Читать книгу The Call of Spiritual Emergency: From Personal Crisis to Personal Transformation - Emma Inc. Bragdon - Страница 4

Having been in on the ground level, when the term “spiritual emergency” (SEY) was first articulated and seeded by my colleagues, Dr. Stanislav and Christina Grof, I am in a good position to reflect on how it has changed in the last 33 years to include more territory. This introduction to the 2^nd edition offers a reflection on what it has become, and describes the best care for someone in spiritual emergency today.

Consider a tree. The original small seed and young sapling expand and the roots and the canopy of the tree spread out. So, too, with spiritual emergency.

The Seed Thought

The seed thought for SEY originated by Stanislav and Christina Grof in the late 1970s referred to a process of transformation in which an individual is potentially moving to a higher state of functioning. SEY represents a step up in human evolution that is trying to occur, an integration of experiences one may have considered as an “anomaly” (like hearing the voice of a spirit guide) because it was outside one’s regular conceptual framework. The result of a SEY: One expands into being more true to the core of one’s authentic Self and becomes wiser and more compassionate. However, before one has understood it, this transition in consciousness can involve disorientation that is so intense that a person finds it impossible to carry on normal activities at home and at work for a period of time.

Spiritual emergency is a personal crisis that can appear to have symptoms we have associated with psychosis and has thus been confused with psychosis and serious mental illness (schizophrenia, bipolar, schizo-affective disorder, etc.). People in SEY have been misdiagnosed and given inappropriate treatment, e.g. excessive psychiatric drugs. Psychiatric drugs can impede the progress of this transformative process.

Spiritual emergence (SE) refers to a process in which a person expands with ease and grace into his or her spirit self without a crisis.

The original definition of SEY still forms the taproot for all that has emerged from it since the first edition of this book was published in 1990. The compelling true stories that make up the chapters in this book illustrate how spiritual emergency shows up in a particular phase of life or in spiritual practice, physical stress, emotional distress, sexual experience, using drugs or spiritual medicines, or the impact of the global crisis we are experiencing now. These phenomena apply today as they did in 1990, when the first edition of this book was published. What I have added to this new edition is this Introduction, important updates in Chapter 9 on drugs, and an updated Resource Section.

Branching Out

The conceptual framework of SEY is currently branching out significantly. This expansion is being nourished by three elements: 1. Research that has guided new thinking about the origin of mental disorders and the appropriate use of psychiatric drugs; 2. Greater understanding and access to wisdom cultures that know the territory of spiritual growth better than we do; 3. A broader understanding of SEY is emerging as individuals deal with the breakdown of the bio-medical mental health care paradigm and create a movement toward a more effective system of integrative mental health care.

Breakdown of the Biomedical Model of Mental Health Care

Currently, the limitations of the biomedical model for mental health care are being revealed by researchers and alternative perspectives on mental disturbance are being given more real consideration.

Paris Williams, PhD in his 2012 book, “Rethinking Madness,” summarizes recent research on the origins of mental illness. According to this research, it is quite clear that serious mental disturbances are not caused by a biochemical imbalance, or abnormalities in brain structure, or inherited genetic issues. Yet, our treatment for mental disturbances is still based on the notion that mental illness is a medical problem that should be treated with drugs. We need to pay attention to the fact that, to date, we have no biological markers to indicate the presence of mental illness in a physical, measureable way. We can measure the symptoms of other biological illnesses like cancer, diabetes, etc. very easily through blood tests and other scanning devices. We have no such measurements for mental disorders. All diagnoses for mental disturbances are subjective and depend on the perspective of the person doing the diagnosis. Many would argue that diagnosis is culture-specific, e.g. a person growing up in the USA where we might think of a medium talking to spirits as crazy would not be considered crazy in another culture that acknowledges that some mediums are valid and of great value to society and do talk to spirits.

On this note, it is interesting to recognize that in some professional circles even the term “mental illness” is being replaced by “mental disorder” or “mental disturbance” to remove it from the domain of a physical or medical problem.

