The Religious Delusions 
of the Insane. 
BY 
HENRY M. HTJRDj M. D., 
Pontiac, Mich. 
Sprint 
FROM 
The American Journal of Insanity, 
Utica, April, 1888. THE RELIGIOUS DELUSIONS OF THE INSANE* 
BY HENRY M. HURD, M. D., 
Superintendent of the Eastern Michigan Asylum, Pontiac, Michigan. 
Religion has to do with the relation between man and his Maker. 
To every individual it has an inward, hidden development, and an 
outward manifestation. It is a combination of precepts and 
actions, formulated beliefs and corresponding duties. It excites 
the highest hopes and stirs the deepest fears known to man. In 
its highest sense it is spiritual and exalting—the noblest aspiration 
of the human soul, the communion of mortal man with his immor- 
tal Creator, the homage of the weak and finite to the all-powerful 
and infinite. In its lowest sense it becomes dogma and ritual— 
an external manifestation without an in-dwelling spirit. Religious 
sentiments are innate, but their development depends upon age, 
natural characteristics, education, mental peculiarities, habits of 
thought and modes of expression. In childhood they are largely 
the result of education, and have an emotional rather than intel- 
lectual origin. Later in life, if the intellectual training of the 
individual is limited and his mind is not disciplined to thought or 
reflection, a similar emotional phase of religious feeling gives rise 
to ecstacies, raptures, fears, hallucinations of vision or hearing, 
and irrational conduct. In persons possessing mental training, 
religious sentiments have an intellectual origin, and the emotional 
nature being affected through the intellect is subsidiary to it and 
held in wholesome restraint. In proportion to the degree of 
mental discipline, religious sentiments become matters of the 
intellect as well as of the emotions. When symmetrically devel- 
oped they have to do with the emotions, the intellect and the daily 
life alike. 
The predominant characteristics of religious sentiments being 
hope and fear—a hope of eternal reward and a fear of lasting 
punishment—it is evident that when these sentiments are deranged 
there must be morbid hope and morbid fear. The insane man may, 
on the one hand, believe himself to be an exalted personage, under 
the patronage, protection and blessing of the Deity—possibly 
Deity itself—or, on the other, under the wrath of God, an outcast, 
a sinner, a blasphemer, and unfit to receive the slightest mercy. 
*Read before the Ninth International Medical Congress, held at Washington, 
D. C., September 5th-10th, 1887. 2 
Between these extremes every phase of religious sentiment may 
exist. The asylums contain “Gods,” “Saints,” “Virgin Marys,” 
“Mediators,” “Kings of kings and Lords of lords,” “The Lord’s 
Vice-Gerents ” without number, and an equally numerous throng 
of “Fiends,” “Devils,” “Lucifers,” “Fallen Angels,” “Dragons,” 
and the like. 
I will now proceed to consider more at length the delusions 
which are developed in different forms of mental disease. 
1. The Religious Delusions which accompany the Mental De- 
velopment of Overstimulated and Dijudiciously Educated 
Children. 
These delusions are apt to take the form of morbid fear. The 
child being morbidly conscientious and impressible, and his 
reasoning powers imperfectly developed, his emotional nature is 
stirred unduly by vivid descriptions of the joys of heaven and the 
pains of future punishment. Realizing but little of the ethical 
side of religion, he confounds the emotional state which accom- 
panies religious observances with religion itself. The moment he 
fails to derive pleasure and an emotional glow from prayer or 
praise he fancies that some duty has been neglected or improperly 
performed. Hence he becomes harassed by fears, tormented by 
doubts and overwhelmed by remorse for fancied misdeeds or sins 
of omission. The following case illustrates this type of disease: 
“E. O., aged nine years; weight fifty-one pounds; was decidedly 
below the average in height, and possessed a neurotic tempera- 
ment. He had been healthy and vigorous until six years of age, 
when he had a tedious illness, accompanied by a discharge from 
the right ear, and was afterwards delicate. Owing to ill-health 
he had not been allowed to go to school until eight years old, but 
his subsequent development had been precocious. He had applied 
himself diligently and had succeeded much better in his studies 
than other scholars of the same age. He had also attended 
Sunday school with painstaking fidelity, and had taxed his memory 
much to commit verses from the Bible. He had from infancy 
been morbidly conscientious and anxious to do right. Six months 
prior to his coming under observation it was noticed that when he 
attempted to say his prayers at night he was not sure he had 
spoken them correctly, and wished to repeat them again and again 
until they were ‘perfect.’ On some occasions he spent half the 
night on his knees, or until sleep overpowered him in this attitude 
of devotion. This condition under injudicious stimulation in 3 
study, increased progressively during the following six months, 
until he became forgetful, absent-minded and the victim of 
imperative conceptions.” 
