The Insanity VIrus

Originally posted by Illusionsaregrander

The virus has a life cycle in which it travels through several animals. One stage of its life cycle involves rodents and another cats. So it is beneficial to the virus to cause the rodents to act recklessly around cats, so that they are caught and eaten. Interestingly, and creepily, enough, it has a similar effect on humans who are Rh negative. Making them reckless and altering their reaction time, leading to increased deaths in car accidents.

This is annoying information, I just filled out an insurance claim a few weeks ago, if I had of know this then I could have blamed it all on my cat Storme.....
Let him lose his no claims bonus he doesn't drive anyway

reply to post by Illusionsaregrander

These things “convinced me that this is a brain disease,” Torrey says, “not a psychological problem.”

Well they have not quite got it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
What I am about to say is a concept that goes beyond current medical thinking. It is outside their box. It is about the Nature of Consciousness Itself. There is more than:brain and psychology.


Something does happen to the schizophrenics brain causing it to
shift into a lower state of consciousness with a higher state of fear or anxiety.
But schizophrenia is neither a brain disease or a psychological one.
It is a disease of Consciousness in Relationship to Itself. Thus it is more of a spiritual disease.
The cause however may be due to brain dysfunction,genetic,viral or other.
The cure is a Radical Shift in Consciousness through simple Understanding of the Nature of Consciousness.

And I have discovered that Cure.
And No One is Interested.
Seems no one wants to have their Consciousness Shifted.

reply to post by RRokkyy


What if, our consciousness itself is the result of viral activity within our DNA?

If that were the case, your theory and the viral theory would not be mutually exclusive. After all, if viruses can have significant effects on our perceptions, or feelings, or behaviors, how do we know that our "baseline" feelings, perceptions and behaviors are not the result of some virus that hijacked our DNA hundreds of thousands of years ago? Maybe we (our physical bodies) are all just zombies. Controlled by parasites lurking in our DNA.

Originally posted by Illusionsaregrander
reply to post by RRokkyy

 

What if, our consciousness itself is the result of viral activity within our DNA?

If that were the case, your theory and the viral theory would not be mutually exclusive. After all, if viruses can have significant effects on our perceptions, or feelings, or behaviors, how do we know that our "baseline" feelings, perceptions and behaviors are not the result of some virus that hijacked our DNA hundreds of thousands of years ago? Maybe we (our physical bodies) are all just zombies. Controlled by parasites lurking in our DNA.

You are a zombie.
You are dead.

You just have this sense you are going to die,this fear, which gives you the illusion you are alive and not already dead.

The Schizophrenic has lost this insulation from this fear that you have and thus lives in this state of chronic anxiety which further puts stress on the brain.

You are in the Normal Schizophrenic State of the Average person. Of course its not called that.
You rarely notice this fear and if you do you just change your thinking a bit to make it go away. The SZ cant do that. They are stuck in that state of fear or separation.

The Cure is to Understand that You are Creating this Sense of Separation. It is not Real. Everything is One. There is No Other Person Anywhere. We are All One.

Originally posted by RRokkyy
[
The Cure is to Understand that You are Creating this Sense of Separation. It is not Real. Everything is One. There is No Other Person Anywhere. We are All One.

Which interestingly enough is the mystic "Truth." Mysticism and "madness" have long been recognized to be a razors breadth from one another. Perhaps both are a delusion. Maybe the schizophrenics fear, that you describe, and the serenity of the mystic's "oneness" are both delusions, one disturbing, the other.........calming. Both neither "real." Both caused by the actions of a parasite, mucking happily around in our brains with no regard for "us" as hosts.

Originally posted by Illusionsaregrander

Originally posted by RRokkyy
[
The Cure is to Understand that You are Creating this Sense of Separation. It is not Real. Everything is One. There is No Other Person Anywhere. We are All One.

