Delirium tremens - alcoholic delirium, or, as the people affectionately call it, "squirrel" - is an acute mental disorder associated with excessive alcohol consumption.
Delirium tremens is a consequence of “professional hobby for alcohol, but always occurs only on a sober head, 3-4 days after leaving a long binge. It is the most common type of alcohol-related mental disorder, accounting for up to 80 percent of cases.
The cause of delirium tremens is toxic brain damage. Such problems most often occur in men who are 7-10 years old who systematically abuse alcohol. Why do they occur during recovery from a binge? Because there is abstinence, a kind of alcoholic "withdrawal". Sometimes psychosis can be triggered by a traumatic brain injury or a severe infection suffered by an alcoholic. The mechanism is still the same - oxygen starvation of the brain plus poisoning with a whole cocktail of toxins.
Against the background of acute abstinence that occurs during this period, the patient develops headaches, vomiting, speech and coordination disorders, trembling of the limbs, and fever. Soon, an inexplicable feeling of depression and anxiety is added to these symptoms, sometimes turning into panic fear. The onset of insomnia adds suffering to the patient. Soon he begins to hear frightening sounds and strange speech, visual hallucinations are mixed with this: the patient sees scenes from horror films familiar to him, insects, small animals, which, as it seems to him, crawl over his body, penetrate his mouth and ears.
Devils get over
However, the most common characters in painful visions of people suffering from delirium tremens are devils. Even in Kievan Rus, the expression "to drink to the devil" was common. In the chronicles of the Danilov Monastery of the 15th century, a curious fact is mentioned: after excessive consumption of intoxicating drinks, several monks began to “chase the horned around the refectory. By order of the abbot, violators of the monastic order were immediately tied up and placed in a cold basement for re-education.
Some researchers believe that Ivan IV suffered a series of attacks of delirium tremens, during which the autocrat, as the court chroniclers assure, "fought off the invisible devils, as if from the fire of hell."
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For centuries, Western spirits have also known the devils. One of the English legends tells of the jester of King Arthur, who entertained the noble knights with themes. that after a long feast he had the habit of running through the rooms of the castle and crushing the hairy and tailed creatures with goat's horns, which got tangled under his feet …
"Devils drunkards" figure not only among peoples traditionally related to Christian culture. In particular, it is known that before the arrival of Europeans in America, Indian tribes did not know alcohol, but used light drug addicts that relieve stress, promote the expansion of consciousness and were used during religious rituals. The use of psychotropic substances of plant origin did not give frightening visions, only caused colorful superficial dreams on the verge of reality. However, after acquaintance with traditional European alcoholic beverages, the concept of "invisible furry spirit" became firmly established in the everyday life of various American tribes, which overcame the Indians, who were weakened from immoderate libations.
In the thirties of the last century, Soviet doctors who arrived en masse in the regions of the Far North were surprised by the stories of Chuchkas, Evenks, Khanty and Mansi, who had suffered bouts of alcoholic psychosis, about horned animals that harassed them during illness. By that time, these northern peoples were already familiar with the primordially Russian drink - vodka, for which, before the revolution, they had exchanged furs with merchants for decades. According to the descriptions of the patients, the frightening entities were very similar to traditional devils, although there are no such characters in the pagan pantheon of northern peoples.
Extramaterial causes
Back in the 50s of the last century, an American psychic, chemist by training, Richard Flim, suggested that the frightening visions of alcoholics during attacks of delirium tremens are not so much pathogenic as extra-maternal in nature. This conclusion was prompted by the works of medieval Western theologians, as well as Indian Vedic treatises, according to which certain human vices (which at all times included drunkenness) are formed and supported by a certain evil spirit or demon. R. Flaim established: despite the fact that every alcoholic beverage (whiskey, cognac, wine, beer, etc.) has its own chemical formula and has a strictly defined effect on the body, including the human mind, everyone has a strong drinking people have the same vision.
Devils came to each of them at least once. He stated this during an interview given in 1958 to the Chicago radio station. At the same time, R. Flaim reported that he was able to notice some dark (in the literal sense of the word) entities next to people possessed by attacks of delirium tremens, while the others who were present at this did not observe anything frightening.
Already in the mid-nineties of the XX century, Chelyabinsk psychiatrist Nikolai Pravdin, who discovered in himself after a serious car accident para-psychological abilities, at one of the conferences of psychiatrists held in Yekaterinburg, made a report in which he stated: alcohol not only destroys the human body … Ethyl alcohol contained in strong drinks carries a strong negative energy, which thinns the human etheric field, breaks down its structural lattice.