According to Williams, it appears that psychosis—when an individual is overwhelmed with anomalous experiences—is caused by trauma and the best treatment, potentiating full recovery, is consistent loving kindness from peers, a safe physical environment, and medical supervision if needed. As he puts it, “…Psychosis is likely caused simply by overwhelming distress…”

Similarly, those who go through SEY are often struggling with overwhelming stressors in life as well as one or more inner experiences that are compelling and new. For example, an individual might go to a meditation retreat and be suddenly thrust into an experience of the Oneness of all things. He or she might feel the need to be absorbed in that strong inner experience, especially if it is a relief from a highly stressful circumstances at work or at home. The best care for someone in this kind of SEY is the very same that Williams advocates: consistent loving kindness from peers, a safe physical environment, and medical supervision if needed.

With this in mind, our mental health care systems are clearly in need of renewal. Mental health care workers need new models and treatment plans to address the traumas that are the true origin of mental disturbances. They also need more sensitivity to discern the phenomena associated with SEY, to diagnose and treat appropriately. Although we can still make use of the “client-centered” therapies that were popular in the 1970s, we also need to integrate sound protocols that have been developed more recently.

In addition to the research that has catalyzed this need for an overhaul in the paradigm in which we view and treat mental disturbances, there have also been more general shifts of attitude and mind in the society at large. These too have impacted the way we view SEY and mental disturbance.

Cultural Changes Inspire More Branching Out

Let’s consider how our culture has changed since the word ‘Spiritual Emergency’ was first seeded. Two dramatic examples: in 1980, those following the American Psychiatric Association (APA) still formally considered homosexuality to be a sign of mental illness. This is no longer true. Also, in 1980, if someone was deeply disoriented and disturbed while re-evaluating their religious affiliation, they might have been given an anti-psychotic. Today, there is a new diagnostic code that determines that this episode would not be a sign of illness and thus not need medication. Health professionals following the APA would call it a “spiritual or religious problem”.

In 1980, when the ‘Spiritual Emergency Network’ first found a home at Esalen Institute in Big Sur, CA, the USA was not very welcoming of Eastern ways of worshipping the Divine. The stages of consciousness development so clearly recognized in Eastern philosophies was not yet considered of value here—it was simply too “out of the box”. Thus, when someone had an experience such as “kundalini awakening”—with uncontrolled, shaking of the body and fear it was perceived by our medical personnel as a sign of psychosis…the same with someone who was “hearing voices”. No one was asking about the nature of the energy being experienced or the message being received to determine if it was positive or negative. In the worst case, a person listening to the voice of their Higher Self in their heart telling them to choose Love over all else would be diagnosed just as “crazy” as the person listening to some fragment of self telling him to kill himself or someone else.

(paired seeds of a maple tree)

When Stanislav and Christina Grof first conceptualized spiritual emergency they were really addressing our ignorance of the signposts of spiritual advancement. At that time, we didn’t know that people learning to listen to the voice of the Higher Self and align with it may appear strangely unpredictable, but it is not a sign they are crazy. Those who are allowing streams of energy to flood their bodies may be at first frightened, but we don’t need to frighten them more by telling them they are crazy. In the early 1980s we needed a safe place for someone to learn how to embrace their consciousness expansion and increased energy level without a health professional considering that they had a medical problem that needed medication and hospitalization. The Spiritual Emergency Network was needed as a referral service providing a safety net of individual therapists and ‘safe houses’ representing helpers who knew the territory—strange as it seemed to the mainstream.

Consider where we have come in our grassroots culture: there’s been a groundswell of interest in spiritual growth since the 1980s. The international popularity of such books and audios as “The Power of Now” and “The New Earth” by Eckhart Tolle is some measure of this. Tolle brings illumination within reach of everyone, echoing “Be Here Now”, Ram Dass’s popular book of the 1960s. Yoga (the East Indian practice of union with the Divine) classes are now being offered in almost every town, city and state. Ken Wilber recognizes that anyone at any age and stage of development (and there are many differing measures of types of development) can experience a high state of consciousness. For most the high state is a “preview” of a stage or level of consciousness to come—an enticement, if you will, encouraging more spiritual growth and stepping away from the beat of our ordinary, materialistic culture. Add to this “come one, come all to higher states of consciousness” the tidal wave of self-help books, DVDs, webinars and seminars (like Lifespring, EST, and Avatar) that offer people practical tools in calming anxiety, brightening depression, and moving into serenity. Through the unrestricted space of the ever-present internet, these materials are being shared, world-wide, at lightning speed across every cultural and national boundary.

