A day from a year since … then.

Welcoming Ruaridh (pronounced Rory) to the family! Officially an uncle to three. We’re not getting any younger as far as our age is concerned, so the best solution? – live life to the fullest. Sounds cliche but I’ve been trying to live by that line. I guess experiences do change our perspective of our life and help set our priorities.

I’ll share a recent experience which contributed to my strive for the better regardless of the boundaries that lie ahead.

A guest speaker with Schizophrenia came in and gave a talk yesterday. A Schizophrenic usually suffers from hallucinations (seeing things that others don’t) and delusions (thinking that he’s Jesus). There are a lot more symptoms to it but I will not list the rest of it. This elderly man who’s into his 60’s suffers from Delusion of Reference where the person believes that random events, objects, occurrences, behaviors of others etc. were significantly related to him. For example, when he listens to the radio or when he watches the TV he will feel that everything that they are saying or showing were as if being directed to him personally. Also, he believes that everyone (strangers on the street) are talking about him although that’s not true. Upon knowing about his sickness sometime after, he seeks medical help.

Back in 1970s, medical aid wasn’t as high-tech as it is now. And what shocked me was, there wasn’t really a medical aid to those suffering from mental illness. Due to the lack of knowledge and understanding of various mental diseases, doctors back then prescribe “pills” and told the patients to take them and not ask questions. What the patients did not know were these “pills” were either a sedative that increases calmness and sleepiness or a more shocking truth, a pill that kills. That’s right, patients back then were given pills that did little or no help; more harm than good. There was a self-report from his wife, who was also Schizophrenic, saying that there was one time where this one pill caused warts to grow on her body which goes up to a centimetre thick, bleeding at some parts.

However, this man was given sedatives everyday for months. All he did was get up, eat, sleep (due to pills) for every single day. I believe sedatives were useful back then because if one is asleep, he/she will not experience hallucinations or delusions. But really, can you really live like this for the rest of your life? Not to him. He decided to stay off the pills and mentally fight his disabling illness. He goes on having social interaction which helps remind that you’re not the only one: He meets up with other people suffering from similar disease and have activities together. As the years past, R&D introduced new effective pills which eased his struggle with the disease without medication. Today, he hold important posts at quite a number of organizations and is proud to say he has contributed to society like any other would.

I believe impossible is non-existent.

Questions yet to be answered

First problem: There has been countless arguments regarding the existence of “Ghosts, Spirits, Wandering Souls,” or whatever term you want to put it. Eyewitnesses say that they have had first hand experience with those beings while skeptics brush it off saying that they are making false claims, varying in reasons. I have this theory, but first let me quote Wikipedia on its definition:

“In science, a theory is a testable model of the manner of interaction of a set of natural phenomena, capable of predicting future occurrences or observations of the same kind, and capable of being tested through experiment or otherwise verified through empirical observation.”

No, this “theory” isn’t testable, well not yet anyway. What if, these “beings” exist but they are of a yet, undetectable wavelength (e.g. gamma ray, X-ray, infrared)? You heard me right, their existence have yet to be discovered because we do not have the proper instruments or equipments to detect those wavelengths. Unknown particles floating around? Who knows.

How about those who had an encounter with those “beings” you ask? To be honest, I don’t have an answer for that. If you think I sound crazy, what about the times when people thought the earth was flat? Or when people thought that the Moon was made out of cheese (then again, the visit to the Moon might be staged). Or when people thought some people were witches when they hear and see things people don’t (in present term, mental illness).

I would also like to note that, there was this time during the past where I would not mind an encounter with these “beings”. I consider myself “lucky”, if you wish, if I’m able to experience a meeting with them. Hey, it’s not like you can witness a falling star so try seeing it in that perspective as well. I’m as sane as your regular Joe, mind you.

This has nothing to do with religion. Although religion is the other thing I want to talk about. However, let’s leave that till the next time. Let this be the time where you leave your opinion on my “interesting” view on things.

And it begins.

Decided to put up a blog where I can express my opinions/views (or rant, for that matter). I stumbled upon this quote a while back and it is probably the theme of this entire blog.

“Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self.” – Cyril Connolly