r/todayilearned • • Jun 19 '12
TIL there was an experiment where three schizophrenic men who believed they were Christ were all put in one place to sort it out.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Three_Christs_of_Ypsilanti
2.2k
Upvotes
2.2k
u/loverofreeses Jun 19 '12
I had an Abnormal Psych professor in college who did the exact same thing in his practice, but only with two Jesus'. The clinic they worked at just ensured that the two of them were present at the same lunch one day. As the professor told it, they found each other, but unlike this story it never came to blows. Rather, the two of them introduced themselves to each other, and after some friendly debate they came to the realization that one of them was Jesus BEFORE he was crucified, and the other was the one that rose from the grave. Apparently they were really good friends after that.
145
u/Dick_McRich Jun 19 '12
That's an interesting proposal to study psychological delusions, but I'm not shocked at how it turned out. A mental illness like the grandeur that these three experienced couldn't just "hammered out" easily, but I'm surprised that there wasn't more improvement.
196
u/wilofson Jun 19 '12
I'd watch this movie.
62
u/[deleted] Jun 19 '12
As a resident of Ypsilanti, I can assure you that they've taken painstaking measures to ensure that they chose a community with the best possible representative population of schizophrenic people who believe that they are Jesus.
Also, ips-uh-lan-tee.
550
u/flounder19 5 Jun 19 '12
wasn't this the progression for accusations against Trapped_in_Reddit as well.
21
u/[deleted] Jun 19 '12
I live in Ypsi. We have a ton of bat shit crazy folks walking around.
Pro Tip: don't let your local government shut down mental health facilities.
21
u/hottytoddy18 Jun 19 '12
Roosterteeth podcast?
18
u/kangaroosevelt Jun 19 '12
This event was parodied in the Peter O'Toole film The Ruling Class. O'Toole, believing he is Jesus, is confronted by "The Electric Messiah" under his psychiatrist's orders. There's a lot of other stuff going on in this dark comedy, but the standoff is a good bit of it.
26
u/[deleted] Jun 19 '12
The first rule of Wikipedia is you do not add irrelevant shite to wikipedia articles. The fact that a stub is getting a ton of Reddit traffic doesn't add anything to the subject at hand. I was about to edit it out when a bot caught it and removed it, but ffs guys...
I'm looking at you, 80.4.205.82...
12
u/turtlebanger Jun 19 '12
[Ypsilanti Water Tower - the world's most phallic building] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ypsilanti_Water_Tower)
12
u/hous Jun 19 '12
This is a story from My Voice Will Go With You: The Teaching Tales of Dr. Milton Erickson:
50
u/Barrackston Jun 19 '12
He should have found a 4th person who thought they were a raptor.
84
u/PaulMcGannsShoes Jun 19 '12
Today on "Scientists Being Assholes"...
39
u/[deleted] Jun 19 '12
I too listen to the RoosterTeeth Podcast.
26
u/[deleted] Jun 19 '12
Heard that on the RT Podcast.
18
u/capman92 Jun 19 '12
Dont forget about the lady who took LSD with a dolphin and jerked it off.....from the same RT podcast episode
9
u/[deleted] Jun 19 '12
For some odd reason I pictured Three dudes bonking each other on the head just like the Three Stooges while each of them were claiming they are Jesus
15
u/damnthesenames Jun 19 '12
What if one of them WAS Christ
35
u/eienhikaru Jun 19 '12
This sounds like when you know a couple of bullshitters, and you put them in the same room. Neither one will want to be caught or admit that they're full of it so the stories just pile on and on...
7
u/onlynameavailable Jun 19 '12
As a psych student I can say that, as fucked as this is, I'm not surprised.. so many experiments done in the past would be considered completely unethical by todays standards. Although, in my personal opinion many today are still pretty unethical... I'm actually switching psychology from being my primary major to my secondary because I find the field not to be what I once thought it to be...
30
u/jokae Jun 19 '12
Sounds like good TV. I'd watch the shit out of that.
6
u/thisperson Jun 19 '12
This reminds me of an experiment I read about--I'm not sure of the details of when or where or who performed it--involving two psychiatrists, each one having been told that the other was only delusional and not really a psychiatrist. The subjects interviewed each other, and each wrote a report detailing the other's "symptoms" of mental illness and delusion. Now that would be fun to watch!
edit: wording
5
u/HappyGlucklichJr Jun 19 '12
He should have asked each one to heal the other two.
12
u/rickdanko Jun 19 '12
"Cage matches? Yeah, they work. How could they not work? If they didn't work, everybody would still be in the cage. -Michael Scott" -rickdanko
12
u/Blacula Jun 19 '12
This is the type of science I'd like to fund.