The predominant religious delusions in nervous children at this 
age are, as might be expected, when their half-starved and over- 
stimulated brains are considered, essentially those of fear and 
apprehension. The delusions of this class have much in common 
with the following, which will now be considered: 
2. The Religious Delusions characteristic of the Insanity of 
Pubescence. 
The characteristics of the Insanity of Pubescence are periods of 
stupidity, mental hebetude, listlessness, indifference and lack of 
power of application, alternating with periods of elation, restless 
excitement, uncontrollable impulses and moral perversions. 
During the period of mental hebetude there are great physical and 
mental depression, which in the religiously educated give rise to 
a fear of death and consequent eternal punishment, and engender 
a strong desire to do some religious act as a penance, or more 
probably, to purchase peace of mind and inward satisfaction. 
The boy or girl desires to join the church, or to go upon a mission, 
or to sacrifice some cherished luxury, and is seemingly absorbed 
in religious observances. The religious zeal, however, is short- 
lived and never lasts through the succeeding period of elation. 
Such persons, as a patient once said to me, in relating her own 
experience, “ are converted every winter, but backslide during the 
summer.” When depressed they are scrupulous of religious forms 
and ceremonial observances; when elated, all restraint is thrown 
to the winds. In the former state they derive much comfort from 
religious exercises; in the latter they are irreverent and often 
blasphemous. Unlike genuine cases of melancholia, their religious 
assiduity seems to bring relief and a degree of satisfaction. The 
condition under consideration is not so much one of actual delusion 
as of morbid feeling and vague apprehension. Such patients 
become observant of little matters, and attach great weight to the 
consequences of the neglect of a single religious duty. One 
school-girl, for example, neglected, as had been her wont, to pray 
prior to opening a letter from home, and when she tore it open, 
found, as she believed in consequence of her neglect, an announce- 
ment of the death of her mother. The feeling is not developed on 
account of general sinfulness and wholesale wrong-doing, as in 
melancholia, but it is rather excited by omissions to do minor acts 4 
of religious worship, or whatever may have been prescribed by 
the minister or priest as the full measure of religious duty. There 
is little true introspection. 
3. The Religious Delusions of the Insanity of Masturbation. 
The delusions of the victims of self-abuse vary in character at 
different stages of the insanity of masturbation. At the outset, 
as might naturally be anticipated when the neurotic organization 
and age of the victims of this habit are taken into consideration, 
the phenomena of morbid fear predominate. To these are added 
a study of the Bible and a habit of introspection. The patient 
fears that he has committed the unpardonable sin, and suffers from 
remorse, gloom and mental distress. He redoubles his offorts to 
make amends for fancied wrong doing, and is scrupulous in all 
religious observances. As not unfrequently happens in similar 
morbid mental phenomena, sooner or later a transformation of the 
delusion occurs, and the person who has committed the unpardon- 
able sin finds himself singularly forgiven, blest and holy. Delu- 
sions of religious superiority develop, and with other evidences of 
mental deterioration, a silly vanity in religious matters. The 
patient has visions, trances, hallucinations of hearing, raptures 
and ecstacies. The connection between self-abuse and religious 
delusions is probably to be ascribed to a combination of causes. 
At first religious delusions originate in a fear of deserved punish- 
ment for the violation of Nature’s laws. To relieve this burden, 
consolation is sought in reading the scriptures and in religious 
exercises, and the morbid fervor thus engendered soon leads the 
patient to the opposite extreme. Eventually he believes himself 
highly moral and superior to his associates and surroundings. A 
second factor in producing it is a general nervous erethism or 
emotional susceptibility which may be considered the direct result 
of the vicious indulgence, and is developed at the expense of the 
higher faculties. The final factor is an actual weakening of the 
intellectual centres from exhaustion and premature mental 
decay. A process of transformation thus goes on from year to 
year until the intellectual 'Centres are in practical abeyance, and 
the emotional nature assumes complete control. In the analysis 
of religious delusions it should not be forgotten that for their 
development a substratum of religious education must generally 
exist. When there has been no religious training in childhood 
and no religious bent given to a man’s nature, the effect of self- 
abuse is not to develop it. (This however is not invariably true.) 5 
In the latter case the effect is shown in hypochondriacal fancies, a 
silly vanity, a sickening egotism, etc. Many illustrative cases 
may be given of this form of religious delusions, but the annexed 
case must suffice. 
