Laird Shaw

Laird Shaw

	“	Here's my position for the record: based on the evidence I've read and seen, I've personally concluded that Uri Geller has psychic powers.	„
	—Laird Shaw

Laird Shaw (online pseudonym: Laird) is a self-described schizophrenic and ex-psychiatric patient from Tasmania who claims he is possessed by demons, that he believes paedophilia is caused by demonic possession and that he can communicate with ghosts. Shaw is a current admin of PsienceQuest.net, a pseudoscience forum that promotes the belief ghosts exist. Being literally insane, Shaw spends most his life as a deranged troll on the internet, posting his delusions, warped perception of reality and psychosis; this led him to discover Rome Viharo on the pseudoscience Skeptiko forum and both of them engage in a pointless warfare against RationalWiki.

Shaw is a fan of Uri Geller and is so dumb mentally ill he thinks Geller is a real psychic, writing he's convinced that Uri has psychic powers as I am that Spain exists.

Schizophrenia

Shaw claims to be a schizophrenic and ex-psychiatric patient:

As an ongoing survivor of some fifteen years, across three states, of the "mental health" system here in Australia, and having been diagnosed with "schizophrenia" at some point in those one and a half decades, I have always been vehemently opposed to the rights violations inherent and primary in being involuntarily sectioned and "treated" in psychiatric wards, as well as afterwards in the community on "treatment orders". I have always seen my "illness" in a combination of psychological/psychic and spiritual terms: as a psycho-spiritual condition. I have always seen medication as objectionable - perhaps even evil - even though, having been originally forced onto it, I then found (and now find) it difficult to avoid and withdraw from, not least of all because, if, in withdrawing, I re-enter a psycho-spiritually fraught state, I then come to the attention of concerned individuals, and inevitably find myself once again incarcerated in a psychiatric prison, and forced back onto medication, typically after having been subjected to electro-convulsive therapy (ECT).

It is, then, very encouraging and gratifying to read this book by Dr Richard Gosden given that it is very much a book of pro-"patient" advocacy, coming from exactly the same perspective as a psychiatric survivor such as myself, but with the added power of fleshing out the case against the psychiatric paradigm with a mind-bogglingly comprehensive and scholarly review of all relevant issues - very surprisingly and commendably given that, apparently, Dr Gosden is not himself a survivor of the system.

Dr Gosden makes the powerful case that the concept of "schizophrenia" is not grounded in anything more than a set of subjective observations which have been evolved by psychiatrists over the course of many decades (more than a century, I think). After thoroughly, and very impressively, reviewing all of the proposed causes for this set of subjective observations (the so-called "illness"), and explaining the deficiencies, failures and/or reasons for having been historically rejected of each of them, including the biological models used to justify "treatment" with anti-psychotic drugs, Dr Gosden plausibly argues that given the absence of a demonstrably singular (especially biological/familial) cause, the unreasonableness of the belief in being able to eventually discover one, and the subjectivity of the diagnostic criteria, the belief in the existence of some actual, singular mental illness, "schizophrenia", as it is currently understood in the psychiatric paradigm, looks very much like an act of faith on the part of psychiatrists.

After perceptively critiquing the broad applicability of the diagnostic criteria for schizophrenia of both the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) and ICD (International Classification of Diseases), Dr Gosden then goes on to describe several ways in which individuals might fall foul of these criteria in practice. One in particular stands out for me, given that it is my own experience: individuals undergoing a spiritual/mystical emergency. Such individuals, having been diagnosed with "schizophrenia", typically, under the aegis of having their "right to treatment" honoured, have their spiritual/mystical experiences (journey) curtailed through psychiatric intervention, to their ultimate detriment, and in violation of their internationally-recognised rights. I was particularly drawn to the quote and subsequent commentary that Dr Gosden provides in this context:

"In comparing modern schizophrenics with mythological heroes, Joseph Campbell, the great mythologist, summed up his opinion this way: ‘our schizophrenic patient is actually experiencing inadvertently that same beatific ocean deep which the yogi and saint are ever striving to enjoy: except that, whereas they are swimming in it, he is drowning’.6 Swimmers and non-swimmers might both be in the same waters, and their splashing might look the same to an untrained observer, but what is pleasurable exercise to one could be a life-or-death struggle for the other. The modern tragedy, however, for both swimmers and nonswimmers alike, is that all of them are now routinely drowned by the rescue efforts of an over-zealous and incompetent life-guard. This incompetence is largely due to ignorance about the nature of mystics and the mystical experience".

Dr Gosden goes on to discuss in detail, with careful reference to international covenants, exactly how having one's mystical/spiritual experience forcibly and involuntarily overridden by mind-altering substances is a violation of fundamental internationally-protected rights, as well as how these rights are cynically misinterpreted to the exclusion of "mental health patients", and how the supposed human rights watchdogs are not only disinterested in advocating for the rectification of this situation, but are actively hostile towards such a thing.

