THE HISTORY OF MENTAL DISTURBANCE

The history of mental diseases can be traced back to 500010000 years. At that time the most common
cure to the illness was to make a hole in the skull of the mad person as people thought that the bad
spirits stayed in the skull of the mad person and by making a hole in the skull the bad spirit within the
affected person would escape through the holes. Various skulls have been excavated dating back to
500010000 years with holes in them (Concise Text Book of Psychiatry Page1)

In the 15th and 16th century Europe, many studies were conducted to see whether a person behaving in
an irrational manner was a mental patient or a person possessed by spirit or jinns. They used to tie the
hands and legs of the patient and would throw them into rivers and seas with a view that if the person
was really possessed by a spirit then he would not die of drowning but would somehow manage to swim
ashore, but if the person was not possessed and was mentally ill then he/she would die of drowning. In
this way many innocent patients who were mentally ill died every year (Concise Text Book of Psychiatry
Page.9)

KIND OF MENTAL ILLNESS

Hallucination: This is a kind of mental state in which the patient suffers from various kinds of mental
disorders like:

Auditory Hallucination : In this illness the patient hears various kinds of voice which have no
existence like someone is consistently taking his name, calling him, at times he hears someone laughing
or crying, or someone close to him who is dead calling him/her or his/her neighbors are abusing him or
threatening him.

Visual Hallucination: In this illness the patient sees various non-existing faces or figures. He sees
ghosts and spirits. At times he sees his dead relatives. Even a rope appears as a snake to him/her which
wants to hurt him/her.

Olfactory Hallucination: In this illness the patient smells various fragrances like a perfume or a
flower or that of various dishes. At times he/she would suddenly speak of smelling rotten fish out of
nowhere.

DEPRESSION

This is a kind of mental disorder in which a patient is always despaired, sad and silent. He/she chooses to
remain idle every time. He/she cant concentrate on any work. He/she gets tired very quickly. He/she is
totall isolated from worldly affairs, wants to keep to himself/herself and is always embroiled in deep
thoughts. In some severe states he/she even thinks of committing suicide, thinking its better to end the
endless sins he/she commits by living and get freed from the problems of the world.

MANIA

This is the opposite to the state of depression and is also a mental disorder in which the patient exhibits
extra energy. He/she is always doing something or the other and continuously speaking with whosoever
he/she finds thus annoying everyone around him/her. He/she finds extra power within himself/herself
and doesnt get tired easily. He/she remembers vividly even tiny details of events happened years back
explaining it to others forcibly, thinking himself/herself to be super intelligent.

When people avoid talking or meeting him/ her, he/she assumes that they are jealous of his intelligence
and vie for the quality he/she possesses.

DISSOCIATIVE DISORDER

This is also a mental disorder and is quite common in mentally ill people. This illness is found in every
part of the world afflicting every society. An example of it is Trance & Possession Syndrome. It is the
cause of the dramas that are observed because of the supposed possession of people by jinns, spirits,
ghosts, etc. In this disease the very character of the person gets changed. He/she becomes a different
person altogether which is claimed by commoners to be a jinn or a spirit or a ghost, etc. The patient is
not always in this state of illness. Generally the patient is normal in his/her daily life. This disease affects
him/ her in intervals, usually for a short period like for half an hour or ten to fifteen minutes daily, in
some cases monthly. People with no particular knowledge on the subject, term it as hazri or mataji or
Guruji. During the course of the illness, the patient behaves and speaks in a weird manner. His/her
voice gets changed and he/she becomes much more powerful compared to an ordinary person. He/she
calls himself by different names since he/she is a different person now. He/ she doesnt even feel pain
while in the state of illness even if he/she is beaten severely. This state lasts for a few minutes usually,
and after it gets over the patient feels totally exhausted and most of the time gets unconscious. Later he
becomes normal and does not remember anything about his/her acts while in the state of illness.

Even well educated men and Ulemas have not been able to understand clearly the cause of this illness.
They, on account of having no medical knowledge, conclude that these are caused by jinns, spirits or
ghosts. It seems to them that the patient is actually possessed by a jinn or spirit. On seeing a thin,
weak person hardly getting controlled by 4-5 strong men, people tie the patient with
ropes and chains and take them to Aamil or Ojha.

What could be questioned to them is that if the person was really possessed by a jinn or
a spirit then how could the jinn/spirit be controlled by 4-5 strong men? Jinns can easily
break a rope or chain and cant even be controlled by 100 men because they have been
given enormous power by Allah.

Jinns exist. There are many verses in The Glorious Quran in which jinns are mentioned. A person
questioning the existence of jinns is not a Muslim since he is rejecting verses of The Glorious Quran. But
humans cant be possessed by jinns.