Talking to God considered a breakdown...WHY?

Okay, I am not religious, as I have stated numerous times. Yet, I would like to know how the faithful feel when someone, who may have been having some sort of religious "experience", such as this pilot in the article, are deemed to have had a breakdown. It is kind of like, IMO, if someone heard me talking of a conspiracy about aliens, or NWO, or other such topic, they called a shrink or other doctor to tell them I am crazy and need to be checked out. the article references another pilot having said almost the same thing. That "experience" did not turn out as well unfortunately.

Pilot restrained after 'talking to God' on flight to Heathrow

The co-pilot of a Heathrow-bound passenger flight had to be dragged from the cockpit and handcuffed after suffering an apparent mental breakdown in mid-air, it emerged yesterday.

Pilot has "breakdown" in mid air

In 1999 a New York-bound EgyptAir flight crashed into the Atlantic shortly after the co-pilot, who was controlling the plane, was heard to say "I put my faith in God" as the autopilot was switched off. The plane then plunged into a steep dive and crashed into the sea, killing 217 people.

I think it's a good safety precaution to drag a pilot who's screaming that he wants to talk to god out of the cockpit. Apparently God doesn't care much for air travel, and the last thing I want on my flight is a pilot who's pissed and depressed because God won't pick up the phone.

I would think that if you are in the middle of performing your job (no matter what that is) and you can no longer function because you feel the need to have a conversation with God - you need to be put on the bench. Which is just what happened here.

Now - add in that your job holds the welfare of over a 100 people - then the bench needs to have restraints.

I see no problem with...in fact, I APPLAUD...how this was handled.

[edit on 1-30-2008 by Valhall]

Well I guess that if you want to talk to your supreme leader, I mean God, in your privacy more power to you.

But in the middle of a fly while piloting an air plane will seem kind of mentally unstable.

Perhaps he should have done all the talking to his supreme leader, I mean God mentally, screaming to talk to God is not natural.

reply to post by TheWalkingFox


Hey Fox. I am not denying the fact that they did the right thing here. I am just curious as to the whole mental breakdown reasoning behind it. Maybe this guy became possessed or something crazy like that. As I stated before, it doesn't necessarily have to be religious for someone to try and say you are crazy.

He was asking to talk to God. I don't know about you, but I know lots of very religious people that don't actually expect God to start talking to them like a person would.

Even if he was honestly having a religious experience , it was preventing him from doing his job and put the passengers in danger. It's not like they're just supposed to let the plane crash because he might actually be talking to God

EDIT: If the only difference between a "mental breakdown" and a "religious experience" is whether your shoes start talking to you or a disembodied voice calling itself God does... that's not really a difference at all.]

[edit on 1-30-2008 by Esoterica]

[edit on 1-30-2008 by Esoterica]

reply to post by marg6043




good point. Should have waited till the wheels were on the ground I guess. Hopefully the guy turns out okay. Probably never be back in the friendly skies again.

Esoterica: I guess that is why he is only a co-pilot. A co-pilot for God as they say.. LOLOL

[edit on 1/30/2008 by palehorse23]

Originally posted by palehorse23


Hey Fox. I am not denying the fact that they did the right thing here. I am just curious as to the whole mental breakdown reasoning behind it. Maybe this guy became possessed or something crazy like that. As I stated before, it doesn't necessarily have to be religious for someone to try and say you are crazy.

Okay, with this I agree. You are speaking solely to the "mental breakdown" issue. Right, he may have had a spiritual moment. I changed my view on people who are deemed to have mental breakdowns (let's take the dude that shot Reagan for instance - we have one side of the story, but stick with me on this) after seeing the ORIGINAL movie Dead Zone with Christopher Walken. After seeing that movie I realized that there could be some people who have spiritual gifts that lead them to a point they must take actions that the rest of us would deem mentally unstable.

Now - what I just said doesn't mean I don't think he needed to be restrained, or that he didn't need to be taken to for a mental assessment. What I mean is that we should stay open-minded enough to consider that there may be people among us that have spiritual gifts that can cause them to know and then react in a way that we would deem "mentally unstable".

reply to post by palehorse23


Hey, I done a lot of talking to my supreme being, and more than in one occassion have done it very loud, but by all means I make sure that is in privacy and not with an audience around me.

reply to post by palehorse23


As Esoterica mentioned, there's not any practical difference between believing you're having a conversation with your shoes, and a conversation with your god. Now, if you really want to talk to your shoes, be my guest. But hte moment you start screaming at them because they're not responding, i'm calling it a mental condition.

reply to post by marg6043


That is hilarious. Star for you. I needed a good laugh tonight. Thanks marg. I have to share your sentiments in your post.

Viahall:

this is true. If we are open to the ideas of aliens and ufo's, you have to be open to the ideas of people being able to have spiritual "abilities" as well. That brings in the whole question of angels/demons as well.

[edit on 1/30/2008 by palehorse23]

reply to post by palehorse23


But I want to be clear what I mean. At this point in our development as a society I have no problem that they are physically and process-wise treated as mentally unstable. And, quite frankly, I would be hard pressed to believe they aren't okay with it either. Because, in the society in which we live, if you were given THAT gift, and you KNEW that you should take a certain act to prevent massive loss of life, but then would be deemed mentally unstable (because if you prevent it the threat you were acting on could never be known, right?), you'd be okay with the repercussions to your life.

So...while I leave my mind open to the fact this could be happening around us, I'm also okay with how our structure handles it at this point. It will be super-cool if we get to the point we develop spiritually to where (if this is what is really happening - precognitive awareness of impending disaster) we can handle it more properly. (Still might need restraints though!)....lol.

reply to post by Valhall


Unfortunately, I do not think we will ever reach that point. People, as a majority, will never be able to handle the fact that others may have special "gifts". I think they will always be dismissing things like this as mental illness. As I said before, I just hope it never gets to the point that people who just voice their opinions are rounded up and thrown in a padded cell. Oh yeah, I can't wait for "Heroes" to be back on, speaking of special gifts. Just thought i would share that

Originally posted by palehorse23
That "experience" did not turn out as well unfortunately.Pilot has "breakdown" in mid air

My take on this: He was definitely in communication with something.

Whether it was God, or something else, I can't say.

I can only guess at how overpowering the experience must have been for the poor pilot. He needed to be restrained and taken off of the plane for his own safety.

Something like what he experienced is likely to cause a breakdown for most people.

Here is an interesting related thread, that I spent a good part of this evening on, which is actually quite related:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

The question: What is delusion and what is insight? I would suggest that often one causes the other.

I feel that we humans have the capability to connect with our spirituality and our spiritual beings, I believe that people have the ability also to foresee danger while connecting and can receive messages of warning.

Sometimes the way people are presented with this ability and this messages can make them look highly spiritual or just plain crazy depending the way they react.

As with many countries, with many religions, It's a conventional norm or 'eccentricity' to have regular one way conversations with a God.

No problem.


But as with many countries, with many religions, once God starts talking back...

Oh dear! The co-pilot was a soldier. Maybe he was suffering from some sort of PTSD) post traumatic stress disorder, especially when making all sorts of commotions and verbally calling out loud to an invisible ‘God’.