In addition, alcohol changes the frequency of electrical impulses and, accordingly, oscillations in the nerve cells, which makes it possible for the human eye, under certain conditions, to see what in the normal state it cannot perceive. In particular, creatures from parallel worlds who, like vampires, surround the drunkard, devoid of a protective energy field, and devour the emanations of his mental and astral bodies …
History
“My former classmate Olya's mother was sick with schizophrenia. From time to time she was taken to a psychiatric clinic, treated and released home. Then Olya's mother became paralyzed, and for the last two years before her death she lay at home, bedridden. She was looked after by Olya and Olya's older sister Lida, who also lived in this apartment with her alcoholic husband, who periodically drank to the point of delirium tremens.
Once Lida's husband once again caught a "squirrel" and suddenly huddled into a corner, and began to say that people, about 40 people, were crawling out from under the floor, and at the same time one of them had a pig's nickle, and the other had a fiery red muzzle. The alcoholic spoke all this in a whisper, huddled in panic fear into the narrow gap between the refrigerator and the wall in the kitchen.
At this very time, the paralyzed mother of Olya and Lida began to call her daughters. When the girls entered her room, she asked what strangers were doing in their apartment, a lot, about 30-40 people. And next to her bed, her mother pointed out (“Here they are!”) There are two: one with a pork nickel and the other with a red muzzle.
Olga's apartment is large, three-room. Mother lay in the back room behind a closed door and could not hear what the alcoholic son-in-law was whispering in the kitchen."
Story by the brilliant Vladimir Nabokov "In memory of LI Shigaev" (thirties, Paris).
His description of devils is the most vivid in world literature. I am pleased to cite an excerpt from this story, which deals, among other things, with the visions of an alcoholic. However, I will clarify right away: the fact that these are visions of an alcoholic does not make them outside the framework of the paranormal. For some reason, hallucinations of sick people are not considered an abnormal phenomenon by anyone. I will undertake to prove the opposite.
“Through prolonged, stubborn, lonely drunkenness, I brought myself to the most vulgar visions, namely, to the most that neither is Russian hallucinations: I began to see devils. I saw them every evening, as soon as I got out of my nap to dispel the twilight that was already flooding us with the light of my poor lamp. Yes: more clearly than I see my ever-trembling hand now, I saw the notorious newcomers and in the end I even got used to their presence, since they did not really creep into me. They were small, but rather fat, the size of a full-grown toad, peaceful, lethargic, black, in pimples. They crawled more than walked, but for all their feigned clumsiness they were elusive. I remember that I bought a dog's whip, and as soon as there were enough of them on my table, I tried to draw them out well - but they surprisingly escaped the blow: I again with a whip … One of them, the nearest one, just blinked,he closed his eyes crookedly, like a tense dog, which they want to tear away from some seductive dirty trick with a threat; others, wriggling their hind legs, crawled away …
But they all slowly gathered again as I wiped spilled ink off the table and lifted the fallen portrait. Generally speaking, they were most common around my table; appeared from somewhere below and, slowly, with sticky stomachs rustling and smacking, climbed - with some kind of caricature-sailor tricks - along the legs of the table, which I tried to smear with Vaseline, but it did not help at all, and only when I did it happen, I will take a liking to such an appetizing bastard, concentratedly climbing up, but grabbing it with a whip or a boot, he plopped on the floor with a thick toad sound, and a minute later, looking, he was already getting from another corner, sticking out his purple tongue from zeal - and, behold, he crossed and joined to the comrades. There were many of them, and at first they seemed to me all the same: black, with puffy, but rather good-natured, muzzles, they,in groups of five, six, they sat on the table, on papers, on a volume of Pushkin - and looked at me indifferently; another would scratch his foot behind his ear, scratching hard with a long claw, and then froze, forgetting about his leg; another dozed, inconveniently crawling over a neighbor, who, however, did not remain in debt: the mutual neglect of reptiles, who know how to numb in intricate positions. Little by little, I began to distinguish between them and, it seems, even gave them names according to their resemblance to my friends or different animals. There were bigger and smaller ones (although all are quite portable), duller and more decent, with blisters, with tumors and completely smooth … Some spat at each other … Once they brought with them a newcomer, albino, that is, ash-white, with eyes like chum eggs; he was very sleepy, sour and gradually crawled away. "on the volume of Pushkin - and they looked at me indifferently; another would scratch his foot behind his ear, scraping hard with a long claw, and then froze, forgetting about his leg; another dozed, inconveniently crawling over a neighbor, who, however, did not remain in debt: the mutual neglect of reptiles, who know how to numb in intricate positions. Little by little, I began to distinguish between them and, it seems, even gave them names according to their resemblance to my acquaintances or different animals. There were bigger and smaller ones (although all are quite portable), duller and more decent, with blisters, with tumors and completely smooth … Some spat at each other … Once they brought with them a newcomer, albino, that is, ash-white, with eyes like chum eggs; he was very sleepy, sour and gradually crawled away. "on