A friend of mine has been acting very strangely, any ideas?

That's a HUGE pet-peeve of mine, when people call things the devil, when they clearly are not and they have no biblical basis to back that claim up.

Reminds me of water boy when his "momma" called everything her son wanted to do "the devil" because she was selfish and wanted to keep him for herself.

reply to post by sir_slide


You mentioned that he destroyed all his CDs... but I saw no mention of him destroying his portfolio. Which leads me to suspect that somebody looking over his shoulder who is aware of this portfolio... probably wants to get their hands on it for their own personal gain. Not intending to insult the muslim faith... but Cat Stevens comes to mind. And let's not forget Michael Jackson... who owned the rights to ALOT of coveted music.

Has your friend ever suffered from any kind of mental illness as this reminds me of a guy i knew who went from relativly normal to totally obsessed with the bible - he ended up in a secure unit. Few years later he was ok again. Religiosity is quite often a symptom of some form of mental illness but getting the sufferer to seek help or acknowledge they have a problem can be really hard. Also you may lose him as a friend if you confront him about it as an illness as he'll percieve it as an attack and you'll probably end up cast in the "devil" role.

I think this falls into the "mania" category ( hate to classify the mind but we have to draw a picture somehow) so does your friend seem to be more agitated and full of energy than usual ? Does he have a history of high and low moods ? Quite a curious case.

reply to post by shushu

No mental illness, he's always been a really stable guy who just kinda did his thing.

I'm actually not sure about that hey, I will have to inquire, but I got the idea that he destroyed anything that was creative, so I take it his work goes with that too. It would be such a shame although I do still have some t shirts he did. Seriously epic.

reply to post by Hopeforeveryone


Perfectly stable dude hey, and he actually seems calmer than ever. Perfectly composed and articulate, which is what has me thinking so much about it.....I guess he feels like hes found the answer

reply to post by speculativeoptimist


Cheers for the links and replies man. This is what I was saying to him with the art, I mean there is loads of Islamic art, but he was saying its more about drawing forms that is bad, which is why a lot of Islamic art is pattern based. Also with the music, heaps of musicians are Muslims, although didn't the Taliban ban music in Afghanistan?

Cheers mate

He is doing what most Christians cannot do..

He is giving himself body soul and spirit to his new religion..Everything

I hope he succedes and is happy.

Its his choice..hard road he has chosen

Originally posted by aorAki
So he can't give you any reasons or tell you what prompted him to make these life-changing decisions? Yeah, the drugs issue was because he's a Kiwi...we all know what goes on here

Is there any work he's done previously that we might watch to see if there are any clues?

He'd probably be pissed if I put stuff up, because it's still all anonymous and so forth. Well that's thing, he says that it just hit him one night, and he says he realized that the part of him that does his art and enjoys music and the rest was actually doing the work of the devil and that in order to make it to heaven he had to go pretty heavily into Islam. What gets me is where his Illuminati music industry thing comes in, also 2012 because he's usually not at all interested in this stuff, not at all.

reply to post by sir_slide


Your friend sounds pretty nutty and is probably going through his nutty period, it is his own path so let him walk it. Thought those who turn to the set up religions in the way you describe are usually going throw there own trial and tribulations and so it overwhelms them and so they turn to something that tells them what to do and what to believe.


So let him walk his own path, whether it lead to heaven or hell or anywhere in between If he believes in god and all that he should know that god decreed that you choose and walk you own path no matter the outcome.

In fact the whole experience might do him good, so it is what it is. Free will and all that.

Originally posted by Heartisblack
I'm a homeschooled teen and I'm having a midlife crisis, I don't know what I'm going to do with my life. The ideas were Embalming/writing or serial murderer. I have options, but I have no idea what I'm going to do with myself.

I would choose either writing or embalming, but I just don't think you would make a good serial murderer I think you should stay away from it, you would probably suck at it anyways and accidentally stab yourself or something.

its funny he wants to go to iran to study islam/quran

alot of muslims in the western world go to england, south africa, india or pakistan, jordan, egypt to study islam not iran

you ask what sect of islam hes in? seeing how iran is mosly all shias

and they speak farsi in iran not arabic, does not really help in learning islam, but a lot of islamic books arewritten in farsi, so are rumis poems

Originally posted by RanDeLv2
reply to post by Balkan

 

I really don't understand this "art" thing and either way rap isn't really art. Don't get me wrong I like rap, but it's no Mozart.

