Glenn Beck's Failing Health(?)

[nolabear]

I want to post this without snark, but with a strong statement of opinion. The following is a transcript, from his site, of Beck's Friday show. The symptoms he describes may have a purely physical basis, (I want to emphasize that because I'm not claiming, I'm speculating) but they also match symptoms of hysteria (i.e. physical symptoms based on psychological factors). I'd have compassion for anyone who has these symptoms, but his history is such that if it does prove to be psychological it fits into an interesting category, that of "saints", the "possessed", and the girls who began the Salem Witch Trials, among many others. If I thought more highly of him and if he had less power, I'd hope to help him find a cure. Given his history, I can easily hypothesize that if he's not making it up in order to achieve a complememtary mass hysteria in his followers, then he may be a true hysteric and, well, that's going to get real interesting. This is Beck on Friday:

UPDATE: Glenn's health...
Audio Available:

October 8, 2010 - 11:46 ET


Glenn Beck is seen here on GlennBeck.TV, a feature available exclusively to Glenn Beck Insider Extreme members. Learn more...

GLENN: Today I want to talk to you about something. I want to talk to you about a portion of my life that I want to share with you because I think it's going to lead me in different places. I don't necessarily mean physical, but mentally I think this is going to be a spiritual journey. It is going to be a physical journey. It is going to be a mental journey. And I would like to, I'd like to be able to share it with you and the things that I have learned, and you'll be able also to see why I'm going the places that I am and what I am doing.

Next week on Monday and Tuesday, I am going to take time off. I'm going out West to have some testing done. I have told you before that I have been losing feeling in my hands and my feet and I have been feeling tingling in my hands and my feet, and it's traveling up my arms and it's just a very bizarre sensation. It almost feels like I'm wearing gloves at times because I was talking to my kids the other day about fingerprints and I couldn't, I couldn't feel my fingerprints and it was bizarre. And I thought if that was only true, man, I could be like a master thief. So it's been very it's been strange. I've told you also that I have been diagnosed with macular dystrophy, which means that I love this diagnosis I could be totally fine with eyesight for the rest of my life, or I could be blind within a year. The macular dystrophy has not progressed at all in the two months since it's been diagnosed, but there's something else that has also been going on. And if you're a long time listener, you might be even be able to tell it I can just by listening to my voice now. There is something wrong with my voice, and we're not sure what it is. I went in and had some testing done and there's nothing like sticking scopes through your nose and then having doctors look through the scopes in your nose. And they're passing the scope back and forth going, look at this, doctor, what do you think this is? And I'm like, what do you guys see? What are you looking at? What do you see? Show it to me. And I'll tell you more about this next week. But there's just some things that are happening, and we don't know what they are yet. And they're doing all kinds of testing. They're going to be doing CAT scans and MREs or MRIs and PET scans and they're going to be doing blood work like crazy. And the thing that they said to me, I've seen five different doctors and I've got an incredible group of doctors who are, I think only one of them really hates me, and I have the other four watching that one. But they're looking one of them said to me the other night, we have to do all of these blood tests because we have to look for toxins and poisons, and that word stuck out to me. And it's not poison like you know, it's like lead paint. And I'm like, no, I haven't been eating lead chips. And that word stuck out to me.

Night before last I was laying in bed next to my wife and she put her hand on my back and she said to me, what are you doing? Honey, go to sleep. She said that to me at 3:00 in the morning. I had been reading a couple of books, as I'm so far behind in my reading. But I had closed one of these books, as I'm doing research and I'm trying to understand more. And I had closed one of these books about an hour before and I said, I just to myself I just can't look at this anymore. Then I said a prayer, and as I was praying, I noticed that I wasn't praying as hard for healing as I should, which led me to the first conversation I had with a neurologist who said to me, well, we don't know what this is. He said, but we're investigating here, here, and here. And I said, could this be brought on by stress? Could this be brought on because I'm just, you know and he said, no, not this. He said, you know, that's not making it better. And I said, so should I maybe should I stop? And he said, no, you're okay. I was disappointed. And the other day I thought about it and I thought, I can't even pray and cry out to the Lord. I have cried out to the Lord a lot in the last four years. I couldn't cry out to him for that. That got me to thinking. A house divided against itself cannot stand. People will say about me, they have written about me. In fact, the New York Times just did their big piece and they said, I don't think Glenn Beck even knows who he is. In some ways that is true. I know who I am. I am just like you. A son of a father in heaven that loves me, and I try to serve him. But that is, that is something that I have never even come close to mastering and worked my whole life. I am a guy who's trying to be better every day. I know who I am. But when they wrote that, it is so true because I don't know where I'm supposed to end up. I don't know how to do this.

The last 24 hours as I've been thinking about the doctors saying we're looking for toxins, we're looking for poisons in your body, I know what they are. For four years I have tried to understand the mind of what I believe are monsters. It started with Walter Lippmann. The first book that I closed and said I can't read this anymore was Walter Lippmann. And it was about how they can breed better people and how there are undesirables. I never finished the book. That was the first one. And for four years I have been trying to understand the minds of people that I think are so misled, and they are the exact opposite of what I have tried to be, what I want to be, what I strive for. But I have done it because I have to, I have to understand it, I have to see what's try to understand to explain what's coming, what's happening. And not for you but for my children.