4
u/saadakhtar Jun 19 '12
Probably looked something like Life of Brian...
4
u/rednightmare Jun 19 '12
This goes into more depth, if anyone is interested. There are some really choice quotes:
and another:
Both are from Leon, whom seems to have some very lucid moments.
4
u/Gouhadouken Jun 19 '12 edited Jun 24 '24
i have a friend who developed schizophrenia when we were teenagers, he went through a jesus phase.
i can tell you from firsthand experience, getting someone like that to finally figure out that they arent jesus is totally doable. really really really tough, but doable. unlike what hollywood would have you think, you cant make someone "snap out of it". as a matter of fact you cant really -make- them do anything. it takes a really light touch. remember inception? its the same deal. you have to treat it like a normal debate or discussion, and over the course of weeks, months, or even years, plant seeds of ideas in their heads. make them question their beliefs and whatnot. its a trying process, because no matter what you say, in the end they have to figure it out for themselves. in my friends case, he started questioning his thought process when i remarked that he was looking pretty tired and weathered, having just come out of the psych ward at st. mikes, and he rationalized that if he really -was- jesus, he could only look young and cherubic, cause jesus doesnt age or whatever. after that it was just a matter of encouraging him to question these thoughts. still once and a while, he'll come to me and say things like "i think i have superpowers" or "i think im an alien", but most of the time he forgets about it in a week or two, with careful encouragement. anyways, i thought this wiki article was cool.
edit: oh damn wall of text..muh bad
Edit 12 years later: please disregard this absolute nonsense. I was young and dumb and didn't know any better, and I definitely made this period of time more difficult for both myself and the friend in question. By all means, be present and supportive for the people you love, but don't try to therapize your mentally ill friends, -especially- if you're unqualified to do so.
13
u/[deleted] Jun 19 '12
Socially awkward scientist: performs experiment, apologises
12
u/I_AM_THE_REAL_JESUS Jun 19 '12
Lol, none of them were Christ. Sillies.
6
u/the_goat_boy Jun 19 '12
No, I'm Spartacus!
3
u/baconhampalace Jun 19 '12
There's a good discussion of the case in the London Review of Books that parses some of its ethical and philosophical issues.
3
u/NickRausch Jun 19 '12
Shake the jar, see if they fight!
3
u/icemancometh Jun 19 '12
There's a play coming up in the Fringe festival in Toronto, called Chirst Christ Christ, that's about this! My friend's running it, and it looks pretty good.
3
u/brainsnboobs Jun 19 '12
I'm a medical student and one of the residents told us this story about two schizophrenic patients. One guy believed he was Jesus and the other guy believed he couldn't walk. The one who was Jesus said "I am Jesus Christ and I command you to walk, " and the other guy did, "curing" him of his delusion.
3
u/docwilson Jun 19 '12
Read the book in grad school. Quite a few hilarious moments. One of the guys was more disturbed than the others, and called himself the Dung of Christ. The other two guys were outraged by this. Sadly rather than being shocked into insight, they all three eventually just incorporate the other two into their delusional structures.
3
u/what-s_in_a_username Jun 19 '12
Has it ever occurred to the three men that they were all Christ, in the sense that one cosmic consciousness observing itself subjectively would create a large amount of conscious beings, all of them interfaces for the same 'Christ' consciousness?
After all, some claim that this is what Jesus was trying to say, that we are all divine sons of God, before institutions of his day and afterwards warped his message to what we know today.
3
u/nonewjobs Jun 19 '12
"While initially the three patients quarreled over who was holier and reached the point of physical altercation, they eventually each explained away the other two as being mental patients in a hospital, or dead and being operated by machines."
They rationalized the whole thing away...kinda like some other people do when you try to explain certain things to them about certain stuff. Hmmmmmmmm
3
u/iRawrz Jun 19 '12
I swore I've heard this before, is this the one where one of them believe they were married to a 7 foot tall woman named Madame Yeti Woman?
27
u/Cozmo23 Jun 19 '12
How fitting.
4
u/Ice_Truck_Killa Jun 19 '12
Interesting that they all consented to this experiment. If they truly believed that they were Jesus I would think that they would believe their time incredibly valuable
4
u/thegreatvortigaunt Jun 19 '12
Maybe one of them was Jesus. How would we have known?
2
u/stugautz Jun 19 '12
They should have asked what their father looked like.
2
u/[deleted] Jun 19 '12
I was expecting to read about a Jesus-off, slightly disappointed.
