The Culture of Mass Delusions. Mental health and the consequences of denying reality.
- Charles Perez
- Sep 17
- 5 min read
(Image: Matt Kirk/Unsplash)
By Dave Doveton,
Anglican Mainstream
September 17, 2025
Thirty years ago, if you had told another person that men could marry one another and that young boys and girls were being encouraged to have their genitalia surgically removed, they would have thought you quite insane. If you were told that British citizens would be prohibited from flying the flag of St George or the Union Jack in their own country, it would have seemed an inversion of reality, just as boys attempted to become girls and girls, boys. One might also add another example – those law-abiding citizens who are being arrested for thinking ‘wrong’ thoughts outside abortion clinics. Not even the justice system is immune from what seems to be an infectious mind virus -If you are found to be in the UK illegally, you can avoid deportation by cross-dressing[i].
Many are unaware of the serious nature of the current mental health situation in both the United States[ii] and the UK. The National Institute for Mental Health[iii] in the US reports that 23% (more than 1 in 5) of adults live with some form of mental illness (defined as mental, behavioural, or emotional disorder). That rises to 36% for young adults aged 18-24. In the UK[iv], 1 in 4 people will experience a mental health problem in any given year (estimated at a staggering 10 million people[v]), and the rate of mental health problems is increasing each year. Not only that, but people are also finding ever more bizarre ways of dealing with mental issues. In Chicago USA, a newly formed ‘scream club’[vi] has been formed, where people ritually gather just to scream into the open air.
The scriptures do not have much to say on the issue of mental instability. Mark’s account[vii] of the demon possessed man of Gadara certainly had such as part of his brokenness, but this could have been purely as a result of demonic activity. In the Old Testament there is an instance of mental breakdown in the book of Daniel. King Nebuchadnezzar “was driven from among men and ate grass like an ox, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven til his hair grew as long as eagle feathers, and his nails were like birds’ claws.”[viii] He lost his mind (4:16) and his reason (4:34) for a period. This incident was prophetically predicted by Daniel, apparently being a judgement against the King by God – this because of pride (4:37), sinfulness, and a lack of mercy (4:27).
Spiritual Rebellion and Mental Health
“Claiming to be wise, they became fools…”[ix]
In this verse from Romans 1, Paul uses a word mōraino, translated as ‘fools’, which is derived from moros, or foolishness . It conveys the idea of senselessness, of inappropriate behaviour. The word is also used in classical Greek to denote a state of mental derangement, or being subject to powerful desires[x].
In the Gospels the same word is used in the sense of being the opposite of ‘wise’ (Matt 7:24-27; 25:1-13) and thus aligning with the Old Testament Septuagint use of the word as meaning ‘rebellion against God and disobedience of his word’. Thus we have an association of meanings – spiritual rebellion and mental illness. This is entirely consistent with the scriptural teaching of the interrelatedness of the human spirit, soul and body.
Inversion and Decadence
Looking at the larger context of the passage in Romans, we can see that it corresponds to the points Paul makes about human rebellion, and the consequences for a culture. There is a progressive and worsening situation. As people become more disconnected from God, they become more disconnected from reality. The descent into idolatry parallels a descent into an increasing disconnect from sanity and soberness. A worship inversion parallels a mental inversion from order to disorder (it also parallels a sexual inversion from ordered sexuality to disordered). This inversion is highlighted in the text in the following verse describing the objects of worship: “Claiming to be wise they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.” This references the creation sequence in Genesis Chapter 1:26, in which God gives dominion to man which is: birds and animals, then creeping things. There is a worship exchange from creator to creation, then the degrading movement in worship of ever lower life forms.
The Thomist theologian and highly respected Catholic exorcist and author Fr Chad Ripperger[xi], who has many years of experience dealing with people who have mental and spiritual brokenness, describes how a disconnect from reality plays a part in this brokenness[xii] . He makes the point that contemporary culture has adopted the postmodern idea that there is no absolute truth, and that truth is what we think or feel. In consequence, he says that people have become so disconnected from reality that when reality contradicts what they think or what they feel, they dissent from it. They then either ignore reality in a state of denial or try to bring reality to conform to their desires.
A cognitive dissonance ensues because God has designed our brains to apprehend reality, and when reality contradicts what we think or believe, we must bring ourselves into conformity with reality. The consequence of not doing so produces mental issues. The more that people become disconnected from reality, the more pain they experience because they come into conflict with reality more and more frequently.
The more people focus on themselves, the more disconnected from the world around, the more their mental health declines. Also, many try to deal with this by using power – imposing my will on reality. I believe we may be seeing this in the spate of violence by the transgender shooters in the United States recently, not least with the assassination of Charlie Kirk. The Christian writer Rod Dreher made this observation recently,
“… the trans phenomenon has taken in untold numbers of mentally ill people who have found in it an identity that allows them to valorize their psychopathy and to weaponize it against normal people.”[xiii]
Psychotic delusions are mental disorders, defined as fixed, false beliefs held with strong conviction despite clear evidence to the contrary, thus indicating a disconnect with reality. The NHS defines a psychosis as,
“… when people lose some contact with reality. This might involve seeing or hearing things that other people cannot see or hear (hallucinations) and believing things that are not actually true (delusions). It may also involve confused (disordered) thinking and speaking.”[xiv]
While there is some truth in naming what we are seeing in the acceptance of the transgender phenomenon in the culture, an instance of mass delusion – the acceptance of things that are not real or not true in a wide body of people – this is not mass psychosis but a sociological phenomenon[xv], a contagion of sorts. This contagion is focussed and amplified by modern social media platforms.
However, we do need to acknowledge the spiritual realities that lie behind a culture that is sliding ever more rapidly into decadence. Perhaps one of the lessons we may glean from King Nebuchadnezzar is that only a real return to Godliness in the leadership of civil society and government will result in an effective and lasting revival of the nation. Specifically, that leaders will honour God by turning from support of these false, anti-natural and delusional ideologies, and respect the created order.
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[ii] https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/wellness-and-prevention/mental-health-disorder-statistics
[iv] https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/types-of-mental-health-problems/mental-health-facts-and-statistics
[v] https://www.ibisworld.com/united-kingdom/bed/population-aged-18-to-64-years/44240/#:~:text=Recent%20Trends%20%E2%80%93%20Population%20aged%2018,2021%2D22%20to%2040.5%20million.
[vii] Mark 5: 1-20.
[viii] See Daniel Chapter 4.
[ix] Romans 1:22.
[x] See: Sophocles, Ajax 1150; Euripides, Hippolytus 966; Sophocles, Antigone 469f.
[xi] https://www.tumblarhouse.com/collections/fr-ripperger-books/products/introduction-science-mental-health-ripperger
[xii] See esp. this interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BB2tFKKA2VQ
[xv] https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/psych-unseen/202201/no-the-problem-america-isnt-mass-psychosis