Hi CA-
We can't generalize. The major contribution of early therapists was the discovery that there are actually different qualititative natures with the various types of mental maladies. Subsequently, we discovered that the essential nature of most mental states is affective - an emotional quality, as opposed to a rational one. That's why you can't argue a mental patient back o sanity - the problem isnt rational. Schizophrenia, in particular, appears to be a disorder in which confusion makes it impossible to clearly deal with ideas or sensations. The experience of a lightbulb in the ceiling right now is thus associated with a table lamp from childhood, perhaps headlights of a passing truck, and so on. The effort of thinkiong about any one of these experience thus bleeds off into the emotional residues of other experiences. This is upsetting, and because it is hard to differentiate, the only pervasive feeling tends to be fear, as if the world is simply too overwhelming to tolerate.

Doing regression work with schizophrenics leads rapidly to disassociation of the personality, as usually there is little more than will power, habits and behavioral rigidity holding the personality together. My own observation is that in place of clearly defined levels of experiences representing successive lifetimes, all discrete and well ordered, the schizophrenic has huge gaps and hole in prior life experiences. It seems as if the psyche draws from numerous prior lifetimes at once, as if trying to heal the karma of a really terrible past, yet with most of the experiences of the past missing. In everyday experiences, this occurs when we do things that are self contradictory, but usually only takes out a tiny part of the personality. Often these fragmentary pasts are also associated with personality fragments that seem to deliberately torment the person, as if they are angry that unpleasant karma was created in the past.

Hallucinations and suchlike are artifacts that arise from lots of confusing inputs that seem to have certain features in common. They aren't "things in themselves", but simply distorted ways to attempt to handle information. Hallucinations are of two general types, ego-syntonic (feels good) and ego-dystonic (Ugh!) Usually schizophrenics have ego dystonic ones. They can be visual, auditory, somatic, or any combination.

Ego-syntonic hallucinations are almost always an indication of hysterical psychoses (freak-out) and arise often as an effort to view things in a different way that feels better. An abused child might have visions of the "Good Fairy" coming to reward her for being patient. Hysterical conditions are generally very easy to treat and totally remediable.

A third category is the cyclothymic - mood swings, wonderful-good, good-neutral, good-bad, neutral-bad, bad-worse etc. Often there is a manic phase (hence "manic depressive" as a description) in which hallucinations are totaly ego-centric, and often are associated with various things to do the "fix the world". That this might be extremely hard on the people on the world is overlooked because in the manic phase nobody else matters. nce in a while, people with similar attitudes get into politics with predictable results.

The only useful way to differentiate between cyclothymias and schizophrenias is typically to give a tranquilizer (hypothalamic dopamine inhibitors reduce schizophrenic signs) and then to give lithium carbonate (reduces cyclothymic signs).

The other disorders you listed are more or less locked-in emotional states, and often are indicators of more serious states, often subclinical in level. Multiple personality syndrome typically is a response to severe sexual molest trauma. In general, these are not so much causal of spiritual states but tend to be the result of them instead.

Hope that answers your question -
dave

In death, or so I've been told by people in regression, we have an intact "self", but to it are attached a lot of attitudes. These attitudes are just the tendencies to react to circumstances in specific ways, together with the tendencies to select postures in life through which these probabilities are made likely and others are de-selected.

Karma literally means "action", and is the re-action of the universe when it responds to our own actions. Since our actions arise as the result of our attitudes, karma acts to shape our attitudes. This is a good thing. Every day you learn something new - you can't help it. That means that every day you have new data upon which to base your actions, and through which to correct your path through life. By selecting things that are pleasurable we have a tendency toward change, and karma keeps us mindful that true joy is not from immediate gratifications, but from a good life in which all the gratifications are given as a natural result of lifestyle. Thus karma guides us toward ultimate joy. That's good. (It is often surprising that it turns out to be joy for everyone.)

Mental states are always the result of attachments. If your past life depended upon attachments to things that were self-contradictory, such as making yourself happy by doing that which made others unhappy (because you and the others are one in God, you actually are doing it to yourself) then the properties gained this way self-destruct, and are "burned in the eternal fires of Gehenna", if you like the poetic expression. That way, we keep attitudes that work out, and tend to get rid of those that don't. That's good.

People who have done some really nasty things, especially if they persisted in doing them over several lifetimes, thus can wind up with a lot of big gaps in the properties that define their mind. At the same time, in the spirit world they are face to face with their own nature as God. As a result, the result is ultimately to come back to attempt to do good in the world. So the person is born with a lot of bits and pieces missing. If they live a good life as a defective person, they again build up good karma that helps change from doing bad stuff to doing good stuff instead. In this manner, a person can change, either between lifetimes, or though actions within a lifetime that are highly meritorious.

In terms of the physical side of things, our actions and so on are echoed in response by the external world in which we live. Thus, as we plod through life, we are creating the circumstances through which our next life can occur. Our influences here and now gives rise to "ripples" of influence that will eventually be reflected in the physical composition of the new body.

RNA/DNA do not seem to be carriers of the soul or karma, as it is possible to die in England, be born a day later in Calcutta, then die in Calcutta and be born a day or so later in China etc. The times and distances don't allow physical connections. Instead, in between lifetimes we are sort of "all over the place at once", by virtue of the radiation of our activities into the surounding world. In this sense, the Cosmos becomes our "embodiment", just as the "Mind that Thinks the Cosmos" becomes our soul's nature to the degree that we can allow it. (When we finally get it right, we merge back into the "Cosmic Consciousness", hence into God.) Then, our external actions and spiritual essence get fitted together again in another birth. If we don't like the way we've been assembled, we tend to call it a "disorder". Actually, it's just the way we've decided to do this lifetime in an effort to do better. That's good.

There is nothing except the inner attachments of those who find themselves disordered to prevent them from total absorption into God. Then, as Edgar Cayce put it, they can be co-creators with God. Not only is this possible, but it is probable for those who are willing to abandon their prior attachments to stuff that doesn't work. That does not leave the past behind. Nobody can do that. Instead, by working through their karma such people turn their stumbling blocks into stepping stones. (Talk about universal job security!)

Hope that helps-
PUL
dave