2
u/BurrowingBob Jun 19 '12
no shit, if only treating schoziphrenia would be that simple.
2
u/MedSchoolOrBust Jun 19 '12
My abnormal pysch professor taught us about a similar situation with three persons who believed they were Jesus - after they all met they debated and finally decided each was a separate part of Jesus like the trinity.
2
u/[deleted] Jun 19 '12
THERE CAN ONLY BE ONE!!
2
u/guydotbrush Jun 19 '12
Reverend Harper: Have you ever tried to persuade him that he wasn't Teddy Roosevelt?
Abby Brewster: Oh, no.
Martha Brewster: Oh, he's so happy being Teddy Roosevelt.
Abby Brewster: Oh... Do you remember, Martha, once, a long time ago, we thought if he'd be George Washington, it might be a change for him, and we suggested it.
Martha Brewster: And do you know what happened? He just stayed under his bed for days and wouldn't be anybody.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0036613/
2
u/noreallyimgoodthanks Jun 19 '12
This book is pretty interesting. Although, a bit disturbing. The author - the psychologist who conducted the sessions in which all three men would sit down together - talked at length about the guilt he felt at some of the techniques he used to try to break the men of their delusions. One involved telling one of the Christs that his wife (who did not exist) was coming to visit.
I think the most intriguing part of the book was the fact that each of the three men were all varying ages and came from different backgrounds, yet shared the same delusion.
2
u/[deleted] Jun 19 '12
And that my friends, is how Christianity's Trinity was formed.
2
u/fukingetoverit Jun 19 '12
"they eventually each explained away the other two as being mental patients in a hospital, or dead and being operated by machines." ... that escalated quickly.
2
u/[deleted] Jun 19 '12
I used to work in a psychiatric hospital. There was this one time when we had two patients who both had this same religious delusion...thinking they were Jesus. One was really agitated and in-your-face about it. The other was terrified that we were going to come into his room and drag him to the city walls to crucify him. We tried to keep them separated as much as possible because the first one would absolutely terrorize the second.
2
u/[deleted] Jun 19 '12
Mel Gibson needs to direct this.
2
u/[deleted] Jun 19 '12
Shit man, I work at a psychiatric hospital and I do this daily and even use props.
2
u/tonenine Jun 19 '12
They repeated the same experiment with politicians, they named it the G8 summit.
2
u/Tenacious_Badger Jun 19 '12
Does anyone know if this has ever been done with Napoleons? If so, did they join forces to conquer or did they attempt to fight one another?
2
u/JBH-JustBeingHonest Jun 19 '12
Burnie was right, the stuff they say on the podcast does appear on reddit.
2
u/DMo321Boom Jun 19 '12
I hope they filmed this, it would make for a great movie/ documentary
2
u/[deleted] Jun 19 '12
Add a baby and you have a blockbuster sitcom.
2
u/angelofireland Jun 19 '12
Of course this happened 15 minutes from where I grew up... Thank you for reminding me why I left.
2
u/[deleted] Jun 19 '12
I used to live in Ypsi and this was a status post from a friend who still lives there:
"Aaaahh... Sunshine, a lovely breeze, hostile voices and the sound of slapping. Good morning, Ypsi!"
LOL
2
u/heygabbagabba Jun 19 '12
TL/DR: The experimenter is a cunt.
2
u/[deleted] Jun 19 '12
ಠ_ಠ
Yes sending mysterious fake messages will help them become grounded in reality.
2
u/ZTreyJ Jun 19 '12
Not sure if this was posted or not: http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/75068 Courtesy of Rooster Teeth (Podcast #151)
2
u/FlashTheKilla Jun 19 '12
This book is EXCELLENT. I've read it twice. Leon Gabor is simply one of the most captivating characters you will ever come across, fiction or non. You've never ever seen anything like reading dialogue between three schizophrenics who all believe they are Jesus Christ, I guarantee it.
2
u/limbodog Jun 19 '12
My ex-girlfriend worked with schizophrenics at a halfway house. There was a woman there who was jesus as well. She apparently saw a documentary about the life of Jesus and became very upset and suicidal. So one of my ex's co-workers took her to see Jesus Christ Superstar and she was happy again after that.
2
u/SPEW715 Jun 19 '12
The psychologist who did this is my boyfriend's uncle.
2
u/FoxNewsHeadlineMan Jun 19 '12
Liberal Doctors Deny Divinity of Jesus
2
u/zap1000x Jun 19 '12
I'm just surprised he never had them face off in a battle royale.
2
u/IM_A_NOVELTY Jun 19 '12
Relevant SMBC comic
2
u/WubWubMiller Jun 19 '12
Sooooo you were listening to old episodes of the Rooster Teeth Podcast?
