Have I ever got a story to tell! Not only did my mother (who is criminally insane and who has very likely tried to kill me!), try to have me unlawfully committed to a psychiatric hospital where I spent a couple of weeks, Glen Oaks Hospital in Glendale Heights, IL violated my first amendment rights and denied me the opportunity to practice the religion of my choosing! Yes, you read that correctly and it is documented in court records! I told them repeatedly that I was Lakota, that my religious affiliation was Native American, and that I wished to see a Native American spiritual advisor and medicine man. I even provided them contact information for no less than 3 Native Americans that I either know or have a connection to, and told them that I would not speak to any white men if they did not produce a medicine man for me to speak with. I was actually dragged, literally, to solitary confinement (the quiet room) for refusing to speak and writing notes to the staff! And I was also told that I could not use the phone to contact an attorney of my choosing, which is a violation of their own hospital policies, not to mention the law!
I have already visited the Illinois State's Attorneys office where they told me that I could not even file an Order of Protection against my mother, who is a danger to me as long as that woman breathes! It was not enough that I was in the hospital; she proceeded to contact one of my friends and give him grief about my car! And she is still playing her crazy games with me! I picked up some of my belongings yesterday, and she was disposing of some of my things, and she had previously hidden some things that she was able to produce yesterday when she desperately tried to engage me and I would neither look at nor talk to her. Although I would not do anything to hurt anyone unless it was out of self-defense, my mother is dead to me! And she will no longer get one more quark of my precious energy!
And the Willowbrook Police Department that forcefully removed me from my own bedroom and who would do nothing to protect me and my rights, the doctor at Hinsdale Hospital who made the huge mistake of taking my mother's word instead of mine, and Glen Oaks Hospital, where I was transfered against my will, and who violated the U.S. Constitution can all go and fv(k themselves! And, no, I'm not mentally ill! I'm pissed off to the max! And I'm trying to get in contact with whoever is the Sioux Chief, the Lakota leaders, and any other members of the Native American Tribal Council who would be very interested in hearing how Glen Oaks Hospital piped their Adventist prayers through the intecom morning and evening, and how I had to eat according to the Adventist beliefs, and follow some of the Adventist ways of life, and I was denied access to someone who could have assisted me to get the hell out of that snake pit, and I was not allowed to speak with a Native American spiritual adviser or medicine man! And this was the very same hospital that allowed a Muslim woman to have a prayer rug and practice her Islam religion!
Oh, and I was given a diagnosis of Psychotic Disorder NOS (not otherwise specified) because 1) I refused to be more cooperative, and 2) I made what were deemed 'unreasonable' requests when I asked to speak to a Native American spiritual advisor or medicine man! And that request occurred after I had asked repeatedly to speak with the patient advocate, and was denied access, and then told by the hospital manager that they don't have one! And I also asked 4 times to speak with the hospital chaplain and was told there was not one available. According to the staff, there was no chaplain available in a general Adventist hospital! And it was only when I told them to enter my religious affiliation as Native American Spirituality, told them I was Lakota, and asked to speak with a spiritual advisor and a medicine man for an independent evaluation, did they finally produce the damn hospital chaplain, whom I refused to see at that point! Yea, I'm so damn crazy that I did everything I could possibly think of in order to get out of a psychiatric hospital! And I even told them that I didn't know if I had one single drop of Lakota in me; that I still had a right to practice any religion of my choosing. Little did they know that I had been practicing Native American spiritual ways, and had twice sat in Tracey Lost Bears sweat lodge in Tinley Park, IL. And that years ago I had taken possession of a medicine person's crystal knife that I believe is used for healing! Yep, I carry both the knife and my mojo bag!
And if anyone knows how to contact any of these tribal members, please, by all means let me know! And, btw, I'm posting using this name because I am now getting post alerts and emails to the email address associated with this username. And this username is about to become my real name, anyway. Just as PTree was my first initial and the English version of my last name, which is Latin for tree! That's how serious-as-a-heart-attack I am! And anyone can feel free to email me! I would be most grateful for any assistance!
I am so sorry for your trouble. No one needs those kinds of events in their lives...terribly frustrating.
I'm so glad you got out! You must be one smart cookie!
Reading your posts, here and there, I have always thought so.
Have you been able to secure yourself a safe home? ...Your own 'circle of warmth', as someone once called it?
I am sad for your mom, too. There is likely nothing you can do for her, except wish her well...from a safe and secure place of your own.
Recently, I had the opportunity to free my mom of her regrets. When she mentioned that, given the chance to raise her kids again, she'd do it differently. Out of the blue, I came up with the suggestion, "Let's say you did."
Her imagination leapt at the opportunity.
I figure that memory and imagination are stored in approximately the same place. Why not let one go and depend upon the other...especially if, in imagination, we do it better?
I very much like the third video link you gave, above. (I have no audio, right now.) I love the simple and clear philosophy...it's a beauty.
I've also been attempting to write my own philosophy, and some of how I got to it.
The good and happiness within a person is somehow separate from our day-to-day woes, I think. Maybe that's what life is all about...going to a better future...as a flower or a tree grows toward its fulfillment....building on the best of the past...hardships forgotten in the glory of the beauty ahead.