The Shape of Madness
What does madness look like exactly? Does it have a shape, a body, extensions, labels? Is it a state of mind or a state of being? Or, is it merely ones perception of what they assess to be madness? What happens when much of the world appears to be in a state of madness, a sort of chaos that resembles the last known crazy person we wish we’d never met?
Do we peel it down to its core, carve it out, explore it, analyze it, then push it to the side hoping it goes away? Does that make us feel more comfortable with its existence? Do we disregard it, live with it, or run from it? Can we sit in a room with it, simply observing the dynamics of its inner-workings? Can we coexist with it? Is that what drives the fear – the fact that most feel they cannot survive with the existence of madness nearby? Perhaps.
What if just for a moment you were to see yourself sitting in a chair in the middle of a room, surrounded by madness? Can you change your perception? Can you redistribute it rather than absorbing it? Can you reshape it and alter it? Or is the only thought to get up and run as fast as you can? But what is madness to you? Is it someone heckling in your face like a crazy person? Is it someone screaming absurdities that make no sense to you? Or is it someone who appears to have a dark soul and exclaims they wish to do horrible things? What does madness look like to you?
Can you see beyond it? Can you go within? Can you see all the beauty that fills in all the cracks, the crevices, and tries to present itself to you in endless forms? Are you still able to see that beauty? Does it still touch your soul? When you smell that crisp morning dew, observe that caterpillar working its way across your path, hear a giggle from a child, or witness a stranger smiling at you – do you take it all in?
Can you reshape the madness?
Corey Lynn
Corey Lynn is an investigative journalist, co-host of the weekly Dig It! podcast, and co-host of The Solution Series. Follow her at coreysdigs.com, on Twitter, Gab, Truth, Rumble, and Telegram. Support her work by becoming a Patron, making a donation or buying a Book.
18 Comments
Visionkeeper
Very good question Corey! To me madness has many forms but the most terrifying to me at this particular space in time is the fact so many people don’t ASK QUESTIONS! To sit in a room with madness today is to sit in a room of brain dead people who have lost their capacity to think for themselves. Thank God for inquisitive minds that keep the questions flowing forth. Madness to me is not being able to think for oneself. Turning off the tv sets would be a great beginning for people! Question is, will that happen on a grand scale? Hopefully!
Jonathan Clark
I do wonder at my own madness in the world looking back at me sometimes. In my life as surreal as it seems to me at times.
melissa
Madness is all about perception. Our abilities to coexist with differing personalities and traits and behaviors. What I think is acceptable may be perceived by someone else as madness. But EVIL is different. Evil is dark, deceptive, manipulative, unnatural. Intuitively, humans can feel evil. Animals can “sense” evil. Evil owns this world. Goodness, Light, Love is still present. We all have shining examples to hold onto to offer proof of such love to give us hope…
but, today, evil is winning.
And so
I grieve.
PAUL MUGAR
I’M IN LOVE WITH THE WORLD
THE WORLD IS MAD
ERGO: I’M MADLY IN LOVE WITH THE MAD WORLD
MAD = MUTUAL ASSURED DESTRUCTION [R.I.P.]
Curt
I like all that you write Corey. You are awake and thinking accordingly. You are sane.
I would like to contribute a thought if you don’t mind.
To me madness is absence of heart love.
I tend to think that madness in all of its unbalanced manifestations is more the usual end product of mind love best described as ego love, which seems to be able to justify and talk itself into just about anything.
You see a lot of this in the educational systems of today as an example.
Those who have yet to awaken are obviously very easy to mislead via their ego which is all they have to navigate through their day.
The super ego deep state knows full well how to manipulate these people and we can only wait until something or some event nudges their heart into an awakened state. The good news is that I see more and more of this happening lately.
On the human side I am a party animal by nature and so to my humble simple ways I see a whole lot of fun in my future as more and more friends come on line… lol.
Thanks for putting up with me.
Curt
Sam Campagna
Thanks for the thought provoking post. It’s my understanding that the madness will increase as time goes on, and we can be thankful it is coming in a way that we can cope, and recognize it.
The scriptures say that men’s hearts will fail them for what is coming upon the earth. Luke 21:26
Madison Dare
Finding oneself in a sea of contradictions, makes discernment a scarce valuable resource. The youngest of my six natural born babies, developed differently . Having been an educated early childhood specialist, in my smugness, actually believed, number six, ‘I got this, piece of cake!’ He’s almost 30, now and while it has required extreme patience, it turns out he has become my greatest teacher.
Have there been times I wanted to push him out, away and have my ‘own’ life, chagrined to admit it, yes. However I will never give up, continue, to love and provide as secure an environment as possible. I know there are solutions and and information out there, and he knows I will never give up. With this knowing he’s easier to be with, most days. Loving will prevail at all cost.