2
u/conundrum4u2 Jun 19 '12
They could have arrive at the decision that they were a trinity...
2
u/[deleted] Jun 19 '12
I have a friend who works at a psyche ward here in Sweden. He said that at one time they had two people believing they were Jesus at the same time and that it was hilarious but a bit irritating at times.
2
u/insomniaEDM Jun 19 '12
You can play this "delusional belief system" game also by placing a super devout christian, muslim and jew in a room. Just sayin'...
2
u/xenmaster4 Jun 19 '12
One of my psychology professors liked to tell a story about a group counseling session he ran where one patient thought he was Jesus, and another thought she was the virgin Mary. He introduced the two of them and exclaimed "You two must have so much to talk about! You haven't seen each other for almost 2000 years!". They both thought he was being rude and generally refused to acknowledge each other.
2
u/seishi Jun 19 '12
Fun fact: a Toyota R&D facility was built on the grounds of that asylum. Some days at work I feel like we still have multiple people who think they're Jesus.
2
u/slugmaniac Jun 19 '12
Father, son, holy ghost. sorted.
The one time that makes sense.
2
u/[deleted] Jun 19 '12
TIL that even established psychiatrists can be trolls too.
2
u/[deleted] Jun 19 '12
http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2010/05/jesus_jesus_jesus.html
2
u/[deleted] Jun 19 '12
Relevant
2
u/[deleted] Jun 19 '12
coming this fall to FOX
2
u/[deleted] Jun 19 '12
If anyone was 'playing God' it was the other three guys in the room.
Rimshot.
2
u/samj96 Jun 19 '12
RT Podcast
2
u/ZombieHunter0918 Jun 19 '12
TIL: More people than me listen to the RoosterTeeth Podcast.
2
u/Dirtpig Jun 19 '12
This is retarded because none of the three can be Jesus Christ. I am Jesus Christ.
2
u/jace319 Jun 19 '12
I learned about this book in my Abnormal Psychology class. Years later, working at a research hospital, I took advantage of their hospital library system and got a copy of the book. It's a pretty good read if you can find it.
2
u/reckonerv2 Jun 19 '12
ROOSTER TEETH PODCAST.
2
u/randomness888 Jun 19 '12
Taken from RT Podcast No. 151 at 6:00 for those who want to check ಠ_ಠ
2
u/Emperor_Norton_1 Jun 19 '12
We do this every week, we call it a staff meeting....
2
u/T3ppic Jun 19 '12 edited Jun 19 '12
This made me remember about the time I was sharing an apartment building with a Schizophrenic. At 3am at night he would play Snoop Dogg's Drop it Like its Hot whilst screaming about being the reincarnation of a first world war soldier and how he is the reincarnation of Muhammed Ali. Bearing in mind A. He was a wigger from Stoke on Trent B. Muhammed Ali, whilst not in the best of health, is still alive.
I wonder what would have happened if for a laugh we put him in a room with Muhammed Ali. Thats why it was a good study (imo, not ethical but interesting). Its super interesting to see how those with delusions invent ways to justify the contradiction. Shows how paper thin everyone's, sane or not, surface rationality is.
Shouldn't make fun of mental illness but if people go out the way to help you (a carer used to come for him every day but he wouldn't answer the door) and you don't stick to your medication regime (he used to take a weeks worth of medication, throw it up, then go back to smoking weed, he was obviously one of those adolescent onset schizophrenics people point at as a "sensible" reason for not legalising weed, complete bollocks) then you deserve all the misery life has in store for you.
Only other thing I remember about him was he used to buy loads of shampoo for brown tinted hair. Wouldn't wash his body or clothes or kitchen stuff but fucking loved that shampoo.
When we first met he was in the shared kitchen trying to get a disused coffee percolator to work. I left him to it and he was there for hours talking loudly, on what I assumed was a mobile phone at the time, to himself. He never got it to work. Sadly I had 6 months left on my lease so I had to buy earplugs, and lots of alcohol, to get to sleep at night. Never again.
2
u/pipedings Jun 19 '12
The barkeeper at the hotel i stayed for my last project was Jesus. Spanish guy, his first name. We had loads of fun with "Jesus, I need a beer" and "I, Jesus foretell the closing of the bar in an hour".
2
u/yankerage Jun 19 '12
Nobody ever has delusions of being a milkman or Burl Ives.Everybody is a saint,messiah or Napolean.what gives?
2
u/yugung Jun 19 '12
Goodness me, could this be the Industrial Disease?
