Читать книгу The Call of Spiritual Emergency: From Personal Crisis to Personal Transformation - Emma Inc. Bragdon - Страница 8

Increasing numbers of people are reporting their experiences of transpersonal levels due to spiritual practices, global changes, and resuscitation technology. Such people often feel isolated and confused. They need a conceptual understanding of their experiences and a sense of connection to others who are more familiar with this dimension of life and can offer some guidance and orientation.

I have been unusually fortunate in my ongoing process of spiritual emergence. From the time of my introduction to meditation through the last twenty-five years, I have had highly developed teachers in meditation, shamanism, intuition training, body therapies, and analytic psychology. I have also had the benefit of a community of "spiritual friends," people with whom I share mutual interest and sympathy in the ups and downs of spiritual awakening. This has meant that both my own process of spiritual emergence and my learning to be a helper to others have been supported in an enlightened way. I have had excellent role models as my counselors, medical help attuned to spiritual values of reverence for life, an academic background strengthening my conceptual understanding of human development, and a home community centered around spiritual growth.

I am very concerned for the people who have not been as lucky as myself. I have known of people who have killed themselves as a result of being isolated and overwhelmed with spiritual experiences. This happened to my mother. I have had clients who were intent on exploring their inner life whose families perceived them as crazy and wanted to put them on psychiatric medications to stop the spiritual experiences. These are stories that illustrate spiritual emergence processes of a critical nature, stories in which individuals are taken by storm with no one to guide them, no friends or family to support or encourage them, no community to contain them. Most of these individuals do not have the benefit of a conceptual framework to understand what they are experiencing. In the worst case, they have a framework that classifies their experiences only as evidence of mental disease. Their fears, their disorientation, are amplified to the degree that they become incapacitated, so flooded with the contents of their unconscious that they have no capacity to cope with these things. Often these people are hospitalized. These are stories of spiritual emergency. Some of these stories are told throughout this book.

I, and others who work at the Spiritual Emergence Network, have heard hundreds of stories from people who have been hospitalized inappropriately. I continually see people in my practice who keep asking, "Am I crazy to be experiencing these things? Where do they fit into my life?"

Questions about where transpersonal experiences fit into personal development can be answered reassuringly for those in spiritual emergency: "There are times when regressive behavior and severe disorientation are part of spiritual growth. Get the help you need, and go with the process." The friends, family, and helpers of people who are in spiritual emergency can also find relevant information, reassurance, and resources for locating professional help.

Hopefully, all people will benefit by further familiarity with the vocabulary that covers spiritual experiences and transcends religious differences. The English language has not given us terms to conceptualize many of the refined aspects of spiritual emergence phenomena. Many of the words I introduce are taken from Sanskrit, the classical language of India, which is rich in terms describing states of consciousness. This vocabulary in itself could be standardized and thus contribute to improved communication between health care professionals, clergy, hospital administration, teachers, and the general public. A glossary of terms is included at the back of the book for easy reference.

The following chapters may be helpful if you are looking for guidance and reassurance in understanding your spiritual experiences; if you are trying to understand a friend or family member who is undergoing strong spiritual experiences, if you are involved in a crisis of spiritual emergency, and need to find a helper who can support you in an appropriate way; or if you are looking for ways to make changes in a social service organization so as to accommodate spiritual emergence phenomena.

The metaphor of the sword-bridge dramatically illustrates the difficulty of spiritual emergence: the confrontation with oneself and one's belief system, the letting go of known territory which is safe, the vulnerability and sense of aloneness, the acute need for spiritual allies, the uneasiness of facing the other side which is imagined as overwhelming. How this metaphor that described Lancelot's journey is realized in modern life will be explored throughout this book. In the following chapter, I tell the beginnings of my own story.