These new resources have inspired those with addictions looking for a better way of life, as well as those with depression and anxiety looking for more peace. They reinforce what was already being spoken about in 12-step programs: cultivate a relationship with the Higher Power that is loving and wise, learn to differentiate good relationships and bad relationships, learn to be more forgiving towards yourself and others, learn the skills to be in positive relationship with yourself and others.

Some would attribute this groundswell to the dawning of a new age, an evolutionary step if you will, when all people are spontaneously inspired to be more compassionate with ourselves and others…an age where the new physics and the new biology point to the tremendous power of a state of mind that is positive and deeply connected to the energy of life which unifies us all…an age where we realize that practicing forgiveness, appreciation of differences and gratitude for all that is life are the fastest track to peace of mind.

Yet, still today in 2012, proponents of the medical model and the APA (American Psychiatric Association) are generally quick to forward the concept that most mental disturbances need psychiatric medication first. Rarely do people who represent the conventional model of care refer patients to alternative or complementary resources. They continue to point to old, often skewed research (that has been recently proven to be obsolete) to prove that people who are emotionally disturbed need psychiatric medications. Yes, some people can benefit from them—but, according to current research, the majority does not benefit either short term or long term.

How the proponents of the biomedical model of care will come to reflect current research and employ more effective protocols for mental health will be an interesting story to follow in the coming years. It will force the big pharmaceutical companies to loosen their grip as the dominating force in mental health care.

The Recovery Movement

In the last few years there has been a grassroots movement towards people with mental disturbances compassionately taking care of others who have the same issues. It’s referred to respectfully as “peer support” to encourage full recovery after mental disturbances and, although it is not supposed to take the place of responsible medical care or professional psychotherapy, it is an effective complement to both of them.

Since evidence-based research now shows that empathic listening by paraprofessionals is one of the most effective forms of “treatment,” state and federal dollars from mental health agencies are beginning to fund community centers that offer peer help and the training of “peer specialists.” These specialists have themselves had the “lived-experience” of mental disturbances and are successfully making it to recovery—a full remission and/or effective management of symptoms--usually without drugs. Mounting evidence and research showing the debilitating effects of long-term use of psychiatric medications has only added to the need for this kind of effective and inspiring alternative.

The peer specialists are successfully transmitting the tools to manage unusual states of consciousness that have been ascribed to “pathologies”, but may, in fact, be better named “extreme states” or, possibly, “spiritual emergencies,” or “disturbances” rather than illnesses. In their toolkit: empathic support groups, one on one peer support, yoga classes, meditation classes and retreats, discussion groups, libraries of recommended books, help with learning positive habits for diet, exercise, rest, learning about the long-term impact of continuing medications, responsible management of drug use, and the importance of being with positively-minded people in community or extended family. Learning about the impact of certain foods on mood and subsequent changes in diet can in itself have an enormous impact on mental health.

The similarity of support offered by these groups to 12-step programs is quite obvious:

• peer specialists in both groups recognize the therapeutic value of lending a helping hand and a listening ear to others as equals,

•both use the term “recovery” as the goal to aim for,

•the need to surrender to a Higher Power and learn the lessons that come in life as coming from a Higher Intelligence that is loving is recognized,

•there is a support for enhancing one’s relationship to Higher Power without pushing any particular religion or spiritual movement,

•there is also support for the necessary self-discipline to follow through with what works.

However, the newer peer groups may differ from the 12-step programs in the following ways:

•There is no sponsor relationship where one person is identified as having more authority or know-how than another.

•No one is encouraged to keep repeating an identity that presents that person as “stuck” in a certain place in life, e.g., “hello, I am Mary and I am an alcoholic.”

•The program is not the authority. For example, one can still heal even though one does not attend daily meetings or follow an explicit program. There is no shame in following one’s own inner sources of wisdom as opposed to the restrictions of a program set by someone else.

•The driving force is identification with the authentic self, triggering a memory of who one truly is at core: love and wisdom. This may be strengthened through ceremony and ritual using ancient practices such as sweat lodge and vision quest led by qualified facilitators.