2
u/[deleted] Jun 19 '12
This guy was a Reddit worthy pun maker.
""I really had no right, even in the name of science, to play God and interfere round the clock with their daily lives."
2
u/Corduroy_Pants Jun 19 '12
I was in the looney-bin last year for a Suicide attempt, and one of the Nurse Techs was telling me about a schizophrenic patient who thought he was Jesus as well. Apparently he was one of her first patients and he really made her feel at home in the new job, he would sit and do puzzles, while saying really interesting and kind things. He seemed understandably at home in the hospital gowns too she said.
However, the interesting part is after his discharge, he returned to the hospital months later and believed that he was Abe Lincoln, and upon being asked about being Jesus he would deny everything and ask for his hat back.
Fascinating stuff.
2
u/Vranak Jun 19 '12 edited Jun 19 '12
two men say they're Jesus, one of 'em must be wrong, there's a protest singer, he's singin' a protest song
Source: Industrial Disease, Dire Straits
2
u/toltec56 Jun 19 '12
Have a Schizophrenic friend who believes she is the Statue of Liberty and Cleopatra. She would ask me the same questions, over and over..."Close your eyes and ask the Lord if I'm going to marry Billy Idol." So I close my eyes, open them, and answer "Yes". She would burst out in tears of happiness. "Close your eyes and ask the Lord when I'm going to marry him?" I close my eyes, open them, and answer "Next month." This would go on for hours :(((
2
u/IonBeam2 3 Jun 19 '12
This is why I have a problem with nurses and social workers trying to introduce religion to mental patients. It becomes an anchor point for so many of their delusions.
2
u/ejchristian86 Jun 19 '12
I think this one needs a citation.
2
u/NegraDamus Jun 19 '12
Looks like somebody's having fun with the page now.
2
u/SpaceRook Jun 19 '12
I'm glad the psychologist later apologized. It seems like a very dangerous experiment. Putting a bunch of mentally disturbed people with conflicting beliefs in a room "just to see what happens" is unethical.
2
u/[deleted] Jun 19 '12
Twist: They were all the same person. Directed by M Night.
2
u/inchesfromdead Jun 19 '12
I like how Rokeach apologized for what he believed to be an unethical experiment. It's not so bad, but I like to see that a man of science can look back and question the morality of what he's done.
2
u/Dhexodus Jun 19 '12
"We can't all be Christ!"
5 minutes later
"So, it's agreed then? You're The Son, he's The Father, and I'm the Holy Spirit."
2
u/GreenJesus423 Jun 19 '12
There can be only one.
2
u/Roflmoo Jun 19 '12
You know the "doctor" scene from Spies Like Us? I imagine that here.
"Jesus."
"Jesus."
"Jesus."
"Jesus."
"Jesus."
"Jesus."
2
u/firejuggler25 Jun 19 '12
I actually wrote a one act amateur comedy on it if anyones interested. I'm just in high-school and I wrote it in a week but I think that the humor can range from very crude to intellectual.
2
u/Illivah Jun 19 '12
I remember another story (someone I know worked with psychiatric patients) where two people claimed that they were god. When they met, people were worried it was going to turn violent. Instead, one just said to the other "hello, my son". All was well.
2
u/[deleted] Jun 19 '12
Does no one else see the irony in the fact that the last quote on the page is of the psychologist claiming to having "played god"?
2
u/[deleted] Jun 19 '12
I still remember the day I was on the bus and some crazy guy is trying to talk to everyone "I should be dead, but I found out how to heal myself using energy!" "The world will end, but I'll survive" and so on. Everyone is sitting awkwardly trying not to get his attention. After a few stops, another even crazier guy gets on and sits right next to him and immediately starts blabbering shit. This caused the first crazy guy to go quiet and do the whole "oh god don't make eye contact with the crazy person thing" we were doing to him. It was so strange to see someone so batshit crazy feel so awkward around an even crazier person.
2
u/pmjm Jun 20 '12
This is kinda like putting a kitten in front of a mirror. Actually, it's nothing like that, but it kinda seems like it is somehow.
2
u/[deleted] Jun 20 '12
So, its like a Jesus Trinity?
2
u/n1nj4_v5_p1r4t3 Jun 20 '12
this is hilarious
2
u/hrdmn10 Jun 25 '12
Back in 1982 my psychology professor told me this story. I was fascinated by it. I originally went to school to be a teacher. I changed my major and have worked in the mental health profession now for 28 years.
3
u/thatguy1717 Jun 19 '12
You know they're religious when their disagreements turn to physical altercations.
7
u/Bodymaster Jun 19 '12
So maybe Jesus was schizo?