The Call of Spiritual Emergency: From Personal Crisis to Personal Transformation

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Acknowledgments

This book has been given life by many people. Christina Grof has kindly encouraged me to contribute my voice to the field of spiritual emergency, which she initiated with her husband, Stanislav. I appreciate the Grofs' dedication to circulating information about spiritual emergency and their making way for new voices to enrich the song.

Tom Grady at Harper & Row helped with the first outline for this book after Shoshana Tembeck Alexander proposed that I further develop the ideas from A Sourcebook for Helping People in Spiritual Emergency. I am indebted to their initial encouragement and timely inspiration. Continuing as my editor, Shoshana gave of her big mind and kind heart—helping me bring these ideas down to earth. I am grateful for her wisdom and generosity. Mark Salzwedel at Harper & Row was a considerate and gentle companion as he taught me about the intricate steps of the publishing world.

The territory I cover in this book comes from a broad spectrum of life experience, and I needed consultation with colleagues in reviewing areas of the text. John White, Ph.D., contributed his eye for detail with kindness and tact. Arthur Hastings, Ph.D., helped me to see with new perspectives. The maturity of his knowledge was a refreshing and inspiring influence. Mary Culberson, Ph.D., has been a consistent, supportive presence with whom I could discuss the clinical issues of helping people in spiritual emergency. Aminah Raheem, Ph.D., masterfully encouraged me to be true to my own experience in her insistent, enlightened way. Laura Sosnowski's personal realization of the transpersonal realms was a constant mirror to me of the power and healing represented in the worlds beyond ego.

Finally, I need to express my profound appreciation to my friends and clients who offered their stories so that others might hear and learn from them. Interviewing people on the subject of their spiritual crisis points was an intimate and always fascinating process for me. I hope that the love and openness I was given is transmitted through the text to the readers. These stories and the unique individuals they represent are true gifts to this world as it struggles to become spiritually awake.

Most of the people interviewed for this book requested that I disguise their identities. I have made every attempt to honor that wish without sacrificing pertinent information: age level, sex, career orientation. The territory of spiritual experience is extremely personal in nature, exploring to the very roots of what makes life meaningful. Stories and information are shared here in the spirit of reaching out to others needing guidance on the path which is our birthright— spiritual emergence.

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From "Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy" by Mircea Eliade:

Medieval legends tell of a bridge under water and of a sword-bridge which the hero (Lancelot) must cross barefoot and barehanded; it is sharper than a scythe and it is crossed with great pain and agony. The initiatory character of crossing the sword-bridge is also confirmed by another fact: before he starts over it, Lancelot sees two lions on the further bank, but when he is there he sees only a lizard; successfully undergoing the initiatory ordeal in itself makes the danger disappear.

Introduction

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 2nd 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