the volume of Pushkin - and they looked at me indifferently; another would scratch his foot behind his ear, scratching hard with a long claw, and then froze, forgetting about his leg; another dozed, inconveniently crawling over a neighbor, who, however, did not remain in debt: the mutual neglect of reptiles, who know how to numb in intricate positions. Little by little, I began to distinguish between them and, it seems, even gave them names according to their resemblance to my friends or different animals. There were bigger and smaller ones (although all are quite portable), duller and more decent, with blisters, with tumors and completely smooth … Some spat at each other … Once they brought with them a newcomer, albino, that is, ash-white, with eyes like chum eggs; he was very sleepy, sour and gradually crawled away. "scraping hard with a long claw, and then froze, forgetting about his leg; another dozed, inconveniently crawling over a neighbor, who, however, did not remain in debt: the mutual neglect of reptiles, who know how to numb in intricate positions. Little by little, I began to distinguish between them and, it seems, even gave them names according to their resemblance to my friends or different animals. There were bigger and smaller ones (although all are quite portable), duller and more decent, with blisters, with tumors and completely smooth … Some spat at each other … Once they brought with them a newcomer, albino, that is, ash-white, with eyes like chum eggs; he was very sleepy, sour and gradually crawled away. "scraping hard with a long claw, and then froze, forgetting about his leg; another dozed, inconveniently crawling over a neighbor, who, however, did not remain in debt: the mutual neglect of reptiles, who know how to numb in intricate positions. Little by little, I began to distinguish between them and, it seems, even gave them names according to their resemblance to my acquaintances or different animals. There were bigger and smaller ones (although all are quite portable), duller and more decent, with blisters, with tumors and completely smooth … Some spat at each other … Once they brought with them a newcomer, albino, that is, ash-white, with eyes like chum eggs; he was very sleepy, sour and gradually crawled away. "able to numb in intricate positions. Little by little, I began to distinguish between them and, it seems, even gave them names according to their resemblance to my friends or different animals. There were bigger and smaller ones (although all are quite portable), duller and more decent, with blisters, with tumors and completely smooth … Some spat at each other … Once they brought with them a newcomer, albino, that is, ash-white, with eyes like chum eggs; he was very sleepy, sour and gradually crawled away. "able to numb in intricate positions. Little by little, I began to distinguish between them and, it seems, even gave them names according to their resemblance to my acquaintances or different animals. There were bigger and smaller ones (although all are quite portable), duller and more decent, with blisters, with tumors and completely smooth … Some spat at each other … Once they brought with them a newcomer, albino, that is, ash-white, with eyes like chum eggs; he was very sleepy, sour and gradually crawled away. "that is, white-ashy, with eyes like chum eggs; he was very sleepy, sour and gradually crawled away. "that is, white-ashy, with eyes like chum eggs; he was very sleepy, sour and gradually crawled away."
I do not presume to judge to what extent the description of devils given by Nabokov is based on the hallucinations experienced by him or some of his acquaintances, but obviously something experienced is at the heart of this description. In any case, millions of alcoholics suffering from delirium tremens have seen and are seeing approximately the same. Nabokov is mistaken about one thing: he calls these "glitches" traditionally Russian, although alcoholics see devils not only in Russia, and not only in Belarus, Ukraine and other Slavic countries, but also everywhere in Europe, America, Africa, Asia.
Western European engravings from the Middle Ages depict devils pestering drunkards. These are the same devils as in the drawings of modern patients with delirium tremens and in clinics in Russia, and in clinics in the United States, and in clinics in China. A patient with delirium tremens is in the overwhelming majority of cases devils. This is the law, this is the fact. And until now science has not explained this fact in any way. The devil is a folkloric creature. And it got into folklore (and into the idea of hell) precisely from the hallucinations of alcoholics.
One, with an agreeable character, are sluggish, small devils - as in the description of Nabokov. Others, people who are cruel and aggressive, are two-meter-tall devils eager to strangle, kill - from these hallucinations such alcoholics turn gray in a couple of days.
In all hallucinations, the traits are the same (like a functioning organism) and are a cross between a man and a goat. Strange, but doctors in clinics are not surprised by the similarity of devils in these hallucinations. In the USSR, they gave this explanation: they say, everyone read Pushkin and saw illustrations for his fairy tale about Balda, hence the image of a devil appears in every alcoholic. In fact, not every alcoholic has read Pushkin's fairy tales (in which, I note, nothing is said about alcoholism), and such an assumption in relation to alcoholics of the 19th century, the bulk of whom have never seen a single book in their lives, is absolutely ridiculous.
Among scientists there was also the opinion that the appearance of devils as the main characters in the hallucinations of alcoholics is explained by the specific destructive influence of alcoholism on the brain. Drug addicts do not see devils, they get larger-scale "glitches". And in this case, as some scientists believed, devils became a special reaction of the brain to an excess of alcohol.