I believe we can be better people. I believe in the American experiment. But I also believe there are very misguided people, and I have been drinking that poison, which others may not find poison, but I do because it is exact opposite of me. And I have been "That which you gaze upon, you become."

[RKP5637]

1. Frankly, he sounds schizophrenic. n/t

[monmouth]

7. OR, he knew ahead of time that nutso guy did that shooting after

listening to Beck. Beck is very afraid of the blowback from this so is playing the victim here. Does my tinfoil make me look fat?

[RKP5637]

9. He has such an inflated ego he must a XXXL super-large tinfoil hat to cover his big head. n/t

[sharp_stick]

2. Either he's nuts

or the greatest performance artist of our generation...

I'm betting on nuts, he's got some serious psychological issues and a bunch of deluded morons that hang on every word.

I bet he presents himself as a true prophet at some point in the future, he's already starting to go off the deep end it won't be long and he'll be in over his head.

[Ilsa]

17. I think he wants to be some great Mormon prophet. He likes digging into

their history of prophecy, and has been using it, according to the Huffington Post with his "I beieve the Constitution is hanging by a thread," comment with Orrin Hatch as a call-to-arms. Too bad he never read about the Salamander Letters.

[OneGrassRoot]

3. Seriously, what do you think he means by this:

I believe we can be better people. I believe in the American experiment. But I also believe there are very misguided people, and I have been drinking that poison, which others may not find poison, but I do because it is exact opposite of me. And I have been "That which you gaze upon, you become."

I haven't read Lippmann (just checked Wikipedia), so I don't know what Beck is referring to in this ramble as it pertains to Lippmann's book.

But that last paragraph...do you think there is any possible mea culpa involved in his pondering, for his role in inciting hatred and fear?

Granted, it's probably just more histrionics, but I wonder if anyone else has read more or listened to him (if so, poor you :() to glean more from this latest crisis.

:shrug:

[sabrina 1]

32. I got the impression from that paragraph, and I could be wrong

that he started to realize that he's been encouraging people to 'drink the poison' althoug his audience doesn't see it as poison, and that it's not really him. But he's become what he, the real he, hates. If that is what he meant, he would be truly conflicted. His whole life and livlihood has been provided by the wackos on the right and he'd have to say goodbye to them.

Otoh, he COULD have meant that the poison is the left, and his focus on them has begun to turn into 'one of them', which in his mind, would be poison.

But then again, the whole thing could be a huge big act to get ratings and attention, and to disappear while the story of near-mass killer who loves him, is in the news.

Aaaannd, one other possibility, he's just plain crazy.

[CJCRANE]

39. That's the beauty of it...

his followers can interpret it their way...

but deep down Beck knows he meant the opposite.

(I sometimes wonder how people like Beck and Rove know which side of the bed to get out of in the morning!)

[CJCRANE]

33. I wondered that too...

but it's more likely to be his usual vague blatherings that seem to make sense but don't really lead anywhere.

[JuniperLea]

4. I can't feel my fingerprints...

Should I be worried? I don't recall ever being able to feel them. I can see them, and can make fingerprints with wet fingers on hard slick surfaces... but I can't feel them. When I was a kid and I played guitar a lot, I had callouses on the fingers of my left hand, and they didn't leave much of a fingerprint... and my fingertips felt funny.

I'm sorry, I'm trying to empathize with Beck and figure out from a human standpoint what the hell he's talking about. I'm sorry... it just sounds like the ravings of a madman...

[qazplm]

26. I cant feel my eyeballs

I mean sure, they are PROBABLY there since I can see and all, but that could just be God answering my prayers for vision.

[JuniperLea]

30. LOL!

Wow... no kidding! :rofl:

I really think he's slipped his cracker, gone 'round the bend... I don't like it when people make fun of the mentally ill... but I'll make fun of the asshats who have followed this nutjob around like he was Jesus!

What a pack of loons they are!

[Mz Pip]

5. I've read this twice

and i do believe Beck is nearly as good at concocting word salad as sister Sarah.

Sounds like Beck wants to be featured in an episode of House.

[RandomThoughts]

6. I understand how that last phrase works.

There is more to it.

So on that note.

[AlinPA]

8. He doing that crap to get sympathy because he is probably fucked up on drugs and booze and is

headed for some rehab place. All he has to say is "pray" and the asshole tea baggers and stupid Fox viewers will worship him.

[nolabear]

11. I didn't mention the comments section of the article.

There is a great deal of praying going on.

[Uncle Joe]

10. Damn!

Glenn Beck has a wife!?:wow:


Thanks for the thread, nolabear.

[Hekate]

37. Apparently he has spawn, as well.

:wow:

[rurallib]

12. Beck reads books???? Whoa, now there is a revelation.

I think he is trying to gin up some sympathy. Victim of something once more.

