The Sacred and the Profane

Interesting thing you mentioned.

I have a friend whose brother also suffers mental illness (rather than cultural disassociation, it seems to 'me' that stress might have been the reason).

Apparently the way he describes his brother, reminds me exactly of 'the exorcist'. According to him, his brother repeatedly enters enters into a zone, believing that he is fighting the devil. Suddenly, he gets enormously powerful and paranoid. They have some guardians back there, but they are scared too, just because of the enormous power he generates when the state of his mind enters the 'second' personality, his voice, his face, everything about him changes. In fact according to my friend, there also seems to be a case of a third and a distinct personality. There is one in which the devil appears but there is also another one.

He also says that, his brother was fine before, but it was some serious studying or stress that preceded the illness or whatver it is.


They have tried doctors, but it hasn't worked, so the traditional way of pir is being tried.

The human mind is a strange thing.

I wonder, how can a person generate power of about 5 people just because of the state of the mind. Is it physically and scientifically possible for a human to generate so much power?

One of the reasons why Pakistani housewives living in the West feel so isolated is that they never participate in community activities. They only socialize with other Pakistanis and sometimes due to distances that is not possible. In most US cities there are quite active Parents-Teachers Associations and several city council initiatives in which women participate; there are several community college bases short courses which provide opportunity for personal growth, however most Pakistani women, at least to the best of my knowledge, never get involved in these. These women are programmed to be completely devoted to their families and households, and even a temporary getaway, for example taking up a short course, is quite unthinkable to them.