This opinion seems superficial, too general. Intoxication is caused not by alcohol itself, but by its compounds, which are different for different alcoholic beverages. Alcoholic intoxication has a completely different character when using cognac, vodka, wine, beer, moonshine and others. All of these drinks have a different chemical formula, hence the different effects. But the devils are everyone: both those who drink cognac and those who drink moonshine. But more confuses another. The main difference between the hallucinations of drug addicts (LSD) and the devils of delirium tremens has been overlooked or overlooked by the medical profession. The first have hallucinations in essence, a dream of consciousness, they are disconnected from reality; this dream, like any dream, is individual, everyone has their own and always new. They fall asleep and sleep. But patients with delirium tremens have no disconnection from reality, they are fully conscious.
But always and constantly devils wedge themselves into reality. Nabokov, judging by his story, wrote his things, brushing devils off the table. But everything else was absolutely normal, real. In fact, delirium tremens is only one thing: the appearance of devils in everyday life, which, except for an alcoholic, no one sees. It's a riddle, an unsolved riddle. Science is silent here, because it cannot say anything yet, it only collects facts, although this is terribly interesting for specialists, they told me about this. But in the press, in society, this riddle does not interest anyone. Alcoholics are too nasty to study their hallucinations with an open mind. Therefore, for society and for that part of it that is interested in paranormal phenomena, this mystery does not exist. That is, there is some kind of taboo.
Alcoholics are left alone with devils by the fact that they are alone in their visions. Nobody but them sees these devils. This, in fact, is not surprising, because everyone has their own devils, with their own character, which, as it is not difficult to see, is a mirror image of the patient's character. Therefore, ghosts are readily discussed in the press, but devils of fever patients are considered only in narrow medical periodicals, and even then only from the point of view of fighting delirium tremens. Nobody thinks about the devilry of alcoholics, although everyone often used to say about himself "got drunk to hell." Not attaching importance to what was said. I think this phrase will take on a different meaning in the mouth of the speaker when he sees the devils himself. I myself have not seen devils. Perhaps he never got drunk like that. But I was not the only one who paid attention to the strange constancy of visions in all patients with delirium tremens.
At various times, attempts were made to photograph or in some other way fix the images of hallucinations. Not sleep in drug addicts, but hallucinations of patients with delirium tremens. In fact, researchers in different countries have tried to photograph the devils. Everything turned out to be unsuccessful, but I do not presume to say that this cannot be done with the help of technologies that have appeared in recent years. Unfortunately, due to the society's dislike of alcoholics, such studies are extremely rare, episodic. This article may nudge someone to try again to catch devils, although I hardly believe in it, but I want to hope.
I will add, if I had the opportunity, I would certainly develop a new program of such research. And would not be limited to simply analyzing aspects of the problem. However, first I would try to make sure that such an opportunity to shoot devils exists in theory. But if I came to the conclusion that it is theoretically impossible to do this, then, naturally, in this case I would abandon such attempts.
We saw…
Psychiatrist Gennady Krokhalev in the early 70s tried to prove that hallucinations can be recorded with photographic film. Wearing a diving mask, he replaced the glass with a camera, put this device on the subject, pointing the lens directly into the pupil. He conducted these experiments just with patients with delirium tremens. And in half of them, the film allegedly clearly recorded certain images. But these experiments were not taken seriously by science. Photos, the results of experiments were rejected. Krokhalev proceeded from the premise that hallucinations created in the brain should supposedly inevitably be reflected in their signals in the pathways from the eye to the brain and back. Therefore, they say, you can photograph a hallucination in the pupil of the eye. Science completely rejects this possibility. If that were the casethen to the eye of each of us in a dream it would be possible to attach the lens of a video camera and film the dream. Then, when we woke up, we could watch it again with friends - on the home TV screen. All of this is completely unscientific. The pupil is not a TV.
The approach itself is wrong, perhaps for another reason. Yes, the visions of alcoholics are individual. But as I will show below, "hallucinations" are often massive. Their mechanism is unclear, but it is clear that their generator lies outside the brain of a particular person. And it was there that Krokhalev was mistakenly looking for devils. I want to clarify right away: I see the meaning of the word "hallucination" here differently than its generally accepted meaning. While conditional. Very conditional. The ufological term "fast-flowing unidentified phenomenon" would be more suitable for him, even if the ufologists are angry. This, I will say carefully, is a kind of short materialization of thoughts. Thought form, how vague and vague it sounds among domestic researchers of the paranormal. Several very typical cases of the manifestation of such thought forms are cited by the journalist and writer I. B. Tsareva in the book "These mysterious animals" ("Olymp Astrel",Moscow, 2000). The author of the book, however, deliberately does not comment on these cases, leaving it to analysts. But the value of the book lies in the fact that it contains hundreds of testimonies of ordinary people faced with the inexplicable: these are mainly letters from readers.
"Secrets of the XX century" September 2012