Insanity: A Place To Hide
(The loss of reference points)

Insanity is when an individual, for whatever reason, withdraws into his own unique reality to such an extent that he can no longer relate to others or he can no longer function within the common reality.

In understanding insanity, one must understand that it is the individual himself who is to blame for his own insanity. Examining the causes of insanity, of which there are three, will show us how this is true.

The first cause of insanity is Karma itself. Thus, if an individual, through his thoughts, his belief-system, or his chosen deeds causes certain events, then insanity may be forced upon him.

A good example of this is people who have insanity which arises from biological causes (such as chemical imbalances or other mis-functions). If one understands that each individual is responsible for the creation of his own body, then one realizes that defects are due to carelessness or bemusement on the individual's part during the creation process. Of course, the biology of the parents may lend itself to defects, but the individual, through Karma, chooses the parents. Thus, each is responsible for the quality of his own body, although this quality may be predetermined by the individual's Karma.

The second cause of insanity is forces getting out of control. This is also Karmically related. Thus, the events of an individual's life may be so hectic, so traumatic, so unbearable that the individual feels he has no choice but to withdraw to a sanctuary within himself. Again, a life which is full of events of this type is usually so because of the past Karma of the individual. So, it is the individual himself who is responsible for the events of this life via the Law of the Moment (The law of the Moment states that each and every moment of a man's life will have but one opportunity to rule. If that opportunity is lost, it can never be regained. With respect to the ruling moment, each and every moment of a man's life does three things at the same time; firstly, the rule of the moment is to ratify the past, and in so doing, the ruling moment gives the second thought; secondly, the ruling moment cares for the needs of the present, and, in so doing, it provides the individual with the opportunity to repeat the errors of the past, or it provides the individual with the opportunity to change the affairs of the past, thus creating a new future; thirdly, the ruling moment writes the script that will bind the individual unto the future of his deeds through cause and effect). And, it is the individual who chooses to cope by going insane. This choice leads us to the third cause of insanity.

The third cause of insanity is the nature of the game or games which the individual chooses to play. Thus, an individual who likes to play the game of poor little me or it's your fault may be more likely to flee into insanity when the effects of those games return to haunt the player--usually, in some form, to punish some individual who is supposedly to blame, and therefore must be punished. It is obviously a system whereby the individual who is going insane is using one of two tools--using love as a weapon (to punish one who cares) and/or using the legal state of diminished capacity to run away from the responsibility of his own choices. This type of individual is more likely to go insane than an individual who plays why is this happening, and what can I learn from it.

Of course, one may argue that there are certain events in life which would cause the most mature, the most stable individual to go insane, and this may be true. Nevertheless, the key point is that it is the individual who is responsible in all cases for his own insanity. All insanity is due to one of the above causes, and each of these causes involve, somewhere along the line, the individual choosing to do something which leads either directly or indirectly to insanity.

With the understanding that an insane person is responsible for his condition, and not a hapless pawn, comes a different attitude than the one held by modern society. Thus, if a supposedly insane person commits murder he should legally be held responsible for this deed of murder just as fully as a sane person would be. We are not advocating mercilessness, we are simply saying that insanity should not be accepted as an excuse for unacceptable behavior--insanity, as a chosen behavior, is itself unacceptable!

Insanity from the point of view of the insane is not insanity at all. To the insane person, what he or she is doing or thinking is completely sane. Being Napoleon makes perfect sense to an individual who thinks he is Napoleon. It is not until the shifting of reference points, the level of observation from Common Reality is brought into play that insanity begins to look like insanity. In many cases, the so-called insane person and the so-called sane person each judges the other to be insane. Who is really insane will depend upon the reference points of the reality that is being used at the moment.

The sad truth should not be who is insane and who is not insane. The question should be, who can function successfully, normally, and realistically within the limits of the reality that governs the moment.

Is it a crime to walk to the beat of a different drum? The beat of the drum that guides us should not be taken into account when the moment sits in judgment of the value of deeds committed in the common reality (the reality that is accepted and agreed upon by either the leaders of a society and/or by the majority of said society).

Nothing is for free. The right to walk to the beat of a different drum brings with it the right to suffer the rewards of being different. The right to walk to the beat of a different drum does not, in and of itself, forgive the requirements nor the limits set down by the beat of the drum that is denied. The limits imposed by the physical requirements of common reality must rule all who reside physically within common reality, regardless of the mental difference they choose to claim as their own. Those who meet these requirements are said to be sane. Those who do not are considered insane.

We must agree that the limits of insanity is opinionated upon the cultural mores and folkways--the laws of a particular society. Many cultures and subcultures around the world enlist actions that, in the United States, would be considered insane. To view some of these differences we need only view the limits of religion. There are some religious factions of the world that commit atrocities (in the name of God), as they proclaim the righteousness of their actions and the sanity of their acts. How unfortunate it is that the taking of a single life is called murder in one instant, punished by God, and the same deed a thousand fold is called heroic by the same God in the name of war. How utterly repugnant and insane this would appear to be for many other cultures or other religions around the world. Is the true judge for insanity then to be the whim of the power structure of the society in question? Are we to change the definition of murder because the beat of the drum that called it forth is different?

As a species, if we were to use one yardstick to determine insanity that would apply to all societies and to all cultures, it seems clear that we would first have to do away with all the societal, all the cultural, and all the religious reference points that are presently known to man--a task which is not possible to date, given the lack of spiritual growth of the species in general. The sad truth is that while each culture and subculture claim that there is only one God, each denies the validity of the God of the other. The result is that Man, at present, is governed by many Gods. Judging by the deeds of the followers of these Gods, none of these Gods are the God of Light. All seem to be the many faces of the Dark Force. Again, according to the deeds, even this is denied. Each is willing to murder, to enslave in the name of their God. The deed that is considered to be murder one moment is then glorified the next. Where does insanity truly lie?

If as a species Man could use the same yardstick to govern all the species, if this can be imagined, then the yardstick would reveal itself as the true test for insanity. The yardstick would result in the set of Universal Laws.

If this be the ultimate test of insanity, what better can Man do than to seek Universal Laws? The real difference between sanity and insanity seems to be but a change of reference points. It would seem that as beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so too, is insanity in the eye of the moment!

It is written that only I know the deeds of my mind...

Still, I understand not my thoughts.

It is written that only I know the deeds of my thoughts...

Still, I understand not my ways.

It is written that only I know the destiny of my ways...

Still, I understand not my future.

It is written that only I know the limits of the path my future will take...

Still, I understand not my limitations.

It is written that only I know the hiding place of my limitations...

Still, I understand not my frustrations.

It is written that only I know the evocations that bring frustrations to my mind...

Still, I understand not the deeds of my mind.