Stanislav Christina Grof (Editor) - Spiritual Emergency - When Personal Transformation Becomes A Crisis-TarcherPerigee (1989) PDF

1
Spiritual
emergency
When Personal Transformation
Becomes a Crisis
CONTRIBUTORS
R. D. Laing / Roberto Assagioli
John ^feir Perry / Ram Dass

Lee Sannella / Jack Kornfield
Paul Rebillot / Holger Kalweit
Anne Armstrong / Keith Thompson

and others
EDITED B
STANISLAV GROF, M.D.,

and CHRISTINA GROF
Spiritual Emergency
:
This New Consciousness Reader is part of a series of

anthologies of original and classic writing by renowned experts
on the quest for human growth and the
transformation of the spirit.
Other books in this series include:
Healers on Healing, edited by Richard Carlson, Ph.D.,

and Benjamin Shield
Also by Christina and Stanislav Grof

Beyond Death
The Stormy Search for the Self (March 1990)
Also by Stanislav Grof:
Realms of the Human Unconscious

The Human Encounter with Death
LSD Psychotherapy
Beyond the Brain
The Adventure of Self-Discovery
Ancient Wisdom and Modern Science (as editor)
Human Survival and Consciousness Evolution (as editor)
Spiritual
emergency
When Personal Transformation
Becomes a Crisis
EDITED BY
STANISLAV GROF, M.D.
and CHRISTINA GROF
5SI
JEREMY P. TARCHER, INC.
Los Angeles
All proceeds from the sales of this book will go to the
Spiritual Emergence Network.
"Self-Realization and Psychological Disturbances" is reprinted from Re-Vision journal,

8(2):21 — 31, 1986. Originally published in Synthesis magazine, no. 3-4, pp. 148-171, 1978.
Based on a chapter from Psychosyntbesis: A Manual of Principles and Techniques, originally
published by Viking Press; reprinted with permission of the Berkshire Center for
Psychosynthesis.
"Transcendental Experience in Relation to Religion and Psychosis" is reprinted by

permission from The Psychedelic Review, no. 6, 1965, pp. 7—15.
"Spiritual Emergence and Renewal" is reprinted from Re-Vision journal, 8(2) :33 — 38, 1986.
"When Insanity Is a Blessing: The Message of Shamanism" originally appeared under the title
"Suffering Kills, Suffering Enlivens: Sickness and Self-Healing" in Dreamtime and the Inner
Space: The World of the Shaman by Holger Kalweit. Boston: Shambhala Publishing, 1988.
"Kundalini: Classical and Clinical" is reprinted from Kundalini, Evolution and

Enlightenment, John White, ed. Garden City, N.Y.: Anchor Books/Doubleday, 1978.
"The Challenges of Psychic Opening: A Personal Story" is reprinted from Re-Vision

journal, 8(2):55-60, 1986.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Spiritual emergency: when personal transformation becomes a crisis/

edited by Stanislav Grof and Christina Grof.
p. cm.
Bibliography.
1. Spiritual life. 2. Psychiatric emergencies. I. Grof,
Stanislav, 1931— . II. Grof, Christina.
BL624.S677 1989 89-34831
291.4 2—dc20
'
CIP
ISBN 0-87477-538-8
Copyright © 1989 by Stanislav Grof and Christina Grof on Introduction, Epilogue,

Emergency: Understanding Evolutionary Crisis," "Assistance in Spiritual
"Spiritual
Emergency," and all introductory material
All rights reserved.No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted

in any form by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying
and recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, except as
may be expressly permitted by the 1976 Copyright Act or in writing by the
publisher. Requests for such permissions should be addressed to:
Jeremy P. Tarcher, Inc.

9110Sunset Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90069
Distributed by St. Martin's Press, New York
Manufactured in the United States of America
10 98765432
We dedicate this hook with appreciation to ohy beloved teachers
who hair guided us during our own journeys; to the many fellow
adventurers who, over the years, have told us their personal
stories; a fid to the visionaries throughout the ages who have
forged the trails and provided the maps.
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION ix
PART ONE: DIVINE MADNESS:

PSYCHOLOGY, SPIRITUALITY, AND PSYCHOSIS
SPIRITUAL EMERGENCY:
UNDERSTANDING EVOLUTIONARY CRISIS
Stanislav Grof and Christina Grof 1
SELF-REALIZATION AND
PSYCHOLOGICAL DISTURBANCES
Roberto Assagioli 27
TRANSCENDENTAL EXPERIENCE IN
RELATION TO RELIGION AND PSYCHOSIS
R. D. Laing 49
PART TWO: VARIETIES OF SPIRITUAL EMERGENCY

SPIRITUAL EMERGENCE AND RENEWAL
John Weir Perry 63
WHEN INSANITY IS A BLESSING:

THE MESSAGE OF SHAMANISM
Holger Kalweit 77
KUNDALINI: CLASSICAL
AND CLINICAL
Lee Sannella 99
VII
viu SPIRITUAL EMERGENCY
THE CHALLENGES OF PSYCHIC

OPENING: A PERSONAL STORY
Anne Armstrong 109
THE UFO ENCOUNTER EXPERIENCE

AS A CRISIS OF TRANSFORMATION
Keith Thompson 121
PART THREE: THE STORMY SEARCH

FOR THE SELF: PROBLEMS OF THE
SPIRITUAL SEEKER
OBSTACLES AND VICISSITUDES IN
SPIRITUAL PRACTICE
Jack Kornfield 137
PROMISES AND PITFALLS OF

THE SPIRITUAL PATH
Ram Dass 171
PART FOUR: HELP FOR PEOPLE IN

SPIRITUAL EMERGENCY
ASSISTANCE IN SPIRITUAL EMERGENCY
Christina Grofand Stanislav Grof 191
COUNSELING THE NEAR-DEATH

EXPERIENCER
Bruce Grey son and Barbara Harris 199
THE HERO'S JOURNEY:

RITUALIZING THE MYSTERY
PaulRebillot 211
THE SPIRITUAL EMERGENCE

NETWORK (SEN)
Jeneane Prevatt and Russ Park 225
EPILOGUE: SPIRITUAL EMERGENCE AND

THE GLOBAL CRISIS
Stanislav Grof and Christina Grof 233
APPENDIX FURTHER READING

: 236
NOTES AND REFERENCES 241
BIBLIOGRAPHY 245
INTRODUCTION
To your tired eyes I bring a vision

of a different world,
so new and clean and fresh
you will forget the pain and sorrow
that you saw before.
Yet this a vision is
which you must share

with everyone you see,
for otherwise you will behold it not.
To give this gift is how to make it yours.
A Course in Miracles
IX
x SPIRITUAL EMERGENCY
The theme explored

central
by various authors the idea is
in this
that
book in many different ways
some of the dramatic experi-
ences and unusual states of mind that traditional psychiatry diagnoses
and mental diseases are actually crises of personal transfor-
treats as
mation, or "spiritual emergencies." Episodes of this kind have been
described in sacred literature of all ages as a result of meditative
practices and as signposts of the mystical path.
When these states of mind are properly understood and treated
supportively rather than suppressed by standard psychiatric routines,
they can be healing and have very beneficial effects on the people who
experience them. This positive potential is expressed in the term spir-
itualemergency, which is a play on words, suggesting both a crisis

and an opportunity of rising to a new level of awareness, or "spiritual
emergence." This book is meant to be an educational reader for
people undergoing such crises, for their relatives and friends, for the
ministers whom they might consult, and for the therapists who treat
them. We hope that it will help turn such crises into opportunities
for personal growth.
The concept of spiritual emergency integrates findings from
many disciplines, including clinical and experimental psychiatry,
modern consciousness research, experiential psychotherapies, anthro-
pological field studies, parapsychology, thanatology, comparative re-
ligion, and mythology. Observations from all these fields suggest
strongly that spiritual emergencies have a positive potential and
should not be confused with diseases that have a biological cause and
necessitate medical treatment. As we will see in this book, such an
approach is fully congruent with ancient wisdom as well as modern
science.
The focus of this book is primarily, although not exclusively, on
experiences that have an explicitly spiritual content or meaning.
Throughout the ages, visionary states have played an extremely im-
portant role. From ecstatic trances of shamans, or medicine men and
Introduction xi
women, to revelations of the founders of the great religions,

prophets, saints, and spiritual teachers, such experienees have been
sources ol religious enthusiasm, remarkable healing, and artistic in-
spiration. All ancientand preindustrial eultures placed high value on
nonordinarv states of consciousness as an important means of learn-
ing about the hidden aspects of the world and of connecting with the
spiritual dimensions of existence.
The advent of the Industrial and Scientific Revolution dramat-
icallv changed this situation. Rationality became the ultimate measure
ot all things, rapidly replacing spirituality and religious beliefs. In the
course of the Scientific Revolution in the West, everything even re-
motely related to mysticism was disqualified as left over from the
Dark Ages. Visionary states were no longer seen as important com-
plements of ordinary states of consciousness that can provide valuable
information about the selfand reality, but as pathological distortions
of mental activity. This judgment has been reflected in the fact that
modern psychiatry tries to suppress these conditions instead of sup-
porting them and allowing them to take their natural course.
When medical strategies were applied to psychiatry, researchers
w ere
r
able to find biological explanations for some disorders with
psychological manifestations. Many conditions were found to have
organic bases such as infections, tumors, vitamin deficiencies, and
vascular or degenerative diseases of the brain. In addition, medically
oriented psychiatry found means of controlling the symptoms of
those conditions for which no biological causes were found.
These results were sufficient to establish psychiatry as a sub-
specialty of medicine, although no organic basis has yet been found
for the majority of problems psychiatrists treat. As a result of this
historical development, people who have various emotional and psy-
chosomatic disorders are automatically referred to as patients, and
the difficulties they are having are referred to as diseases of unknown
origin, even if clinical and laboratory findings in no way substantiate
such labels.
Furthermore, traditional psychiatry makes no distinction be-
tween psychosis and mysticism and tends to treat all nonordinary
states of consciousness by suppressive medication. This development
has created a peculiar schism in Western culture. Officially, the
Judeo-Christian religious tradition is presented as being the basis and
backbone of Western civilization. Every motel room has a copy of
the Bible in the drawer of the bedside table, and in their speeches,
high-ranking politicians make references to God. However, if a mem-
xii SPIRITUAL EMERGENCY
ber of a religious community had a powerful spiritual experience

similar to those that many important figures in Christianity's history
have had, the average minister would send that person to a psychiatrist.
During the last few decades, this situation has been changing
very rapidly. The 1960s brought a wave of interest in spirituality and
consciousness exploration that manifested itself in many different
ways, from a renaissance of the ancient and Oriental spiritual prac-
tices to experiential psychotherapies and self-experimentation with
psychedelic drugs. At that time, many people became deeply involved
in meditation and other forms of spiritual practice, either under the
guidance of a teacher or on their own.
Since such techniques are specifically designed to facilitate spir-
itual opening, spirituality became for many people a matter of per-
sonal experience rather than something they heard or read about.
Since the 1960s, the number of those who have experienced mystical
and paranormal states has been steadily increasing. As indicated by
anonymous polls conducted by the minister and writer Andrew
Greeley and by George Gallup, a remarkable proportion of the popu-
lation now admits having had such experiences. Although there are
no reliable statistical data available, it seems that the number of diffi-
culties associated with spiritual experiences is also increasing from
year to year.
Rather than concluding from the apparent increase of mystical
and visionary experiences that we are in the middle of a global epi-
demic of mental disease, we should reevaluate the relationship be-
tween psychiatry, spirituality, and psychosis. We are now realizing to
our surprise that, in the process of relegating mystical experiences to
pathology, we may have thrown the baby out with the bath water.
Step by step, spirituality is making a comeback into modern psychia-
try and into science in general.
The popularity of the Swiss psychiatrist C. G. Jung, whose
pioneering work represents a milestone in the new appreciation of
spirituality, is rapidly increasing among mental-health professionals,
on college campuses, and in lay circles. The same is true for transper-
sonal psychology, a new discipline that bridges science and the spir-
itual traditions. Convergence between revolutionary advances in
modern science and the worldview of the mystical schools has been
the subject of many popular and professional books that have found
large audiences. The healthy mystical core that inspired and nour-
ished all great spiritual systems is now being rediscovered and refor-
mulated in modern scientific terms.
Introduct ion kin
More and more people seem to be realizing that true spirituality

is based oil personal experience and is .\n extremely important and
vital dimension of lite. We might be paying a great price for having
rejected ^\nd discarded a force that nourishes, empowers, and gives
meaning to human lite. On the individual level, the result seems to be
an impoverished, unhappy, and unfulfilling way of life, as well as an
increased number of emotional and psychosomatic problems. On the
collective scale, the loss of spirituality might be a significant factor in
the current dangerous global crisis that threatens the survival of hu-
manity and of all life on this planet. In view of this situation, we feel
that it is important to offer support to people undergoing crises of
spiritual opening and to create circumstances in which the positive
potential of these states can be fully realized.
However, it also seems necessary to issue a word of caution.
Episodes of nonordinary states of consciousness cover a very wide
spectrum, from purely spiritual states without any pathological fea-
tures to conditions that are clearly biological in nature and require
medical treatment. It is extremely important to take a balanced ap-
proach and to be able to differentiate spiritual emergencies from gen-
uine psychoses. While traditional approaches tend to pathologize
mystical states, there is the opposite danger of spiritualizing psy-
chotic states and glorifying pathology or, even worse, overlooking an
organic problem.
Transpersonal counseling is not appropriate for conditions of a
clearly psychotic nature, characterized by lack of insight, paranoid
delusions and hallucinations, and extravagant forms of behavior. Peo-
ple with chronic conditions and long histories of institutional treat-
ment who require large doses of tranquilizers are clearly not
candidates for the new approaches. We feel strongly, however, that in
spite of possible misapplications of the category of spiritual emer-
gency, the benefits for those who are truly undergoing a transfor-
mation crisis are so significant that it is important to continue
our efforts. The matter of discriminating between pathological condi-
tions and transpersonal crises will be examined more closely in our
opening essay, "Spiritual Emergency: Understanding Evolutionary
>>
C:nsis. •
Our interest in this area is very personal and is intimately con-

nected with our individual histories. Stanislav began his professional
career as a traditional psychiatrist and Freudian analyst. A profound
experience in a psychedelic session conducted for training purposes
attracted his attention to nonordinary states of consciousness. More
xiv SPIRITUAL EMERGENCY
than three decades of research on and observations of the nonordi-

nary experiences of others and his own, induced by a variety of
means, convinced him that the current understanding of the human
psyche is superficial and inadequate to the task of accounting for the
phenomena he has witnessed. He also realized that many of the states
that psychiatry considers to be manifestations of mental diseases of
unknown origin are actually expressions of a self-healing process in
the psyche and in the body. It became his lifelong interest to explore
the therapeutic potential of these states and the theoretical challenges
associated with them.
Christina's interest in the area of spiritual crisis also results from
deep personal motivation. She experienced a spontaneous and com-
pletely unexpected spiritual awakening during childbirth, followed by
years of dramatic experiences that ranged from hellish to ecstatic.
After years of searching, she discovered that her difficulties accu-
rately matched the descriptions of "Kundalini awakening," a process
of spiritual opening described in Indian sacred scriptures. (Lee San-
nella takes a close look at this phenomenon in "Kundalini: Classical
and Clinical," included in Part Two of this book.)
In 1980, in an attempt to make the situation easier for others in a
similar predicament, Christina founded the Spiritual Emergence Net-
work (SEN), a worldwide organization that supports individuals in
spiritual crises, provides them with information that gives them a
new understanding of their process, and advises them on available
alternatives to traditional treatment. SEN's work will be described
fully Jeneane Prevatt's and Russ Park's essay, "The Spiritual
in
Emergence Network (SEN)," in the final section of this book.
The present volume is an integral part of our efforts. Here we
present a collection of articles by various authors offering a new
understanding of unusual experiences and states of consciousness and
exploring their positive potential and constructive ways of working
with them. The contributions fall into four broad categories, forming
the main sections of the book.
Part One, "Divine Madness," explores the relationship between
psychology, spirituality, and psychosis. It opens with our own intro-
ductory essay, "Spiritual Emergency: Understanding Evolutionary
Crisis," which outlines the subject of this book. It defines the con-
cept of spiritual emergency, describes the different forms it takes, and
discusses a new map of the psyche based on modern consciousness
research that can provide useful orientation for people in spiritual crises.
Introduction xv
Roberto Assagioli, an Italian psychiatrist and the founder of an

original psychotherapeutic system called psychosynthesis, was a true
pioneer in the field oi transpersonal psychology. Like Jung, he em-
phasized the role of spirituality in human
and formulated many
life
ideas that are vet v important for the concept of spiritual emergency.
His essay, "Self-Realization and Psychological Disturbances," de-
scribing the emotional problems preceding, accompanying, and fol-
lowing a spiritual opening, is a document of great historical value and
of theoretical, as well as practical, importance.
R. D. Laing has been for many years one of the most stimulating
and controversial figures in contemporary psychiatry. Challenging
both traditional psychiatry and Western society, he asserts that the
sanity of our culture is at best "pseudosanity" and that what is called
mental illness is not true madness. Laing's contribution to this an-
thology, "Transcendental Experience in Relation to Religion and Psy-
chosis," is of particular interest since it expresses his attitude toward
mystical experiences and spirituality.
Part Two, "Varieties of Spiritual Emergency," focuses more
specifically on the different forms of personal evolutionary crisis.
John Weir Perry's "Spiritual Emergence and Renewal" discusses an
important type of transformation crisis that reaches to the very core
of the personality structure as he observed it during years of intensive
psychotherapy with his clients. Perry also summarizes his experi-
ences with an experimental treatment facility in San Francisco, where
patients undergoing episodes that would traditionally be seen as psy-
chotic were treated without suppressive medication.
The paper by psychologist and anthropologist Holger Kalweit,
"When Insanity Is a Blessing," explores the wisdom of the world's
oldest religion and healing art, shamanism. Kalweit shows that cer-
tain forms of suffering and sickness have a potential for self-healing
and transformation. An obvious fact among tribal cultures of all ages,
this knowledge has been lost in modern Western society.
The idea of Kundalini awakening, a dramatic and colorful form
of spiritual opening, has become very popular in the West due to the
prolific writings of Gopi Krishna, a pandit from Kashmir who had
himself undergone a dramatic and challenging spiritual transforma-
tion of this kind. In our book, this subject is represented by the
essay, "Kundalini: Classical and Clinical," by the psychiatrist and
ophthalmologist Lee Sannella, who has the merit of having intro-
duced the Kundalini syndrome to Western professional audiences.
xvi SPIRITUAL EMERGENCY
Here he complements the traditional point of view with a medical