Note: as “spiritual emergency” has become a term that may be used interchangeably with “extreme states,” i.e., it is not suggestive of a medical pathology nor is it uniquely a signal of an emerging new state of consciousness. Instead, it discerns that the very essence of a person is crying out for a particular kind of support to separate from a lifestyle that is negative or unworkable and learn the skills of a lifestyle that is positive and workable and more aligned with Higher Power. Like the seed thought of the original meaning of SEY, we are still referring to the territory of strengthening alignment with one’s True Self.

Although some people are more deeply challenged to learn how to manage “extreme states” than others, the support available through these new community centers can and does offer effective resources for:

•those capable of taking responsibility for their health,

•those capable of self-reflection,

•those willing to see meaning in their life experience,

•those willing to see life as a learning experience/ a place to grow,

•those capable of forming a trusting relationship with a trustworthy helper

The kind of care offered at these new centers can lead participants to a diminishing of reliance on the medical model of care, i.e. drugs. Peer specialists do advocate that changes in drug prescriptions be supervised by a qualified physician and, in cases when emergency services are needed, the peer specialists collaborate with the medical care available. However, institutionalization and medication is seen as an extreme measure for crisis situations only—not as an automatic response to an extreme emotional state, if it can be avoided. Fortunately, more residential homes offering care for those who need it, like “Soteria”-type homes, only turn to psychiatric drugs with great caution. These residences have recently sprung up in many parts of the world, e.g. in Alaska, Vermont, Germany, Hungary, and Switzerland. The section “Resources” in the back of the book lists contact information.

As the structure of our lives changes and we perceive mental disturbance, caring for someone in an extreme state, spiritual growth and mental health differently, each of us has also changed. My story illustrates this.

How I Have Branched Out

(Note: The story of how I came to work with SEY in the 1980s is part of Chapter One.)

In 1990, I became a teacher of the “Avatar Course”™—a 9-day experiential program in personal development conceived by Harry Palmer in 1987. From 1990-2003 I taught the Avatar course 110 times both in the USA and Brazil. This accelerated my own understanding of spiritual emergence, and helping others in their process of emergence safely—avoiding spiritual emergency. Teaching Avatar also led to building some important skills.

Two examples: I learned specific techniques for “training attention”—techniques a 5 year old can easily learn—that could point the direction to ending the overuse of drugs for Attention Deficit problems in both adults and children. Secondly, the Grofs had included “possession states” as one category in Spiritual Emergency. I had not experienced being possessed by negative spirits (Yikes!), but the Grofs recognized it as one real cause of disturbances. As I grew to understand it better in the Avatar course, I realized that everyone with a powerful addiction is in someway possessed. I had to spend time learning “what” was possessing them and “how” to dismiss that “entity”, and help it on its way to the Light, while also releasing the addict. This was new territory, but it made sense to me. As it turned out, I have an aptitude for this kind of work, and have been called on to help with people in these unusual difficulties.

More importantly, while teaching Avatar I witnessed everyday people learning how to create a state of “pure awareness,” what I had previously thought of as a lofty, unattainable ideal state of consciousness. Time and again I witnessed and facilitated individuals experiencing their essence as love and wisdom. The unattainable became attainable. This changed my life significantly, and gave me evidence that peers (with some basic instruction) can facilitate peers to attain the highest states of consciousness.

I also continued on as a volunteer with the Spiritual Emergency Network (SEN) from 1985-1992, when my travel schedule was too demanding to maintain my responsibilities at SEN. I did maintain a private practice as a psychotherapist however but that too waned as I devoted more and more time to teaching. I did keep my private practice open as I was called on to help people in spiritual crisis more often than others, as people knew about my interest and focus on this area.

When the authors of the “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders” (DSM) used by psychiatrists and psychologists finally made the commitment to identifying a diagnostic code for something similar to a “spiritual crisis” in 1991, calling it a “Spiritual or Religious Problem,” I changed the name of “A Sourcebook for Helping People in Spiritual Emergency” to “A Sourcebook for Helping People with Spiritual Problems” and published a new, updated edition in 1994. This book was again updated in 2006. It is still being used in classrooms and by those with “lived-experience” looking for a framework to understand their “extreme states” of consciousness.