The following case illustrates the effect of masturbation to pro- 
duce religious delusions in an organization predisposed to mental 
disease. It is fortunately in an individual who possessed consider- 
able ability to analyze and describe morbid mental states: 
“G. B. H., aged 41, was single, without hereditary tendency to 
mental disease, a teacher, not a church member, but a believer in 
spiritualism, of a studious and retiring disposition, not addicted 
to alcoholics, tobacco or opium, a masturbator for many years, 
and a man who had never been successful in business. He had 
been aspiring and ambitious, but had lacked ability to bring him- 
self into notice. In pursuit of his calling as a teacher of elocution 
lie had wandered about the country. At the age of twenty-one he 
heard a voice saying to him, c Come up higher,’ which seemed to 
have been a distinct aural hallucination. This heavenly admoni- 
tion subsequently gave him a strong desire to elevate the human 
race. Poverty humiliated his pride by making it necessary for 
him to dress shabbily and stint himself in his daily allowance of 
food to such a degree that his health suffered. Five years ago, 
while in the west, he was induced to investigate spiritualism, and 
afterwards believed himself a medium chosen by God to a special 
work in the elevation of the human race. Four months previous 
to his admission to the Eastern Michigan Asylum, in conse- 
quence of hardships, privations and probably excesses in mastur- 
bation, he had an attack of excitement and was treated at an 
asylum at Taunton, Mass., for about two weeks, when he became 
quiet and was able to be removed to his home in Michigan, where 
he maintained composure for several weeks, although obviously 
unnatural in manner. He suddenly however became ‘ the Medium 
of God,’ and was much excited for several hours. He thought 
God directed all his thoughts and acts and would make him a 
great orator so that he might be the medium of spreading truth 
throughout the world. When admitted to the Eastern Michigan 
Asylum in October, 1885, he was free from special excitement, 
but vain and self-important in manner. He was proud of his 
voice and was disposed to practice singing in a discordant fashion, 
and had much to say of his divine mission. He was disposed to 
withdraw himself from the society of his associates to commune 
with his own thoughts. He also had tendencies to denude him- 6 
self, but was ashamed when discovered nude and always had a 
plausible excuse for his conduct. After a month he wrote to a 
relative in reference to hallucinations of hearing and a fancy that 
he could converse with persons at a distance, and seemed to be 
making an honest effort to correct certain morbid impressions. In 
this direction his efforts were seconded by a brother, who in a long 
interview told him frankly of his delusions. For eight months 
thereafter he was quiet, self-controlled, able to participate in 
literary exercises and to give recitations and readings. He seemed 
free from delusions and was thought to be well enough to go 
away from the asylum. He complained however of headache after 
slight exertion, and an inability to concentrate his thoughts. lie 
subsequently confessed that his mind was not free from religious 
delusions during any portion of this time, and that he had con- 
tinued the habit of masturbation. During this period of quiet he 
wrote the following letter: 
My Dear Brother: 
Poxtiac, August 19th, 1886. 
***** I am hopeful of success afterwards as my 
trust is in God. Through all the years of my adverse life, previous to the 
last, I have trusted him in a dim, blind way, for doing one’s duty as he sees 
it is putting faith in Deity. During the last year—a tithe of whose bitter 
experiences you know not—my trust was implicitly in God. One night at 
Onset, while lying awake, sleepless as usual and sulfering, a voice that filled 
me with its vast impressiveness said, ‘ My child, tell your mother that out of 
pain shall come blessing; out of pain shall come blessing; out of pain shall 
come blessing. ’ That I will find it so I have no doubt. Through all the fiery 
trials of the past fifteen months which subjected me to so much reproach I 
trusted that great Voice. At any time I could have stopped and turned back 
had I not been constrained by a sense of duty to go on. In every fiery trial 
and in hours of darkest doubt has come that same voice saying, ‘ Trust in 
God,’ ‘Your triumph cometh,’and lesser voices would say, ‘Be brave, be 
strong, be true.’ Oh that calm, steady, ‘ Trust in God,’ how it has rung 
silently through the consciousness of centuries! May we all follow it up the 
long path of years till it widens forever into the fields of joyous and sublime 
endeavor !******* 
I remain yours affectionately, 
Gr. 
Soon after he showed increased mental disturbance, and on one 
occasion tried to take liberties with iemale employes, under the 
direction of the ‘Eternal Voice,’ and thought he had frequent 
communications from the spirit world. During the following two 
or three months he had periods of severe mental disturbance com- 
ing on at midnight, during which he called loudly upon the 
‘infinite One.’ On several of these occasions he attempted to 7 
mutilate himself by tearing out his genitals in order that he might 
suffer pain for ‘ Jesus’ sake.’ During the daytime he was free 
from excitement and talked of his midnight experiences as the 
workings of a diseased mind. He confessed to an excessive 
indulgence in masturbation, under the impression that he was 
bringing himself thus into closer relations with the spirit world. 
