Q&A: Infinity, the One True One, and the Religious Experience in This Context
Infinity, the One True One, and the Religious Experience in This Context
Question
Honorable Rabbi, hello,
A special question.
It seems that there is only one infinity. Rabbeinu Bachya pointed this out in Sha'ar HaYichud regarding the “one true one.” It seems to me that you too have unified different proofs for God's existence for a similar reason, and so has Rabbi Aviner (as well as Descartes and Spinoza, among others).
There are spiritual experiences described as encounters with infinity. This is something we cannot grasp with a limited intellect, but only as a paradox, as Kierkegaard wrote.
William James documented such experiences, and so did Raymond Moody (in his book about clinical death).
If we accept the description that the phrase “infinite light” is only a paradoxical expression, cast upon the imagination as an association in a dream, of the experience of infinity itself as an actual phenomenological experience that cannot be described—then this is the same infinity of the philosophers.
There are many people diagnosed with mental illnesses who describe an encounter with God. The Talmud in Bava Batra says that prophecy was given to fools.
And the question is:
Does the psychiatric establishment not do an injustice to divine inspiration, to spiritual elevation, and to the true good—“But as for me, nearness to God is my good”—by delegitimizing this sacred experience for the mentally ill?
It seems to me that the believing public should be at the forefront of embracing and honoring the experience of meeting God in a manic / psychotic person.
In my view, this ought to lead to greater mental health through accepting those who are different. I mentor people diagnosed with mental illnesses, I took a rehabilitation course for people coping with mental illness, and I live this field within my own family, and I see how much effort is made in this area to reduce stigma and integrate people into the community. There are studies saying that this is more significant than medication.
I am certainly not saying not to use medication, but rather to understand with sharp distinction that a spiritual experience of encountering infinity—when it is positive—is holy in itself (and see Orot HaKodesh on egoism), as opposed to messianic thoughts, persecutory thoughts, and so on, which are falsehood and emptiness like drug experiences. (And perhaps one could say that after all, the Holy One, blessed be He, also sent a spirit to entice the 400 prophets of Ahab, and that does not necessarily contradict their prophecy in general.)
Thank you very much for your blessed work,
Answer
There is a whole series of such questions. For example, people who are hysterically strict about Jewish law (like the Brisk school)—is that fear of Heaven or OCD? I don’t know. Encounters with the Holy One, blessed be He, are also not necessarily mental illness. The question is what this causes people to do, and how they live and function. The report of such an encounter in itself is not a reason to define someone as mentally ill, even if I do not believe him that he really met the Holy One, blessed be He. However, if a person has already been diagnosed, and in addition reports such encounters, then there is certainly even more reason to be suspicious of his reports.
Discussion on Answer
I didn’t address the introduction about the one infinity because in my opinion it is not well-founded, and perhaps not even well-defined. I also don’t see any connection to the psychiatric discussion.
In short, what is the question? A manic person reports seeing all sorts of things. What are you proposing to do with that, as opposed to what is done today?
I propose that, generally speaking, in the mental health system there should be heard a believing-rational voice that supports the person coping with the illness by affirming that he experienced a positive and real experience, though mixed with dross, and not an experience that is entirely inferior, empty, and meaningless. I propose leveraging the manic-psychotic experience toward religious strengthening, and as enabling a role as witnesses of God in our world rather than as some third-class person.
Are you proposing to believe him that he really is meeting God? Maybe. If you believe—then believe. If you mean believing him as a therapeutic measure, then you need to ask the professional whether that would indeed help. And that could also be done by an atheist (who would believe him in order to help him). But if you are making a substantive claim that one should believe him that he is meeting God—I don’t think I would believe such people about that. After all, some meet Napoleon or Julius Caesar. Do you believe them there too? So how is God different? Bottom line, I don’t know what to say about this suggestion.
To A., I highly recommend the book White Doctor, Black Gods, in which a Western psychiatrist analyzes and justifies hallucinations and mental illness among patients in Africa. Fascinating, and it could give you a lot of support for your proposal. In a word, he proves that primitive treatment that accepts the patient’s basic assumptions is sometimes more effective than Western treatment, and there he lays out the rationale. In general it is a fascinating book, and it raises surprising connections to the world of prophecy and the thought of the Sages. By the end of the book one can be persuaded that prophecy is not some distant concept, but depends on prior underlying assumptions. To Rabbi Michi: there is also documentation there of an experience of seeing demons by several people at the same time (a kind of miniature collective Mount Sinai event). Another book that touches on these fundamental questions is Hallucinations by the renowned psychiatrist Oliver Sacks. There too there are descriptions of how researchers were able to lead themselves to experience hallucinations without the aid of substances, simply through willingness to open themselves to various practices, etc.
Interestingly, the book (White Doctor, Black Gods) affected me in exactly the opposite direction.
When I imagined our ancestors about 3,000 years ago in the condition of today’s Africans, as described by an Israeli doctor who lived among them, I had no difficulty accepting the fact that revelations and miracles made their way into our founding myth.
But even when a diagnosed person says he saw black and white auras, we believe him that that is what he saw. We only say that the experience cannot be validated in our world, nor for his future, by induction from past to future, nor can his subjective experience be turned into something universal in any way.
By contrast, if he knows how to define that he experienced infinity—("In the sanctuary I beheld You")—infinity is universal in any case (and that was my main claim: that there is only one infinity, whether the intellect grasps it, say, through the ontological view, or whether the manic-psychotic person experiences it subjectively). So what is there to suspect?