Dr Gosden mounts a compelling case that these rights violations are maintained by several protagonists: concerned and frightened families, who want only for their suffering family member to return to "normal" and stop suffering; pharmaceutical companies, who have a financial interest in expanding the market for their anti-psychotic drugs; and the State, which has an interest in neutralising "socially disruptive and potentially dangerous" individuals. He appropriately links all of this to the materialistic, mechanistic, isolating, cold, consumerist culture which is coming to subjugate our planet, and argues persuasively that certain cases of "schizophrenics" might actually be carrying valuable remedies against the peril in which we as a global society find ourselves both culturally and existentially, if only they (we) were allowed to work through their (our) madness to the end without intervention, and to emerge whole and wiser.

Along the way, Dr Gosden exposes conflicts of interest (corruption, in my view) in various advocacy organisations that take money and supposedly scholarly publication material from, and even ally themselves with, pharmaceutical companies, making it questionable who's really pulling the strings, and he eloquently and dispassionately argues against what I would refer to as the horrors, and - which Dr Gosden emphasises - utter misguidedness, of "preventive treatment" for youngsters deemed at risk for developing "schizophrenia".

Particularly impressive to me, especially given that, apparently, he has not undergone such an experience himself, Dr Gosden anticipates and rebuts the challenge that if he were to encounter a "real" case of "schizophrenia", in all of its florid paranoia, delusion, confusion and suffering, he would be less inclined to advocate for the "patient's" right to refuse treatment as opposed to the more realistic option of forced psychiatric intervention. Here, Dr Gosden points to the success of such drug- and psychiatric-dogma-free residential facilities as those "modelled along the lines of John Weir Perry’s Diabasis"; successful in that the individuals with the good fortune to pass through them successfully navigated their crises and emerged afterwards with the belief that the experience had, ultimately, been a positive one; one which benefited them. I had not heard of such facilities before, but, having researched a little into them, I am now gobsmacked that such a fantastic model of "madness sanctuaries" has been overrun and rendered defunct by the model of "psychiatric prisons". Such facilities as these are, I am convinced, the way of the future.

Thank you, Dr Gosden, for all of the time and effort you have put into knowledgeably, skilfully and intelligently speaking up on behalf of people like myself: people who, whilst relatively articulate, suffer from the prejudice and stigma attached to a psychiatric diagnosis, making it all too easy for our own advocacy to be presented as either delusional ("lacking insight") or emotionally self-interested and biased. We psychiatric survivors owe you a great debt for writing this very compelling and powerful book.

Crazy beliefs

Demons and paedophilia

Shaw claims to be possessed and in communication with demons, and in the same bizarre post claims paedophilia is the result of evil spirits (demons):

Demonic beings, and potentially a supreme evil being going by a name like Satan or Lucifer, exist and can communicate with and influence "ordinary" human beings. I have been communicated to verbally by such a being, and have been, at times, influenced by metaphysical evil to the point of paralysis. So, when various posters to this thread speculate that paedophiles - whom we know exist - are being driven by evil spirits (demons), my reaction is "That's entirely possible - plausible even. And when various folk talk about ritual initiations by the powerful into secret societies, or even into fame and fortune through "contracts with the Devil", I say: that's certainly possible, and fits with my own experiences.

Spirit mediumship

Shaw holds crackpot views about communicating with spirits:

Extremely likely to likely. Why? Because of veridical information which cannot be explained by trickery. e.g. the double(triple?)-blind studies conducted by Julie Beischel. I must say though that when it comes to the proposition that the communication comes from the actual supposedly deceased entity, I am agnostic. There are plenty of spirits out there who watch our every move and who could potentially impersonate any being whom they have observed. Not all of these spirits are benign. Thus, I would be unlikely to actually consult a medium, and would certainly be very wary of any advice they offered that was supposedly from a deceased friend/relative.

Sex obsession

File:Laird Shaw forum.png

One for the ladies... Laird Shaw's ugly mug he used on the forum he was sex obsessed on.

Because of his bad mental health and having been confined to psychiatric wards for many years, Shaw claims he has hang-ups with women and getting sex because of his social isolation he still claims to be recovering from; for this reason he’s been described by one user on a forum as “sex-obsessed” for talking about sex in too many posts:

	“	It sounds as though you have been repressing your own desire for female company and sex for many years, due to your own emotional issues, and now the thought of accessing these things has become an obsession. To my ears, your thoughts on these matters are incredibly adolescent. You sound like an inexperienced, desperate, sex-obsessed teenager. In all honesty, you don’t really belong on this forum at all, and I’m not sure how long I can put up with your sexual obsessiveness intruding into things all the time.	„

Shaw responded about his sex obsession and pestering of females:

	“	It's true that I have had a few personal problems in recent years that have made it impossible for me to even interact with women. In that time though, I was so messed up (and isolated - it's a lot easier to be without desire when you're not around the objects of your desire) that sex and the desire for female company was the furtherest thing from my mind anyway. It's only now, as I overcome those problems and start to again engage with society, that my desires and yearnings return in full force. And yes, it is a potent experience.	„

See also

• Laird Shaw/deleted RationalWikiWiki article
• Anti-RationalWiki Legion
• Mikemikev - schizophrenic Nazi equivalent
• Emil O. W. Kirkegaard

Laird Shaw is part of a series on Trolls Visit the Trolls Portal for complete coverage.

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Laird Shaw is part of a series on Psychology