He also had impulses to pray with his associates and to read his 
Bible diligently. In a letter he said that he had ‘ sought truth and 
love and happiness through Spiritualism instead of Chrisianity,’ and 
had been deceived, and announces his conversion to a ‘love of the 
Lord Jesus.’ He added, ‘the Lord Jesus actually speaks to me 
often, very often, and counsels me what to do, so great is my 
weakness and ignorance of the Bible and of the Christianity I 
have despised.’ Soon after, impelled by an idea of self-sacrifice, 
he assaulted his attendant with the intention of bringing injury 
upon himself. After a period of great mental disturbance of 
several weeks’ diu-ation he suddenly cleared up and spoke intelli- 
gently and sorrowfully of his condition. He desired to be rid of 
the voices which he considered the causes of his attacks. These 
he explained were not audible voices, but thoughts which came 
into his mind in the shape of well-formed sentences which recurred 
-again and again without any effort of his own, and in fact contrary 
to his volition. They warned against the errors of spiritualism, 
and urged him to deeds of. self-denial for the cause of Christ. 
They even gave him explicit commands to do acts which were dis- 
tasteful to him. At first he struggled against and overcame them 
temporarily by an effort of the will to devote his attention to 
other matters. Soon, however, he lost his ability to withstand 
them and eventually became enslaved. A short time after this 
conversation he again became wholly dominated by suicidal 
impulses. He refused food, endeavored to mutilate himself and 
recklessly exposed his life and health. For three nights in the 
depth of winter he denuded himself of clothing and was sleepless 
from bitter mental and physical agony. At the end of three 
months he came to himself and thus described his sad condition. 
He said the ‘influence,’ as he termed it, stole upon him impercep- 
tibly. It came as a ‘gentle, benign, fatherly voice,’ and spoke 
persuasively and not commandingly. It came in the attitude of 
‘ a loving all-wise father to an erring child.’ Slowly he was 
forced to listen. As its influence deepened he felt called upon to 
make some form of self-sacrifice. At first a sacrifice was exacted 
in a quarter where he experienced the strongest desire. If by 8 
previous fasting he had become ravenously hungry he was com- 
manded to abstain from some article of food. The voice said, 
‘My child are you willing to reject this portion?’ and he found 
himself unable to turn a deaf ear to the seductive tone. At first 
he was told that his bare willingness to abstain from food was 
sufficient, but soon actual abstinence was required, sometimes of 
some article of food, but more frequently of the entire meal. 
Afterwards his past life was unfolded to him with all of its errors, 
and he was asked if he were willing to make amends. He was 
informed also how he might avert certain anomalous sensations 
which he believed to be threatening epilepsy. Old faces came 
back to him with great distinctness. At one time the face of a 
former mistress, who had given birth to a child a few months after 
her marriage to another man, appeared to him. Her child might 
possibly have been his, and this possibility became a reality in his 
disordered mental state. The voice told him that this child had 
inherited epilepsy from him and died finally from this disease. 
He was commanded to expiate this sin by passing nights without 
sleep, denuded of clothing and in bodily torture from exti'eme 
cold. It is a curious cii’cumstance that in his natural state of mind 
he had no actual faith in the existence of God, but was an agnos- 
tic. His delusions gradually disappeared, and at the end of four 
months he left the asylum on trial.” 
4. The Religions Delusions of Paranoia. 
In paranoia we have a mental organization Avhich is congenitally 
abnormal and predisposed to perverted action. In the great 
majority of cases there exists as early as puberty in both sexes a 
precocious sexual excitability which gives rise to an unnatural 
religious susceptibility and induces boys to plan to enter the 
ministry or to become priests, and girls to lead a life of devotion. 
Later in life the same persons become introspective and inclined to 
revery and day-dreams. As a rule they are inactive in their 
habits, disposed to read the Bible, to seclude themselves from 
society and to scrupulously observe religious ceremonies and 
services. They have a strong religious bias and are apt to embrace 
peculiar views or to be attracted by the latest novelty in religion. 
The immediate cause of the development of religious delusions is 
generally some physical ailment, an illness or a severe mental or 
physical shock. In rare instances they are the outcome of the 
delirium of fever; more generally, the result of physical or 
nervous exhaustion, and most frequently the sequence of excesses 9 
in masturbation or sexual exhaustion. The development of the 
full formed disease is usually marked by sleeplessness, hallucina- 
tions of vision or hearing, strange bodily sensations or acute 
mental distress. One patient after praying for several nights in a 
corn-held in great agony of mind, felt the burden of sin fall from 
his aching shoulders and saw it glide away in the darkness, dark, 
sinister and, to use his own expression, “like a small woodchuck.” 