Which interestingly enough is the mystic "Truth." Mysticism and "madness" have long been recognized to be a razors breadth from one another. Perhaps both are a delusion. Maybe the schizophrenics fear, that you describe, and the serenity of the mystic's "oneness" are both delusions, one disturbing, the other.........calming. Both neither "real." Both caused by the actions of a parasite, mucking happily around in our brains with no regard for "us" as hosts.

Being one of the very few people to have experienced both I can say the mystical delusion feels much better. Love feels better than fear.

But I do share your cynicism that there is no escape from this eternal purgatory: otherwise we would already be there.

reply to post by RRokkyy


Having only experienced the mystical version, I agree. Its an entirely pleasant experience. However, being a philosopher, and someone with a love of science, no matter how enchanting and "real" the experience was, and no matter how well it jibed with the experiences of other mystics, I have always left myself open to the possibility that it was a very pleasant, high level "brain fart." No good lover of wisdom and science could do otherwise, could they?

Data like this certainly does lend credibility to the idea that mystic experience, even though it is remarkably similar in different people from different cultures and times, might be the work of a retro-virus. After all, if the same retro-virus is in all of us, and it can produce remarkably consistent negative effects, perhaps it could also produce remarkably consistent positive effects.

However, whether or not the experiences have objective "reality" I have to agree that if they are both delusions of a sort, I much prefer the delusion leading to increased feelings of serenity and acceptance or "love" to one that produces feelings of persecution, separation, and fear.

i love the thought. It would almost be like a war. A sperm and egg might just be a primordial example of a moment in biological evolution.

We are one in the sense that wisdom is inevitible. We will all have the same thoughts and experiances given enough time....

In that same thought what would a type 3 and beyond civilisation look like from a different perspective? Maybe at one point it would look like a virus.

reply to post by Wertdagf


It reminds me of that scene in the Matrix delivered by Smith.


Maybe we are getting close to understanding why we are acting like a virus. Which, much like us, will proliferate with no regard to the health of its host. And will continue to breed merrily right up to the point that it kills its host. All it requires is a way to find a new host.

reply to post by Illusionsaregrander


Not to digress with petty stuff but toxoplasmosis is a protozoan parasite.

reply to post by Illusionsaregrander

Thank you for a very interesting article. I, for one, am prepared to believe. A few clarifications may be in order.

First of all, we don't carry this virus in our DNA. What we carry is the gene--the code for making the virus. And we all carry it. According to the article, it is part of the genome of every human being.

Normally the code is never used to make anything (the gene is never 'expressed'). Under certain conditions, it can be. When it is, our own body cells begin manufacturing the virus. And then the virus, acting in the brain, may cause the carrier to become schizophrenic or otherwise behaviourally disordered. That isn't firmly established yet. more research is needed.

Second, although this virus may drive people mad, it isn't really the cause of mental illness. The proximate cause would be whatever triggers the expression of the virus gene in our cell nuclei. The trigger, it seems, is one of several other kinds of virus--the article mentions 'herpes, toxoplasma, cytomegalovirus, and a dozen others'. There's a catch, though: everyone carries the gene for the Evil Insanity Virus, and lots of people get infected by these other viruses and get sick in different ways, but they don't go mad. This raises a complication--it looks like none of these viruses can be fingered as the definitive cause of insanity, either.

There may be another, predisposing factor in addition to the hereditary retrovirus and the external viral trigger. However, it may not be necessary to find it in order to stop people going crazy. Maybe a vaccine for the retrovirus could be synthesized. Then again, whatever kills the retrovirus may also damage the DNA sequence for it in our own genes, and goodness knows what the pathological or genetic consequences of that might be. The quest for a vaccine, like the hunt for an HIV vaccine--another retrovirus--may be long.

I think there's more to it than just viruses. I suspect other factors--environmental rather than genetic ones--may also be involved. Certain kinds or patterns of stress, perhaps, involving the release levels or timing of various hormones. Not my field, but it seems as though the environmental factors that correlate statistically with schizophrenia--such as bereavement, drug use, unwantedness as a child, etc. (for more see here)--must surely play a role too. But as I said, we may not need to identify these factors in order to eliminate the disease.