and scientific perspective on the subject.
In "The Challenges of Psychic Opening/' psychic and transper-
sonal counselor Anne Armstrong describes the emotional turmoil and
psychosomatic difficulties that accompanied the opening of her re-
markable psychic gift and resulted in dramatic self-healing.
The problems of people who have had "UFO encounters" and
experienced other forms of extraterrestrial contacts are so similar to
those associated with transformational crises that these experiences
can be considered spiritual emergencies. This subject is discussed in
Keith Thompson's essay "The UFO Encounter Experience as a Cri-
sis of Transformation."
The third part, "The Stormy Search for the Self," discusses the
problems that might encounter during systematic
spiritual seekers
practice. Mystical literature of all cultures and ages offers many ex-
amples of the problems and complications that we can encounter
when we embark on a spiritual journey. This theme is discussed by
two well-known and highly competent spiritual teachers. Jack
KornfiekTs essay "Obstacles and Vicissitudes in Spiritual Practice" is
based on the Buddhist tradition, with occasional excursions into
other belief systems. Richard Alpert, better known under his spir-
itual name, Ram Dass, describes some of the fruits of his rich and
fascinating personal quest, which has extended over the last quarter
of a century, in "Promises and Pitfalls of the Spiritual Path."
Part Four, "Help for People in Spiritual Emergency," focuses on
the practical problems of assisting individuals in psychospiritual
crises. own essay on the subject, "Assistance in Spiritual
In our
Emergency," we explore the different forms of help that can be of-
fered by family, friends, spiritual teachers and communities, and pro-
fessional therapists.
More than one-third of the people who undergo a sudden con-
frontation with death experience a radical and profound spiritual
opening that might be very Approaches for
difficult to assimilate.
assisting this type of crisis are addressed in the essay "Counseling the
Near-Death Experiencer" by Bruce Greyson and Barbara Harris,
prominent researchers in the field of thanatology. While this essay
focuses on professional helpers, the general principles the authors
outline will be of use to all who come into close contact with those
undergoing any form of spiritual emergency.
Paul Rebillot's contribution, "The Hero's Journey: Ritualizing
the Mystery," introduces the mythological perspective and shows its
Introduction XVI l
relevance to the problem ol spiritual emergency. Drawing inspiration

from his own transformative crisis and From Joseph Campbell's clas-
sic work The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Rebillot has developed a
modern ritual where a symbolic healing crisis is experimentally

evoked through the use ot guided imagery, psychodrama, music, and
group play.
The final paper, "The Spiritual Emergence Network (SEN)," is
written by Jeneane Prevatt, current director of that organization, and
by Russ Park, a doctoral student deeply involved with it. They out-
line the history and function of this worldwide network founded in
1980 by Christina to support individuals undergoing crises of spiritual

opening.
In the epilogue, we have tried to put the problem of spiritual
emergency into the context of the crisis modern humanity is facing.
We firmly believe that spiritual emergence —transformation of the
consciousness of humanity on a large scale — one of the few
is truly
promising trends in today's world.
The appendix provides suggestions for further reading for those
who w ould like more information on the various issues explored in
r
this book. Also included is an extensive bibliography on spiritual

emergency and related subjects.
It is our hope that this selection of essays will provide valuable
information for those undergoing psychospiritual crisis and seeking

understanding and treatment that supports the positive potential of
these states.
Stanislav Grof
Christina Grof
Mill Valley, California
August 1989
Part One
DIVINE MADNESS
PSYCHOLOGY,
SPIRITUALITY,
AND PSYCHOSIS
Stanislav Grofand Christina Grof
SPIRITUAL EMERGENCY:
UNDERSTANDING
EVOLUTIONARY CRISIS
The mystic, endowed with native talents . . . and fol-

lowing . the instruction of a master, enters the waters
. .
and finds he can swim; whereas the schizophrenic, un-

prepared, unguided, and ungifted, has fallen or has inten-
tionally plunged and is drowning.
JOSEPH CAMPBELL, Myths to Live By

2 SPIRITUAL EMERGENCY
Feelings of oneness with the entire universe. Visions and images

of distant times and places. Sensations of vibrant currents of
energy coursing through the body, accompanied by spasms and vio-
lent trembling. Visions of deities, demigods, and demons. Vivid
flashes of brilliant light and rainbow colors. Fears of impending in-
sanity, even death.
Anyone experiencing such extreme mental and physical phe-
nomena would instantly be labeled psychotic by most modern West-
erners. Yet increasing numbers of people seem to be having unusual
experiences similar to those described above, and instead of plunging
irrevocably into insanity, they often emerge from these extraordinary
states of mind with an increased sense of well-being, and a higher
level of functioning in daily life. In many cases, long-standing emo-
tional, mental, and physical problems are healed in the process.
We find many parallels for such incidences in the life stories of
the saints, yogis, mystics, and shamans. In fact, spiritual literature
and traditions the world over validate the healing and transformative
power of such extraordinary states for those who undergo them.
Why, then, are people who have such experiences in today's world
almost invariably dismissed as mentally ill?
Although there are many individual exceptions, mainstream psy-

chiatry and psychology in general make no distinction between mys-
ticism and mental illness. These fields do not officially recognize that
the great spiritual traditions that have been involved in the systematic
study of human consciousness for millennia have anything to offer.
Thus the concepts and practices found in the Buddhist, Hindu,

Christian, Sufi, and other mystical traditions are ignored and dis-
missed indiscriminately.
In this essay, we will explore the idea that many episodes of
unusual states of mind, even those that are dramatic and reach psy-
chotic proportions, are not necessarily symptoms of disease in the
medical sense. We view them as crises of the evolution of conscious-
Spiritual Emergency: I Understanding Evolutionary ( Crisis 3
Hess, or "spiritual emergencies," comparable to the states described

by the various mystical traditions o! the world.
Before discussing more specifically the concept ot spiritual enfcr
gency, let US take a closer look at the relationship between psychosis,
mental disease, and mysticism, and the historical developments that
have resulted in the rejection ot classic spiritual and mystical experi
ences as symptoms oi mental illness by modern science and psy-
chiatry.
The worldview by traditional Western science and domi-
created
nating our culture most rigorous form, incompatible with
is, in its
any notion of spirituality. In a universe where only the tangible,

material, and measurable are real, all forms of religious and mystical
activities are seen as reflecting ignorance, superstition, and irrational-
ity or emotional immaturity. Direct experiences of spiritual realities
are then interpreted as "psychotic" —manifestations of mental disease.
Our personal experiences and observations during years of in-
volvement in various forms of deep experiential psychotherapy have
led us to believe that it is important to take a fresh look at this
situation in psychiatry and inour worldview in general, and reevalu-
ate it in light of both historical and recent evidence. A radical revision
of thinking about mysticism and psychosis is long overdue. A clear
differentiation between these two phenomena has far-reaching practi-
cal consequences for those people who have experiences of nonordi-
nary states of consciousness, particularly those with a spiritual em-
phasis. It is important to recognize spiritual emergencies and treat
them appropriately because of their great positive potential for per-
sonal growth and healing, which would ordinarily be suppressed by
an insensitive approach and indiscriminate routine medication.
The group of mental disorders known as psychoses represents a
great challenge and enigma for Western psychiatry and psychology.
These conditions are characterized by a deep disruption of the ability
to perceive the world in normal terms, to think and respond emo-
tionally in a way that is culturally and socially acceptable, and to
behave and communicate appropriately.
For some of the disorders in the category of psychosis, modern
science has found underlying anatomical, physiological, or biochemi-
cal changes in the brain or in other parts of the organism. This
subgroup is referred to as organic psychoses and belongs unquestion-
ably in the domain of medicine. However, for many other psychotic
states, no medical explanation has been found in spite of the focused
efforts of generations of researchers from various fields. In spite of

the general lack of results in the search for specific medical causes,
these so-called functional psychoses are usually put into the category
of mental diseases whose cause is unknown. It is this subgroup of
psychoses that interests us here.
In view of the absence of a clear consensus regarding the causes
of functional psychoses, it would be more appropriate and honest to
acknowledge our complete ignorance as to their nature and origin and
use the term disease only for those conditions for which we can find a
specific physical basis. Thus we can open the door to novel ap-
proaches to at leastsome functional psychoses, yielding new perspec-
tives that differ theoretically and practically from the medical view of
disease. Alternatives have already been developed, particularly in the
context of so-called depth psychologies. These are various psycholog-
ical theories and psychotherapeutic strategies inspired by the pioneer-
ing work of Sigmund Freud.
Although the approaches of depth psychology are discussed and
taught in academic circles, the understanding and treatment of func-
tional psychoses in mainstream psychiatry is, for a variety of reasons,
dominated by medical thinking. Historically, psychiatry has been
able to establish itself firmly as a medical discipline. It has found an
organic basis for certain psychotic states and, in some instances, even
effective treatments for them. In addition, it has been able to suc-
cessfully control the symptoms of psychotic states of unknown origin
by tranquilizers, antidepressants, sedatives, and hypnotics. It thus
might seem logical to extend this trajectory and expect success along
the same lines in those disorders for which causes and treatments
have not yet been found.
There are additional facts that make a persuasive case for the
medical, or psychiatric, perspective. Psychiatry traces psychotic
states and behaviors to physical and physiological conditions,
whereas depth psychologies attempt to find the causes of mental
problems in events and circumstances of the patient's life, usually
occurrences in his or her childhood. Thus traditional psychology
limits the sources of all mind to observable aspects of
contents of the
the client's personal history. This is what we call the "biographical
model" of psychosis. Psychotic behaviors and states of mind for
which causes in biographical history cannot be found would therefore
seem to provide evidence for the medical model.
Indeed, there are significant aspects of many psychoses that can-
Spirit Hii! Emergency: I 'nderstanding Evolutionary ( 'roil \
not be accounted tor by the psychological method oi finding the

origins ot mental conditions in the patient's lite history. Some of
all
them involve certain extreme emotions and physical sensations that

cannot easily be understood in terms ot the individual's childhood
history or later events. \ [ere belong, tor example, visions and experi-
ences ot engulfment by the universe, diabolic tortures, disintegration
ot the personality, or even destruction of the world. Similarly, abys-
mal guilt feelings, a sense of eternal damnation, or uncontrollable and
indiscriminate aggressive impulses in many cases cannot be traced to
specific events or conditions in the patient's life. We might then
easily assume that such alien elements in the psyche must be due to
organic pathological processes directly or indirectly affecting the
brain.
There are other types of experiences that present problems for
the biographical view, not only because of their intensity but because
of their very nature. Experiences of deities and demons, mythical
heroes and landscapes, or celestial and infernal regions have no logical
it is understood by Western science. Therefore it
place in the world as
seems obvious to suggest, as the medical perspective does, that they
must be products of some unknown physical process of disease. The
mystical nature of many experiences in nonordinary states of con-
sciousness puts them automatically into the category of pathology,
since spirituality is not seen as a legitimate dimension in the ex-
clusively material universe of traditional science.
Recent developments in psychology, however, have begun to
suggest sources for such extraordinary experiences that lie outside
both medical pathology and personal life history. Historically, the
first breakthrough in this respect was the work of the Swiss psychia-
trist C. G. Jung. Jung vastly expanded the biographical model by in-
troducing the concept of the collective unconscious. Through careful

analysis of his own dream life, the dreams of his clients, and the
hallucinations, fantasies, and delusions of psychotics, Jung discov-
ered that the human psyche has access to images and motifs that are
truly universal. They can be found in the mythology, folklore, and
art of cultures widely distributed not only across the globe but also
throughout the history of humanity.
These archetypes, as Jung called them, appear with astonishing
regularity even in individuals whose life history and education lack
direct exposure to their various cultural and historical manifestations.
This observation led him to the conclusion that there is in addition —
to the individual unconscious — a racial or collective

unconscious that
is shared by all mankind. He saw
comparative religion and mythol-
ogy as invaluable sources of information about these collective aspects
of the unconscious. In Jung's model, many experiences that do not
make sense as derivatives of biographical events, such as visions of
deities and demons, can be seen as the emergence of contents from
the collective unconscious.
Although Jung's theories have been known for many decades,
they did not initially have a significant influence outside narrow cir-
cles of dedicated followers. His ideas were very much ahead of their
time and had to wait for additional impetus to gain momentum. This
situation started to change during the 1960s, the time of a great
renaissance of interest in the further reaches of human consciousness.
This era of inner exploration started with clinical experimentation
with psychedelic drugs among professionals and personal exposure
by a portion of the lay population, which for a while came to be
known as the counterculture. Exploration continued with an ava-
lanche of experiential techniques of psychotherapy and spiritual prac-
tices of all kinds, from Gestalt therapy to transcendental meditation,
among therapists and lay people in the 1970s and 1980s.
As many began to experience the kinds of images and symbols
Jung ascribed to the collective unconscious, as well as episodes of a
classic mystical nature, this wave brought strong supportive evidence
for Jungian ideas and
powerful validation of the mystical traditions
a
of the world, Eastern as well as Western. During this time, it became
obvious to many practitioners involved in these explorations that we
needed a new model of the psyche whose important elements would
include not only the Freudian biographical dimension but the Jungian
collectiveunconscious and spirituality as well.
When one thinks about the mind in such vastly expanded terms,
the contents of the experiences that emerge during various nonordi-
nary states of consciousness are not seen as random and arbitrary
products of impaired brain functioning. Rather, they are manifesta-
tions of the deep recesses of the human psyche that are not ordinarily
accessible. And the surfacing of this unconscious material can actu-
ally be healing and transformative, if it occurs under the right circum-
stances. Various spiritual disciplines and mystical traditions from
shamanism to Zen represent rich repositories of invaluable knowledge
with regard to these deeper domains of the mind. It has been known
for centuries that many dramatic and difficult episodes can occur
Spiritual Emergency: Understanding Evolutional v Crisis 7
during spiritual practice and chat the road to enlightenment can be

rough M\d stormy.
Thus, the light shed by depth psychology and ancient spiritual
legacies provides the basis for a new understanding ol some of the
psychotic states for which no biological cause can be found. The
challenges to modern psychiatry presented by both of these schools
of knowledge show us the roots of the idea of spiritual emergency, a
concept that we will now examine in greater detail.
THE PROMISE AND PERIL OF

SPIRITUAL EMERGENCY
The Chinese pictogram for crisis perfectly represents the idea of spir-
itual emergency. It is composed of two basic signs, or radicals: one of
them means "danger" and the other "opportunity." Thus, while

passage through this kind of condition is often difficult and frighten-
ing, these states havetremendous evolutionary and healing potential.

If properly understood and treated as difficult stages in a natural
developmental process, spiritual emergencies can result in spon-
taneous healing of various emotional and psychosomatic disorders,
favorable personality changes, solutions to important problems in
life, and evolution toward what some call "higher consciousness."
Because of both the attendant danger and the positive potential
of these crises, people involved in spiritual emergency need expert
guidance from those who have personal and professional experience
with nonordinary states of consciousness and know how to work
with and support them. In individuals undergoing an evolutionary
crisis of this kind, pathological labels and the insensitive use of
various repressive measures, including the control of symptoms by

medication, can interfere with the positive potential of the process.
The ensuing long-term dependence on tranquilizers with their well-
known side effects, and compromised way of life
loss of vitality,
present a sad contrast to those rare situations where a person's trans-
formation crisis has been supported, validated, and allowed to reach
completion. Therefore, the importance of understanding spiritual
emergency and of developing comprehensive and effective approaches
to its treatment and adequate support systems cannot be over-
emphasized. (The issue of treatment will be more fully addressed in
our essay "Assistance in Spiritual Emergency.")
TRIGGERS OF TRANSFORMATIONAL CRISIS

In some instances, it is possible to identify the situation that seems to
have triggered the spiritual emergency. It can be a primarily physical
factor, such as a disease, accident, or operation. At other times,
extreme physical exertion or prolonged lack of sleep may appear to be
the immediate trigger. In women, it can be childbirth, miscarriage, or
abortion; we have also seen situations where the onset of the process
coincided with an exceptionally powerful sexual experience.
Occasionally, the beginning of a spiritual emergency can follow a
powerful emotional experience. This can be loss of an important
relationship, such as the death of a child or another close relative, the
end of a love affair, or divorce. Similarly, a series of failures, being
fired from a job, or property loss can immediately precede the onset
of evolutionary crisis. In predisposed individuals, the "last straw"
can be an experience with psychedelic drugs or a session of experien-
tial psychotherapy.
However, one of the most important catalysts of spiritual emer-
gency seems to be deep involvement in various forms of meditation
and spiritual practice. These methods have been specifically designed
to activate spiritual experiences. We have been repeatedly contacted
by persons whose unusual experiences occurred during the pursuit of
Zen, Vipassana Buddhist meditation, Kundalini yoga, Sufi exercises,
or Christian prayer and monastic contemplation. As various Oriental
and Western spiritual disciplines are rapidly gaining popularity, more
and more people seem to be having transpersonal crises yet another —
reason that the correct understanding and treatment of spiritual
emergencies is an issue of ever-increasing importance.
INNER MAPS OF SPIRITUAL EMERGENCY