Another recovering from typhoid fever had a vivid dream of 
heaven in which he saw himself seated upon the throne a recipient 
of divine homage. Ever after when fatigued or exhausted this 
grateful vision recurred to him until he finally had a fixed delusion 
that he was Christ. Another after a period of prayer, fasting and 
vague distress, at the age of 19 years, heard an audible voice 
conferring upon him the gift of prophecy. Such conditions of 
nervous tension, generally due to a physical cause, have been 
aptly termed by Krafft-Ebing “ receptive stages ” of paranoia, 
during which ideas and fancies are rapidly elaborated but 
imperfectly assimilated by the mind of the individual. The 
mental concepts in this stage may be likened to paintings in a 
picture gallery. They are mental images which do not seem to 
have any intimate connection with his own personality. He views 
them as a spectator simply, and feels interested in them in a 
general way. Like all other states of mental exaltation, this 
condition is not permanent but is sooner or later followed by ideas 
of persecution and great mental distress. The unfortunate 
patient who had enjoyed, a little time before, a vision of heavenly 
realities and “ saw what it is not lawful for a man to utter,” 
suddenly finds himself at the mercy of a wicked world, ruined in 
property and reputation, and the laughing-stock of his unfeeling 
associates who fail to appreciate his religious enthusiasm and care 
nothing for his aspirations. The stage of persecution thus 
inaugurated becomes a period of mental conflict, during which he 
is torn with doubt, overwhelmed with the taunts and threats of his 
friends and an object of persecution and derision. After a time 
the ideas and fancies which accompanied the receptive stage above 
described recur to his mind unbidden and offer a grateful contrast 
to the annoyances and persecutions of his daily life. Hallucina- 
tions of vision and hearing also help to confirm these pleasing 
impressions. He delights to dwell upon and derives consolation 
from them when alone, but the cup of happiness is repeatedly 
dashed from his lips by taunts and sneers of his vigilant 
persecutors. After days, months and sometimes years of alternate 10 
agony and bliss, despair and blessedness, the apparent truth finally 
dawns upon him that he is persecuted because of some peculiar 
divine power, heavenly gift, or special religious calling. All is 
now revealed to him. His life of mental anguish and distress has 
been a preparation for his sacred ministry. He consults his Bible 
and finds references to himself in nearly every passage. He is the 
“ Saviour,” “ Shiloh,” “ the Prince of Peace,” etc., and is destined 
to receive honors and blessings far superior to any earthly king. 
Generally, even in women, a strong sexual irritation is connected 
with these extravagant religious delusions. He desires to marry 
to perpetuate a holy race or to become the father of a Pope or the 
founder of a Holy Priesthood, or if a woman, she fancies herself 
destined to give birth to a Saviour. The following illustrative 
case will serve as a type of many others: 
“A. H., whose mother was insane and father eccentric and ill- 
balanced, at the age of 13 years displayed a precocious sexual 
sentiment and began to talk of matrimony. During the following 
ten years he offered himself in marriage to seven different persons, 
but for some reason was rejected by each one. At the age of 24 
years he became unsettled in mind and devoted himself to erratic 
inventions and the study of the Bible. Believing that God had 
commissioned him to preach, he dressed himself in a fantastic suit 
of scarlet velvet and armed himself with a two-edged sword. 
Thus attired he preached and distributed tracts of his own 
composition, which were largely composed of scripture texts and 
his own incoherent comments upon them. He announced himself 
a prophet and ‘the man on a white horse’ spoken of in the Revela- 
tion, whose special mission was to convert and restore fallen 
women. With these extravagant delusions were mingled 
delusions of persecution. He believed himself defrauded of 
property and ‘persecuted for righteousness sake.’ He was finally 
arrested and lodged in jail because of frequent threats to kill a 
relative, and was brought from the jail to the asylum. He said 
that he had done no violence to any person and had been guilty of 
no unjustifiable threats. He acknowledged that he was eccentric, 
that he had worn a fantastic suit and carried a two-edged sword 
in order to attract attention, but that the latter paraphernalia were 
‘a powerful agency’and calculated to attract attention and ‘do 
good.’ He explained that he threatened his sister and her 
husband because they ill-treated his mother, and that he destroyed 
property and threw articles from the house because he desired to 
get possession of his own. He claimed to have broken no law, and 11 
said that ‘the joke had gone far enough.’ He displayed many 
extravagant fancies. He knew more about the Bible than any 
other person, and through careful study was better qualified to 
teach the Scriptures than any divine. He spoke of the rottenness 
and hypocrisy of the church, and declared that several immoral 
women were church members at home. He declared that he had 
received much immoral solicitation and had witnessed lewd 
conduct on the part of several church members. When asked if 
his conduct was not calculated to cast doubts upon his sanity, he 
replied that martyrs in all ages had been persecuted for righteous- 
ness sake. He turned to the forty-ninth chapter of Genesis and read 
as follows: ‘ Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise; thy 
hand shalt be in the neck of thine enemies, thy father’s children 
shall bow down before thee. Judah is a lion’s whelp; from the 
prey my son thou art gone up; he stooped down, he couched as a 
lion, and as an old lion; who shall rouse him up? The sceptre 
shall not depart from Judah, nor a law giver from between his 
feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the 
people be.’ He claimed to be ‘ Shiloh,’ and to prove it quoted 
from the nineteenth chapter of the Revelation: ‘ And I saw heaven 
opened, and behold, a white horse, and he that sat upon him was 
called Faithful and True and in righteousness he doth judge and 
make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were 
many crowns, and he had a name written that no man knew but 
he himself, and he was clothed in a vesture dipped in blood, and 
his name is called the Word of God. And the armies which were 
in Heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, 
white and clean. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, and 
with it he should smite the nations, and he shall rule them with a 
rod of iron: and he treadeth the wine-press of the fierceness and 
wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on his vesture and on his 
thigh a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.’ He 
further said that his coming here was prophesied, and read from the 
twentieth verse of the second chapter of the Revelation to the close 
of the chapter. The adulterous woman referred to above he was 
shown in a vision by an angel of the Lord one year ago. He had 
offered himself in marriage to seven lewd women in succession 
without knowing their character, and had been rejected by each of 
them on account of his religious belief, but afterwards received a 
vision from the Lord which showed to him their true character. 
