"Miracle Undone" - A book review about mental illness.

One can don a blindfold to get a visceral understanding of blindness; ear plugs, for deafness; a wheel chair, for paraplegia. Cognitive issues cannot always be so easily processed. How does one simulate being a guest in ones own mind or an undeniable yet irrational feeling? Like many others, my life has been touched by such illness. During a recent episode I found the need to confront ignorance about mental illness head on. Since the situation was precipitated by a book, I responded via a review on Amazon. The book description, review, comments and update follow. This is posted in hope of increased appreciation of the depths of mental illness and the difficulties in dealing with it.


The book: http://www.amazon.com/Stand-Firm-Daniel-Blair/dp/1621472043/ref=cm_rdp_product

Stand Firm - Godly Counsel for the Last Days.

In the coming days, a solid theological belief system may be our only hope for standing firm in our faith... As we fast approach the end of days, we have seen an increase in demonic activity, psychological problems, and increasing pressure from the religious establishment to accept other belief systems in the name of tolerance. This ready resource will help the end time saint remain faithful to Jesus even in the face of intense persecution. Reverend Blair is convinced that God has given the Christian everything needed for life and godliness, and he supports this by offering practical application. So as you go along your way, return to this book again and again to drink from the fountain of knowledge concerning your salvation in Jesus Christ and godly counsel on how to Stand Firm in the last days.


My review: http://www.amazon.com/review/R2HR954V1GHSQ2/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm?ie=UTF8&ASIN=1621472043

Miracle Undone., April 6, 2014

I came to review this work as a result of my 73 year old mother's study of it at her church of over 10 years. Battling schizophrenia for over 50 years, her faith life has been very important to her stability, though not as critical as her medication regimen. For 40 plus years her condition was very poorly contained resulting in repeated hospitalizations and failed treatments. Thankfully, about twelve years ago a new anti-psychotic drug was able to control her symptoms without severe side effects, a true medical miracle yielding the most tranquil period of her adult life.

Several weeks ago, however, she began to resist taking her medication. Finding a copy of this work signed by the author on her end table we began to suspect undue influence from her faith life. We contacted her pastor who assured us that this book did not in any way counsel over-riding medical advice.

Yet over the next few weeks her resistance increased citing this work and her condition deteriorated. Presently she has disposed of her medication and is suffering from classic symptoms of her disorder including extreme irrationality, waves of mania and disjointed speech and thought.

This led me to spend some time with this work. I found the following passages particularly disturbing:

Page 38: Yet fallen humanity continues to listen to the professional psychologist and his explanation rather than fearing God. Stop listening to the professionals and live your life believing that God is in control.

Page 72: There are many state run agencies that ... provide psychological counseling through Social Service agencies. These agencies also provide prescription drugs and hospitalization to treat their patients. Yet our example in the church today for providing love and service to our neighbor is equivalent to referring him to one of these professional agencies.

Page 123: Yet the Word of God says that Jesus is the Wonderful Counselor, and His counsel is all that's needed to heal marriages and the psychological problems that are plaguing fallen humanity.

Page 152: As we shall see, putting on the belt of truth, that is bringing God's truth to bear, will bring complete psychological and emotional healing to the Christian soldier.

Page 182: Moreover, [the devil's] bondage is strengthened today by the teachings of science and psychology that have set boundaries on what man is capable of becoming.

Page 183: [The devil] will tell you that you need behavior modification from the psychologist or medication to help in your behavior, but it is all a lie of the devil. We must pick up the shield of faith and believe that God can and will transform us into the perfect image of His Son Jesus Christ.

In the last ten years or so, functional magnetic resonance imaging has conclusively displayed abhorrent processes in the brain that correlate with many common psychological disorders including schizophrenia. These days, the expectation that faith alone can heal my mother is as ignorant as praying to regrow a severed limb.

Further, four of the six Endnotes to the work reference the Citizens Commission on Human Rights established in 1969 by the Church of Scientology which advocates that there is no biological evidence to support psychiatric theories of mental disorders and that the use of psychiatric medication is a destructive and fraudulent practice. I fail to understand why a reputable Southern Baptist Minister would write a book or base study on the work of Scientologists.

As for my mother, we must once again wait for her to become a danger to herself or others to force her hospitalization and reintroduction to reality. In the past this has entailed everything from her spending the night stealing home for-sale signs around the neighborhood au naturel to outright assault. The author, Daniel Blair, and her pastor may very well end up with blood on their hands.