The experiential spectrum of spiritual emergencies is extremely rich:
it involves intense emotions, visions and other changes of perception,
and unusual thought processes, as well as various physical symptoms
ranging from tremors to feelings of suffocation. However, we have
observed that the content of these experiences seems to fall into three
major categories. The first group involves experiences closely related
to an individual's life history, known as the biographical category.
The second category revolves around issues of dying and being re-
born; a close relationship to the trauma of biological birth earns this
:
SpiritHid Emergency: I Understanding Evolutionary Crisis 9
group the name perinatal. The third category is tar beyond the limits
ot ordinary human experience and is closely related to the Jungian
collective unconscious;we call these transpcrsonal experiences be-
cause they involve images and motifs that seem to have a source
outside the individual's personal history.
Biographical aspects of spiritual emergencies involve the reliving
and healing of traumatic events in one's life history. The emergence
of important childhood memories, such as physical or sexual abuse,
loss of a parent or loved one, close encounters with death, illness, or
surgery, and other difficult events can sometimes play an important
part in crises of transformation. This domain has been thoroughly
explored and mapped by biographically oriented therapists, and thus
requires no further discussion in these pages.
The next level of experiences in spiritual emergency is the peri-
natal (from the Greek peri, meaning "around/' and the Latin natal,
meaning "pertaining to birth"). This aspect of spiritual emergency
centers around themes of dying and being reborn, unfolding in a
pattern bearing such a close relationship to the stages of biological
birth that it seems to involve a reliving of the memory of one's own
delivery.
Because most of us do not consciously remember our own
births,we have difficulty believing that the experience of being born
has an\ formative impact on the human being. Recent evidence,
r
however, suggests otherwise. The burgeoning perinatal movement in

psychology, finding its origins in the theories of Freud's disciple Otto
Rank and gaining impetus from the research of David Chamberlain
and others, asserts convincingly that the buried memory of birth
trauma has a profound effect on the psyche and can resurface later
in life.
Reliving the memory of birth often results in preoccupation with
death and death-related imagery, reflecting both that birth is a diffi-
cult and life-threatening event and that it is in itself the "death" of
the prenatal period of existence, the only kind of life the fetus has yet
experienced. People reliving the birth trauma feel that their lives are
biologically threatened; this alternates or coincides with experiences
of struggling to be born or freeing oneself from some very uncom-
fortable forms of confinement. Fears of going insane, losing control,
and even of imminent death can become so pronounced under these
conditions as to resemble psychosis.
These episodes often have profound spiritual overtones, felt as a
powerful mystical opening and reconnection with the Divine. They
are often interspersed with mythological motifs from the collective

unconscious that Jung described as archetypes, suggesting intrigu-
ingly that the perinatal level of the mind somehow represents the
interface between the individual and the collective unconscious.
While the many fascinating themes and facets of this category of
spiritual emergency and its relationship to biological birth are beyond
the scope of the present work, a more comprehensive and detailed
discussion can be found in The Adventure of Self-Discovery by
Stanislav Grof.
In addition to biographical and perinatal themes, many spiritual
emergencies have a significant component of experiences that belong
to the third category —
episodes that are distinctly spiritual or "trans-
personal" in content. The word transpersonal refers to transcendence
of the ordinary boundaries of personality and includes many experi-
ences that have been called spiritual, mystical, religious, occult, magi-
cal, or paranormal. Since these terms are associated with many popu-
lar misconceptions, proper understanding of the transpersonal
a
realm is extremely important for correct evaluation of the problems
related to spiritual emergencies.
The best way to begin our discussion of this domain of experi-
ence is to define the factors that bind and limit us in everyday life,
preventing us from contacting the transpersonal dimension. In ordi-

nary states of consciousness, we experience ourselves as physical
beings, material bodies enclosed in our skin. Alan Watts, the famous
philosopher who popularized Eastern religious thought for Western
audiences, referred to this situation as "identification with the skin-
encapsulated ego." We can never experience with the ordinary five
senses anything but what

happening "here and now," the events
is
present in our immediate environment. We cannot see events from

which we are separated by a mountain, hear conversations in a re-
mote city, or feel the softness of lambskin without touching it.
In nonordinary states of consciousness, these limitations do not
seem to apply. When we enter the transpersonal arena, we can experi-
ence historically or geographically remote events as vividly as if they
were happening here and now. We can participate in sequences that
involve our ancestors, animal predecessors, or even people in other
centuries and other cultures who have no ancestral relationship to us.
Our personal boundaries may appear to melt and we can become
identified with other people, groups of people, or all of humanity. We
can actually feel that we have become things that we ordinarily per-
ceive as objects outside of ourselves, such as other people, animals, or
Spiritual Emergency: Understanding Evolutionary (
*risis it
trees.Very accurate and realistic experiences ol identification with

various tonus ol life and even inorganic processes such as the sub-
atomic events described in quantum physics can occur in transper-

sonal states.
But the content ol transpersonal experiences is not limited to the
world oi things that exist in our everyday reality. It includes elements
that Western culture does not accept as objectively real: we can en-
counter deities, demons, spirit guides, inhabitants of other universes,
or mythological figures, all of whom appear as real to us as the things
we encounter in daily life. Thus, in the transpersonal state, we do not
differentiate between the world of "consensus reality," or the conven-
tional everyday world, and the mythological realm of archetypal forms.
The above discussion might appear absurd to a skeptical reader
educated in the tradition of Western science. Why are such experi-
ences important, and how problem of spir-
are they relevant to the
itual emergency? The fact that transpersonal phenomena seem real
and convincing does not mean that they should be taken seriously.
Our brains have a fantastic capacity to store with photographic detail
all that we have heard, read, or seen in books and movies and on
television. Why should it not be possible that we simply concoct

from this incredibly rich material countless imaginary sequences
without deeper meaning and relevance? Is it not a waste of time to
give so much attention to these phenomena?
This point of view, however logical it might seem, does not
withstand the test of existing evidence. Researchers who have se-
riously studied transpersonal experiences have come to the conclusion
that they are remarkable phenomena that challenge the very basis of
the traditional Western worldview. Transpersonal experiences cannot
be explained as products of neurophysiological processes within the
traditional scientific framework, which holds that consciousness re-
sides solely in the organ within our skulls.
The main reason for this conclusion is the frequent observation
that in experiences of this kind, we can, without the mediation of the
senses, directly tap sources of information about the universe that lie
outside the conventionally defined range of the individual psyche.

Experiences involving our ancestors and events from the history of
our race, episodes from lives in other cultures, and sequences that
have the quality of memories from other lifetimes often involve quite
specific and accurate details about the costumes, weapons, rituals,
and architecture of social structures and historical periods to which
we have never personally been exposed.
The experiences of identification with various animals or our

animal ancestors can result in extraordinary insights concerning ani-
mal psychology, instincts, habits, and courtship. Fascinating new
information can often emerge from experiences involving plants or
inorganic processes. Such information is typically far beyond the level
of knowledge of the person receiving it.
However, the most convincing evidence for the authenticity of

transpersonal phenomena comes from the study of out-of-body expe-
riences, during which one feels that one's consciousness has separated
from the body and can travel to and observe events happening in
remote locations. The accuracy of observations made in out-of-body
states has been repeatedly corroborated by researchers studying near-
death experiences, which frequently entail out-of-body phenomena.
What is most astonishing is that even transpersonal experiences
involving entities and realms that are not objectively real according to
the Western worldview can convey absolutely new information. For
example, in nonordinary states, many people have encountered deities
and mythological realms specific to cultures about which they have
no personal knowledge. Accurate details from such experiences have
been verified by research into the corresponding mythology of those
societies. (It was such observations, as we noted earlier, that led Jung
to the discovery of the collective unconscious.)
While it is beyond the scope of this essay to go into detailed
discussions of the evidence and give specific examples, we hope that
this brief outline has succeeded in showing that transpersonal experi-
ences, which play a critical role in spiritual emergencies, are extraor-
dinary events that deserve serious study. (Those who are specifically
interested in this research can find more information in Stanislav
Grof's Beyond the Brain and The Adventure of Self-Discovery.) It
would be a grave mistake to disregard these states of mind as irrele-
vant or insignificant products of brain pathology.
More important from view than the authen-
a practical point of
ticity is their remark-
of information received in transpersonal states
able therapeutic and transformative potential. Many emotional and
psychological difficulties are caused by repressed and forgotten mem-
ories of traumatic events from life history. However, other complica-
tions seem to arise from frightening or threatening information lying
just beneath the threshold of conscious awareness in the perinatal and
transpersonal domains. Included here are traumatic memories from
birth and what seem to be "past lives," identification with wounded
animals, demonic archetypes, and many other phenomena. When, by
Spiritual Emergency: I Understanding Evolutionary ( 'wis 1.1
various techniques, we allow this kind ot material to emerge into

consciousness to be Fully experienced mk\ closely examined, it loses
the disturbing power that it can otherwise exert in our lives, and
chronic psychological and even physical problems whose origins were
previously unknown can be fully healed.
In a similar way, deeply positive and liberating experiences, such
as the recovery ot happy intrauterine memories or feelings of unity
and oneness with nature, other people, and the divine have a re-
markably direct healing impact. They often give us a greater sense of
well-being, a refreshed perspective on current difficulties,
and a
greater sense of purpose and direction in These extraordinary
life.
possibilities impel us to treat spiritual emergencies with great respect

and to cooperate fully in realizing their healing and transformative
potential.
FORMS OF SPIRITUAL EMERGENCY

The manifestations of evolutionary crises are highly individual, and
no two spiritual emergencies are alike. Within the individual human
psyche there are no distinct boundaries; all its contents form one
indivisible continuum. In addition, the Freudian individual uncon-
scious is not clearly separated from the Jungian collective uncon-
scious. One should not, therefore, expect that different types of
spiritual emergency will fall into clean diagnostic pigeonholes that
can be easily distinguished from one another.
However, our work with individuals in crises, discussions with
colleagues who do similar work, and reading of related literature have
convinced us that it is possible and useful to define certain major
forms of spiritual emergency, which have specific features differen-
tiating them from others. Naturally, their boundaries are somewhat
fuzzy, and combinations and overlaps of various kinds are the rule
rather than the exception.
We list of the most important varieties of
will first present a
emergency" and then give a brief description of each. (A
''spiritual
more detailed discussion of some of these conditions can be found in
the second section of this book, "Varieties of Spiritual Emergency. ")
1. The shamanic crisis

2. The awakening of Kundalini
3. Episodes of unitive consciousness ("peak experiences")

4. Psychological renewal through return to the center
5. The crisis of psychic opening
6. Past-life experiences
7. Communications with spirit guides and "channeling"
8. Near-death experiences
9. Experiences of close encounters with UFOs
10. Possession states
The Shamanic Crisis
Shamanism is humanity's most ancient religion and healing art. A

universal phenomenon, it very likely originated in the Paleolithic era
and has survived in most preindustrial cultures to this day. It is thus
clearly related to some very basic and primordial aspects of the hu-
man psyche.
The career of many shamans —witch doctors or medicine men
and women — in different cultures begins with a dramatic involuntary
visionary episode that anthropologists call "shamanic illness/' Dur-
ing this time, future shamans might lose contact with the environ-
ment and have powerful inner experiences that involve journeys into
the underworld and attacks by demons who expose them to incred-
ible tortures and ordeals. These often culminate in experiences of
death and dismemberment followed by rebirth and ascent to celestial
regions.
When these episodes are successfully completed, they can be
profoundly healing; not only the emotional but also the physical
health of the future shaman is often dramatically improved as a result
of such a psychospiritual crisis. This involuntary initiation can also
lead to many important insights into the forces of nature and the
dynamics of diseases. Following such a crisis, one becomes a shaman
and returns to the community as a fully functioning and honored
member. (More detailed discussion of this subject can be found in
this book in Holger Kalweit's essay "When Insanity Is a Blessing.")
We have seen instances where modern Americans, Europeans,
Australians, and Asians have experienced episodes that bore a close
resemblance to shamanic crises. Besides the elements of physical and
emotional tortures, death, and rebirth, such states involved experi-
ences of connection with animals, plants, and elemental forces of
nature. People experiencing such crises can also show spontaneous
Spiritual Emergency: I Understanding Evolutionary ( 'risis n
tendencies to create rituals thai are identical to those practiced by

shamans ol various cultures.
The Awakening of Kundalini
The manifestations oi this form of crisis resemble the descriptions of

the awakening of the serpent power, or Kundalini, found in historical
Indian literature. According to the yogis, Kundalini is a form of
creative cosmic energy that resides in a latent form at the base of the
human spine. It can become activated by meditation, specific ex-
ercises, the intervention of an accomplished spiritual teacher, or
sometimes for reasons that are unknown.
The activated Kundalini rises through the channels in the "subtle
body," which is described in the yogic literature as a field of non-
physical energy surrounding and infusing the physical body. As it
ascends, it clears old traumatic imprints and opens the centers of
psychic energy, called chakras. This process, although highly valued
and considered beneficial in the yogic tradition, is not without dan-
gers and requires expert guidance by a guru whose Kundalini is fully
awakened and stabilized.
The most dramatic signs of Kundalini awakening are physical
and psychological manifestations called kriyas. One can experience
intense sensations of energy and heat streaming up the spine, associ-
ated with violent shaking, spasms, and twisting movements. Power-
ful waves of seemingly unmotivated emotions, such as anxiety, anger,
sadness, or joy and ecstatic rapture, can surface and temporarily
dominate the psyche. Visions of brilliant light or various archetypal
beings and a variety of internally perceived sounds, as well as experi-
ences of what seem to be memories from past lives, are very com-
mon. Involuntary and often uncontrollable behaviors complete the
picture: talking in tongues, chanting unknown songs, assuming yogic
postures and gestures, and making a variety of animal sounds and
movements.
Recently, unmistakable signs of this process have been observed
in thousands of Westerners. California psychiatrist and eye doctor
Lee Sannella, who first brought the Kundalini syndrome to the atten-
tion of Western audiences, single-handedly collected nearly one thou-
sand such cases. He discusses his experiences in his contribution to
this book, entitled "Kundalini: Classical and Clinical."
Episodes of Unitive Consciousness ("Peak Experiences")
In the states that belong to this group, one experiences dissolution of

personal boundaries and has a sense of becoming one with other
people, with nature, or with the entire universe. This process has a
very sacred quality and feels like onemerging with creative cosmic
is
energy, or God. The usual categories of time and space seem to be

transcended, and one can have a sense of infinity and eternity. The
emotions associated with this state range from profound peace and
serenity to exuberant joy and ecstatic rapture.
The American psychologist Abraham Maslow, who studied
these experiences in many hundreds of people, gave them the name
,>
"peak experiences. While writing about them, he expressed sharp
criticism toward Western psychiatry for its tendency to confuse such
states with mental disease. According to Maslow, they should be
considered supernormal, rather than abnormal, phenomena. If they
are not interfered with or discouraged, they typically lead to better
functioning in the world and to "self-actualization," a capacity to
express one's potential more fully. Because of the vast available litera-
ture on unitive experiences, we have not included an essay on this
subject in the present work. We highly recommend Maslow's work
for further study.
Psychological Renewal through Return to the Center
Another important type of transpersonal crisis has been described by

the California psychiatrist and Jungian analyst John Weir Perry, who
called it the "renewal process." For a superficial observer, the experi-
ences of the people involved in a renewal process are so strange and
extravagant that it might seem logical to attribute them to some se-
rious disease process affecting the functioning of the brain.
The psyche of people in this kind of crisis appears to be a
colossal battlefield where a cosmic combat is being played out be-
tween the forces of Good and Evil, or Light and Darkness. They are
—
preoccupied with the theme of death ritual killing, sacrifice, mar-
tyrdom, and afterlife. The problem of opposites fascinates them,
particularly issues related to the differences between sexes.
They experience themselves as the center of fantastic events that
have cosmic relevance and are important for the future of the world.
" —
Spiritual I rstanding Evolutionary ( 'risu r
Their visionary states tend to take them farther and farther back
through their own history and the history of humanity, all the way
to the creation of the world >md the original ideal state of paradise.
In this process, they seem to strive tor perfection, trying to correct
things thai went wrong in the past.
After a period ot turmoil and contusion, the experiences become

more and more pleasant and start moving toward a resolution. The
process often culminates in the experience ot "sacred marriage"; this
eitherhappens with an imaginary archetypal partner, or is projected
onto an idealized person from one's lite. It usually reflects that the
masculine and the feminine aspects of the personality are reaching a
new balance.
At this time, one can have experiences involving what Jungian
psychology sees as symbols representing the Self the transpersonal —
center that reflects our deepest and true nature and is comparable to
the Hindu concept of Atma-Brahma, the divine within. In visionary
states, it appears in the form of a source of light of supernatural
beautv, precious stones, pearls, radiant jewels, and other similar sym-
bolic variations.
There is usually a stage in which these glorious experiences are
interpreted as a personal apotheosis, a procedure that raises one to a
highly exalted human status or to a state above the human condition
altogether — world savior, or even the Lord of the
a great leader, a
Universe. This is often associated with a profound sense of spiritual

rebirth that replaces the earlier preoccupation with death.
At the time of completion and integration, one usually envisions
—
an ideal future a new world governed by love and justice, where all
ills and evils have been overcome. As the intensity of the process
subsides, the person realizes that the entire drama w as a psychologi- r
cal transformation that was by and large limited to the inner world of
the main protagonist.
According to Perry, the renewal process moves one in the direc-
tion of what is called in Jungian psychology "individuation," a fuller
expression of one's deeper potential. The positive outcome of these
episodes and their rich connections with archetypal symbols from
ancient history make it very unlikely that the renewal process is a
chaotic product of a dysfunctional brain. More information on this
type of spiritual emergency can be found in Perry's contribution to

this book, entitled "Spiritual Emergence and Renewal.
The Crisis of Psychic Opening