He also read numerous quotations from the Old Testament 
Prophets, which announced his coming and imputed to him 
supernatural powers and a divine mission. 12 
During his stay in the asylum he was at first much distressed 
by the lack of opportunity to carry out his divine mission, and 
made many complaints. With the lapse of time he became 
interested in useful employment and also displayed a talent for 
drafting and mechanical work. He developed a fatal facility for 
falling in love, and wrote many tender epistles to many different 
persons, of which the following will serve as a sample: 
Jer. 31: 22. A woman shall compass a man. 
Darling Mary: 
I cannot take, jSTo, for an answer. I know you love me and that is enough. 
* * Says God, ‘ Woe to them that take away the right of poor of my people.’ 
Isaiah 10. My grandfather was an English Lord in Ireland and left a great 
estate, of which I am the only heir, of the Rothschild lineage. But I have 
something better still, talent and genius, which never fail to secure for its 
possessor a position. There is a crown hanging over your pretty head and you 
may wear it soon if you can venture to strive for it a little. ‘ Are not my 
princes altogether kings?’ Isaiah 10: 8. Oh my lovely Angel Mary please 
promise me now and do not delay any longer, for I cannot rest day nor night 
for the excess of my passion of love, (your pretty hand.) Why not enter into 
that greatest of all earthly pleasures, matrimony? I have long wished to be 
a man among men and have a family of my own, but there was always some- 
thing stood in my way, as you see does now. There is a cause for this. My 
children are to be a sign of God’s blessing to Israel (Isaiah 8: 18.) and this is 
the depths of Satan to destroy the sign, that is to destroy the tree and its 
fruit. (Jer. 11: 19-23.) A great many clubs in a tree is a pretty good sign it 
bears good fruit. Hence my persecution.” 
5. The Religious Delusions of Epilepsy, Dementia and General 
Paresis. 
Contrary to the general opinion which has obtained, the delusions 
which accompany Epilepsy are net generally of a religious 
character. It is true that confirmed epileptics are much inclined to 
religious observances, attendance upon church services, and Bible 
reading, but these acts are generally the result of a previous religious 
education and are continued from force of habit after the develop- 
ment of mental disease. There is never or rarely any sense of 
religious fear or feeling of unworthiness, but rather a sense of 
satisfaction in the performance of religious duties. The epileptic 
frequently in conversation praises his own devotion to religion, or 
commends himself for having read the Bible most diligently, but 
there is beyond this no deep-seated religious feeling. His religious 
talk is automatic and the result of previous training. The same is 
true of the religious characteristics of confirmed dementia. Some- 
times there is a semblance of religious extravagance on the part of 13 
a demented man, but generally it may be traced to a previous 
religious education. Occasionally also in the dementia which 
follows religious melancholia there is an abiding habitual sense of 
religious unworthiness and spiritual deadness. In general paresis, 
on the other hand, there may be extravagant delusions of religious 
importance which closely resemble those which are developed in 
acute or chronic mania, and are due to the rapid flow of ideas 
through the brain and are a part of the general cerebral excite- 
ment. They are usually evanescent and rarely become systematized 
or controlling after the excitement passes away. None of these 
forms seem to require any illustrative cases. 
6. The Religious Delusions of Melancholia and Climacteric 
Insanity. 
