Apparently mental illness is quite common, affecting one in five people per annum. I’m not sure quite how serious such illnesses are, and how many suffer in a way that causes them to lose their grip on reality.
Nor can we always tell between delusions based on mental illness or on something else, such as excessive devotion to religion or to a sporting team.
For instance, in 1997, 4% of Americans surveyed believed that Elvis was still alive. Other surveys suggest that about 30% of Americans believe that Aliens have visited Earth. Not sure how the latter sits with American excessive religiosity.
In my everyday travails around Avondale Heights, I am sometimes reminded that some of the people who share my postcode might not be totally sane, if not actually utterly deluded.
Like, a few months ago, I encountered a woman twice, first when she was walking her dog, and a few days later at the bus stop, who went out of her way to accost me and ask if I noticed that there was more earthquake and volcanic activity lately. She explained that this was because God was angry about gay marriage and was going to punish us unless we turned to Jesus.
As I was in my front garden at the time she was walking her dog, and therefore my place of residence was known to her, I just nodded politely and did not suggest that perhaps she seek professional help.
A few days ago, I had another strange encounter. I had been out in West Maribyrnong, treating myself to a pizza and a bottle of Chianti at Il Palazzo, a very pleasant Italian restaurant. Whilst I had walked the three k to the restaurant, the walk home would involve going uphill for a kilometre from the bridge, something I find less pleasant, especially on a full stomach. Hence I decided to wait for the bus.
The other person waiting for the bus accosted me and asked if I believed in UFOs. Hmmm, I thought to myself. This is going to be an interesting conversation.
I replied that I am skeptical about UFOs and aliens generally, but that I have read widely on this topic and used to regularly buy UFOlogist Magazine right up until it folded a few years ago. [True – I delight in reading such rags, especially as most of the writers within their pages are not exactly either logical or evidence based in their arguments.]
What ensued was a most amusing conversation, in which I was assured by this chap that not only are UFOs real, but he has been abducted by aliens regularly, including from our very own suburb of Avondale Heights, that through them he has flown outside an aeroplane, and has even had sex with aliens – although he was very vague on how exactly any of these encounters (both the flying and the sex) actually happened.
He will be attending the Close Encounters experiencer dinner at the Yarraville Club in November, which apparently is only for those who have experienced alien contact first hand (a pity – I was actually thinking of attending myself).
I, of course, am a gifted conversationalist and was able to keep up my end with my treasure trove of trivia about that amusing pseudo-science we call UFOlogy.
I enlightened him that the reason that the Rubbles in the Flintstone cartoons were named Barney and Betty was directly due to the publicity from the Barney and Betty Hill abduction case not long before. [I am not sure if this is actually the case, but I did not invent it – I read it somewhere in all those non-evidence-based UFO articles I have amused myself with over the years.]
I also shared another more local fun fact – that Frederick Valentich, the pilot who disappeared over Bass Strait in 1978 whilst reporting to ground control that he was being buzzed by a UFO, was also an Avondale Heights resident. This is something that I read in the Wikipedia entry about Avondale Heights – he is one of the four notable residents of our suburb listed, along with comedian Shane Jacobson (whom I have never seen in our streets), former footballer Matthew Lloyd, and convicted manslaughterer Borce Ristevski (Avondale Heights happens to be the Manslaughter Capital of Australia).
Of course, I may be wrong. My smug hold on reality may all be a chimera and aliens may be real and walking amongst in Avondale Heights. But somehow I doubt it.
Lost For Words! 