Why do people claim prophethood?The purpose will be to look at prophethood claimants and try to figure out their motives behind it. We will consider two approaches. In the first approach, we will not doubt their intentions while seeking the purpose behind it. Let's unveil what we are investigating in the first place. Before we go ahead, this paper is written with a firm perspective that prophethood is true and prophets do exist. The purpose of this paper is to not deny prophethood but rather fake claimants of the same. For now, we will assume prophets exist, (we will establish prophethood in another paper) yet people who claim to be prophets are lying. They are claiming to be something they are not. I would like to put more emphasis on this statement. Claiming to be something they are not. What does that do to a person? How common is it? Why would one do it? Psychologically this has existed for the longest time. One of the earliest documented cases was reported by French psychiatrist Joseph Capgras in 1923. The National Institute of Health talks about a miss JS. Who firmly believed that she was actually Jeffrey Epstein, an American financier and sex offender.
The patient was a 25-year-old female admitted for new-onset psychosis and suicidal ideation. She reported that she had not been herself for five days prior to admission and reported she did not believe her family recognized her. She also stated she was Jeffrey Epstein, and she endorsed this belief after seeing him appear on the television in the emergency room. She was tearful throughout the encounter and expressed a great deal of guilt, repeatedly stating that she should be in jail instead of the hospital. She reported paranoid delusions and auditory hallucinations of Epstein making derogatory remarks towards her. She also demonstrated some lapses in recent memory and explained that she had difficulty remembering some of her past life events.
{via National Institute of Health}
If that is not enough, Mahdi Ghafari claims that they have had about 3000 people convinced they are Imam Mahdi, a foretold righteous leader and messianic figure in the Islamic faith that is supposed to come before the second coming of Jesus. Ghafari is a psychologist who has talked to these people. If all these claimants were convinced they are this messianic figure then that confirms it is perhaps a psychological disorder amongst people that convinces them that they are a prophet, a promised messiah, or things of that variation. Reasons for this disorder can vary from:
- A very interesting fact about this case was that she was later cured with medication. Proving that no, miraculous personality shifts do not happen. The condition of this woman is called delusional misidentification syndrome. A psychological disorder where the person claims to be someone that they are not. Almost 90 years have passed since the first report on misidentification syndromes appeared in the medical literature {via 12. Christodoulou, GN: The Syndrome of Capgras, BrJ Psychiatry; 130:556-564, 1977}. In Western society we have people who are full fledged convinced that they are the opposite gender or in some cases an entirely new gender or in some cases, an animal too. A 20-year-old woman convinced she is a cat gained high attention on social media. How does that happen in religion? Well, religion becomes the best way of convincing others of false prophethood when religion is not studied as a code to life. History bears absolute witness to that. Here is a Wikipedia list of people who have claimed to be only Jesus throughout the year. These are only recorded by Wikipedia however, the question arises when people claim to be something they aren’t, are they actually believed by people? Historical evidence says yes.
- Sergey Anatolyevich Torop: This self-proclaimed “Jesus of Siberia” began preaching in 1991, and to give credit where credit’s due, Sergey Anatolyevitch Torop—who also calls himself “Vissarion”—successfully filled a void that was getting larger in communist Russia. Since his first spiritual revelation after he was fired from his job as a traffic cop, he’s amassed about 10,000 followers at his Church of the Last Testament. About 4,000 of them now live in his growing community in the wilds of Siberia, where they forgo the use of money, live a vegan lifestyle, and try to make as small an environmental footprint as they can by relying on things like solar power.
- William Hacket: Claiming to be Jesus Christ, he also appointed two prophets, a prophet of mercy and a prophet of punishment. These prophets carried their jobs with utmost “faith”. Queen Elizabeth got word of it, had his prophets arrested, and put Hacket on trial for treason for suggesting that she shouldn’t be queen. His other actions—such as taking an iron poker to her picture—got him convicted and sentenced to death. When Hacket was marched to the scaffold, he proclaimed that God had absolutely no choice but to rescue him. Otherwise, he was going to be giving God the old what for when he got to heaven. Needless to say, he wasn’t rescued. His so-called prophet of mercy, Edmund Copinger, died in prison when he decided to starve himself to make a point. How much of Copinger’s participation in the scheme came from an honest belief in Hacket and how much was due to his own beliefs that something major needed to change in England’s religious practices is unclear.
- Delusions of Grandeur: The individual may be experiencing delusions of grandeur, which are characterized by an inflated sense of self-importance and belief in one's own exceptional abilities or significance. In this case, they may genuinely believe they are a prophet chosen by a higher power.
- Psychosis: Believing oneself to be a prophet could be a symptom of psychosis, a condition where a person loses touch with reality. Psychosis can occur in disorders such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, among others.
- Cultural or Religious Influence: In some cases, cultural or religious beliefs may play a role in shaping someone's perception of themselves as a prophet. They may interpret personal experiences or religious texts in a way that reinforces this belief.
- Narcissistic Personality Disorder: Individuals with narcissistic personality disorder may have an exaggerated sense of self-importance and a need for admiration. They may believe they are special and unique, potentially leading to beliefs of being a prophet.
Now that we have established the first approach that is without doubting the intentions of our false prophets we will move to the second approach which is more critical and accusative in nature. The scholars of ahl-e-sunnah wal jama'ah have always claimed that false prophets are planted by the government to employ divisions and unrest amongst communities. The unity of a community of minorities is always a threat to capitalist or unjust governments. Easiest way to deal with this is to establish divisions amongst minorities. Although there is no direct proof of this, all believing members of false prophets have formed an internal group and have alienated themselves from the society and have conveniently been of great help to the government.