In considering the religious delusions of those who suffer from 
melancholia it should not be forgotten that the entire mental 
training of many persons is in a religious direction. Their minds 
are disciplined to reflect upon religious doctrines, and their acquired 
knowledge is largely about their relations to God and His dealiugs 
with them. Outside of these abstruse topics they have little 
abstract thought, study or even reading. Their mode of thinking 
and bent of mind become eminently religious, and they are largely 
occupied with doctrinal discussions and theoretical speculations as 
to sin, repentance, future punishment and future reward. Often- 
times their views of God’s relations to them are crude and faulty, 
too often derived from a literal interpretation of Old Testament 
passages, or the study of the lives of biblical worthies, or the 
legends of middle-century saints. These erroneous views fre- 
quently originate painful delusions and suggest intellectual diffi- 
culties which would not have been developed had their original 
conceptions of religious duty been less faulty. Depressing 
religious delusions such as characterize melancholia develop more 
frequently among protestants than catholics. Among the former, 
too, delusions of distrust and unworthiness are more apt to be 
elaborated by processes of thought, and hence give rise to greater 
and more persistent mental distress than among the latter. The 
delusions of protestants usually relate to their exposure to divine 
wrath in consequence of a failure to perform some ethical duty. 
The delusions of catholics generally relate to the non-performance 
of a devotional act or penance or ceremony prescribed by the 
church. Among protestants religious delusions are generally 
based upon conceptions of God as a stern, unyielding ruler who 14 
commands instant obedience in thought, word and act. Hence 
motives are inquired into and conscience is put upon the rack to 
discern short-comings in intention, failures in refraining from 
thoughts of evil, and other equally hidden misdeeds. The mind 
of such a protestant is, in consequence, constantly under a severe 
strain, and conscience holds*it remorselessly up to an ideal standard 
of ethical duty, with little assistance from outside sources. Among 
catholics, on the other hand, absolution, confession and penance 
give support to the mind by showing that wrong-doing is not 
unpardonable and sin may be expiated. The melancholic religious 
delusions of protestants therefoi’e are those of despair, and are 
frequently accompanied by intense mental distress and strong 
suicidal proclivities. Among catholics, melancholic delusions are 
more apt to take the form of fastings, penance, the adoration of 
relics, etc., and are less hopeless. Among the religiously educated 
or piously inclined, delusions of distrust and fear generally 
develop in consequence of causes of exhaustion, such as ill-health, 
defects of digestion, over-work, over-worry, grief, want, preg- 
nancy, lactation and the climacteric. The last-named period of 
female life seems especially liable to awaken religious melancholic 
delusions. This epoch marks a period of life when certain organic 
forces and activities cease. There is a lowering of the vital tone 
and an interference with the spontaneity of vital processes. The 
mal-nutrition of the brain finds its expression in religious doubts, 
fears, mental distress and suicidal propensities. At this age 
depressing religious delusions are persistent, and give idse to in- 
tense and lasting mental distress. The sufferings of the religious 
melancholiac far exceed in intensity those of any other form of 
insanity. The paranoiac suffers, it is true, but he is comforted by 
the thought that he is wrongfully accused, and has a consciousness 
that he deserves benediction rather than reproach. The victim of 
melancholia, on the other hand, is doubly distressed by the feeling 
that he deserves it all and much more. The religious fear extends 
to motives, duties, privileges, present happiness, future misery— 
“every thought and intent of the heart” seem to unite to destroy 
the mental peace of the individual. The restlessness and religious 
despair which accompany atheromatous degeneration among the 
aged are similar in character and mode of development. Examples 
of religious melancholia are unfortunately so common as not to 
require any special illustrative cases. 15 
7. The Religious Delusions of Chronic Mania, Alcoholic or 
other Toxic Insanity. 
The religious delusions of chronic mania, alcoholic or toxic 
insanity are generally of an extravagant character, and relate to 
the possession of great power, personal importance and attributes 
which, if not divine, are certainly super-human. In the majority 
of cases the delusions seem but the crystallization of the feeling 
of extravagance which accompanied the period of maniacal 
excitement of alcoholic or opium intoxication. There is, however, 
this striking peculiarity in these delusions. They are not invari- 
ably developed in persons of a religious training or of a devo- 
tional habit of mind. In many instances these persons have been 
the reverse of religious, and have no conception of a devout 
attitude of mind. The melancholiac, like the publican of old, 
“standing afar off,” turns his attention to religious duties, and 
humbly acknowledges his ill-desert. The chronic maniac or alco- 
holic case perceives no impropriety in arrogating to himself 
religious pretensions. In certain rare instances, when hallu- 
cinations of hearing are present, the delusion becomes a depressive 
one. Numerous illustrative examples may be given. A male 
patient thought he was Jesus Christ, and it was his duty to hold up 
his right hand. If it fell, he feared the whole world would be 
destroyed. He afterwards fell into a trance and thought he was 
the “Crucified Christ.” He also called himself the “Lion of the 
tribe of Judah,” “Heaven’s New-born King,” “God‘with us,” 
etc. Another, thought he must expiate his sins and put himself 
in the attitude of Christ on the Cross. Another, thought he 
heard the voice of God distinctly command him to leave the 
asylum, to cross the ocean to India, to seek a mountain of gold 
which no one else had been able to discover. He had been 
commissioned by God to make its location known to the world. 
