Not too many years ago I stayed up late drinking and arguing with an old friend about our different world views. I’m a sceptical atheist and a physicalist, and she…well she believes in a lot of things that I don’t. At one point I said something like, “If at some point in the future I started believing in those things, then from my present perspective I’d have to say that I’d gone crazy.” I didn’t mean that I think people who believe things that I don’t are insane, only that if I believed them then something seriously wrong must be happening with my thought processes.
Less than a year later I started to believe in astrology. As it turns out I had gone crazy and my belief in astrology was delusional: it was a result of my illness and went away when I was treated. At the time I didn’t think my new belief was odd, despite what I’d said to my friend, because I thought that I now had an insight into how astrology worked (it seemed obvious given the fractal nature of the Universe).
It’s slightly disconcerting knowing that my core beliefs can be affected by my illness: I’d feel much more comfortable thinking that they’re fixed and unchangeable. After all, aren’t they what make me who I am?