An increase in intuitive abilities and the occurrence of psychic or
"paranormal" phenomena are very common during spiritual emer-
gencies of all kinds. However, in some instances the influx of infor-
mation from nonordinary sources, such as precognition, telepathy, or
clairvoyance, becomes so overwhelming and confusing that it domi-
nates the picture and constitutes a major problem.
Among the most dramatic manifestations of psychic opening are
frequent out-of-body experiences; when they occur, one's conscious-
ness seems to detach from the body and travel around with indepen-
dence and freedom. It is possible to observe oneself from a distance,
witness what is happening in other areas close by, or perceive accu-
rately events in locations that are miles away. Out-of-body travel
occurs frequently in near-death situations, where the accuracy of this
"remote viewing" has been established by systematic studies.
A person experiencing dramatic psychic opening might also be
so much in touch with the inner processes of others that he or she
appears to have telepathic abilities. Indiscriminate verbalization of ac-
curate insights about the contents of other people's minds can alien-
ate others so severely that they may react by unnecessarily hospital-
izing the person who is exhibiting this ability. Correct precognition
of future situations and clairvoyant perception of remote events, par-
ticularly if they occur repeatedly in impressive clusters, can disturb
the person experiencing them, as well as those around him or her,
since they seriously undermine our ordinary notions of reality.
In experiences that can be called "mediumistic," one has a sense
of losing one's own identity and taking on the identity of another
person. This can involve assuming another's body image, posture,
gestures, facial expression, feelings, and even thought processes. Ac-
complished shamans, psychics, and spiritual healers can use such
experiences in a controlled and productive way. However, during
crises of psychic opening, their sudden and unpredictable occurrence
and the loss of one's own identity that accompanies them can be very
frightening.
At times, the life of someone in crisis seems to be full of un-
canny coincidences that link the world of inner realities, such as
dreams and visionary states, with happenings in everyday life. This
phenomenon was first recognized and described by Jung, who gave it
the name "synchronicity. " It is important to know that such extraor-
dinary meaningful coincidences represent authentic phenomena; they
Spiritual Emergency: Understanding Evolutionary Crisis 19
should not be ignored and dismissed as delusions, as often occurs in

contemporary psychiatry. Extraordinary synchronicities accompany
many tonus of spiritual emergency, but arc particularly common in
crises ot psychic opening.
A dramatic personal study ot this variety ot spiritual emergency
is provided in Anne Armstrong's essay 'The Challenges ot Psychic
Opening" in this book.
Past-Life Experiences
Among the most dramatic and colorful transpersonal episodes occur-

ring in nonordinary states of consciousness are experiences of se-
quences taking place in other historical periods and other countries.
They are usually associated with powerful emotions and physical
sensations and often portray the persons, circumstances, and histor-
ical settings in which they take place in minute detail. Their most
remarkable aspect is a convincing sense of personally remembering
and something that one had experienced previously.
reliving
This clearly the same type of experience that inspired the
is
Indian belief in reincarnation and the law of karma. According to this

belief, each of us has an entire chain of lifetimes; our present life is
shaped by merits and debits of the preceding ones and, in turn,

forges our destiny in future incarnations. Various forms of this con-
cept are of critical importance for all the great religions of India and
spiritual systems in other parts of Asia influenced by Buddhism.
However, similar ideas have also existed quite independently in many
other cultures and historical periods. While we do not know whether
the model of "past lives" accurately reveals the source of these experi-
ences, their healing potential impels us to take these episodes se-
riously, apart from whatever we may believe about their origins.
When the content of a karmic experience fully emerges into
consciousness, it can suddenly provide an "explanation" for many
otherwise incomprehensible aspects of one's daily life. Strange diffi-
with certain people, unsubstantiated fears, and

culties in relationships
peculiar idiosyncrasies and attractions as well as obscure emotional
and psychosomatic symptoms now seem to make sense as "karmic
carry-overs" from a "previous lifetime." These very often disappear
when the karmic pattern in question is fully and consciously
experienced.
Past-life experiences can present problems in several different
ways. Before their content emerges fully into consciousness and
'
reveals itself, one can be haunted by strong emotions,

in everyday life
physical feelings, and visions without knowing where these are com-
ing from or what they mean. Since they are experienced out of con-
text, they naturally appear incomprehensible and completely irrational.
Another kind of complication occurs when a particularly strong
karmic experience starts emerging into consciousness in the middle of
everyday activities and interferes with normal functioning. One
might feel compelled to act out some of the elements of the karmic
pattern before it is fully experienced and understood or "completed/
For instance, persons in one's present life often seem to have played
an important role in "previous incarnations" in the emerging past-life
experience; thus one may seek confrontations with one's family or
friends based on what one experiences as interactions with them in a
"past life." This kind of activity can create serious and long-lasting
difficulties and complications in one's relationships with other peo-
ple, who have no basis for understanding this behavior.
And even after the past-life experience is completed and its con-
tent and implications are fully known, there might remain one more
challenge. One has to reconcile one's experience with the traditional
beliefs and values of Western civilization, which has no explanation
for this kind of phenomenon. This might be an easy task for someone
who does not have a strong commitment to the conventional world-
view. The experiences are so convincing that one simply accepts their
message and might even feel pleasantly excited about it. However,
those with much investment in rationality and the traditional scien-
tific perspective can be catapulted into a long period of confusion
when confronted with disquieting but highly convincing personal
experiences that seem to invalidate their belief system.
Because of the wealth of literature on past-life experiences, we
have chosen not to include an essay on this subject in the present
volume. Roger Woolger's book Other Lives, Other Selves can provide
much valuable information about these experiences and effective
work with them.
Communications with Spirit Guides and Channeling
Occasionally, one can encounter in a transpersonal experience a

"being" who seems to show interest in a personal relationship and
assumes the position of a teacher, guide, protector, or simply a con-
venient source of information. Such beings are usually perceived as
discarnate humans,suprahuman entities, or deities existing on higher

endowed with extraordinary wisdom.
planes ol consciousness and
Sometimes they take on the Form of a person; at other times they
appear as radiant sources oi light or simply let their presence be
sensed. Their messages are usually received in the form of direct
thought transfer or through other extrasensory means. Occasionally,
communication can take the form of verbal messages.
A particularly interesting phenomenon in this category is "chan-
neling," which has in recent years received unusual attention from
the public and mass media. In channeling, a person transmits mes-
sages from a source purportedly external to his or her consciousness
through speaking in a trance, using automatic writing, or recording
telepathically received thoughts. Channeling has played an important
role in the history of humanity. Among the channeled spiritual teach-
ings are many scriptures of enormous cultural influence, such as the
ancient Indian Vedas, the Koran, and the Book of Mormon.
The main reason experiences of this kind can trigger a serious
crisis is the reliable nature and quality of information that can be
received from a really good source, whatever that source may actually
be. On occasion, channeling can bring consistently accurate data
about subjects to which the recipient was never exposed. This phe-
nomenon is then experienced as undeniable proof of the existence of
spiritual realities and can lead to serious philosophical confusion for
someone who had at the outset a conventional scientific worldview.
Another source of problems can be the fact that spirit guides are
usually perceived as beings on a high level of consciousness develop-
ment, with superior intelligence and extraordinary moral integrity.
This can easily lead to ego inflation in the channeler, who might see
the fact of having been chosen for a special mission as a proof of his
or her own superiority. Jon Klimo's book Channeling is an excellent
source of information on this subject.
Near-Death Experiences
World mythology, folklore, and spiritual literature abound with vivid
accounts of the experiences associated with death and dying. Special
sacred texts have been dedicated solely to descriptions and discussions
of the posthumous journey, such as the Tibetan Book of the Dead,
the Egyptian Book of the Dead, and their European counterpart, Ars
Moriendi, or the Art of Dying.
"
In the past, this "funeral mythology" was discounted by West-

ern science as a product of the fantasy and imagination of uneducated
people. This situation changed dramatically after the publication of
Raymond Moody's best-seller After Life, which brought
Life
scientific confirmation of the fact that dying can be a fantastic trans-
personal adventure. Moody's report was based on reports of 150
people who had experienced a close confrontation with death —and
in many cases were pronounced medically dead —but regained con-
sciousness to tell their stories.
Moody reports that people having near-death experiences fre-
quently witness a review of their entire lives in the form of a colorful,
incredibly condensed replay occurring within seconds of clock time.
Consciousness can detach from the body and float freely above the
scene, observingit with curiosity and detached amusement, or travel
to distant locations.
Many people describe passing through a dark tunnel or funnel
that brings them to a light of supernatural brilliance and beauty, a
divine being that radiates infinite, all-embracing love, forgiveness,
and acceptance. In a personal exchange, perceived as an audience with
God, they receive a lesson about existence and its universal laws and
have an opportunity to evaluate their past by these new standards.
Then they choose to return to ordinary reality and live their lives in a
new way congruent with the principles they have learned.
In only one of the cases reported by Moody was the attending
physician at all familiar with the characteristics of near-death experi-
ences. This is astonishing considering that medicine is a profession
that deals with death and dying on a daily basis. Since the publication
of Life After Life, many additional studies confirming Moody's find-
ings have been published in popular books and have received wide-
spread media attention.
Near-death experiences frequently lead to spiritual emergencies,
because they fundamentally challenge the beliefs about reality held by
many people who undergo them. These totally unexpected events
take people by surprise: a car accident in the middle of rush-hour
traffic or a heart attack during jogging can catapult someone into a
fantastic visionary adventure that tears ordinary reality asunder. The

specific complicationsemerging from these experiences are addressed
in Bruce Greyson and Barbara Harris's contribution to this book,
entitled "Counseling the Near-Death Experiencer.
As noted above, many emerge from these experiences with a
more spiritual OUtlbok, values, and goals based oil the revelations
they have reached in the near-death state, a kind of life transforma-
tion common successfully completed spiritual emergencies. Be
to all
cause of the recent dissemination of new information by Moody and

others, people who have serious brushes with death in the future will
likely be more prepared for this awe-inspiring experience.
Experiences of Close Encounters with UFOs

The experiences of encounters with and abduction by what appear to
be extraterrestrial spacecrafts or beings can often precipitate serious
emotional and intellectual crises that have much in common with
spiritual emergencies. Jung, who dedicated a special study to the
problem of "flying saucers," suggested that these phenomena might
be archetypal visions originating in the collective unconscious of hu-
manity, rather than extraterrestrial visits from distant civilizations.
He illustrated his thesis by careful analysis of legends about flying
discs that have existed throughout history and reports about actual
apparitions that have occasionally caused crises and mass panic.
Descriptions of UFO sightings typically refer to lights that have
an uncanny, supernatural quality. These lights resemble those men-
tioned in many reports of visionary states. It has been pointed
out that the beings encountered have important parallels in world
mythology and religion, which have their roots in the collective
unconscious.
Reports of abductions often include procedures such as physical
examinations and scientific experiments, which are experienced as
unimaginable tortures. This brings them close to shamanic crises and
to ordeals of initiates in rites of passage conducted by aboriginal
cultures. This aspect of the UFO phenomenon is discussed in Keith
Thompson's essay "The UFO Encounter Experience as a Crisis of
Transformation" in Part Two.
The alien spacecrafts and cosmic flights described by those who
were allegedly invited for a ride have their parallels in spiritual litera-
ture, such as the chariot of the Vedic god Indra or the flaming ma-
chine in EzekiePs biblical version. The fabulous landscapes and cities
visited during these journeys resemble the visionary experiences of
paradise, celestial realms, and cities of light.
There is an additional reason that the UFO
experience might
precipitate a spiritual crisis; we have discussed a similar problem in
relation to spirit guides and channeling. The alien visitors are usually
seen as representatives of civilizations that are incomparably more

advanced than ours, not only technologically but intellectually, mor-
ally, and spiritually. Such contact often has very powerful mystical
undertones and is associated with insights of cosmic relevance.
It is easy for the recipients of such special attention to interpret
this as an indication of their own uniqueness. They might feel that
they have attracted the interest of superior beings from an advanced
civilization because they themselves are in some way exceptional
and particularly suited for a special purpose. In Jungian terminol-
ogy, such a situation, in which the individual claims the luster of
the archetypal world for his or her own person, is referred to as "ego
,,
inflation.
As we have seen, there are good reasons that experiences of
"close encounters" can lead to transpersonal crises. People who have
been exposed to the strange world of UFOs might need help from
someone who has knowledge of archetypal psychology, as well as of
the specific characteristics of this phenomenon, in order to be able to
assimilate the experience.
Possession States
People in this type of transpersonal crisis have a distinct feeling that
their psyche and body have been invaded and are being controlled by
an entity or energy with personal characteristics, which they perceive
as coming from outside their own personality and as hostile and
disturbing. It can appear to be a confused discarnate entity, a de-
monic being, or an evil person invading them by means of black
magic and hexing procedures.
There are many different types and degrees of such conditions.
In some instances, the true nature of the disorder remains hidden.
The problem manifests itself as serious psychopathology, such as
antisocial or even criminal behavior, suicidal depression, murderous
aggression or self-destructive behavior, promiscuous and deviant sex-
ual impulses, or excessive use of alcohol and drugs. It is not until
such a person starts experiential psychotherapy that "possession" is
identified as a condition underlying these problems.
In the middle of an experiential session, the face of a possessed
person can become cramped and take the form of a "mask of evil,"
and the eyes can assume a wild expression. The hands and body
might develop strange contortions, and the voice may become altered
and take on an otherworldly quality. When this situation is allowed
Spintu.il Emergency: i Understanding Evolutionary ( risis 2J
to develop, the session can bear a striking resemblance to exorcisms

in the Catholic church, or exorcist rituals in various aboriginal cul-
tures. The eomes alter dramatic episodes of choking,
resolution often
projectile vomiting, and frantic physical activity, or even temporary
loss of control. Sequences ol this kind can be unusually healing and
transformative and often result in a deep spiritual conversion of the
person involved.
In other instances, the possessed person is aware of the presence
of the entity and might spend much it and
effort trying to fight
control its actions. In the extreme version, this problem can quite
spontaneously occur in the middle of everyday life in the form de-
scribed earlier for experiential sessions. Under such circumstances,
one can feel extremely frightened and desperately alone; relatives,
friends, and often therapists tend to withdraw, because they respond

with a strange mixture of metaphysical fear and moral rejection of the
possessed individual. They often label the person as evil and refuse
further contact.
This condition clearly belongs in the category of spiritual emer-
gency, in spite of the fact that it is associated with many objectionable
forms of behavior and involves negative energies. The demonic arche-
type is by its very nature transpersonal since it represents the negative
mirror image of the divine. It also often appears to be a "gateway
phenomenon/' comparable to the terrifying guardians of the Oriental
temples, since it hides access to a profound spiritual experience,
which often follows after a possession state has been successfully
resolved. With the help of somebody who is not afraid of its uncanny
nature and is able to encourage its full conscious manifestation, its
energy can become dissipated, and remarkable healing occurs.

The works of Wilson van Dusen provide good further informa-
tion on possession states perceived as an invasion of evil spirits.
As we have seen, spiritual emergency takes many forms. Our

attempts understanding and classifying transformational crises rep-
at
resent the cutting edge of an endeavor that is still in its infancy; our
efforts are therefore preliminary and tentative. We hope, nonetheless,
that our undertakings will be of help to those in spiritual crisis and
will inspire further research in these directions.
As is the case with incidents of those phenomena we call posses-
sion, channeling, UFO encounters, and past-life memories, many of
these experiences challenge the Western scientific worldview so fun-
damentally that we can only speculate about their actual sources. We
have observed in countless cases that these conditions do not neces-

sarily precipitate a plunge into insanity. When we treat such crises
with respect and support, they can result in remarkable healing, a
more positive and spiritual outlook, and a higher level of functioning
in everyday life. For this reason, we must take spiritual emergencies
seriouslyno matter how bizarre their manifestations may seem when
viewed from the perspective of our traditional belief systems.
Roberto Assqqioli
SELF-REALIZATION
AND PSYCHOLOGICAL
DISTURBANCES
So the lively force of his mind

Has broken down all barriers,
And he has passed far beyond,

The fiery walls of the world,
And in mind and spirit
Has traversed the boundless universe.
LUCRETIUS, De rerum natura
27
Inogy,moreCarlpopular versions of the

Gustav Jung seems
history of psychiatry
tower as a lonely giant and early
to
and psychol-
pioneer. It might appear that he single-handedly challenged the domi-

nance of the medical model in these disciplines and emphasized the
importance of spirituality. However, at the same time that Jung ques-
tioned the limited and biologically based thinking of Freudian anal-
ysis, another psychiatrist working quietly in Italy was arriving at
conclusions that had much in common with the Jungian approach —

Roberto Assagioli, M.D. Assagioli's work had not been widely pub-
licized until the 1960s, a time of great renaissance of interest in con-
sciousness and spirituality. It isof particular interest that Assagioli paid
special attention to the relation between spirituality and mental
disorders.
Assagioli was a psychiatrist and psychotherapist who developed an
original transpersonal system of therapy called "psychosynthesis."
Trained as a Freudian, he was one of the pioneers of psychoanalysis in
Italy. However, as early as 1911 he voiced serious objections to Freud's
teachings and discussed their limitations and shortcomings. Here he
portrayed psychoanalysis as an approach to human problems that was
not incorrect, but rather partial and incomplete. He was particularly
critical of Freud's neglect and misrepresentation of the spiritual dimen-
sion in human life.
In the following years, Assagioli formulated the principles ofpsy-

chosynthesis, his own theory and practice
of therapy and self-
exploration. Its basic assumption was that an individual is in a con-
stant process of personal growth, realizing his or her hidden potential.
In contrast to Freud, who focused on the base instincts in human
nature, Assagioli emphasized the positive, creative, and joyful ele-
ments and the importance of will.
Assagioli's map of the human personality bears some similarity to
the psychological system of Jung, since it explicitly acknowledges and
honors spirituality and includes the concept of the collective uncon-
scious. It has several main constituents that are in mutual interplay.
Self-Realization and Psychological Disturbances 29
The lower unconscious directs the basic psychological activities, such as

primitive instinctual urges and emotional complexes. The middle un-
conscious is a realmwhere experiences are assnmlated before reaching
consciousness; it corresponds roughly to Freud's preconscious. The su
perconscious domain is the seat of higher feelings and capacities, such
as int uit ion and inspiration. The field of consciousness contains feelings,
thoughts, and impulses that are available for analysis. Assagioli dis-
tinguished the conscious self, defined as the point of pure awareness,
from the higher self, which exists apart from the consciousness of mind
and body. All these components are then contained in the collective
unconscious that we all share.
An important element in AssagiolTs psychosynthesis is the concept

of subpersonalities. According to him, the human personality is not a
unified and fully integrated whole, but consists of many dynamic sub-
structures that have a relatively separate existence and alternate in
their governing influence on the psyche, depending on circumstances.
The most common and obvious subpersonalities reflect the roles that
we have played in the past or are currently playing in our lives, such as
that of child, friend, lover, parent, teacher, doctor, or officer. Others
can be fantasized heroes, mythological figures, or even animals. An
important task of psychosynthesis is to identify and integrate sub-
personalities into a well-functioning dynamic whole.
The therapeutic process of psychosynthesis involves four consecu-
tive stages. At first, the client learns about various elements of his or
her personality that were previously hidden and accepts them on a
conscious level. The next step is freeing oneself from their psychological
influence and developing the ability to control them; this is what
Assagioli calls "disidentification." After the client has gradually dis-
covered his or her unifying psychological center, it is possible to achieve
psychosynthesis, characterized by a culmination of the self-realization
process and integration of various selves around the new center.
Assagioli was born in Venice in 1888 and lived and worked in
Florence. His remarkable vitality, joy in life, optimism, and humor
accompanied him until his last days. Despite his formidable age and a
progressive hearing he continued to be active as a psychiatrist and
loss,
in a variety of other professional activities until his death in 1974. He
was chairman of the Psychosynthesis Research Foundation in New

