Abandoned owls, revelation and insanity

An interesting post on Word and Film urges Harry Potter fans to stop abandoning their pet owls now that the movies have come to an end.

http://www.wordandfilm.com/2012/05/harry-potter-fans-stop-abandoning-your-pet-owls/

The same post goes on to point us to a "three-part Opinion piece in the New York Times (here's part one) exploring the difference between spiritual revelation and mental illness."

What, exactly is the difference between revelation and insanity?  Are children mentally ill when they see monsters in the closet or under the bed?  Are religious people insane when they talk to an invisible God?  Are creative artists crazy, or perhaps childlike?

Was Philip K. Dick mentally ill when he encountered information from a parallel universe?

I don't understand why the New York Times piece refers to the "golden fish".  Phil always called it the "pink light".  In any case, it is interesting that a university professor finds the subject worthy of exploration.

Here's a snippet:

Skimming through and across multiple encyclopedia entries, Dick found links and correspondences of ideas everywhere. He also stumbled into the primary texts of a number of philosophers and theologians — notably the pre-Socratics, Plato, Meister Eckhart, Spinoza, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Marx, Whitehead, Heidegger and Hans Jonas. His interpretations are sometimes quite bizarre but often compelling.

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/20/philip-k-dick-sci-fi-philosopher-part-1/

Professor Simon Critchley seems blissfully unaware of the fact that Phil studied philosophy at the University of California, or that he continued studying philosophy on his own after leaving the university.

A word of advice:  If you click the links, read at your own peril.  These things might expand your mind.

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