Theos-Talk Archives (December 2002 Message tt00229)

--- In theos-talk@y..., "M N S" <redrosarian@y...> wrote:
> It is my understanding that illusion has more of a mental quality 
to 
> it while delusion is the combination of illusion that has both a 
> mental and an emotional quality to it. I'm not sure if this is a 
> theosophical perspective.

It has been awhile since I took psychology 101, but The Great Moon 
Illusion is a perceptual foulup, whereas in the DSM IV the delusional 
disorders (a class of psychiatric disorders) are mental rather than 
perceptual. Delusional Disorder, Persecutory Type is the medical 
term for what most lay people call paranoia. (As when Woody Allen 
says that "paranoids have enemies, too.") So in psychology IL-lusion 
and DE-lusion do have different meanings. Maya is usually translated 
as IL-lusion, but I am not sure if the term includes DE-lusions as 
well or not.

Does anyone know?