York and president of the Istituto di Psicosintesi in Italy. His publica-
tions consist of more than three hundred papers and several books,
including Psychosynthesis and The Act of Will.
His contribution to this anthology is truly a classic in the field. It
is a clear and concise statement about the importance of spiritual

development and a discussion of the problems and complications asso-
ciated with this process. There are very few other passages in the
psychiatric literature that emphasize so clearly the need to distinguish
between common psychopathology and the crises preceding, accom-
panying, and following spiritual opening.
Spiritualdevelopment is a long and arduous journey, an adventure

through strange lands full of surprises, joy and beauty, difficulties,
and even dangers. It involves the awakening of potentialities hitherto
dormant, the raising of consciousness to new realms, a drastic trans-
mutation of the "normal" elements of the personality, and a func-
tioning along a new inner dimension.
I am using the term "spiritual" in its broad connotation, and
always in reference to empirically observed human experience. In this

sense, "spiritual" refers not only to experiences traditionally consid-
ered religious but to all the states of awareness, all the human func-
tions and activities which have as their common denominator the
possession of values higher than average —values such as the ethical,
the aesthetic, the heroic, the humanitarian, and the altruistic.
In psychosynthesis we understand such experiences of higher
values as deriving from the superconscious levels of the human being.
The superconscious can be thought of as the higher counterpart of
the lower unconscious so well mapped by Freud and his successors.
Acting as the higher unifying center for the superconscious and for
the life of the individual as a whole is the Transpersonal or Higher
Self. Thus spiritual experiences can be limited to superconscious re-
alms or can include the awareness of the Self. This awareness gradu-
ally develops into Self-realization —the identification of the "I" with
the Transpersonal Self. In the following discussion I shall consider
the various stages of spiritual development including the achievement
of Self-realization.
We
should not be surprised to find that so fundamental a trans-
formation is marked by several critical stages, which may be accom-
panied by various mental, emotional, and even physical disturbances.
To the objective, clinical observation of the therapist, these may ap-
pear to be the same as those due to more usual causes. But in reality
they have quite another meaning and function, and need to be dealt
with in a very different way.
The incidence of disturbances having a spiritual origin is rapidly

increasing nowadays, in growing number of people
step with the
who, consciously or unconsciously, are groping their way towards a
fuller lite. Furthermore, the greater development .md complexity of
the personality of modern man and his increasingly critical mind have
rendered spiritual development a richer, more rewarding, but also a
more difficult and complicated process. In the past a moral conver-
sion, a simple whole-hearted devotion to a teacher or savior, a loving
surrender to God, were often sufficient to open the gates leading to a
higher level of consciousness and a sense of inner union and fulfill-
ment. Now, however, the more varied and complex aspects of mod-
ern man's personality are involved and need to be transmuted and
harmonized with each other: his fundamental drives, his emotions
and feelings, his creative imagination, his inquiring mind, his asser-
tive will, and also his interpersonal and social relations.
For these reasons it is useful to have a general outline of the

disturbances which can arise at the various stages of spiritual de-
velopment and some indications about how best to deal with them.
We can recognize in this process four critical stages, or phases:
• Crises preceding the spiritual aw akeningr
• Crises caused by the spiritual awakening

• Reactions following the spiritual awakening
• Phases of the process of transmutation
I have used the symbolic expression "awakening" because it
clearly suggests the becoming aware of a new area of experience, the

opening of the hitherto closed eyes to an inner reality previously
unknown.
CRISES PRECEDING THE SPIRITUAL

AWAKENING
In order to best understand the experiences that often precede the
awakening, we must review some of the psychological characteristics
of the "normal" human being.
One may say of him that he "lets himself live" rather than that
he lives. He takes life as it comes and does not question its meaning,
its purpose; he devotes himself to the satisfaction of his
worth, or its
personal desires; he seeks enjoyment of the senses, emotional plea-

sures, material security, or achievement of personal ambition. If he is
more mature, he subordinates his personal satisfactions to the fulfill-

ment of the various family and social duties assigned to him, but
without seeking to understand on what bases those duties rest or
from what source they spring. Possibly he regards himself as "re-
ligious" and as a believer in God, but usually his religion is outward
and conventional, and when he has conformed to the injunctions of
his church and shared in its rites he feels that he has done all that is
required of him. In short, his operational belief is that the only reality
is that of the physical world which he can see and touch and therefore
he is strongly attached to earthly goods. Thus, for all practical pur-
poses, he considers this life an end in itself. His belief in a future
"heaven," if he conceives of one, is altogether theoretical and

academic as — is proved by the fact that he takes the greatest pains to
postpone as long as possible his departure for its joys.

But it may happen that this "normal man" becomes both sur-
prised and disturbed by a change —
sudden or slow in his inner life. —
This may take place after a series of disappointments; not infre-
quently after some emotional shock, such as the loss of a loved
relative or a very dear friend. But sometimes it occurs without any
apparent cause, and in the full enjoyment of health and prosperity.
The change begins often with a growing sense of dissatisfaction, of
lack, of "something missing." But this "something missing" is
nothing material and definite; it is something vague and elusive, that
he is unable to describe.
To this is added, by degrees, a sense of the unreality and empti-
ness of ordinary life. Personal affairs, which formerly absorbed so
much of his attention and interest, seem to retreat, psychologically,

into the background; they lose their importance and value. New
problems arise. The individual begins to inquire into the origin and
the purpose of life; to ask what is the reason for so many things he
formerly took for granted; to question, for instance, the meaning of
his own sufferings and those of others, and what justification there
may be for so many inequalities in the destinies of men.
When a man has reached this point, he is apt to misunderstand
and misinterpret his condition. Many who do not comprehend the
significance of these new states of mind look upon them as abnormal
fancies and vagaries. Alarmed at the possibility of mental unbalance,
they strive to combat them in various ways, making frantic efforts to
reattach themselves to the "reality" of ordinary life that seems to be
slipping from them. Often they throw themselves with increased
Self-Realization and Psychological Disturbances
ardor intoa whirl Ol external activities, seeking ever new occupa
dons, new stimuli, >md new sensations. By these <\nd other means
they may succeed for a time in alleviating their disturbed condition,
but they are unable to get rid of it permanently. It continues to
ferment in the depths ol their being, undermining the foundations of

their ordinary existence, whence it is liable to break forth again,
perhaps after a long time, with renewed intensity. The state of uneasi
and agitation becomes more and more painful, and the sense of
riess
inward emptiness more intolerable. The individual feels distracted;

most ot what constituted his life now seems to him to have vanished
like a dream, while no new light has yet appeared. Indeed, he is as
yet ignorant of the existence of such a light, or else he cannot believe
that it will ever illuminate him.
It frequently happens that this state of inner turmoil
is accom-
panied by a moral His value-consciousness awakens or be-

crisis.
comes more sensitive; a new sense of responsibility appears, and the

individual can be oppressed by a heavy sense of guilt. He judges
himself with severity and becomes a prey to profound discourage-
ment, even to the point of contemplating suicide. To the man himself
it seems as if physical annihilation were the only logical conclusion to
his increasing sense of impotence and hopelessness, of breakdown

and disintegration. 1
The foregoing is, of course, a generalized description of such

experiences. In practice, individuals differ widely in their inner expe-
riences and reactions. There are many who never reach this acute
stage, at it almost in one bound. Some are more
while others arrive
harassed by intellectual doubts and metaphysical problems; in others
the emotional depression or the moral crisis is the most pronounced
feature.
It is important to recognize that these various manifestations of
the crisis bear a close resemblance to some of symptoms regarded
the
as characteristic of neurotic and borderline psychotic states. In some
and strain of the crisis also
cases the stress produce physical symp-
toms, such as nervous tension, insomnia, and other psychosomatic
disturbances.
To deal correctly with the situation, it is therefore essential to
determine the basic source of the difficulties. This is generally not
hard to do. The symptoms observed isolatedly may be identical; but a
careful examination of their causes, a consideration of the individual's
All notes and references are located at the back of the book.
personality in its entirety, and —most important of — all the recogni-

tion of his actual, existential situation reveal the different nature and
level of the underlying conflicts. In ordinary cases, these conflicts
occur among the "normal" drives, between these drives and the con-
scious "I," or between the individual and the outer world (par-
ticularly people closely related to him, such as parents, mate, or
children). In the cases which we are considering here, however, the
conflicts are between some aspect of the personality and the pro-
gressive, emerging tendencies and aspirations of a moral, religious,
humanitarian, or spiritual character. And it is not difficult to ascer-
tain the presence of these tendencies once their reality and validity are
recognized rather than being explained away as mere fantasies or
sublimations. In a general way, the emergence of spiritual tendencies
can be considered as the result of turning points in the development,
in the growth of the individual.
There is this possible complication: sometimes these new emerg-
ing tendencies revive or exacerbate old or latent conflicts between
personality elements. Such conflicts, which by themselves would be
regressive, are in fact progressive when they occur within this larger
perspective. They are progressive because they facilitate the achieve-
ment of a new personal integration, a more inclusive one, at a higher
level —one for which the crisis itself paved the way. So these crises are
positive, natural, and often necessary preparations for the progress of

the individual. They bring to the surface elements of the personality
that need to be looked at and changed in the interest of the person's
further growth.
CRISESCAUSED BY THE SPIRITUAL

AWAKENING
The opening of the channel between the conscious and the super-
conscious between the "I" and the Self, and the flood of light,
levels,
energy, and joy which follows, often produce a wonderful release.

The preceding conflicts and sufferings, with the psychological and
physical symptoms which they generated, vanish sometimes with
amazing suddenness, thus confirming the fact that they were not due
to any physical cause but were the direct outcome of the inner strife.
In such cases the spiritual awakening amounts to a real resolution.
But in other cases, not infrequent, the personality is unable to
rightly assimilate the inflow of light and energy. This happens, for
instance, when the intellect is not well Coordinated and developed;

when the emotions and the imagination are uncontrolled; when the
nervous system is too sensitive; or when the inrush of spiritual
energy is overwhelming in its suddenness and intensity. 2
An inability ol the mind to stand the illumination, or a tendency
to self-centeredness or conceit, may cause the experience to be
wrongly interpreted, and there results, so to speak, a "confusion of
levels." The distinction between absolute and relative truths, between
the Self and the "I" is blurred, and the inflowing spiritual ener-
gies may have the unfortunate effect of feeding and inflating the per-
sonal ego.
The author encountered a striking instance of such a harmful
effect in the Psychiatric Hospital at Ancona, Italy. One of the in-
mates, a simple man, formerly a photographer, quietly and per-
little
sistently declared that he was God. Around this central idea he had
constructed an assortment of fantastic delusions about heavenly hosts
at his command; at the same time he was as peaceful, kind, and
obliging a person as one could imagine, always ready to be of service
to the doctors and patients. He was so reliable and competent that he
had been entrusted with the preparation of medicines and even the
keys to the pharmacy. His only lapse in behavior in this capacity was
an occasional appropriation of sugar in order to give pleasure to some
of the other inmates.
Therapists with materialistic views would be likely to regard this
patient as simply affected by paranoid delusions; but this mere diag-
nostic label offers little or no help in understanding the true nature
and causes of such disturbances. It seems worthwhile, therefore, to
explore the possibility of a more profound interpretation of this
man's illusory conviction.
The inner experience of the spiritual Self, and its intimate asso-
ciation with the personal self, gives a sense of internal expansion, of
universality,and the conviction of participating in some way in the
divine nature. In the religious traditions and spiritual doctrines of
every epoch one finds numerous attestations on this subject some of —
them expressed in daring terms. In the Bible there is the explicit
sentence, "I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the
most High." St. Augustine declares: "When the soul loves something
it becomes like unto it; if it should love terrestrial things it becomes
terrestrial, but if it should love God does it not become God?" The
most extreme expression of the identity of the human spirit in its
pure and real essence with the Supreme Spirit is contained in the
central teaching of the Vedanta philosophy: Tat Tvam Asi (Thou Art
That) and Aham evam param Brahman (In truth I am the Supreme
Brahman).
In whatever way one may conceive the relationship between the
individual self, or "I," and the Universal Self, be they regarded as
similar or dissimilar, distinct or united, it is most important to rec-
ognize clearly, and to retain ever present in theory and in practice, the
difference that exists between the Self in its essential nature that —
which has been called the "Fount," the "Center," the "deeper
—
Being," the "Apex" of ourselves and the little self, or "I," usually
identified with the ordinary personality, of which we are normally
conscious. 3 The disregard of this vital distinction leads to absurd and
dangerous consequences.
The distinction gives the key to an understanding of the mental
state of the patient referred to, and of other extreme forms of self-
exaltation and self-glorification. The fatal error of all who fall victim
to these illusions is to attribute to their personal self, or "I," the
qualities and powers of the Transpersonal or Higher Self. In philo-
sophical terms, it is a case of confusion between a relative and an
absolute truth, between the empirical and the transcendent levels of

reality. Instances of such confusion are not uncommon among people
who become dazzled by contact with truths too great or energies too
powerful for their mental capacities to grasp and their personality to
assimilate. The reader will doubtless be able to record instances of
similar self-deception which are found in a number of fanatical fol-
lowers of various cults.
Clearly, in such a situation, it is a waste of time at best to argue
with the person or ridicule his aberration; it will merely arouse his
opposition and resentment. The better way is to sympathize, and,
while admitting the ultimate truth of his belief, point out the nature
of his error and help him learn how to make the necessary distinction
of levels.
There are also cases in which the sudden influx of energies pro-
duces an emotional upheaval which expresses itself in uncontrolled,
unbalanced, and disordered behavior. Shouting and crying, singing
and outbursts of various kinds characterize this form of response. If
the individual is active and impulsive he may be easily impelled by the
excitement of the inner awakening to play the role of prophet or
savior; he may found a new sect and start a campaign of spectacular
proselytism.
Self -Realization and Psychological Disturbances 37
In some sensitive individuals there is an awakening of para-

psychological perceptions. They have visions, which they believe to
be of exalted beings; they may hear voices, or begin to write automat-
icallv, accepting the messages at their face value and obeying them
unreservedly. The quality ol such messages is extremely varied. Some
of them contain fine teachings, others are quite poor or meaningless.
One should always examine them with much discrimination and
sound judgment, and without being influenced by their uncommon
origin or by any claim of their alleged transmitter. No validity should
be attributed to messages containing definite orders and commanding
blind obedience, and to those tending to exalt the personality of the
recipient.
REACTIONS TO THE SPIRITUAL AWAKENING

As has been said, a harmonious inner awakening is characterized by a
sense of joy and mental illumination that brings with it an insight
into the meaning and purpose of life; it dispels many doubts, offers
the solution of many problems, and gives an inner source of security.
At the same time there wells up a realization that life is one, and an
outpouring of love flows through the awakening individual towards
his fellow beings and the whole of creation. The former personality,
with its sharp edges and disagreeable traits, seems to have receded
into the background and a new loving and lovable individual smiles at
us and the whole world, eager to be kind, to serve, and to share his
newly acquired spiritual riches, the abundance of which seems to him
almost too much to contain.
Such a state of exalted joy may last for varying periods, but it is
bound to cease. The inflow of light and love is rhythmical, as is
everything in the universe. After a while it diminishes or ceases, and

the flood is followed by the ebb. The personality was infused and
transformed, but this transformation is seldom either permanent or
complete. More often a large portion of the personality elements
involved revert to their earlier state.
This process becomes clearer if we look at the nature of a peak
experience in terms of energies and levels of organization. 4 Because of
their synthesizing nature, the superconscious energies act on the per-
sonality elements in ways that tend to bring them to their next higher
level of organization. When this higher level is reached, synergic
.
energy is released and this energy in turn produces the ecstasy, ela-
tion, and joy characteristic of such experiences. Depending on the

amount of superconscious energy radiated by the Self, on the respon-
siveness of the personality at the time, and on many other factors,
this higher level of organization may or may not be stable. In the
majority of cases, maintained only as long as the Self keeps
it is
radiating its energy. But once this energy is withdrawn as it even- —

tually is because of the cyclic nature of the activity of the Self there —
is a more or less pronounced trend in the personality to revert toward
its previous level of organization. For purposes of clarity, we can
consider three different possible outcomes which typify the results of
this process:
1 The energy of the Self is strong enough to achieve this higher

personality integration and, also, to transform or break
down the patterns and tendencies inherent in the personality
that would tend to have it revert to the previous state. The
new integration is then permanent. This outcome is relatively
rare and is exemplified by those instances in which an indi-
vidual's life is suddenly and permanently uplifted and trans-
formed as a direct and immediate result of a spiritual
awakening.
2. The energy transmitted by the Self is less intense and/or the
personality is less responsive, so that although a higher level
of organization is reached, only some of the regressive ten-

dencies and patterns in the personality are fully transformed,
while most of them are only neutralized temporarily by the
presence of the higher energies. As a consequence, the higher
integration achieved by the personality is sustained only as
long as the energy of the Self is being actively transmitted.
Once this withdrawn, the personality reverts to-
energy is
ward its previous state. But what remains and this is often —
the most useful part of the experience is an ideal model and —
a sense of direction which one can use to complete the trans-
formation through his own purposeful methods.
3. The energy transmitted by the Self is not sufficient to bring
about the higher level of organization. The energy is then
absorbed by the hidden blocks and patterns that prevent the
higher integration. It has the effect of energizing them and
thus bringing them to light, where they can be recognized
and dealt with. In such cases, the experience is usually of a

painful quality and its transpersonal origin often goes un-
recognized. But in reality it is just as valuable, because it can
show the individual the next steps he needs to make to
achieve the same goals and states of being as in the other
cases.
Oi course, it is important to remember that a person's experi-

ence does not usually fall neatly into one of these three clear-cut
categories. Most spiritual experiences contain a combination in
various proportions of permanent changes, temporary changes, the
recognition of obstacles that need to be overcome, and the lived real-
ization ot what it is like to exist at this higher level of integration. It
is this awareness that then becomes an ideal model, a luminous bea-
con toward which one can navigate and which one can eventually
achieve by his own means. 5
But experiencing the withdrawal of the transpersonal energies
and the loss of one's exalted state of being is necessarily painful, and
is apt in some cases to produce strong reactions and serious troubles.
The personality reawakens and asserts itself with renewed force. All
the rocks and rubbish, which had been covered and concealed at high
tide, emerge again. Sometimes it happens that lower propensities and
drives, hitherto lying dormant in the unconscious, are vitalized by
the inflow of higher energies, or bitterly rebel against the new aspira-
tions and purposes that are constituting and a threat to
a challenge
their uncontrolled expression. The person, whose moral conscience
has now become more refined and exacting, whose thirst for perfec-
tion has become more intense, judges with greater severity and con-
demns his personality with a new vehemence; he is apt to harbor the
mistaken belief of having fallen lower than he was before.
At times the reaction of the personality becomes intensified to
the extent of causing the individual to actually deny the value and
even the reality of his recent experience. Doubts and criticism enter
his mind, and he is tempted to regard the whole thing as an illusion, a
fantasy, or an emotional intoxication. He becomes bitter and sarcas-
tic, ridicules himself and others, and even turns his back on his
higher ideals and aspirations. Yet, try as he may, he cannot return to

his old state; he has seen the vision, and its beauty and power to
attract remain with him in spite of his efforts to suppress it. He
cannot accept everyday life as before, or be satisfied with it. A "di-
vine homesickness" haunts him and leaves him no peace. In extreme

cases, the reaction can be so intense as to become pathological, pro-
ducing a state of depression and even despair, with suicidal impulses.
This state bears a close resemblance to psychotic depression once —
called "melancholia" —
characterized by an acute sense of unworthi-
ness, a systematic self-depreciation and self-accusation, which may
become so vivid as to produce the delusion that one is in hell, irre-
trievably damned. There is also an acute and painful sense of intellec-
tual incompetence; a paralysis of the will power accompanied by
indecision and inability to act. But in the case of those who have had
an inner awakening or a measure of spiritual realization, the distur-
bances should not be considered as a mere pathological condition;
they have different, far deeper causes, as has been indicated by both
Plato and St. John of the Cross with similar analogies.
Plato, in the famous allegory contained in the Seventh Book of
his Republic, compares unenlightened men to prisoners in a dark cave
or den, and says:
At first, when any of them is liberated and compelled suddenly to

stand up and turn his neck around and walk toward the light, he will
suffer sharp pains; the glare will distress him, and he will be unable to
see the realities of which, in his former state, he had seen the shadows.
St. John of the Cross uses words curiously similar in speaking of

the experience which he called "the dark night of the soul":
The dark because it is blinded by a light greater than it can

self is in the
bear. ... As eyes weakened and clouded suffer pain when the clear
light beats upon them, so the soul, by reason of its impurity, suffers
exceedingly when the Divine Light really shines upon it. And when
the rays of this pure Light shine upon the soul in order to expel
impurities, the soul perceives itself to be so unclean and miserable
that it seems as if God had set Himself against it and itself were set
against God.
John's words about the "light" which "shines upon the soul
St.
in order to expel impurities" deal with the essential nature of the

process. Even though from the limited point of view of the person-
ality it may seem a setback, or an undesirable phase
— "as if God had
set Himself against it and itself were set against God" —from the
much broader perspective of the Transpersonal Self this phase, often
rightly called "purgation," is in fact one of the most useful and
rewarding stages of growth. The light oi the Self shines on the "im-
purities" and brings them to the consciousness ol the individual to
facilitate his process of working them out. Although this process can
be, at times, a laborious one, it is a basic aspect of a reliable and
permanent channel of contact between the individual and his trans-
personal or superconscious nature.
The proper way to deal with someone beset by this type of crisis
consists in conveying to the person a true understanding of the crisis'

nature. It though he had made a superb flight to the sunlit
is as
mountain top, its glory and the beauty of the panorama
realized
spread below, but had been brought back, reluctantly, with the rueful
recognition that the steep path to the heights must be climbed step by
step. The recognition that this descent —or "fall" — is a natural hap-
pening affords emotional and mental relief, and encourages the indi-
vidual to undertake the arduous task of confronting the path to Self-
realization. Ultimately, the crisis is overcome with the realization that
the true and deepest value of the experience is that it offers, as I have
said, a "tangible vision" of a better state of being, and thus a road-
map, an ideal model toward which one can proceed and which can
then become a permanent reality.
THE PROCESS OF TRANSMUTATION