Christina Jones
I think I build a wall between myself and the madness. The madness can swirl around all it wants but it cannot overcome me. Having come close to madness, I don’t think I can influence the madness without being broken by it myself and I don’t want to risk myself by trying.
A few years ago I had a very intelligent, but turned out to be very psychopathic, “friend” try to take me down by hacking into my network at work AND at home and majorly messing with me (unrequited “love” I guess). It almost got me, but it sure made me realize how important retaining my sanity is to me.
David DeAtkine, Jr., MD
I think a good way to label the current situation is a term used in psychiatry — cognitive dissonance. A child growing up in an abusive family instinctively knows something is wrong but doesn’t know how to put a finger on it…because his environment is all he knows. Eventually he (or she) matures and begins to wake up to the fact there is or was something deeply wrong with the home environment and this leads to an existential crisis.
For years, many of us have felt/known there was something deeply wrong in an environment where our elected leaders swore to protect the constitution and then promptly did everything possible to destroy it….and yet our environment constantly assured us that everything was headed the right way, that resistance to globalism was stupid and futile etc. And then Trump comes along and says “you’re pissed off and you should be”. We begin to rub our eyes and see the world for what it is. But many are experiencing an existential crisis, because the dissonance between The Real World and the What They Have Known is so great. I think this is part of why there is so much violence…it’s disturbing, and many can’t handle it. But the tipping point has arrived.
Cheryl Rhoads
Years ago when I was in college I got hooked on psychology electives. So much so that I decided to go into psychiatric nursing. So to assist in this endeavor I decided to start volunteering at a State Mental facility. The many fascinating disorders I had studied as “case studies “were still fascinating in “real” life but the pain those disassociations caused everyone and everything it touched was unmeasurable. The toll it took was immense. Crazy just takes so many forms. Now that I am much older and hopefully wiser I still hold much empathy for those living with a mental illness. However, the crazy we see today in our society is not an illness it is a social construct to get whatever it is we want. Sometimes it’s just someone showing their a** to get a freebie at McDonalds. Sometimes it’s a group of people behaving inappropriately to get something they know is inappropriate so they have to show their a** to get it. If it was a legitimate request we know they could have just asked and received whatever it was they wanted. The “crazy” behavior would have been unnecessary. We have taught our children that their wants ,needs and whims are the most important thing ever. We have taught them this entitlement mentality. So when they are told no they do what they have always done. They throw a screaming kicking tantrum in public so we are willing to give them anything just to get them to shut up. This is a learned behavior. On the positive side it can be unlearned. People behave like that because they can with no consequences. Their parents never provided a consequence to their inappropriate behavior they just told them they were perfect , gifted and deserving. Well getting kicked in the head by life for inappropriate behavior normally will curtail the behavior but that doesn’t seem to happen. In all societies there is a line that you don’t cross. We have taken away the line in the sand because we are so open minded and so enlightened. We are tolerant and giving. Tolerance is a good thing but it does not mean anything goes. Just because we understand the position doesn’t mean we have to embrace the position. Rules of law and rules of public civility are there for a reason. Society is a mad mix of crazy people and ideas that can only be successful if we follow the rules of law and rules of civility. The rules allow all of these differences to coexist. We have to teach and enforce both the rules of law and the rules of civility.
Terri
This is a wonderful point. Can we bring clarity by our own actions, the smile, the focus on beauty? I hope so. But these actions require disciple and love for humankind.
Laura H
Indeed, the only thing to do IS to see the beauty between the cracks of madness. It is my belief that this is the process by which redemption is attained. For ALL involved.
Nanci
I appreciate “The Shape of Madness” writing and especially asking all the questions. It makes the mind think about it more in depth. Most important is we can all have a level of madness when confronted with what disturbs us, but do we succumb to it or recognize it. If we can take a moment to recognize – then YES it can be reshaped!
Peace is the Prize
Madness is the inability to see what is. One need only recognize that those who are experiencing madness are choosing not to see because it will cause some discomfort or pain. We can also recognize that some madness is manufactured by those whose crimes must remain hidden. We need not conform to madness we merely need to recognize it and help those are willing to be helped see what they refuse to see.The beauty is that to the degree that you can see the madness means you are not mad!
Sylvia Hertel
For me, madness is all forms of violence.
Lisa Hart
“There is a pleasure sure in being mad which none but madmen know.” – John Dryden.
You ask, Corey, is it a state of mind or a state of being? Many responses have been about the state of mind, which can assume postures to hide the madness, not so with the state of being mad. “Or, is it merely ones perception of what they assess to be madness?” I would go with that.
Bill Kennedy
“The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!
–Matthew 6:22-23
” And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.
–John 1:5
Sara
“Truth lives on in the midst of deception.” – Friedrich von Schiller