In 2001, when I was teaching the Avatar Course in Brazil, I went to visit John of God’s center in Abadiania, Brazil. He is known throughout the world as one of the most profoundly effective healers alive today. Like many, I was deeply touched by his work and the healing community around him. From 2001-2012 I took 60 groups of individuals to participate in the community and consult personally with John of God—each group staying 12 days. During these 11 years I also traveled throughout Brazil between my group responsibilities, getting to know other Spiritist Centers and Hospitals that used a similar philosophy in their work as John of God uses in his work. Fortunately for me, I was also able to develop a close relationship with John of God who came to entrust me with responsibilities of leadership at his sanctuary.

What an eye opener it was to become more intimate with Spiritism! It turns out that Brazilian Spiritists are far ahead of the USA in their understanding and treatment of spiritual emergency. They understand that repression of one’s own psychic abilities can lead to personal crisis that can appear as mental illness. They understand that these gifted people need training to harness their psychic abilities to assist others as an essential part of their healing. They also understand that as people develop personally they need maps to understand the journey of spiritual evolution. The Spiritists have developed discussion and training groups—all free—to give this knowledge and training so that people do not have to be disoriented by spiritual phenomena or repress psychic abilities.

I believe those counselors in the Spiritual Emergency Crisis centers would benefit by this level of expertise, as it would provide more options in caring for those in spiritual emergency. Toward that end, in the eleven years I spent focused on Brazil I also wrote four books and co-produced two films to transmit what I was learning about Spiritism and the impact of spirituality on health. My most recent books are “Resources for Extraordinary Healing: Schizophrenia, Bipolar and Other Serious Mental Illnesses” and “Spiritism and Mental Health.” Details are on my website: www.EmmaBragdon.com

I came to believe that the Spiritist Centers and hospitals also have much to teach our own ailing health care system, especially in the area of understanding and maintaining mental health and nurturing spiritual evolution. Thus, I am sponsoring trips for health professionals to visit Brazil with me and learn from leaders who maintain the Spiritist Psychiatric Hospitals, clinics and community centers. If you are interested, there are details on my website. An armchair look at the history, philosophy and practical application of Spiritism can be found in “Spiritism and Mental Health”, an anthology including chapters from many Brazilian psychiatrists, psychologists and spiritual healers.

I have been very fortunate to experience the keen understanding and support of some excellent spiritual teachers, healers, and psychotherapists. In the near future my plan is to work within a healing center in the USA, to bring what I have learned into practice and make it available to more people.

The Broader Canopy of SEY

When we consider the concept of “Spiritual Emergency” at this point: the area the canopy covers is much broader than it was at its inception in 1980. It not only covers growth into what can be identified as experiencing more psychic perceptions, shamanic visions, and other phenomena associated with spiritual awakening; it covers the phenomena of addiction and mental disturbances as well. Why? Because many people undergoing these challenges are also going through spiritual crises that may be at the very root of the addiction or disturbance. Some say that confronting and recovering from addictions and emotional disturbance is a spiritual emergence process in itself.

It might be of great value to hold all of these inner experiences in the light of a spiritual emergence process that symbolizes growing into the light of more wisdom and compassion, becoming more aligned with Higher Power aka one’s Higher Self, and having a lifestyle that supports this connection. This broader perspective makes use of new kinds of treatments and support groups including spiritual practices, and moves away from terminology related to medicine or an illness related to a “broken brain”.

Increasing numbers strain in dislike of the stigma of ‘mental illness’. They see the negative effects of these diagnoses on their medical and insurance records (especially with medical records now being digital and easily accessible). Thus, individuals look for a less demeaning word to describe their condition that won’t scare away prospective employers or new friends.

We would do our veterans a favor if we looked at their challenges in re-entering the world after wartime as a “spiritual emergency” rather than simply a medical diagnosis like “profound depression”, “anxiety disorder”, “post-traumatic stress syndrome”, “mental illness” or a ‘broken brain’ needing drugs. Giving veterans help for getting through the trauma of war efforts should not burden them with the stigma of mental illness, but simply acknowledge they have experienced severe trauma, eg. being forced to kill others when that act goes against the Golden Rule of their religious beliefs. Like anyone who has experienced trauma, our veterans need compassionate care, empathy, time and new skills to return to our cultural norms.

Even as a word, the concept of “spiritual emergency” offers a kind of protection to people, e.g., explaining an upset as a “spiritual emergency” is far less scary—and possibly more truthful—than calling it a “nervous breakdown”. More so, receiving the kind of care for spiritual emergency is less stressful and may be more effective than the typical medical treatment for a nervous breakdown.