I have read about wives killing husbands a little at a time with arsenic, but I don't know the symptoms.
Sounds as hinkey as when drugRush had the hearing problem that turned out to be oxy side effects.

[still_one]

13. I could care less what happens to this piece of garbage. I have no doubt though that HE will

receive the best medical care available, the same care that he would like to deprieve from those who don't have insurance or are less fortunate

[KurtNYC]

14. sounds like advanced diabetes

[Oceansaway]

18. yep and eyesight problems earlier.....nt

[JuniperLea]

31. I had that thought with the macular degeneration deal...

Losing circulation to the extremities would certainly follow suit... as would mental confusion due to blood sugar fluctuations.

[Sinistrous]

41. It does, but a simple fasting blood sugar test

would confirm yeah or nay.

[Mimosa]

15. Drama King.

He's milking this.

And I bet even a real illness wouldn't make him support universal health care.

[CreekDog]

16. Weird...why not just take a week or two vacation...lots of radio personalities do that all the time

get his tests and then based on what he finds out, make a decision about his future including continuing his show.

but to do all this without knowing anything, without actually suffering pain, without anything close to debilitating --to just put his life on hold because of some symptoms?

when i was filing medical records while going through college, i had no feeling in my hands every single morning. a problem? certainly. did i put my life on hold because of it? no way! because all, in this case, it turned out to be was related to my job and when i changed jobs, ta-da! no more numb hands each morning.

so if i'd announced that i was taking two months off school because of it BEFORE getting any tests --well that seems like poor judgment, doesn't it?

[RecoveringRighty]

19. Dementia

He has clearly lost his mind and will be pushed over the edge
when we congregate in DC for the restoring sanity rally. 

I would be more colorful in my description of his supposed
illness but this is my first post so I will tread lightly and
work my way up to really unloading on these jerks.

[texastoast]

20. Welcome to DU!

:hi:

[Old and In the Way]

23. Welcome Onboard!

Looking forward to hearing what a RecoveringRighty has to say about the sad state of Republicanism (and the people, like Beck, who help to prop it up).

[nolabear]

24. Welcome to DU, RR!

:hi:

Yeah, I try to start out reasonable too, in spite of the fact that Glenn Beck gives me what my grandmother would have called "the epizootie".

[AlinPA]

Hope to hear more from you RR.

[Donnachaidh]

44. hey -- welcome and let er rip about the BecKKK

If there was any humanity in that guy at all he might deserve some sympathy - but he doesn't. So let your hair down and let er rip!

[texastoast]

21. Hope he's got good insurance with all that testing going on

I wonder if it covers mental illness, because he's just kind of raving around there.

[W_HAMILTON]

22. "I couldn't feel my fingerprints...

...and I thought if that was only true, man, I could be like a master thief."

Who the hell thinks like that?

Fucking freak.

[qazplm]

25. He's an addict

and like many addicts who quit drugs and booze, he moved on other things to be unhealthily addicted to. Religion mostly, but also I think he has a gross inferiority complex and really needs to be special and involved in something monumental to feel worth.

So combine an addictive personality with an inferiority complex and you get a guy who sees conspiracies everywhere and who thinks he is being mentally and physically targeted by forces and events as he also thinks he somehow holds a key for salvation.

[Earth_First]

27. Diahhrea of the mouth?

:shrug:

[madamesilverspurs]

28. I don't wish him ill.

I also wonder how he would take it if he threw a pity party and nobody came.


-

[valerief]

35. He wishes you ill. He only wants the very wealthy to be well. He wants

the rest of us to die quickly. It'll save on Social Security and Medicare.

[lunatica]

29. Stream of consciousness with run on sentences.

He and Sarah Palin just toss the old word salad all the time.

[valerief]

34. Can't he pray it away? He's driving up healthcare costs with all his tests. nt

[Buns_of_Fire]

36. There's probably nothing wrong that a strict regimen of coffee enemas wouldn't cure.

ICED coffee enemas. With ice cubes, even. Administered, without fail, every 20 minutes, for a period of not less than 60 days, nor more than 185.

I tell ya, Glenn ol' boy, it'll make a new man of you. Trust me.:evilgrin:

[freebrew]

38. Sorry, I can't be unsnarkful.

My ma used to tell me: "if you can't say anything nice, then don't say anything.".


Well:

[colbertforpresident]

40. Lyme Disease

He's most likely got Lyme Disease but doesn't know it and doctors suck at diagnosing it. I also have Lyme disease and have had some of the same symptoms that he has. he live in Connecticut which has a lot cases of Lyme disease. It can be crippling.

[nenagh]

47. Wondered about chronic Lyme Disease as well..

[L0oniX]

42. There's a disease that makes you cry?

[RagAss]

43. If his fucking lips are moving, he's bullshitting !

[lpbk2713]

45. " ... going out West to have some testing done."

The Betty Ford Center is in Califonia. :eyes:

[AsahinaKimi]

46. I would not

Give Glenn Beck the time of day... he would probably warp it into something evil.