lifetime and should never be mistaken for anything else :o) | ||
| Anthony O. Intermediate Member Username: anfernio Post Number: 179 Registered: 7-2003 |
The funny thing about how Nash's theory is so simple that nobody had ever thought of it throughout history. It is a matrix diagram that shows 2 or more competitors and what choices they should make so that each will benefit the most. In the movie it showed this when in the bar he said everyone should forget the beautiful blonde and go for her friends so each person gains in the end. I feel bad for the guy. We learned a little about him in my last econ class. Our teacher said she heard that he is still as nuts as he was back in the day. I've met a few schizophrenic people in school. They were on medication and were nothing like Nash was in the movie. They were just like any ordinary person and I never knew until they mentioned something about it. What was different about his case? Are there levels of severity? Anthony | ||
| nomadrat Senior Member Username: nomadrat Post Number: 8756 Registered: 2-2001 |
Kate.. You bring up a good point. about the visitors. I believe they are itnerested in stuff like autism, schizophrenia and the like. I think it's because of their tie to genius, human intelligence. Also, lets face it, it's a good way to hide out in the open too right? I mean visit the "nut" right. If the "nut" thinks aliens are communicating with them no one will take them seriously will they, maybe not even the "nut"themself, after all, they're nuts right. Or, for all we know, whatever the visitors are doing, perhaps to increase our intelligence(or study it), maybe it has a negative side afffect in some folks. Maybe it causes mental illness, shizophrenia and the like. Since, as mentioned above they are tied together, genius and mental illness. Perhaps in the case of some experiencers it's an unfortunate side affect. This is dangerous ground to tread though. Because some "nuts" are really nuts and their delusions are just that..delusions. I fear posts like this one will just feed those delusions. But these are tie ins that need to be acknowledged, I think. "Does anybody really know what time it is? Does anybody really care?" -Chicago | ||
| JC (aka Sam) Advanced Member Username: ching Post Number: 375 Registered: 9-2003 |
Perhaps the vistors are just interested in different filters of consciousness. After all, schizophrenics and autistics see the world in an entirely different way. Or maybe it's just easier to manipulate them. "$1.69 for a spatula..." | ||
| Elsie Ramirez Senior Member Username: elsieramirez Post Number: 1819 Registered: 8-2002 |
Patricia, you are a genius. So is everyone on this board. John Nash made the remark that he put his mind on a "diet". In other words, he stopped reading all the "data" around him, stopped making inferences. In a tribal society, he'd be a shaman. Unfortunately, in our world, he has to make a living, and medication and therapy is the only way to do that. I also think of Uncle Phil in all of this, too. In this universe, there is but one constant: No good deed goes unpunished. | ||
| Gregory Junior Member Username: strangedivine Post Number: 61 Registered: 9-2003 |
This is just speculation here, but what if schizophrenia and other disorders like autism etc., since they are related to so-called genius, is a mutation that represents the next stage of human evolution? Evolution usually begins with small isolated changes, right? So what if schizophrenics posess some variation that allows more information (and I mean real information from the universe, not 'imagined' information) to be percieved by their brains, yet their consciousnesses haven't evolved enough to handle the hyper reality that they experience, so they become overwhelmed? They may point the way to the next step on the ladder. I do wonder! | ||
| Elsie Ramirez Senior Member Username: elsieramirez Post Number: 1824 Registered: 8-2002 |
There's a great book, though, about "bicameral mind" that suggests schizophrenia is itself a prehistoric mental state, from which we get the idea of "Gods", etc. I suspect we won't really know until we understand more about the functions of consciousness in the physical brain. Fun to speculate, though. In this universe, there is but one constant: No good deed goes unpunished. | ||
| Patricia Davis Senior Member Username: patricia Post Number: 589 Registered: 10-2003 |
I think I read that book a million years or so ago, Elsie  Wasn't it called something like "The Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind?" By someone with a name like 'Jane?' Or am I just having a Menopausal Mind Burp?! I also saw a review of a book a while back that looked interesting--it was about the rise of writing having done in the old mystical gnostic religions? I think by activating one part of the brain at the expense of another....? I'd be happy if I could just activate my damn MEMORY! The above is just my opinion at this point in this lifetime and should never be mistaken for anything else :o) | ||
| Kate Junior Member Username: kate Post Number: 52 Registered: 12-2002 |
nomadrat, From my perspective the visitors are not only interested in schizophrenia and autism but have a hand in causing it. I don't see mental illness as a side-effect of what they're doing. I think they know exactly what they're doing. The question is why? For many schizophrenics the voices are often confused with devils--they can be excessively hateful sometimes leading the delusional to either kill/harm themselves or others. There is no higher purpose to that, that I can see. But I do agree that they have a perfect cover in using the mentally ill because the mentally ill have little credibility. I also agree that those caught in a delusion have lost touch with reality and what they say to others doesn't have credibility because it is untrue. Still, for many schizophrenics who take medication and have therapy there's a good chance that they will come out on the other side and leave their delusion behind them. Then where are they? Still with voices and still with little credibility. As to whether the visitors are studying our intelligence, my feeling is that they've been around for a long time and have done all the studying (without permission) that they need to do. I wonder, do they believe that people should set a good example for others? If so, they don't practice what they preach. They teach us about secrecy and manipulation more than honor and truth. Why not consider that they may be infallible and mentally ill themselves? Remember, there can be great method (and brilliance) in madness. If they are sick and causing others to become sick it makes me wonder--where did they come from and was it a hateful place? We take a lot of good things here on earth for granted. Maybe there are other worlds that are in much worse shape than ours. It's not a comforting thought to think there are sick/abusive aliens in the universe but it's certainly not a novel thought. Often in science fiction books and films the alien is the enemy. I'd say that's too simplistic because our visitors are a mixture just as we are. We often wonder, will they help us but a new question should be, can we help them? | ||
| Bex Advanced Member Username: bex Post Number: 462 Registered: 4-2003 |
"We often wonder, will they help us but a new question should be, can we help them?" But remember - abuse is a seperate problem from any 'mental illness' a being may have. Abuse... is a choice - a choice to act abusively and immorally. Any abusive 'visitors' don't need our help - they need to clean up their own act. The choice has to be theirs, just as the behavior changes...have to be theirs. My advice - work on yourself, don't waste your valuable energy worrying about them right now. | ||
| JC (aka Sam) Senior Member Username: ching Post Number: 533 Registered: 9-2003 |
Interesting theory Gregory poses. A pretty good theory actually. It brings to mind the Indigo/Blue/Star kids and the possibility of hybrid children. "$1.69 for a spatula..." |
