# 'Nothing wrong with being crazy'

- Teacher: Ajahn Brahm
- Type: Story
- URL: https://beingmindfulstories.com/stories/brahm-cambridge-friend-lsd-going-crazy
- Themes: acceptance, fear, mind, student life
- Life situations: panic attacks, fear of losing control, anxiety

## Synopsis (editorial summary)

At Cambridge in the 1970s a friend who had taken LSD came up to Ajahn Brahm saying, 'I think I'm going crazy.' Ajahn Brahm told him, 'Well, nothing wrong with being crazy — just be crazy, it's all right,' and the friend calmed down. It was the fear of going crazy that was driving him crazy. (The friend is now a very wealthy, conservative company man whose boss must never find out.)

## The story, as told by Ajahn Brahm (verbatim captions)

what my friends this was in the ' 70s even though I never took these drugs myself know he took some LSD one day when I was at Cambridge and I remember just uh seeing him know bumping up to him and he came up to me and said I think I'm going crazy I'm going mad and sometimes people do go crazy actually he is now he a very wealthy act one of the most conservative um suit ridden persons you could ever imagine if I actually told his boss what he did when he was at College he'd get kicked out of the company but nevertheless I would never say such things but at the time that he took some LSD and he thought he was going crazy and I remember just going up and say well nothing wrong with being crazy just be crazy it's all right and then of course he calmed down it was a fear of going crazy which was driving him crazy

## Teaching point

It's the negativity we add to an experience — sickness, a partner's faults, a wild mind — that makes it worse; acceptance calms it.

## Reflection (in the spirit of Ajahn Brahm's talk)

A frightened student told Ajahn Brahm he thought he was going crazy, and calmed right down when told that being crazy is all right. The fear was the real problem. The same goes for illness, a partner's faults, or a restless mind. Resisting makes it worse. Accept it, and change often follows.

## Source

- [Happiness Industry: Joy At Last! | Ajahn Brahm | 27-07-2007](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ex5a4a40k6s) (Buddhist Society of Western Australia) — watch from 39:55 to 40:57: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ex5a4a40k6s&t=2395s