Some science behind the scenes
False pregnancy
False pregnancy is termed pseudocyesis by doctors when women get it, couvade syndrome when men get it and pseudopregnancy when animals get it.
It is not an illness but an odd condition with numerous causes. It can be a condition which occurs accidentally and might be classified by those who get it as an illness - or at least an inconvenience - tying your shoe laces becomes really problematical, but one can deliberately induce a false pregnancy in order to obtain a spiritual experience ranging from full kundalini type experiences to out of body, hallucinations, visions plus others.
Both men and women can get this – odd though it may sound.
Historical examples
False pregnancy was, at one time, quite common amongst the spiritually aware – nuns, monks, Dionysian priests and nymphs, saints, shinto shrine maidens, geishas, the initiates of the Eleusian mysteries, yogis……….
In fact anywhere that they practised sexual techniques in order to promote spiritual experience, this could be a side effect
Dionysian Mysteries – from a guide to the Villa of Mysteries Pompei
“The action of the rite begins with the initiate or bride crossing the threshold as the preparations for the rites begin. Her wrist is cocked against her hip. Is she removing her scarf? Is she listening to the boy reading from the scroll?
Is she pregnant?
The nudity of the boy may signify that he is divine. Is he reading rules of the rite? He wears boots. The officiating priestess (behind the boy) holds another scroll in her left hand and a stylus in her right hand.
The condition was well known to our Pre-Rapahelite Brotherhood and indicated in paintings by using the ‘girdle slung low’ to indicate that the heroines of the spiritual path had just such a condition.
Right – Church on the Island of Mull at Dervaig. Stained glass window. The window appears to be by a Thomas Eversfield, named on a church plaque, and displaying two Templar crosses
Homeric Hymn to Demeter.
I begin to sing of Demeter, the holy goddess with the beautiful hair.
And her daughter [Persephone] too. The one with the delicate ankles, whom Hades seized.
She was given away by Zeus, the loud-thunderer, the one who sees far and wide.
Demeter did not take part in this, she of the golden double-axe, she who glories in the harvest.
She [Persephone] was having a good time, along with the daughters of Okeanos, who wear their girdles slung low.
Big bellies are a sign of sexual energy and as a consequence spiritual energy – potential kundalini energy. People could become ‘gods’ via kundalini energy experiences.
Signs and symptoms
The most marked sign of false pregnancy is the swelling of the stomach or abdomen. The swelling looks identical to that a pregnant woman would have.
What is key and what provides an easy and immediately recognisable sign of false pregnancy is the belly button.
In real pregnancy, the belly button gets ‘everted’ - it sticks out. Shown right.
But in a false pregnancy it stays recessed or inverted in the normal way
What other symptoms are there?
- If the person menstruates, this usually stops. In only a very small number of cases does it not stop.
- There may be a craving for strange foods or only certain foods. There may be nausea and actual sickness. The breasts may enlarge.
- But there may also be constipation and wild fluctuations in body temperature with hot flushes reminiscent of the menopause. There may be the need to urinate more often. There may also be a significant deposition of fat on the front of the body around the abdomen.
- Any alcohol will make you feel very ill and you will not want alcohol at all.
- There may be hallucinatory smells – pine, smoke, lemon – both pleasant and unpleasant.
- There may be a feeling that there is a fetus inside with fetal ‘movements’ or at least something moving inside – this can happen to men and women
- There may be cramp not dissimilar to those experienced during a period. The back may hurt particularly at the base of the spine near the kidneys. The cramps may also be experienced in the same area but in places other than the womb area. Moving can sometimes help, sometimes not.
- There may be quite significant pain on some occasions, with pains shooting up the spine.
Observations
For iPad/iPhone users: tap letter twice to get list of items.
- Anti-psychotics caused delusions of pregnancy
- Eleusinian Mysteries - Thesmophoria - 02
- Eleusinian Mysteries - Thesmophoria - 03
- Eleusinian Mysteries - Thesmophoria - 04
- Eleusinian Mysteries - Thesmophoria - 06
- Eleusinian Mysteries - Thesmophoria - 07
- Eleusinian Mysteries - Thesmophoria - Opium
- Janet, Pierre - L'Automatisme psychologique – False pregnancy brought on by suggestion
- Lalla - Your way of knowing is a private herb garden
- Mayan - False pregnancy in a man
- Pat a cake pat a cake
- Shah, Idries - The Sufis - QaLB
- The Possession of Sister Jeanne des Anges