Interesting article that examines the mental instability of Mohammed and how such a major religion can be founded just on delusions.
http://www.kashmirherald.com/featuredarticle/elst-wahi-part6.html
Just a few random highlights -
Of all the founders of religions, none has left a more detailed biography than the Prophet of Islam.
As indications of a latent mental problem, this is still pretty vague, but this much is clear that even as a boy, Mohammed was noticed as a special case.
In the years preceding the start of the Quranic revelations, we know that his wife Khadija thought he had the “evil eye”. For this reason, she sent him to exorcists for treatment. This again we only know in very general terms, but it corroborates the suspicion that Mohammed was predisposed to developing a mental problem, and that his contemporaries were aware of his unusual psychic complexion.
From that point onwards, her supportive attitude to her husband’s initially desperate attempts to come to terms with his trances took on the character of a folie à deux: though not afflicted herself, she went along with his self-delusion. She became the first believer, the first one to surrender (Islam) her common-sense judgment and take his claims as true.
…it is the contents of Mohammed’s hallucinations which clearly mark him as a paranoia patient.
The disproportion between his new self-perception and his actual social status as an ordinary businessman and later as a derided cult leader was unbearable. In fact, intolerance of others’ skepticism, along with vengefulness, is a typical trait of paranoia patients. And so, we find Mohammed singling out each of his critics for assassination or execution.
Of Mohammed’s physical traits, one which draws the attention is that he suffered of chronic headaches, which he tried to remedy by bleeding himself in two veins in his neck. While in itself not enough to indicate a brain problem, it certainly fits that picture once more indications are found.
….. indicates an identifiable neuropathological basis for Mohammed’s hallucinations. As a hypothetical physiological explanation of Mohammed’s mental problems, Dr. Somers suggests that very near the main sensory (auditive and visual) nerves in the mid-brain and on the front part of his pituitary gland, Mohammed had developed a tumor. But this is more speculative than the well-attested psychopathological diagnosis of Mohammed’s paranoia condition.
Mohammed’s paranoia, by contrast, is an obvious, widely attested and diagnostically articulate fact.
Sad to say, this world religion espoused by more than a billion contemporary human beings, is based on a delusion.
http://www.kashmirherald.com/featuredarticle/elst-wahi-part6.html
Just a few random highlights -
Of all the founders of religions, none has left a more detailed biography than the Prophet of Islam.
As indications of a latent mental problem, this is still pretty vague, but this much is clear that even as a boy, Mohammed was noticed as a special case.
In the years preceding the start of the Quranic revelations, we know that his wife Khadija thought he had the “evil eye”. For this reason, she sent him to exorcists for treatment. This again we only know in very general terms, but it corroborates the suspicion that Mohammed was predisposed to developing a mental problem, and that his contemporaries were aware of his unusual psychic complexion.
From that point onwards, her supportive attitude to her husband’s initially desperate attempts to come to terms with his trances took on the character of a folie à deux: though not afflicted herself, she went along with his self-delusion. She became the first believer, the first one to surrender (Islam) her common-sense judgment and take his claims as true.
…it is the contents of Mohammed’s hallucinations which clearly mark him as a paranoia patient.
The disproportion between his new self-perception and his actual social status as an ordinary businessman and later as a derided cult leader was unbearable. In fact, intolerance of others’ skepticism, along with vengefulness, is a typical trait of paranoia patients. And so, we find Mohammed singling out each of his critics for assassination or execution.
Of Mohammed’s physical traits, one which draws the attention is that he suffered of chronic headaches, which he tried to remedy by bleeding himself in two veins in his neck. While in itself not enough to indicate a brain problem, it certainly fits that picture once more indications are found.
….. indicates an identifiable neuropathological basis for Mohammed’s hallucinations. As a hypothetical physiological explanation of Mohammed’s mental problems, Dr. Somers suggests that very near the main sensory (auditive and visual) nerves in the mid-brain and on the front part of his pituitary gland, Mohammed had developed a tumor. But this is more speculative than the well-attested psychopathological diagnosis of Mohammed’s paranoia condition.
Mohammed’s paranoia, by contrast, is an obvious, widely attested and diagnostically articulate fact.
Sad to say, this world religion espoused by more than a billion contemporary human beings, is based on a delusion.