The Insanity Virus was discovered back in the early 20th century.... it's commonly called Progressivism.

wow totally insane...

Never heard off this before.

reply to post by ChaosMagician


No, please do digress. This is a science forum, and facts are facts. But to be clear, toxoplasma was not the retro virus the article discusses. It is one of several things that have been implicated in causing schizophrenia before they found this retro virus.And infection with it may still be one of the things that triggers the immune system to lose its grip on the retro virus.

I messed all that up by bringing in toxoplasma as an example of an infectious agent that causes changes in behavior, and calling it a virus. But you are correct, it isnt. The insanity virus purportedly is, and other viruses may also be triggers.

reply to post by Astyanax


Thank you for a very informative post, elaborating those concepts for us. I wonder though, (not to dispute your theory) if more of us may actually be expressing symptoms of the infection than we currently consider.

For example, the idea that mysticism may be an expression of the same virus that in implicated in schizophrenia. Maybe even religosity itself, (sorry, just speculating, not trying to piss anyone off) may be a mild expression of "delusional" thinking caused by the virus.

There's a catch, though: everyone carries the gene for the Evil Insanity Virus, and lots of people get infected by these other viruses and get sick in different ways, but they don't go mad. This raises a complication--it looks like none of these viruses can be fingered as the definitive cause of insanity, either.

Perhaps more people are in fact symptomatic, but because it IS so common, (we all carry it) we dont recognize the symptoms as "disease" unless they are profound, and not only profound but profound and disruptive. (no one I know of who has had the mystic experience want to be cured, its pleasant, but if it were unpleasant, who knows?) Maybe the propensity to believe in Gods, deamons, etc, (other animals dont seem to) is a symptom of infection, and because so many of us believe it, we dont recognize it as such. And, perhaps difference peoples immune systems, with their varying efficiencies, keep the level of delusional thinking moderate in most.

Its very interesting to speculate about. What I like, (though it makes things much more difficult to understand) is how we are realizing how interdependent we are with what we think of as things that are "not us." Gut bacteria, the possibility that roundworms or other parasites may be helpful in training our immune system, etc. It shows us how little we know. Like how our lowered exposure to parasites may be a factor in auto immune conditions, allergies, asthma, etc. We really dont have the wisdom to know what we can afford to cut out. We dont understand how the whole "web of life" works, either within our bodies, or outside of it either.

Cool post though, you definitely made me think.

wow amazing. If various mental problems are caused by a virus then the implications are amazing. This hits very close to home for me as my sister has serious mental problems and they have driven her away from the entire family. The fact that it may one day be as simple to get a vaccination to help the poor people that are afflicted with these diblitating problems boggle my mind. thank u very much for posting this.

Originally posted by OptimusSubprime
The Insanity Virus was discovered back in the early 20th century.... it's commonly called Progressivism.

lol.

2nd line

Yeast, bread, and fungus.

Pathogens...

oh no, not 7th grade biology again.

i had this thread open and lost the tab when i had to restart. i will be back to discuss this...it is among the better threads I have seen around here, and opens up so many philosophical questions.

reply to post by twinsmom


Im sorry to hear about your sister. My mother is bi-polar. (And born in the winter also, for the record)

It would be nice if they could prevent it with vaccines. And hopefully it will open up other lines of treatment for those already infected. Although retro-viruses, (AIDS is one) are not the easiest thing in the world to treat. One thing I appreciate about it is that those illnesses often do alienate people from their families, because we do tend to believe behavior is under our control. Maybe these discoveries will help the people dealing with the mentally ill be a little more compassionate and less judgmental.

And I am not saying you judge your sister. But growing up, Lord knows I judged my mother. Still do, on bad days.