Thread by @owenbroadcast

william miller (millerites, got people amped for Jesus’s imminent to the day return in the mid 1800s) is the only case ive found stone cold documented of something im sure happens often - people convincing a doctor or therapist checking if theyre insane of their worldview. [...]

basically he read the book of daniel and ran the prophecy through corresponding with a few other parts of the bible and determined that it said Christ was returning in a specific year, in the 1840s (i am not saying i believe this although obviously i think its cool + interesting)

so he got really obsessed with it, spent years going over it, and was like yeah im totally correct, this is what it says. so he started telling people. they of course thought he was insane. specifically he got labeled, a very cool 1800s term, a monomaniac.

thats someone who is totally sane except for one issue. eventually at some point there was a doctor at his house, the doctor could tell something was bothering him, miller asked if the doctor could tell if someone was insane or a monomaniac, and the doctor said yes, i can do that

so miller paid him to analyze him and they went over the whole thing and eventually the doctor came back and said, yeah youre totally right actually.

lol.

i have assumed, based on nothing really, that this must happen sometimes. i am wondering how many other cases are known.