New Treatments

Treatment for SEY involves only cautious use of psychotropic medication and more empathic listening and a calm, less stimulating environment with fewer demands than the more typical medical environment. More medically oriented wards and clinics lean heavily on the use of psychiatric medications and are usually composed of rooms and halls with unnecessarily bright lighting, blaring televisions, and too much talk.

Don’t for a moment think that those trained to care for people in SEY refuse to recommend the use of psychiatric drugs if that is the most compassionate care needed. Certainly, giving a person medication to help him sleep if he has not slept for days is a hallmark of compassionate care. Similarly, short-term use of some other psychiatric medications is also used, as needed. But, prescribing these drugs long-term is avoided, if it can be avoided without harming the patient.

The knowledge and practical skills—and new vocabulary-- available to us today to help people work through and recover from any crisis including addiction and mental illness are much broader than they were in 1990. For example, yoga and meditation (or “mindfulness training”) are used more frequently to help people manage and sometimes overcome trauma, anxiety and depression. There are new, relatively quick techniques, like the “Emotional Freedom Technique” and “WHEE”, to help people overcome the effects of past trauma. Evidence-based research has shown that a comfortable place to meet and empathic listening is a significant part of the success of any therapeutic intervention and highly effective therapy can be done through peers as opposed to health professionals. The effects of eating gluten (in wheat, barley and rye) on the gut can bring on psychotic-like symptoms in some people, and avoiding eating gluten can have a very positive effect on mental health. Books like “Rethinking Madness” (2012) by Paris Williams, PhD cited above, or “Resources for Extraordinary Healing” (2012) give a thorough analysis of what we have missed in our medical model of mental illness and how recovery can be gained by engaging a different model of diagnosis and care. These new branches offer more stability and nurture the idea that emotional disturbance is not simply and always a medical disease to be treated with psychotropic drugs but often a marker of reaching for spiritual growth.

Particular treatments must be gauged to each person’s particular needs. If we return to our metaphorical tree and consider each branch to be a person: One branch may need a medication for a fungus or infestation of bugs; one branch may need pruning dead wood to give more energy to newer, vital growth. Applying that to the human level: particular people may need medication or surgery, 12-step programs, family systems therapy, or a sleep medication. But, ideally, there is always the overarching notion that it is all happening in the wider context of a spiritual emergence process.

Jon Vogel’s Story

Jon Vogel, a 39-year-old man from Manhattan, was hospitalized in May 2010 for 5 days, and again 10 days later he admitted himself to the psych ward for 10 days. Jon thought he was dying: he was seeing blue lights, having heart palpitations, and was bleeding quite extensively from his nose and ears, amongst other frightening problems, like hearing voices. He told me, “Some days I would wake up and my pillow was red with blood.” His medical advisors wanted to convince him that these symptoms—especially the bleeding-- were occurring as a result of more than five years of serious addiction to cocaine and marijuana on top of the stresses of a gambling addiction. Jon told me, “I didn’t want to recognize what was going on; I didn’t even want to think about it.” As he couldn’t understand the unusual voices he was hearing and lights he was seeing, he just thought “I must be dying.”

Finally, his symptoms became so bad that he couldn’t ignore them any longer. He told me, “I knew within myself: it was going to be death or learning what I came here to do. In the grip of the intensity, I said to the beings I knew were behind the voices that I was hearing: You show me what I need to know and to tell others.” What he heard back from them was this: “It’s all about helping people understand what spiritual emergency is really about.” Although Jon heard this—he was being effectively given a vision of his future.

It took Jon 7-8 months to understand what was going on within him. He later came to believe it was a transformative process facilitating his movement into a higher level of consciousness as well as social action. He came to intuitively feel that the bleeding he had had was also part of his letting go of an old way of being in the world. But, there was much he needed to understand and he recognized from promptings deep within his soul that he had to work on himself and make the changes within himself. This direction did not come from a 12-step program or any personal sponsor or authority figure pressuring him to “do his work…no one is going to do it for you”. Instead, Jon followed his own intuition. He was intuitively led to read certain books and websites to integrate the experiences he was having.