This stage follows the recognition that the necessary conditions to be
fulfilled for the high achievement of Self-realization are a thorough
regeneration and transmutation of the personality. It is a long and
many-sided process which includes several phases: the active removal
of the obstacles to the inflow and operation of superconscious ener-
gies; the development of the higher functions which have lain dor-
mant or undeveloped; and periods in which one can let the Higher
Self work, being receptive to its guidance.
It is a most eventful and rewarding period, full of changes, or
alternations between light and darkness, between joy and suffering. It

is a period of transition, a passing out of the old condition without
having yet firmly reached the new; an intermediate stage in which, as

it has been aptly said, one is like a caterpillar undergoing the process
of transformation into the winged butterfly. But the individual gener-

ally does not have the protection of a cocoon in which to undergo the
process of transformation in seclusion and peace. He must and this —
is particularly so nowadays —
remain where he is in life and continue
to perform his family, professional, and social tasks as well as he can.
His problem is similar to that which confronts engineers in recon-

structing a railway station without interrupting the traffic.
Despite the challenges of the task, as he does his work he is
conscious of gradual, increasing progress. His becomes infused

life
with a sense of meaning and purpose, ordinary tasks are vitalized and
elevated by his growing awareness of their place in a larger scheme of
things. As time goes on, he achieves fuller and clearer recognitions of
the nature of reality, of man, and of his own higher nature. He
begins to develop a more coherent conceptual framework which al-
lows him to better understand what he observes and experiences, and
which serves him not only as a means of guidance to further knowl-
edge but also as a source of serenity and order in the midst of life's
changing circumstances. As a result, he experiences a growing mas-
tery of tasks which formerly seemed beyond him. Operating, as he
increasingly does, from a higher unifying center of personality, he
harmonizes his diverse personality elements into a progressive unity,
and this more complete integration brings him greater effectiveness
and more joy.
Such are the results, over a long period of time, which one
generally observes to arise from the process of transmutation of the
personality under the impulse of superconscious energies. But the
process does not always proceed with absolute smoothness. This is
not surprising, given the complex task of remaking the personality in
the midst of the circumstances of daily life. As a general rule, some
difficulties are almost always experienced, and one can observe tem-
porary stages which manifest conditions the reverse of what I have
just described. This often occurs immediately after the flood-tide of
exaltation has passed, and the individual settles down to his dual task
of self-transformation while meeting life's many demands. Learning
the skill of using one's energies in this fashion generally takes some
time, and it may be a while before the two tasks are implemented in a
balanced manner, and ultimately recognized as one. As a conse-
quence, it is not surprising to find stages in which the individual may
become so engrossed in his task of self-transformation that his ability
to cope successfully with the problems and activities of normal life
may be impaired. Observed from the outside and gauged in terms of

ordinary, task-oriented efficiency, he may seem temporarily to have
become less capable than before. During this transitory stage, he may
not be spared unfair judgment on the part of well-meaning but un-
enlightened friends or therapists, and he may become the target of
pungent and sarcastic remarks about his "fine" spiritual ideals and
aspirations making him weak and ineffective in practical life. This

sort ot criticism is experienced as very painful, and its influence may
arouse doubts .\nd discouragement.
Such a trial, when it occurs, constitutes one ot the tests that may
have to he faced on the path of Self-reali/ation. Its value lies in the
tact that it teaches a lesson in overcoming personal sensitivity, and is
an occasion tor the development of inner independence and self-

reliance, without resentment. It should be accepted cheerfully, or at
least and used as an opportunity for developing inner

serenely,
strength. on the other hand, the people in such an individual's
If,
environment are enlightened and understanding, they can help a great

deal and spare him much unnecessary friction and suffering.
This stage passes, with time, as the individual learns to master
his dual task and unify it. But when the complexities of the task are
not recognized and accepted, the natural stresses of growth that are
involved in the process can be exacerbated, last for long periods,
or recur with an unnecessary frequency. This is especially so when
the individual becomes too engrossed in the process of self-
transformation, excluding the outer world with a single-minded and

excessive introversion. Periods of healthy introversion are natural in
human growth. But if they are carried to extremes or prolonged into a
general attitude of removal from the life of the world, the individual
may experience many difficulties not only with impatient and critical
friends, coworkers, and family members, but also within, as natural

introversion becomes self-obsession.
Similar difficulties may arise if the individual does not deal with
the negative aspects of himself revealed in the process of spiritual
awakening. Rather than transmuting these, he may from them
flee
into inner fantasies of achieved perfection or imaginary escapes. But

the suppressed knowledge of actual imperfections haunts him, and
those around him challenge his fantasies. Under such dual stress it is
not unlikely for the person to succumb to a variety of psychological

troubles, such as insomnia, emotional depression, exhaustion, aridity,
mental agitation, and restlessness. These in turn can easily produce
all kinds of physical symptoms and disorders.
Many of these troubles can be greatly reduced or altogether
eliminated by pursuing one's growth process with energy, dedication,
and zeal, but without becoming identified with it. This cultivation of
a disidentifiedcommitment allows a person the flexibility needed for
the optimal pursuit of the task. The individual can then accept the
necessary stresses of the new and complex process; he can refuse to
—
fall into a self-pity born of frustrated perfectionism; he can learn to
view himself with humor and be willing to experiment and risk

changes; he can cultivate a cheerful patience; and he can turn with
self-acceptance of his present limitations to competent people
whether professional therapists, counselors, or wise friends for help —
and guidance.
Another set of difficulties can be caused by an excessive personal
effort to hasten higher realizations through the forceful inhibition
and repression of the aggressive and sexual drives an attempt which —
only serves to produce intensification of the conflicts and their
effects. Such an attitude often is the outcome of too rigid and dualis-
tic moral and religious conceptions. These lead to condemnation of
the natural drives as "bad" or "sinful." Today a large number of

people have consciously abandoned such attitudes but still may be
unconsciously conditioned by them to some extent. They may man-
ifest either ambivalence or oscillation between two extreme attitudes
one of rigid suppression, and the other of uncontrolled expression of

all drives. The latter, while cathartic, is not an acceptable solution
either from the ethical standpoint or the psychological. It inevitably
produces new conflicts —
among the various basic drives or between
these drives and the boundaries imposed by social conventions, and
by the demands of interpersonal relations.
The solution lies, rather, along the lines of a gradual reorienta-
tion and harmonious integration of all personality drives, first
through their proper recognition, acceptance, and coordination, and
then through the transformation and sublimation of the excessive or
unused quota of energy. 6 The achievement of this integration can be
greatly facilitated by activating the superconscious functions and by
deliberately reaching toward the Transpersonal Self. These larger and
higher interests act as a magnet which draws up the "libido" or
psychic energy invested in the "lower" drives.
A final kind of difficulty which deserves mention may confront
the individual during periods in which the flow of superconscious
energies is easy and abundant. If not wisely controlled, this energy
flow may either be scattered in feverish excitement and activity or, on
the contrary, it may be kept too much in abeyance, unexpressed, so
that it accumulates and its high pressure can cause physical problems.
The appropriate solution is to direct the inflowing energies pur-
posefully, constructively, and harmoniously for the work of inner
regeneration, creative expression, and fruitful service.
Self-Rcdlization and Psychological Disturbances 45
THE ROLE OF THE GUIDE

These arc times in which more and more people are experiencing
spiritual awakening. Because of this, therapists, counselors, and oth-
ers in the helping professions, as well as informed lay persons, may
be called upon to act as resources and guides to people undergoing a
spiritual awakening. It may be useful therefore to consider the role of
the individual who may be close to someone else going through the
process and some of its problems.
First, it is important to remain aware of the central fact that
while the problems which may accompany the various phases of Self-
realization can be outwardly very similar to, and sometimes appear
identical with, those of normal life, their causes and significance are
verv different, and the way to deal with them must be correspond-
ingly different. In other words, the existential situation in the two
instances not only is not the same, but it is, in a sense, opposite.
The psychological difficulties of the average person have gener-
ally a regressive character. These individuals have not been able to
accomplish some of the necessary inner and outer adjustments that
constitute the normal development of the personality. In response
to difficult situations, they have reverted to modes of behavior
acquired in childhood or they have never really grown beyond cer-
tain childhood patterns whether they are recognized as such or are
rationalized.
On the other hand, the difficulties produced by the stress and
strife in the various toward Self-realization have, as I said
stages
earlier, a specifically progressive character. 7 They are due to the stim-
ulation produced by the superconscious energies, by the "pull from

above," by the call of the Self, and are specifically determined by the
ensuing conflict between these energies and the "middle" and
"lower" aspects of the personality. This crisis has been described in
striking terms by Jung:
To be "normal" is a splendid ideal for the unsuccessful, for all those

who have not yet found an adaptation. But for people who have far
more ability than the average, for whom it was never hard to gain
successes and to accomplish their share of the world's work — for them
restriction to the normal bed of Procrustes, unbearable
signifies the
boredom, infernal sterility and hopelessness. As a consequence there
are as many people who become neurotic because they are only nor-
mal, as there are people who are neurotic because they cannot become
normal.
It is obvious that the way to help the two diverse kinds of individuals
must be altogether different.
What is appropriate for the first group is likely to be not only
unsatisfactory, but even harmful for the second. The lot of the latter
is doubly hard if they are being guided by someone who neither
understands nor appreciates the superconscious functions, who ig-
nores or denies the reality of the Self and the possibility of Self-
realization. He or she may either ridicule the person's uncertain
higher aspirations as mere fancies, or interpret them in a materialistic
way, or persuade the person to harden the shell of the personality
against the insistent knocking of the Transpersonal Self. This course
can aggravate the condition, intensify the struggle, and retard the
solution.
On
the other hand, a guide who is spiritually inclined, or has at
leastan understanding of and a sympathetic attitude towards the
higher achievements and realities, can be of great help to the individ-
ual when, as is often the case, the latter is still in the first stage, that
of dissatisfaction, restlessness, and unconscious groping. If he has
lost interest in everyday existence holds no attraction for him,

life, if
if he is looking for relief in wrong directions, wandering up and
down blind alleys, and he has not yet had a glimpse of the higher
reality —then the revelation of the real cause of his trouble and the
indication of the unhoped-for solution, of the happy outcome of the
crisis, can greatly help to bring about the inner awakening which in
itself constitutes the principal part of the resolution.
The second stage, that of emotional excitement or elation —when
the individual may be carried away by an excessive enthusiasm and
cherishes the illusion of having arrived at a permanent attainment,
calls for a gentle warning that his blessed state is, of necessity, but
temporary; and he should be given an indication of the vicissitude on
the way ahead of him. This will prepare him for the onset of the
inevitable reaction in the third stage, which often involves, as we have
seen, and sometimes a deep depression, as the
a painful reaction
person "comes down" from his high experience. If he has been fore-
warned, this will enable him to avoid much suffering, doubt, and
discouragement. When he has not had the benefit of a warning of this
sort, the guide can give much help by assuring him that his present
condition is temporary and not in any sense permanent or hopeless as
—
he seems compelled to believe. The guide should insistently declare

that the rewarding outcome ol the crisis justifies the anguish
however intense — he is experiencing. Much relief and encouragement
can be afforded him by quoting examples of those who have been in a
similar plight and have come out of it.
In the fourth stage, during the process of transmutation — which

is the longest and most complicated — the work of the guide is corre-
spond inglv more complex. Some important aspects of this work are:
• To enlighten the individual as to what is really going on within

him, and help him to find the right attitude to take.
• To teach him how, by the skillful use of the will, to wisely
control and master the drives emerging from the unconscious,
without repressing them through fear or condemnation.
• To teach him the techniques of the transmutation and sub-
limation of sexual and aggressive energies. These techniques
constitute the most apt and constructive solution of many psy-
chological conflicts.
• To help him in the proper recognition and assimilation of the
energies inflowing from the Self and from superconscious
levels.
• To help him express and utilize those energies in altruistic love
and service. This is particularly valuable for counteracting the
tendency to excessive introversion and self-centeredness that
often exists in this and other stages of self-development.
• To guide him through the various phases of the reconstruction
of his personality around a higher inner center, that is, in the
achievement of his spiritual psychosynthesis. 8
Throughout this article I have stressed the more difficult and

painful side of spiritual development, but it should not be inferred
that those who are on the path of more likely
Self-realization are
to be affected by psychological disturbances than other men and
women. The stage of most intense suffering often does not occur.
In many individuals such development is accomplished in a gradual
and harmonious way so that inner difficulties are overcome and the
different stages passed through without causing severe reactions of
any kind.
On the other hand, the emotional disorders or neurotic symp-
toms of the average man or woman are often more serious, intense,
and difficult for them to bear and for therapists to deal with than
those connected with Self-realization. It is often difficult to deal with

them satisfactorily because —the higher psychological levels and func-
tions of these individuals being not yet —there
activated is little to
which one can appeal to show the value of making the necessary
sacrifices or accepting the discipline required in order to bring about
the needed adjustments.
The physical, emotional, and mental problems arising on the
way of Self-realization, however serious they may appear, are merely
temporary reactions, by-products, so to speak, of an organic process
of inner growth and regeneration. Therefore they either disappear
spontaneously when the crisis which has produced them is over, or
they yield easily to proper treatment. Furthermore, the sufferings
caused by periods of depression, by the ebbing of the inner life,
are abundantly compensated for by periods of renewed inflow of
superconscious energies, and by the anticipation of the release and
enhancement of the whole personality to be produced by Self-
realization. This vision is a most powerful inspiration, an unfailing
comfort, and a constant source of strength and courage. Therefore,
as we have said, it is most valuable to make a special point of recalling
that vision as vividly and as frequently as possible. One of the great-
est services we can render to those struggling along the way is to help
them keep the vision of the goal ever present before their eyes.
Thus one can anticipate, and have an increasing foretaste of, the
state of consciousness of the Self-realized individual. It is a state of

consciousness characterized by joy, serenity, inner security, a sense of
calm power, clear understanding, and radiant love. In its highest
aspects it is the realization of essential Being, of communion and
identification with the Universal Life.
R. D. Lninjj
TRANSCENDENTAL
EXPERIENCE IN
RELATION TO RELIGION
AND PSYCHOSIS
The illumination grew brighter and brighter, the roaring

louder, I experienced a rocking sensation and then felt
myself slipping out of my body, entirely enveloped in a
halo of light I felt the point of consciousness that was
. . .
myself growing wider, surrounded by waves of light I . . .
was now all consciousness, without any outline, without

any idea of corporeal appendage, without any feeling or
sensation coming from the senses, immersed in a sea of
light . I was no longer myself, or to be more accurate,
. .
no longer as I knew myself to be, a small point of aware-

ness confined in a body, but instead was a vast circle of
consciousness in which the body was but a point, bathed
in light and in a state of exaltation and happiness impos-
sible to describe.
MEDITATION EXPERIENCE DESCRIBED BY GOPI KRISHNA,

Kundalini: The Evolutionary Energy in Man
49
The
understood
psychoses are mental
idea that
medical terms and should he
in
diseases that can he adequately
treated by biological
means, although widespread and highly influential, is not unan-
imously accepted. Many clinicians and theoreticians have offered im-
portant explanations of the psychotic process that are purely
psychological in nature and have developed nonmedical treatment
strategies.
Others have suggested that the dominant role played by the med-
ical model in the approach to psychoses cannot be scientifically justi-
fied, since no specific biological causes have been found for the
majority of the conditions psychiatrists are treating. The current situa-
tion thus does not reflect the "state of the art," but a variety of factors
of a historical, political, legal, and economic nature. Thomas Szasz,

one of the most outspoken representatives of this view, has gone so far
as to speak and write about the "myth of mental illness."
In his unique approach to psychosis, the Scottish psychiatrist
R. D. Laing combines a penetrating critique of Western society with
an innovative psychological understanding and treatment of this con-
dition. Probably the most radical and controversial figure in the field
of psychiatry, he is the author of a series of books that challenge the

very roots of modern psychiatric thinking. Laing is usually seen as a
representative of "antipsychiatry," a movement initiated by the South
African physician and psychotherapistDavid Cooper, although he
himself refuses that label.
According to Laing, psychoses cannot be understood in terms of
abnormal biological processes inside the human body, but are products
of disturbed patterns of human communication. They reflect problems

in important relationships with individuals, small groups such as the
family, and society as a whole.
Laing s ideas represent a radical and revolutionary departure
from mainstream thinking. The "sane" are not really sane, and the
psychotics are not as mad as they appear to be. Modern society is
Transcendental Experience in Relation to Religion and Psychosis 5/
founded on denial of the self and of experience; it is dangerously

insane, and the psyehoties, finding its values and norms unbearable,
are not able to adjust to them.
Psychotic* are individuals whose total life experience is divided,
because they have an unsatisfactory connection with the world and
human society, as well as a disruptive relation with the self. Their
withdrawal into the world of fantasies provided by their unconscious
isan escape from the reality they find unacceptable. This results in an
incomplete existence characterized by fear; despair, aloneness y
and a
l 0/ isolation.
Such people feel unreal and disconnected from the common-sense
world, as well as —
from their bodies to such an extent that their
identity and autonomy are always in question. Their fear of losing
themselves is so consuming and overwhelming that it results in pre-
occupation with self-preservation rather than self-satisfaction. Laing
calls this "ontological insecurity."
According to Laing, psychiatrists do not pay proper attention to
the inner experiences of psyehoties, because they see them as patholog-
ical and incomprehensible. However, careful observation and study
show that these experiences have profound meaning and that the psy-
chotic process can be healing. Laing believes that psyehoties have in
many respects more than psychiatrists do their
to teach psychiatrists
patients. The "psychiatric ceremony" of examination, diagnosis, and
treatment invalidates the clients as human beings and interferes with
the healing potential of their process.
Laing s strategy of psychotherapy replacing biological treatment
emphasizes the importance of human interaction and relationship,
both on a one-to-one basis and on the larger scale of an entire
therapeutic team. The experiences emerging from the unconscious are
seen as valid, important, and meaningful. Accepting and respecting
them communication and is conducive to healing. According
facilitates
to Laing, special places should be provided where people receive the
support and sympathetic understanding that facilitate the healing
process.
R. D. Laing was born in 1927 in Glasgow, Scotland, and was
educated at the University of Glasgow, where he received his medical
degree. His introduction into the world of mental patients occurred
when he served for two years as a psychiatrist in the British army.
From 1956 to 1962, he conducted clinical research at the Tavistock
Institute of Human Relations in London.
Between 1962 and 1965, he was director of the Langham Clinic in

