Dementia and Folklore

[TeaDidikai]

My Grandfather has Alzheimer’s and has been diagnosed with mild Dementia.

During the 4th, he was telling us about how he knows we think he’s crazy, but he is seeing these little people all over his apartment. He went on to describe to the letter, a kind of otherling that I have heard of in at least one other culture.

The form of mythology is removed from his realm of knowledge.

While he is explaining this, my Mother is looking more and more panicked. My Grandmother looked to me and asked if I had ever heard of such a thing. I told her yes, and explained the cultural context of this particular otherling. My Grandmother asked why she couldn’t see them.

My mother glowered at me before I could answer, and I got up to check on dinner and refresh peoples drinks.

While I was hiding checking on the BBQ, I was thinking.

What does this kind of thing mean.

MDs say this is a form of Dementia, and that the hallucination is a reaction to his disease, or perhaps the medication.

However, to have so vivid a myth play before one’s eyes- perhaps it is from this Dementia that many Otherling stories grow. Or perhaps that whatever part of his brain that is being eaten by the Alzheimer’s is the part that keeps one from seeing Otherlings?

Maybe a combination of the two.

I'd have a better clue if I could see what he looked like when he was seeing these things.

But I figured it would make for an interesting thread.

Thoughts?  

[patch99329]

Sorry to hear about your grandfather sad

This kind of thing always makes me think.
Either otherlings just don't exist and it's all one big hallucnation. Or perhaps, since some otherlings dwell between the conscious and unconscious, your grandad sees them better.
Or your grandad has heard in the past myths about these creatures and dosen't realise, and when he hallucinates he thinks he sees them?  

[Boadicia]

It has often been said that people with mental illness are more receptive to certain phenomena. Perhaps the presence of the condition breaks down the mental Mr. Spocks that cloud our minds. It's possible that he really is seeing something.  

[queertastrophy]

I've been wondering about this too, lately. My grandmother has Alzheimer's, but instead of seeing some form of otherkin, she says she sees her dead son, and even smells his cologne from time to time.

I'm wondering of her state of mind is making her more receptive to such things, or if she's hallucinating alltogether.

Sorry to hear that your grandfather is suffering, as well.  

[TeaDidikai]

I found some comfort.

I told this to three of the most insightful people I know and they had a similar opinion (if a different lexicon, being Norse Recon-ish, a Thelemite and a Heretical Catholic).

And I got to watch him while he was speaking to them.
Found my answers as it were.  

[godhi]

In many cultures those afflicted with madness were believed to be in contact with divine or spiritual forces; in fact, a number of studies by anthropologists have revealed that people suffering from bipolar disorder or schizophrenia are often trained as shamans or magicians.  

[TeaDidikai]

godhi

In many cultures those afflicted with madness were believed to be in contact with divine or spiritual forces; in fact, a number of studies by anthropologists have revealed that people suffering from bipolar disorder or schizophrenia are often trained as shamans or magicians.

I've come across this as well.

Makes me wonder if some of these assertions of "mental illness" are based on Western Civ. not wanting to embrace mysticism and not wanting to deal with our own mortality- hence old folks homes, or those who see things we don't.  

[Noirkaze]

TeaDidikai

My Grandfather has Alzheimer’s and has been diagnosed with mild Dementia.

During the 4th, he was telling us about how he knows we think he’s crazy, but he is seeing these little people all over his apartment. He went on to describe to the letter, a kind of otherling that I have heard of in at least one other culture.

The form of mythology is removed from his realm of knowledge.

While he is explaining this, my Mother is looking more and more panicked. My Grandmother looked to me and asked if I had ever heard of such a thing. I told her yes, and explained the cultural context of this particular otherling. My Grandmother asked why she couldn’t see them.

My mother glowered at me before I could answer, and I got up to check on dinner and refresh peoples drinks.

While I was hiding checking on the BBQ, I was thinking.

What does this kind of thing mean.

MDs say this is a form of Dementia, and that the hallucination is a reaction to his disease, or perhaps the medication.

However, to have so vivid a myth play before one’s eyes- perhaps it is from this Dementia that many Otherling stories grow. Or perhaps that whatever part of his brain that is being eaten by the Alzheimer’s is the part that keeps one from seeing Otherlings?

Maybe a combination of the two.

I'd have a better clue if I could see what he looked like when he was seeing these things.

But I figured it would make for an interesting thread.

Thoughts?

Now I'm not as trained in Psychology as I'm going to be and I've not read the other posts in this thread so that I'm not sure if a) I'm going to be saying something the same as someone else or b) not going to be influenced by what someone else has written. Here goes:

I wish your family the best in this. I know how hard it can be as my own Grandfather started to suffer from some of the same things. Dementia. As far as I've read most of what is effected by Alzheimers is memory. The Dementia is effected his preception. He appears to have a good grasp on his surroundings if he told you he knew you all thought him crazy.

I think with this type of issue he may be opening himself up. Particular barriers in the mind opening and now he is able to sense and physically see things he couldn't before.

Honestly I would love to hear more if your willing to talk about it. The descriptions and how your family reacted would be very intriguing.

Stay strong.  

[queertastrophy]

TeaDidikai

godhi

In many cultures those afflicted with madness were believed to be in contact with divine or spiritual forces; in fact, a number of studies by anthropologists have revealed that people suffering from bipolar disorder or schizophrenia are often trained as shamans or magicians.

I've come across this as well.

Makes me wonder if some of these assertions of "mental illness" are based on Western Civ. not wanting to embrace mysticism and not wanting to deal with our own mortality- hence old folks homes, or those who see things we don't.

We discussed, at length, the "old folk" homes in my Philosophy of Death and Dying class.

Even as a culture that is so very exposed to death on a daily basis (through various forms of the media, primarily--I think we read a statistic that people in the US, at the age of 18, have seen at least 2,000 murders through the media, on average), we are also astonishingly death-denying--be it through plastic surgery and botox to keep us looking younger, or pushing our own elderly, who are close to death, into a home, and out of our own or their own (as opposed to some other cultures, where children will keep their parents living with them, and tend to them until they pass).

I've heard that children and babies, having just entered this world, are more perceptive towards otherworldy things. Would it be possible that people who are nearing their time of departure would be more perceptive, as well?  

[TeaDidikai]

Noirkaze

I think with this type of issue he may be opening himself up. Particular barriers in the mind opening and now he is able to sense and physically see things he couldn't before.

Pretty much what I think.

Quote:

The descriptions and how your family reacted would be very intriguing.

My mother is upset. She thinks she is loosing the person who helped raise her.

My grandmother is frustrated. She "doesn't have time" to deal with his shifted reality.

That's the long and short of it.

BlueRoseTorn

Even as a culture that is so very exposed to death on a daily basis (through various forms of the media, primarily--I think we read a statistic that people in the US, at the age of 18, have seen at least 2,000 murders through the media, on average), we are also astonishingly death-denying--be it through plastic surgery and botox to keep us looking younger, or pushing our own elderly, who are close to death, into a home, and out of our own or their own (as opposed to some other cultures, where children will keep their parents living with them, and tend to them until they pass).

This is the schism between my Father's Family and my Mother's Family.
My Father's family takes care of it's elderly. My mother's family doesn't.

Quote:

I've heard that children and babies, having just entered this world, are more perceptive towards otherworldy things. Would it be possible that people who are nearing their time of departure would be more perceptive, as well?

It would make sense that one would want to be introduced to these things as slowly as possible.  

[Poisen_Lotus]

It's an interesting idea. My grandmother who is very old isn't really demented but claims to see angels, demons, small children, and recently deceased family members. Then again, she IS going blind.