The result? As of September 2012 he no longer has any of his prior addictions. It has been 6 months since he has had any marijuana and two years since he used cocaine or gambled. He used psychiatric medications for one month, years ago, and since that time stopped them altogether. He told me, “I hold myself in self-acceptance and self-love. I also feel a strong connection to Archangel Michael who sends me messages through my intuition that are positive for me and have been helpful for others.”

Jon is an example of a visionary who went through an evolutionary crisis perceived as mental illness by medical professionals. Seth Farber, Ph.D. gives many more examples of this in his book “The Spiritual Gift of Madness” (2012), in which he opines that many patients caught in the mental health system today are being over-medicated, and thus our society loses their gifts as visionaries and effective leaders.

Jon believes that the hospital wards and clinics set up to help those with addictions are in a deepening crisis. When he first was hospitalized he was seeing angels and alternately what he described as leering, negative entities. None of his nurses or therapists were equipped to help him sort out these phenomena. Jon believes, “Very few practitioners who work in these clinics understand that many of their clients are going through a spiritual emergency process that needs a different kind of treatment than they are used to offering. They simply don’t know the territory.”

Jon is passionate in his belief that these therapists need to be informed about the new understanding of spiritual emergency and the practical aspects of care of this phenomenon as soon as possible. Why? So they can be truly effective and meet the needs of a wave of people who are in a crisis similar to what he experienced. Jon feels that this wave is a result of the raising of consciousness that increasingly more people are now and will soon be experiencing.

The 12-step programs are too limiting, he believes. Jon says, “Young adults caught in addiction need to connect to the truth of their authentic hearts—the “Avatar” heart—that is fully free, profoundly connected to Spirit and their peers, empowered, and oriented towards a way of life that promotes health. This is what will lead them most effectively through their healing.” To assist in this effort, Jon now co-hosts a website, www.the-wakeup.com, to help individuals find the support they need.

When we care for those in spiritual emergency these days, we need to be open to using every resource at hand to insure a strong web of support to the person in crisis. This may mean in the future that diverse “spiritual emergence centers” will be created and they will collaborate with hospitals, health professionals including nutritionists, and diverse programs oriented towards wellness. Each resource has a place in the team approach to care and the fabric of community. Better we work together and expand the overarching concept of what we are working with, i.e., a person needing care is not just “the psychotic in Room 3” or “the addict who has been on cocaine for 5 years”, or “the kid in 5^th grade whose attention is all over the place and has no self control”. Instead, each is first a soul reaching for more authenticity, more Light, more of the Truth of the Self...and each one may experience states of higher consciousness, as Jon did. If we can support the spiritual emergence of these people in the appropriate way, our culture will be enriched by the passion and brilliance of what each has to offer.

Building Community

An essential building block to success in recovery or creation of wellbeing is participation in community. That builds by itself as one attends support groups or classes. Each person is then no longer alone in their quest for a more workable, meaningful life, but is sharing with others. There is also a safe place to dialogue and to be oneself and a schedule offering something predictable, some structure to life that gives meaning. Convening regularly with those one is sharing deeply with becomes more and more like community—and can even become a “way of life” as one shares the path of honesty and skills necessary for increasing wellbeing. It simply feels good and works to support positive transformation.

In Del Ray, Florida, there is a peer group meeting called “Allyu” which means “extended family gathering” in Quichua (pronounced ketch-i-wa), an Incan language from the Andes of South America. Leadership rotates amongst members, and most importantly, all members coming from diverse cultures are given a time to feel heard and respected. Online forums are available to maintain connection. A leader in Allyu, Lise Neu, wrote me: “Ayllu has the intention of creating a world of harmony, balance and peace. A sister organization, “New Earth Tribes,” is a gathering in support of our young adults by way of passing down the ancient wisdom through ceremony and ritual. Through the support of like-minded brothers and sisters we create a Tribal-Peer Community that supports the building of a Global Community on the foundation of integrity, respect, honor, compassion and Love.”

Maintaining ongoing community is an essential component to success if these programs. One reader wrote about the Icarus Forum: “These forums saved my life, many times. People mentored me there, and gave me skills. Things I never would have thought of. These people and these skills are/were/will always be invaluable to my existence…[O]verwhelmingly, they gave me hope when I had none and MADE ME FEEL NOT ALONE. I am deeply, profoundly, eternally thankful for the Icarus forums." See the National Empowerment Center (NEC) for referrals to other community peer group support. Alternatives, Inc. in Framingham, MA offers more resources, particularly to those living with disabilities.