London; it was at this time that he founded the Kingsley Hall Clinic ,
where he conducted a unique experiment in the treatment of psychotic

patients without suppressive medication. He continued these activities
based on his therapeutic philosophy in the Philadelphia Association, an
organization dedicated to the problems of psychosis and focusing on
therapy, as well as to the education of professionals and the public by
lectures and publications. It deserves special note that in 1973, Laing
spent a year in Ceylon studying Theravada Buddhism and Vipassana
meditation. In the last decade, his professional time has been divided
between writing, private practice, consulting work, and lecturing.
Laing is the author of many articles in professional journals and
of the books The Divided Self, The Self and Others, The Politics of
Experience, The Bird of Paradise, Reason and Violence, Knots, The
Facts of Life, The Voice of Experience, The Politics of the Family,
Do You Sanity, Madness and the Family, and the auto-
Love Me?,
biographical Wisdom, Madness, and Folly.
In the following paper, Laing goes beyond acknowledging the
psychological importance of the unconscious content of psychotic expe-
riences. He explicitly recognizes and emphasizes the value of the tran-
scendental aspect of such experiencesand the utmost importance of the
spiritual dimension in human
His discussion of the historical im-
life.
portance of visionary experiences and of the urgent need to draw a

clear distinction between pathology and mysticism is of great relevance
for the problem of spiritual emergency.
We must remember that we are living in an age in which the ground

is and the foundations are shaking. I cannot answer for other
shifting
times and places. Perhaps it has always been so. We know it is true
today.
In these circumstances, we have all reason to be insecure. When
the ultimate basis of our world is in question, we run to different
holes in the ground; we scurry into roles, statuses, identities, inter-
personal relations. We attempt to live in castles that can only be in
the air, because there is no firm ground in the social cosmos on which
and physician are both witness to this state of affairs.
to build. Priest
Each sometimes sees the same fragment of the whole situation dif-
ferently; often our concern is with different presentations of the
original catastrophe.
Transcendental Experience in Relation to Religion and Psychosis 5j
In this paper I wish to relate the transcendental experiences that
sometimes break through in psychosis to those experiences of the

divine that are the Living Fount of all religion.
Elsewhere 1 have outlined the way in which some psychiatrists
are beginning to dissolve their clinical-medical categories of under-
standing madness. I believe that if we can begin to understand sanity
and madness in existential social terms, we, as priests and physicians,
will be enabled to see more clearly the extent to which we confront
common problems and share common dilemmas.
The main clinical terms for madness, where no organic lesion
has so far been found, are schizophrenia, manic-depressive psy-

chosis, and involutional depression. From a social point of view, they
characterize different forms of behavior, regarded in our society as
deviant. People behave in such ways because their experience of
themselves is different. It is on the existential meaning of such un-
usual experience that I wish to focus.
Experience is mad when it steps beyond the horizons of our
common, that is, our communal sense.
What regions of experience does this lead to? It entails a loss of
the usual foundations of the "sense" of the world that we share with
one another. Old purposes no longer seem viable. Old meanings are
senseless; the distinctions between imagination, dream, external per-
ceptions often seem no longer to apply in the old way. External
eventsmay Dreams may seem direct
seem magically conjured up.
communications from others: imagination may seem to be objective
reality.
But most radically of all, the very ontological foundations are

shaken. The being of phenomena and the phenomenon of
shifts,
being may no longer present The person is
itself to us as before.
plunged into a void of nonbeing in which he founders. There are no
supports, nothing to cling to, except perhaps some fragments from
the wreck, a few memories, names, sounds, one or two objects, that
retain a link with a world long lost. This void may not be empty. It
may be peopled by visions and voices, ghosts, strange shapes, and
apparitions. No one who has not experienced how insubstantial the
pageant of external reality can be, how it may fade, can fully realize
the sublime and grotesque presences that can replace it, or exist
alongside it.
When a person goes mad, a profound transposition of his posi-

tion in relation toall domains of being occurs. His center of experi-
ence moves from ego to Self. Mundane time becomes merely

anecdotal, only the Eternal matters. The madman is, however, con-
fused. He muddles ego with self, inner with outer, natural and super-
natural. Nevertheless, he often can be to us, even through his
profound wretchedness and disintegration, the hierophant of the sa-
cred. An exile from the scene of being as we know it, he is an alien, a
stranger, signaling to us from the void in which he is foundering.
This void may be peopled by presences that we do not even dream of.
They used to be called demons and spirits, that were known and
named. He has lost his sense of self, his feelings, his place in the
world as we know it. He tells us he is dead. But we are distracted
from our cozy security by this mad ghost that haunts us with his
visions and voices that seem so senseless and of which we feel im-
pelled to rid him, cleanse him, cure him.
Madness need not be all breakdown. It is also breakthrough. It is
potentially liberation and renewal, as well as enslavement and existen-

tial death.
There are now a growing number of accounts by people who
have been through the experience of madness. (See, for example, the
anthology The Inner World of Mental Illness: A Series of First-Person
Accounts of What Was Like, ed. Bert Kaplan [New York: Harper
It
and Row, 1964].) I want to quote at some length from one of the
earlier contemporary accounts, as recorded by Karl Jaspers in his

General Fsychopathology (Manchester University Press, 1962):
I believe I caused the illness myself. In my attempt to penetrate

the other world I met its natural guardians, the embodiment of my
own weaknesses and faults. I first thought these demons were lowly
inhabitants of the other world who could play me like a ball because I
went into these regions unprepared and lost my way. Later I thought
they were split-off parts of my own mind (passions) which existed
near me in free space and thrived on my feelings. I believed everyone
else had these too but did not perceive them, thanks to the protective
and successful deceit of the feeling of personal existence. I thought the
latter was an artifact of memory, thought-complexes, etc., a doll that
was nice enough to look at from outside but nothing real inside it.
In my case the personal self had grown porous because of my
dimmed consciousness. Through it I wanted to bring myself closer to
the higher sources of life. I should have prepared myself for this over a
long period by invoking in me a higher, impersonal self, since "nectar"
is not for mortal lips. It acted destructively on the animal-human self,
split it up into its parts. These gradually disintegrated, the doll was
really broken and the body damaged. I had forced untimely access
Transcendental Experience in Relation to Religion and Psychosis 55
to the "source o! lite," the curse of the "gods" descended on me. I
recognized too Luc that murky elements had taken a hand. got to 1
know them after thev had already too much power. There was no way
back. now had the world ot spirits I had wanted to see. The demons
I
came up trom the abyss, as guardian Cerberi, denying admission to

the unauthorized. I decided to take up the life-and-death struggle.
This meant tor me in the end a decision to die, since I had to put aside
everything that maintained the enemy, but this was also everything
that maintained life. I wanted to enter death without going mad and
stood before the Sphinx: either thou into the abyss or I!
Then came illumination. I fasted and so penetrated into the true

nature of my seducers. They were pimps and deceivers of my dear
personal self which seemed as much a thing of naught as they. A larger
and more comprehensive self emerged and I could abandon the pre-
vious personality with its entire entourage. I saw this earlier person-
ality could never enter transcendental realms. I felt as a result a terrible
pain, like but I was rescued, the demons

an annihilating blow,
shriveled, vanished, and perished. A new life began for me and from
now on I felt different from other people. A self that consisted of
conventional lies, shams, self-deceptions, memory-images, a self just
like that of other people, grew in me again but behind and above it
stood a greater and more comprehensive self which impressed me with
something of what is eternal, unchanging, immortal, and inviolable
and which ever since that time has been my protector and refuge. I
believe it would be good for many if they were acquainted with such a
higher self and that there are people who have attained this goal in fact
by kinder means.
Jaspers comments: "Such self-interpretations are obviously made

under the influence of delusion-like tendencies and deep psychic
forces. They originate from profound experiences and the wealth of
such schizophrenic experience calls on the observer as well as on the
reflective patient not to take all this merely as a chaotic jumble of
contents. Mind and spirit are present in the morbid psychic life as
well as in the healthy. But interpretations of this sort must be di-

vested of any causal importance. All they can do is to throw light on
content and bring it into some sort of context."
I would rather say that this patient has described with a lucidity
I could not improve upon, a Quest, with its pitfalls and dangers,
which he eventually appears to have transcended. Even Jaspers still
speaks of this experience as morbid, and discounts the patient's own
construction. Both the experience and construction seem to me valid
in their own terms.
I should make it clear that I am speaking of certain transcenden-

tal experiences that seem to me to be the original wellspring of all
religions. Some psychotic people have transcendental experiences.

Often (to the best of their recollection) they have never had such
experiences before, and frequently they will never have them again. I
am not saying, however, that psychotic experience necessarily con-

tains this element more manifestly than sane experience.
The person who is transported into such domains is likely to act
curiously. In other places, I have described in some detail the circum-
stances thatseem to occasion this transportation, at least in certain
instances,and the gross mystification that the language and thinking
of the medical clinic perpetrates when it is brought to bear on the
phenomena of madness, both as a social fact and as an existential
experience.
The schizophrenic may indeed be mad. He is mad. He is not ill.
I have been told by people who have been through the mad
experience how what was then revealed to them was veritable manna
from Heaven. The person's whole life may be changed, but it is
difficult not to doubt the validity of such vision. Also, not everyone
comes back to us again.
Are these experiences simply the effulgence of a pathological
process, or of a particular alienation? I do not think they are.
When all has been said against the different schools of psycho-
analysis and depth psychology, one of their great merits is that
they recognize explicitly the crucial relevance of each person's expe-
rience to his or her outward behavior, especially the so-called
"unconscious."
There is a view, still current, that there is some correlation
between being sane and being unconscious, or at least not too con-
scious of the "unconscious," and that some forms of psychosis are
the behavioral disruption caused by being overwhelmed by the
"unconscious."
What both Freud and Jung called "the unconscious" is simply
what we, in our historically conditioned estrangement, are uncon-
scious of. It is not necessarily or essentially unconscious.
I am not merely spinning senseless paradoxes when I say that
we, the sane ones, are out of our minds. The mind is what the ego is
unconscious of. We are unconscious of our minds. Our minds are not
unconscious. Our minds are conscious of us. Ask yourself who and
what it is that dreams our dreams. Our unconscious minds? The
Dreamer who dreams our dreams knows far more of us than we
—
TrmnscendenuU Experience m Relation to Religion and Psychosis 57
know ot it. It is only from a remarkable position of alienation that

the source of lite, the Fountain ol lite, is experienced as the It. The
mind ot unaware is aw are ot us. It is we who
which we are are out of
our minds. We need not be unaware ot the inner world.
We do not realize its existence most ot the time.
But many people enter it unfortunately without guides, con- —
fusing outer with inner realities, and inner with outer and generally —
lose their capacity to function competently in ordinary relations.
This need not be so. The process of entering into the other world
from this world, and returning to this world from the other world, is
as "natural" as death and childbirth or being born. But in our present

world, that is both so terrified and so unconscious of the other
world, it is not surprising that, when "reality," the fabric of this
world, bursts, and a person enters the other world, he is completely
lost and and meets only incomprehension in others.
terrified,
In certain cases, a man blind from birth may have an operation
performed which gives him his sight. The result: frequently misery,
confusion, disorientation. The light that illumines the madman is an
unearthly light, but I do not believe it is a projection, an emanation
from mundane ego. He is irradiated by a light that is more than
his
he. Itmay burn him out.
This "other" w orld is not essentially a battlefield wherein psy-
r
chological forces, derived or diverted, displaced or sublimated from

their original object-cathexes, are engaged in an illusionary fight
although such forces may obscure these realities, just as they may
obscure so-called external realities. When Ivan, in The Brothers
Karamazov y
says, "If God does not exist, everything is permissible,"
he is not saying: "If my superego, in projected form, can be abol-
ished, I can do anything with a good conscience." He is saying:
"If there is only my conscience, then there is no ultimate validity for
my will."
The proper task of the physician (psychotherapist, analyst)
should be, in select instances, to educt the person from this world
and induct him to the other. To guide him in it: and to lead him
back again.
One enters the other world by breaking a shell: or through a
door: through a partition: the curtains part or rise: a veil is lifted. It
is not the same as a dream. It is "real" in a different way from dream,
imagination, perception, or fantasy. Seven veils: seven seals, seven

heavens.
The "ego" is the instrument for living in this world. If "the ego"
is broken up, or destroyed (by the insurmountable contradictions of

certain life situations, by toxins, chemical changes, etc.), then the
person may be exposed to this other world.
The world that one enters, one's capacity to experience it, seems
to be partly conditional on the state of one's "ego."
Our time has been distinguished, more than by anything else, by
a mastery, a control, of the external world, and by an almost total
forgetfulness of the internal world. If one estimates human evolution
from the point of view of knowledge of the external world, then we
are in many respects progressing.
If is from the point of view of the internal world,
our estimate
and of oneness of internal and external, then the judgment must be
very different.
Phenomenologically the terms "internal" and "external" have
But in this whole realm one is reduced to mere verbal
little validity.
expedients —words are simply the finger pointing to the moon. One
of the difficulties of talking in the present day of these matters is that
the very existence of inner realities is now called into question.
By "inner" I mean all those realities that have usually no "exter-
nal," "objective" presence —the realities of imagination, dreams, fan-
tasies, trances, the realities of contemplative and meditative states:
realities that modern man, for the most part, has not the slightest
direct awareness of.
Nowhere in the Bible, for example, is there any argument about
the existence of gods, demons, angels. People did not first "believe
in" God: they experienced His Presence, as was true of other spir-
itual agencies. The question was not whether God existed, but
whether this particular God was the greatest God of all, or the only
god; and what was the relation of the various spiritual agencies to
each other. Today, there is a public debate, not as to the trustworthi-
ness of God, the particular place in the spiritual hierarchy of dif-
ferent spirits, etc., but whether God or such spirits even exist, or ever
have existed.
Sanity today appears to rest very largely on a capacity to adapt
to the external world —the interpersonal world, and the realm of
human collectivities.
As this external human world is almost completely and totally

estranged from the inner, any personal direct awareness of the inner
world already entails grave risks.
But since society, without knowing it, is starving for the inner,
the demands on people to evoke its presence in a "safe" way, in a way
—
.dental Experience m Relation to Religion bom 59
that need not be taken serioi> us — while the am-

bivalence is equally intense. Small wonder that the list oi artists in,
:
the last become shipwrecked on these
!
so long — Holderlin,
John Clare, Rimbaud, Van Gogh, Nietzsche,
Antonin Artaud, Strindberg, Munch, Bartok, Schumann, Buchncr,
Ezra Pound . . .
Those who survived have had exceptional qualities a capacitv —

tor ! cunning a thoroughly realistic appraisal of the—
risks they run, not only from the spiritual realms that they frequent,
but from the hatred oi their fellows for anyone engaged in this
pursuit.
Let us cure them. The poet who mistakes a real woman for his
Muse and acts accordingly The young man who sets off in a
. . .
yacht in search of God . . .
The outer divorced from any illumination from the inner is in a

state of darkness. \\"e are in an age of darkness. The state of outer
darkness is a state of sin i.e., alienation or estrangement from the
Inner Light. Certain actions lead to greater estrangement; certain
others help one not to be so far removed. The former are bad; the
latter are good.
The ways of losing one's way are legion. Mac ;ertainly
not the least unambiguous. The countermadr. -raepelinian psy-
chiatry is the ounterpart of "official" psychosis. Literally, and
absolutely seriously, it is as mad, if by madness we mean any radical
estrangement from the subjective or objective truth. Remember
êgaard's objective madness
we we act. We conduct ourselves in
experience the world, so
the light of our view of what is the case and what is not the :ssc
That is, each person is a more or less naive ontologist. Each person
has views of what is, and what is not.
There is no doubt, it seems to me, that there have been profound
changes in the experience of man in the last thousand years. In some
ways this is more evident than changes in the patterns of his behavior.
There is everything to suggest that man experienced God. Faith was
never a matter of believing He existed, but of trusting in the Presence
thatwas experienced and known to exist as a self -validating datum. It
seems likely that far more people in our time neither experience the
Presence of God, nor the Presence of His absence, but the absence of
His Presence.
We require a history of phenomena — not simply more phe-
nomena of historv.
As it is, the secular psychotherapist is often in the role of the

blind leading the half-blind.
The fountain has not played itself out, the Flame still shines, the
River still flows, the Spring still bubbles forth, the Light has not
faded. But between us and It, there is a veil which is more like fifty
feet of solid concrete. Deus absconditus. Or we have absconded.
Already everything in our time is directed to categorizing and
segregating this reality from objective facts. This is precisely the
concrete wall. Intellectually, emotionally, interpersonally, organiza-
tionally, intuitively, theoretically, we have to blast our way through
the solid wall, even if at the risk of chaos, madness, and death. For
from this side of the wall, this is the risk. There are no assurances, no
guarantees.
Many people are prepared to have faith in the sense of scien-
tifically indefensible belief in an untested hypothesis. Few have trust
enough to test it. Many people make-believe what they experience.
Few are made to believe by their experience. Paul of Tarsus was
picked up by the scruff of the neck, thrown to the ground, and
blinded for three days. This direct experience was self- validating.
We live in a secular world. To adapt to this world the child

abdicates its (U enfant abdique son extase. Mallarme.) Hav-
ecstacy. —
ing lost our experience of the Spirit, we are expected to have faith.
But this faith comes to be a belief in a reality which is not evident.
There is a prophecy in Amos that there will be a time when there will
be a famine in the land, "not a famine for bread, nor a thirst for
water, but of hearing the words of the Lord." That time has now
come to pass. It is the present age.
From the alienated starting point of our pseudosanity, every-
thing is equivocal. Our sanity is not "true" sanity. Their madness is
not "true" madness. The madness of our patients is an artifact of the

destruction wreaked on them by us, and by them on themselves. Let
no one suppose that we meet any more "true" madness than that we
are truly sane. The madness that we encounter in "patients" is a
gross travesty, a mockery, a grotesque caricature of what the natural
healing of that estranged integration we call sanity might be. True
sanity entails in one way or another the dissolution of the normal
ego, that false self competently adjusted to our alienated social real-
ity: the emergence of the "inner" archetypal mediators of divine
power, and through this death a rebirth, and the eventual reestablish-
ment of a new kind of ego-functioning, the ego now being the ser-
vant of the Divine, no longer its betrayer.
Part Two
VARIETIES OF
SPIRITUAL
EMERGENCY
John Weir Perry
EMERGENCE
SPIRITUAL
AND RENEWAL
For when it is quite, quite nothing, then it is everything.