In conclusion I found this work to be an heretical, perverse would-be tome of end times lust which dangerously supplants legitimate medical knowledge with wanton faith-based ignorance.


Author's Comment - Apr 7, 2014 10:17:31 AM PDT

Let me begin by saying I am also concerned about your grandmother who should always seek medical direction on coming off psychiatric drugs. Clearly a 40 year addiction needs medical guidance and perhaps a period of rehabilitation. My work is NOT based on the: "study on the work of Scientologists." Rather my work is based on Holy Scripture alone. I take personal offense to the claim that my work is: "heretical perverse would-be tome [?] of end times lust which dangerously supplants legitimate medical knowledge with wanton faith-based ignorance." This last statement is nothing short of slander and abuse.


My Response - Apr 7, 2014 12:09:54 PM PDT

1. It's my mother not my grandmother.
2. She does not have and has never had an addiction.
3. The origin of the Citizens Commission on Human Rights is well known.
4. You include six Endnote citations which are clearly not Biblical, therefore your work is certainly not "based on Holy Scripture alone."
5. Your umbrage is pathetic.


Update, June 2, 2014:

Over the last few weeks Mom's condition has dangerously deteriorated. Based on conversations with relatives, many long deceased, through the "stereo phone" of her TV, she commenced giving away most of her possessions in preparation for a move to a gifted house in another state. She stacked up her furniture in the entryway, labling each item with a destination: her night stand to Chelsey Clinton's baby, patio set to Barbara Bush, etc.

She was about to inform her apartment manager that she was going to break her lease, when her mental decompensation, delusions and hallucinations became enough of a danger to herself for authorities to detain and forceably medicate her. This action was taken with the support of her Psychiatrists, Mental Health Deputies, Adult Protective Services, a Probate Judge and her family, including my father who struggled with her condition for over a decade from its onset, both medically and spiritually as a Southern Baptist Minister until her behavior became incompatible with family life.

Throughout this episode Mom has cited this work for her decision to replace her psychiatric medication with a "VIP treatment", as in vitamins, ibuprofen and petroleum jelly. She never related the purpose of the petroleum jelly, a detail I'm not sure I really want to know.

Through further review of this work, I have not found a single passage advising my mother to heed her doctor's advice. Indeed, the author appears to expand on his response to my review of this work on his blog:

The Apostasy Exposed: To this day I have no problem going to a doctor for a physical (proven biological) problem but still ultimately trust in God to bring the healing. But I will never go to a mental health professional to solve an emotional or psychological problem even if I am incarcerated or persecuted to death. I will never take his drugs or his therapeutic counsel. ... If you are one who has been on psychiatric drugs for some time seeking a solution from the world for your problems, then I must warn you that it will take some time through proper rehabilitation to get you off of your drugs. ... I have used the statistics from many different agencies to show not only the abuse but the danger from taking their psychiatric drugs. There is hardly a day that goes by where we don't hear of another individual on these drugs, being counseled by the professionals doing the unthinkable.

Further, his prophecies include a Christian victimization conspiracy running in the same vein:

A Word of Prophecy 2013: In time all dissenters will be hunted down and killed as enemies of the new world order or sent to rehabilitation camps. Anyone holding to their belief that God alone can change their heart along with adherence to the sufficiency of Scripture will be deemed as emotionally unstable and in need of further psychiatric testing and counseling by the professionals. Failure to heed their counseling or accept their prescription drugs will make you an enemy of the State.

Ultimately the "Godly Counsel" presented in this work is a broad-brush fundamentalist jihad against psychiatric medicine through idolatry of the Word over the Spirit and demonstrable reality. This ignorance of the depths of mental illness and complete denial of the value of psychiatric medication has terrorized my mother for months and cost a vast sum of time and money for Police Officers, EMS Technicians, Mental Health Deputies, Doctors, Nurses, Adult Protective Services personnel, the Judiciary and my family.

Jeremiah 23:31-32 "Behold, I am against the prophets," saith the LORD, "that use their tongues, and say, 'He saith.' Behold, I am against those who have prophesied false dreams," declares the LORD, "and related them and led My people astray by their falsehoods and reckless boasting; yet I did not send them or command them, nor do they furnish this people the slightest benefit," declares the LORD.

We remain confident that Mom's return from hospitalization and to established medication regimen will restore the modern medical miracle from which she has benefited for over a decade.