I wasn't previously familiar with this information on her, and I must say it increases my sympathy for her at least a little bit. The Hitchens (convenient label, there are lots of sources of info) info had me at a pretty anti position, and that hasn't exactly changed, but seeing her as a tortured woman as well as a zealot makes me feel a little more sympathetic.
I'm inclined to view direct "religious" experiences as brain glitches (which we are starting to understand more and more about the physiological basis for); a faith dependent on them scares me.
What she's describing actually sounds a bit like depression to me -- the emotional deadness kind. Her language approaches the "religious experience" level, but reading carefully I don't think that's what she's really talking about. Carrying on with what she's decided in the face of that shows grit and courage -- but not recognizing it's a somewhat-treatable physiological condition is...unfortunate for her, anyway.
It does sound like to some extent she was trapped within her own image.
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Date: 2007-08-28 03:33 pm (UTC)I'm inclined to view direct "religious" experiences as brain glitches (which we are starting to understand more and more about the physiological basis for); a faith dependent on them scares me.
What she's describing actually sounds a bit like depression to me -- the emotional deadness kind. Her language approaches the "religious experience" level, but reading carefully I don't think that's what she's really talking about. Carrying on with what she's decided in the face of that shows grit and courage -- but not recognizing it's a somewhat-treatable physiological condition is...unfortunate for her, anyway.
It does sound like to some extent she was trapped within her own image.