My name is Nathan Bell and I have bipolar/schizoaffective disorder and autism. I am a self-published author who has released one novel and six short stories. I sell my books on the street and at markets and have moved over three thousand copies.

Recently I have completed a three part series of books about my lived experience with mental illness called The Supernatural Psychosis series. These short stories depict the cross-section between mental illness and superstitious beliefs around magic and mysticism. With these works I am attempting to show that while psychosis can impact a person’s ability to function in society, it can also be a profound and life-changing experience regardless. I want to use my own complex psychotic episode, which, at the time, I considered to be a spiritual awakening, as a vehicle for this larger exploration.

In the stories my character feels he is receiving messages from his goddess mother nature, communicating with spirits and having visions of the future.

The books also discuss the influence of the extensive research I was conducting on the internet during this psychotic episode, which fueled my delusions and irrational thinking. At the time, I was reading declassified intelligence information from the American Central Intelligence Agency, viewing documents related to the C.I.A. psychic experiments and UFO sightings. I studied a variety of content on YouTube, including explanations of physics and tutorials on the channels of UC Berkley, Harvard and Yale. But there was also a bunch of stuff that would be classified as blatant misinformation, including men who claimed they channel aliens and others who claimed they travelled back in time to spy on Hitler.

These pieces show the elaborate fantasy I constructed based on all this information and whilst in a highly manic state. They also describe some of the auditory and visual hallucinations I was experiencing and why I believe they were influenced by my research.

I hope to show readers that psychosis, whilst dangerous, can also involve deeply profound personal insights and experiences which change an individual’s thoughts about politics, philosophy and life in general. I also want to make clear, using my own experience, that a person can understand that they are, or were, hallucinating and at the same time consider those moments important.

My series can be purchased on Amazon as paperbacks or Ebooks. The titles are ‘The Wizard and the Eyeman’ ‘Shamanic Journey’ and ‘The Wizards Spell’.

Link to order my books: https://www.amazon.com.au/stores/author/B0DCZLZS4D

Image credit: Kayla Outhred.

Written by Nathan Bell.

Posted by Elyssa Sykes-Smith.

  • Nathan Bell is a writer and artist from Newcastle, Australia. Nathan draws his inspiration from life experience and his research which includes politics, science and history. He aspires to provoke thought and introspection and to inspire people to take meaningful action in the world.
  • Elyssa Sykes-Smith is a multidisciplinary artist, educator and researcher, and Media Officer at AHNNA.