Well, no; because Mozart's "art" was the composition of music while a rapper's is the composition of linguistics using music as a scaffold. A rapper arranges words in an order of their design with every bit of skill and intuition that Mozart used to do the same with notes.

Originally posted by sir_slide
A bit of background here, I have a very close friend who is/was an artist of great talent, one of the best I know. He is very into rap music and has spent the last two years building an amazing port folio of his work. So anyway I get a call recently and he says that he has had a life changing epiphany and that everything has changed for him in a matter of days. He claims he had a realization that everything he was doing in his life was in support of 'the devil'. He claims that the entire music industry is 'controlled by the Illuminati' and that it is the evil work of the devil, and so is all art apparently.

He has never been a religious person and before anyone asks he doesn't really take drugs, which was my first thought. He is actually convinced that in order to make it into 'heaven' he has got to live by the laws of Islam, in a kind of purist way. What I find really strange about it is that he connects it all to 2012, he thinks that he has got until then to 'make it into heaven'. So now he has changed his name, wants to move to Iran to study Islam, has given up his passion of the last 20 years, his career and claims that he can't make any new friends who are not Muslim, he has also smashed every CD he owns and destroyed anything that he has that is connected to artistic expression. This is very bizarre to me.

I can understand if people become interested in religion suddenly, sure. But this just seems extreme, and to think that it all has to do with 2012, getting into heaven and the Illuminati control of the music industry.....man????

Does anyone know someone who something similar has happened to? I just can't get my head around his thought process. What do you guys think about it? I've been stumped.

edit on 31-7-2011 by sir_slide because: (no reason given)

edit on 31-7-2011 by sir_slide because: (no reason given)

He is right. Choosing islam to such an extreme is an odd way to take the truth, but his suspicions are correct.

Lady Gaga songs played backwards actually have full length sentences of her asking the devil for secret wishes.

Not ALL music but a big portion of it, especially most of the stuff you hear on the radio, is connected to satanic worship(on purpose or by accident).

I read the entire op but in this rare case I'm not going to read every post.

I did have a similar issue with someone, and I tried to set them straight. Unfortunately, it didn't go as planned... sometimes there isn't anything you can do. If a person doesn't want "help", all the help you give is in vain.


I ended that "discussion" with strong advice for them to join ATS

My thinking is along the lines of influence and exposure. If someone is whispering these things into his ear and they make sense... he might just jump the gun. If he comes to ATS he can see the wide variety of ideas and people, discussing the things that concern him. I also think sometimes it takes a "community" to handle such a large issue. One person can't be expected to do it alone.


After about a month here, I'm confident they'll know for sure where they stand on most issues of this manner. Whether it agrees with me, or you, or not.

This may be a rare thing, but it sounds almost like he has been brainwashed or forcably converted. If you really care about him try and meet his new religious friends and see if they may have played a part in manipulating his mind. Some people are very good at convincing others when they determine that they are suseptable to this sort of thing.

reply to post by sir_slide


Sorry to hear this.

But it appears to me, bluntly, that he is not well. Issues such as this can affect a person immensly, and without apparent reason.

Be there for him, don't judge and only offer help if he wants it. if it's not a mental issue, perhaps he will resolve himself. But I can assure you he will need friends.

Originally posted by sir_slide
reply to post by Balkan

 

Yeah thats really sad, all religion does is divide people.

Religion divides differing religions. And athiests.

I am an athiest, and cannot fault my parents for their choice. However, I made mine. And that divide was mine to make.

The biggest problem with religion is what a different religion states. If you look at a humble church, you see people compelled by their belief to tolerance. And no, it's not all encompassing. There is a definite division, sadly, but not at the faith.... if anything it is human understanding that divides us.

In all things.

It's not the first time this has happened.....don't worry?
en.wikipedia.org...

reply to post by sir_slide


Hi Sir_Slide, I'm not sure if this is relevant but did you know your body and mind goes through a change every 7 years? (not exactly 7 years but there abouts) I myself am 27 and I am going through a change In beliefs myself. It's an interesting thing to look up and I just thought maybe it would help you and your friend. If I am wrong then please don't give me any jip I just thought it might be helpfully to know this.

reply to post by Forevever


I get the impression it has been mainly a personal epiphany without much outside influence. I have tried sending him a lot of links to ats and also just some other things to look into. I want him to be okay, just want to make sure he's not doing it for the wrong reasons or going down a path that could end badly you know, I want him to be happy.

Cheers