Later, he stood constantly in an attitude of prayer, because God 
had commanded him to give himself up for the sins of the world 
“ to stop its wickedness.” He asked to be shot through the 
temple, and declared it a sin against God to allow him to live. 
He had a tubercular disease of the testicle. 
The Connection Between Vicious Indulgences and Religious 
Delusions. 
The connection between sexual impulses and the development 
of religious delusions is not from any necessary association of 
ideas, but rather from the close association and inherent unity of 16 
emotional states. Whenever the emotions are stirred by any 
event, joy and sorrow, love and hate, hope and fear, pleasure and 
pain, are found closely related. In the sphere of the emotions one 
emotion may be quickly followed by an associated or contrasted 
emotion, without any adequate cause or logical reason. This part 
of man’s mind is like Pandora’s box. If one emotion is set free, 
all the others escape. In certain states of nervous instability the 
human mind becomes the theatre of shifting, constantly changing 
and conflicting emotions which dominate the reason and coerce the 
conduct. They may be excited by sights, sounds, odors even, and 
muscular movements, events, abstract ideas, reminiscences, and in 
short by everything which is external to man, and in turn they 
also may give rise to trains of thought, mental conceptions, other 
emotions and voluntary or automatic acts. Emotional states pre- 
dominate in the sexual and religious life of every individual. 
Religious and sexual sentiments have this in common. They are 
individual and personal, arising from organic causes which are 
mysterious and never to be fully understood, and leading to actions 
which are equally incomprehensible. Under the control of sexual 
impulses and religious emotions a man is revealed as he is in his 
inmost soul, without disguises or false appearances. Sexual 
impulses and religious sentiments have their origin and highest 
development alike in emotional states, even in a healthy mind. 
In states of disease arising from sexual abuse or sexual excess, a 
morbid religious feeling develops among the religiously educated 
as a part of a general nervous erethism. In these cases the 
religious delusions are the expression of a general state of 
emotional instability which had its origin in sexual emotions. No 
better evidence can be given of the truth of this statement than 
the combined sexual and religious sentiments of monks and nuns 
in the middle ages. Exhausted by penance and fasting, emotion- 
ally excited by constant dwelling upon religious topics and a life 
of asceticism and active devotion, it is little wonder that their 
adoration for the Virgin Mary or the Saviour was expressed in the 
language of earthly love. The same is also true of the earlier 
stages of insanity from alcoholic, opium or other narcotic 
indulgence. The quickening of the cerebral circulation and the 
hyper-nutrition of brain tissue give rise to delusions of religious 
extravagance. Later, however, when the nutrition of the body 
has become impaired by vicious indulgences and nerve and brain 
cells suffer from mal-nutrition, delusions of religious fear replace 
them. 17 
The Course and Termination of Religious Delusions. 
The religious delusions of over-stimulated children are generally- 
relieved by rest, freedom from study and a judicious correction of 
the educational errors which produced them. In many instances, 
however, the tendency to a degree of dementia is not fully 
arrested, and the child grows up to manhood or womanhood with 
a prematurely weakened brain and a liability to subsequent 
attacks of insanity. The same is true in a great measure of the 
religious delusions which accompany the insanity of pubescence. 
They are not systematized, and soon pass away. The insanity of 
pubescence, however, is liable to become periodic or recurrent 
mania, with a vicious circle of depression and excitement, and it 
is interesting to note that the religious delusions are generally lost 
sight of when mental disease becomes fully and unmistakably 
established. The religious delusions which accompany the 
insanity of masturbation are not necessarily incurable. They 
are however liable to become persistent and are not readily 
amenable to treatment. They may be considered incurable when- 
ever the patient has reached the stage of religious extravagance, 
which is surely indicative of mental deterioration. The religious 
delusions of paranoia are essentially incurable, being the legiti- 
mate development of a mental twist and the outgrowth of an 
abnormal personality. They eventually become thoroughly 
assimilated by the mind and an integral part of its constitution. 
During the stage of persecution they may at times pass from the 
mind, but after the stage of transformation they cannot. The 
religious delusions of epilepsy, general paresis, chronic mania, 
alcoholic and toxic insanity require little special mention. They 
are the debris of decay and the broken fragments of a hopeless 
mental wreck. The religious delusions of melancholia are more 
curable. They mark deep-seated disease, but the prognosis is not 
hopeless.