In sum, the core part of any treatment for disorientation with spiritual phenomena or disturbances related to addiction or emotional issues needs to be recognition of the phenomena being part of a larger spiritual emergence process, and using both the newer ways of encouraging spiritual emergence as well as collaborating with structures now in place. All resources can be employed to help the person in his/her process.

The Significant Role of Spirituality

When we attend the deepest levels of soul first and foremost, we create more encouragement and support for individuals to contact the soul within. As that connection is made, and strengthened, there is the potential for spontaneous remission of all symptoms and a giant step in personal growth or an accelerated process of healing. The connection is made through a variety of means, e.g. contemplation, meditation, study of books, guided meditation led by a facilitator, yoga, and/or visiting our church or practicing with our spiritual group of choice.

Marsha Linehan is a psychologist who is well-known as an expert in treating people with borderline personality disorder. These people have been known to cut on themselves, and often hover close to suicide or thoughts of suicide. In July of 2011, in the New York Times in a brief video, Marsha exposed the scars she has on her arms from cutting herself and told her own personal story of having been deeply depressed, having contemplated suicide, having been hospitalized as a young adult and what effected a transformation. Paraphrasing her: the most important part started when she went to her church and sat alone in despair one day. Suddenly, she saw Light all around her in the Church that seemingly came from another realm. That night, when she went home, she could sincerely say to herself for the first time, “I love myself”. From that point on, her life changed dramatically. She was no longer absorbed in negative thoughts, she went back to school, got a PhD in psychology, and went on to work effectively relieving the pain of people who suffer as she had suffered. She has worked for years at McLean Hospital, a psychiatric institution that functions also as a teaching hospital for Harvard Medical School and is considered one of the best mental hospitals in the country. Her therapeutic style is to bring in spirituality as an important element in psychotherapy. Her story is a dramatic illustration of the powerful impact that spirituality can have on the course of treatment.

Concluding Thoughts

I like the way the term ‘spiritual emergency’ has expanded. What it used to represent in the 1980s was appropriate for that time, and what it is becoming today is appropriate for this time. In both cases, we recognize that the spirit of an individual is hungry to grow…in fact, the contents of the unconscious is bursting to the surface revealing its positive potentials and fragments that need to find their places as we become more knit together as a whole…and that growth will lead to a re-evaluation and change in relationships, lifestyle, thinking and perceiving. Like a caterpillar, the person needs to go into a chrysalis before he or she can become the butterfly. It’s a natural step in its evolution. It is very possible for individuals to extract learning from their experiences of extreme states and go on to be of great service to others, as the stories of Marsha and Jon illustrate.

I think more of us in the coming years will see that the bar on growth has been raised. It is now more obvious that recovery of wellbeing, being fully awake, or illuminated, is possible. More of us are now hearing and responding to that wakeup call; and more support services are in place to facilitate a positive outcome when we need special care on the journey.

For those looking for information for treatment facilities in the USA: please contact the Spiritual Emergence Network in California (reconfirm current contact information on the WWW as the office will be moving soon). Other referral networks in other countries can be located through “Resources” at the back of this book. Those in extreme states of mental disturbance or their family members looking for current resources for help might read, “Resources for Extraordinary Healing: Schizophrenia, Bipolar and Other Serious Mental Illnesses”. The back matter in that book has an extensive list of organizations, residences and treatment facilities in the USA and Europe that offer longer residential treatment that uses medication only cautiously and is oriented to recovery. Health professionals and students of psychology and psychiatry: I encourage you to follow my newsletter for information about courses being given to support newer more effective ways of creating mental health and recovering from mental disturbances. Those with mild to moderate mental problems will also find references to courses that offer integrative models of self-care and only cautious use of psychiatric medication in my newsletter. As this ebook goes to distribution, I am in the midst of creating a wellness center that will offer more resources. Current updates will be posted in the newsletter.

I wish you success on your journeys! May the stories and perspectives that make up this book be interesting as well as a source of support and inspiration for you.

Emma Bragdon, PhD.

Contact: http://www.EmmaBragdon.com

Free quarterly newsletter: http://www.enewsbuilder.net/emmabragdon

Vermont, USA. October 2012