When I am trodden quite out, quite, quite out,
every vestige gone, then I am here
risen, and setting my foot on another world
risen, accomplishing a resurrection
risen, not born again, but risen, body the same as before,
new beyond knowledge of newness, alive beyond life,
proud beyond inkling or furthest conception of pride,
living where life was never yet dreamed of, nor hinted at,
here, in the other world, still terrestrial
myself the same as before, yet unaccountably new.
D. H. LAWRENCE, "New Heaven and Earth/'

Selected Poems
63
Weir Perry, M.D., a California psychiatrist and Jungian

John is
analyst specializing in psychotherapy with psychotic patients. He

received his medical degree from Harvard Medical School in 1941 and
went on China with medical teams of the Friends Am-
to serve in
bulance Unit during World War II.
This stay in a culture so radically different from his own had a
profound impact on him. It showed him the relativity of cultural
perspectives and inspired him to search for universal elements in the
human psyche. His understanding of Oriental philosophy and culture
also helped him new ideas in psychology and
to accept the radically
and his followers, since Jung himself
psychiatry formulated by Jung
was profoundly impressed and influenced by Eastern spiritual
psychologies.
In 1947, Perry was awarded a Rockefeller Foundation fellowship
to prepare for research in psychology and religion and spent the next
two years at the C. G. Jung Institute in Zurich, Switzerland. After
returning to the United States, he taught at the University of Califor-
nia and at the C. G. Jung Institute of Northern California in San
Francisco and also saw patients in private practice. The findings of his
systematic and intensive psychotherapeutic research with schizophrenic
inpatients inspired a program sponsored by the National Institute of
Mental Health in Bethesda, Maryland.
John Perry is a true pioneer in the psychotherapy of psychotic
patients. In addition to his revolutionary contributions to the theoreti-
cal understanding of psychoses, he also made a giant step in the practi-
cal approach to these disorders by cofounding Diabasis, a residential
treatment facility where young patients in acute first episodes were
encouraged to work through their psychotic experiences without the
mitigating effect of tranquilizers. Perry's observations and discoveries
are described in his books The Self in Psychotic Process, Lord of the
Four Quarters, The Far Side of Madness, Roots of Renewal in Myth
and Madness, and The Heart of History.
Spiritual Emergence .<//</ Renewal 6)
Perry's paper "Spiritual Emergence and Renewal" summarizes

his understanding of the psychotic process and its healing and transfor-
mative potential. It also describes his practical cluneal experiences with
Pi aha sis.
I am continually puzzled by the extreme turbulence that accompanies

profound change in the psyche. When
awakening and
a true spiritual
transformation is under way, one encounters images of death and of

the destruction ot the world itself. The psyche does not express itself
gently, but one would like to think that this movement of the spirit
would come about in a more orderly manner through exposure to
workshops, exercises, and other instructional techniques. The hope
oi those of us in the field of psychotherapy is that such techniques
might bring about change in a more gentle fashion; but as Jung has
observed, there are often periods of very uncomfortable de-
adaptation and episodes of altered states of consciousness, called
transitory psychosis, which are mild and short.
THE NATURE OF SPIRIT
Why the need for all this upheaval? There are good reasons that rest
upon a second query: What is spirit and what is its nature?
People often define the word spiritual loosely to signify anything
uplifting; at the other extreme it is considered lofty, seraphic, rare-
fied, high above nature, in some other realm, hence supernatural. In

descriptions of cultures, the word often designates any aspect that is
not material, economic, or political.

When we look at the actual phenomenology of spirit, we get a
different impression. The ancient words for it imply breath or air,
particularly air in motion, and thus wind in Hebrew, ruach; in —

Latin, animus; in the Far East, prana or ch'i. The word itself conveys
the meaning of breath, derived from the Latin spiritus. All these
clearly denote a dynamism that is invisible as air but capable of being
powerful as wind. It"bloweth where it listeth, " the Bible says, sug-
gesting a will of its own. In short, spirit is a strongly moving dyna-
mism that is free of material structure.
These descriptions lead us to think of spirit as pure energy, but
on closer look we find more than that — it is typically experienced as
having a voice, when persons are moved by the spirit. It seems then
to have the property of intention, to be freighted with information,
and this aspect could be defined as "informed energy" or energy with
the quality of mind.
Spirit cannot be separated from its plural form, "spirits." In old
traditional societies, these are invisible dynamisms that live in the
natural world, especially in biological life, but also in mountains,
streams, springs, and in a belief system called animism. To clair-
voyants, these spirits appear to have a voice and to take on a person-
ified visibility. They also require a great deal of attention from the
human community in the form of offerings and sacrifices. When one
lives in such a society (as I have in China), one is constantly aware of
this other dimension of existence, an existence that we have long since
relegated to oblivion.
Less unusual in sophisticated cultures are experiences with
spirits that belong in the realm of the afterlife, with the deceased.
Death is viewed as a liberation of the spirit from the body by a
transformation process called transfiguration. In China, Heaven has
been revered as a presence that rules over the affairs of the world,
composed of a conglomerate of ancestral spirits (royal ones) and
possessed of intention and will. In ancient traditions all over the
world, spirits are highly valued ancestral beings that make themselves
heard, give advice and counsel, and even make demands. When visit-
ing black communities in Africa I was amazed at the constant atten-
tion given to these spirits as a matter-of-fact part of daily life.
From this cursory glance at the range of manifestations of spirit

and spirits we may see that spirit can be either free of bodily struc-
ture or engaged in a struggle to be liberated from it. I find this helpful
in understanding how spirit operates in psychological experiences.
For here again we find spirit constantly striving for release from its
entrapment in routine or conventional mental structures. Spiritual
work is the attempt to liberate this dynamic energy, which must
break free of its suffocation in old forms: emotional patterns such as
the complexes engendered in the family system; assumptions about
the nature of the world and human life; values that need revision as
conditions change; and cultural forms derived from family, subcul-
ture, or dominant must change with the
cultural conditioning that
times. Again, there are ancient traditions expressing this work of
liberating spirit, such as the emotionally painful labors of the Nature
Philosophers who were dedicated to freeing nous from physis spirit —
—
from imprisonment in matter in the natural world and in the body.
Spiritual Emergence .///</ Renewal (>7
During a person',, developmental process, if this work ol releas-

ing spirit becomes imperative but is not undertaken voluntarily with
knowledge ol the goal ^\m\ with considerable effort, then the psyche
is apt to take over m\(\ overwhelm the conscious personality with its
own powerful processes. I have observed these processes in main

cases and have recognized a specific sequence that have formulated
1 I
and called the "renewal process" (Perry 1953, 1974, 1976).
THEMES OF DEATH AND WORLD

DESTRUCTION
Two components of this sequence highlight its disintegrative and re-
integrative aspects — emotional experiences and images of death and of
world destruction.
Whenever a profound experience of change is about to take
place, its harbinger is the motif of death. This is not particularly
mvsterious, since it is the limited view and appraisal of oneself that
must be outgrown or transformed, and to accomplish transformation
the self-image must dissolve. In severe visionary states, one may feel
one has crossed over into the realm of death and is living among the
spirits of the deceased. One is forced to let go of old expectations of
oneself and to let oneself be tossed about by the winds of change.
Far less familiar is the companion piece to this death motif the —
image of world destruction. Like the self-image, the world image is a
compacted form of the very complex pattern of how one sees the
world and how one lives in it. We learn most about this from cultural
anthropologists, who find that, in times of acute and rapid culture
change, visionaries undergo the shattering experience of seeing the
world dissolve into a chaos and time whirl back to its beginnings.
This dissolution of the world image clearly represents the death of the
old culture to pave the way for renovation. Thus, in an individual's
life, when a transformation of one's inner culture is under way,
dissolution of the world image is the harbinger of change. Expres-

sions of cultural reform are explicit.
These and other archetypal images have the function of imple-
menting the processes of the spirit, of liberating and transforming its
energies, which will then slip out of the old structures and into new
ones geared to the future. All this happens in the interest of develop-
ment, of cultivating a more capacious consciousness, open to new
dimensions of experience.
Not only are these two motifs, self-image and world image,
companion pieces in the process, but they also share the same repre-
sentative image: the mandala. The entire process of renewal is evi-
dently the work of this powerful image symbolizing the psyche's
governing center.
The energy that had been bound up in the structures of the old
self-image and world image, in the issues of who one is and what sort
of world one lives in, immense. In dreams or visions, nuclear
is
explosion is a frequent expression of this enormous charge of psychic

energy that is loose during the renewal process and raises havoc for a
period of time. Though one's own nature is struggling to break
through, one may feel that who one is and what one values is up for
grabs. Indeed, values and the emotional issues of life seem to be
clashing opposites.
This energy does not remain long in suspense, but quickly seeks
its reincarnation into new structures, expressed in the form of images
and experiences of rebirth and world regeneration. A new sense of
oneself appears along with fresh interests and motivations. The new
birth activates one's memory of the actual events of one's first birth,
thus linking these phenomena with those studied by Stanislav Grof

(1976, 1985). In addition, there is an inner reenactment of emotional
experiences of early years.
The cataclysm of this kind of crisis of spiritual processes re-
minds me of the Biblical warning, "It is a fearful thing to fall into the
hands of the living God." For during the period of time between the
initial visions of death and world destruction and their resolution in
renewal, one is apt to be in the grip of fear, and dismayed to find

oneself isolated since communication of one's experiences is not often
empathetically received. At the very time when one needs loving
acceptance one finds oneself either alone or surrounded by profes-
sionals who want to suppress the process and make one conform to
the ways of the former self and former world.
This fear (and an accompanying rage) produce biochemical
effects in the brain and the rest of the body that medical doctors
prefer to see as the primary cause of psychological disorder. This
biased and mechanistic diagnosis does not hold up, however, since it
is now well known that if a person undergoing this turmoil is given
love, understanding, and encouragement, the spiritual soon re- crisis
solves itself without the need for interruption by suppressive medica-

tion. The most fragmented "thought disorder" can become quite
Spiritual Emergence and Renewal €9
coherent and orderly within a short time it someone is present to

respond to it with compassion. Such a relationship is far better than a
tranquilizer inmost instances. A haven where there is attentivencss to

inner experiences and where, removed from the context of daily lite,
one can examine one's whole existence is also advantageous.
I have described the more extreme forms of visionary states
because the psychic process is so clearly shown that one can under-
stand it. The more usual experience, however, while showing the
same psychic contents and processes, may be far less disruptive. Se-
ventv ranges from the horrendous to the mild, depending perhaps on
how vigorous the resources of a person's consciousness are and how
rich in its repertory one's unconscious psyche might be. But the
process of renewal needs a partner.
What is the ultimate goal of spiritual emergence and the renewal
process? It has the same goal as that of the mystic way or of medita-
tion; in Buddhist practice it is called wisdom and compassion or love.
THE RENEWAL PROCESS

What is the psyche's way of effecting the renewal process? In this
discussion, I will continue to describe the more extreme manifesta-
tions because they can be most clearly observed.
The moment of slipping over the edge into the onslaught of
confusion and welter of visionary images is like the experience of
dying and entering the afterlife. Leading up to this crucial point there
usually has been a gradual shift of attention from involvement with
conventional reality to concerns with the more intense reality of the
inner life. At this point energy in the conscious field drops dramat-
ically; at the same time, the archetypal level of the deep psyche with
its profusion of mythic imagery is intensely activated. This surcharge
of energy produces what Roland Fischer calls the "high arousal
state." Such a psychological term is adequate as a dispassionately
objective description of these events, but subjectively one must think
in the language of overwhelming cataracts of mythic ideation and
symbolic forms. During this process, every manifestation conjures up
a multiplicity of meanings.
The focus of this activation and energy is the archetype of the
center, which Jung has described as the Self, represented by quad-
rated circles and mandalas. The course of the process and the accom-
panying imagery point to this center (as that which is being renewed),
and all the parts and phases of the renewal are represented as taking
place within this center as their vessel of transformation.
I have previously described the components and phases of the
renewal process and theirmyth and ritual parallels in antiquity (Perry
1966, The process has a venerable history of five thousand
1976).
years, and has always taken the form of a ritual drama that unfolds
within a work center established within the Self. Following the expe-
rience of death and afterlife, there occurs a regression of time back to
beginnings — in the case of the individual's past, back to the mother,
as her infant, or to one's birth or even to the intrauterine state — in
the larger dimension of the world's past, back to the creation or even
to the state of chaos before it. The self-image and the world image
reflectand parallel each other throughout this sequence.

However, all does not move smoothly in this reenactment of the
beginnings. Opposites become vividly constellated. Forces that strive
to destroy all existence enter a cosmic conflict with the benign forces
of preservation and world regeneration. At the same time, opposites
on every level tussle for ascendancy. One pair that is quite distressing
is the contrasexual component that arouses feelings of being changed
into the other sex (not to be construed as homosexual panic).
These are the heavy, frightening, even nightmarish elements in
the progress of renewal; there are other lighter elements, such as the
inflated image of oneself in an apotheosis of hero or heroine, saint,
savior, messiah, Here one has the experience of being
or king.
brought into a hieros gamos, a sacred or heavenly marriage with some
mythic or divine figure, with all the accompanying exhilaration of
erotic emotion. In this messianic role, one also believes oneself es-
pecially elected to bring about reforms of religion or society on a
world scale, thus effecting a significant aspect of world regeneration.
The self-image is renewed in a rebirth or sometimes a new birth
brought about by a fruitful event of the sacred marriage.
Through this interplay of opposites one may discern clashing,
reversing one into the other, and union. In the profusion of drawings
and paintings that have emerged to express these inner events, each
element in the process tends to be staged within the mandala form
(representing the archetypal center, the Self), well known as a con-
tainer of opposites.
But, one might object, is not the Self transcendent and eternal?
How can it be going through death and disintegration? Is it not the
Spiritual /.mergence and Renewal 71
ego that is supposed to go through a sacrificial death? We look to

myth >md ritual for the answer.
In Christian tradition, Jesus was the incarnation ol the eternal
godhead and and transfigura-
the representation ot the Self; his death
tion symbolized the renewal process in that faith. Baptism, for exam-
ple, was originally an initiation into the spiritual kingdom of which
he was king. Three millennia earlier, the ceremonial of the sacral

kingship ot the ancient Near East developed. Royal functionaries, as
delegates ot the deity and personifications of the center, submitted
themselves to m\ annual death-and-renewal ritual in the great com-
munal festivals of the New Year. It is here that we find the close
parallels to the renewal process in individuals today. One might think
oi the dving gods — Baal in the Near East, Adonis in the Mediterra-
nean cultures, or Freyr in the Nordic — as vegetation and fertility
spirits, but each of these names is translated as Lord in the royal

connotation, implying the role of the center (Self).
Recent emphasis on ego-cide or ego death is apt to miss the

essential point, for these terms imply a consciously willed event. The
trulv transformative death comes usually unbidden if not unwelcome,
happening to us and is an autonomous and arche-
in spite of us. It
typal process, a movement of the spirit in the realm of myth and
ritual.
The nature of the archetypal center (Self) is to undergo cyclic

rounds of birth, death, and resurrection. People of ancient or archaic
cultures understood this. Yet it has become alien to us moderns who
are enamored of linear progress (if there is any such thing) or of an
abiding presence that somehow manages to avoid the cyclic world of
nature.
Any contradiction in this can be resolved our under-
if we refine
standing of a difference between the archetypal center itself and the
image that represents it. The image does not signify its picturing, but
rather the form and quality that it takes in our actual experience. For
example, when my analytic exploration of depth was going on, this
center was first depicted in dreams in the form of nonordinary,
mandala-shaped churches in the context of my spiritual upbringing.
Later dreams announced a shake-up in this cultural set: A scene
revealed Westminster Abbey becoming a delicate, exquisite, but
empty shell of stone, while a guide pointed to the mysteriously
shaped and colored mountains of China as the area where the
numinous, living spirit now resides (such mountains mark the center
and four cardinal points of the Chinese world). My worldview is now

more Taoist than Christian.
The archetypal center abides, but the image representing it is
what needs cyclic renewal, with all that it implies about the outlook,
lifestyle, and value system by which one lives.
We apprehending the center only through its em-

are capable of
bodiment in images, and these are periodically transformed in the
psyche's development; no form that it takes is static. The individuat-
ing psyche abhors stasis as nature abhors a vacuum; in it, the spirit
shuns imprisonment in nongrowing forms or structures. The Taoists
understood very well that opposites are not real entities in themselves
but like the Yin and Yang are in perpetual flux revolving around one
another in their alternations of ascendancy and yielding, while the
Tao abides without name or definition.
From time to time, then, a form of the Self is designated by a
certain symbolic or mythic image, which captures the dynamic es-
sence of that phase of a person's life, until it has done its work and its
hour has come to be dissolved. The ego does sense that something is
dying, and changes only secondarily to the demise of the image of the
Self, the center. What happens to the ego reflects the dynamisms in
the archetypal psyche. Of the two levels of the self-image, the arche-
typal one effects in-depth transformations, while the personal one in
the conscious personality reflects these more superficial changes.
Then the reorganization of the self occurs on both these levels.
The renewal process begins with a predominance of images and
feelings of prestige and power, many of which compensate for a
debased self-image, a low opinion of oneself; these images reflect the
idiom of the family subculture in which the person was raised. But
the direction of the process istoward the stirring of motivations and
capacities that lead to lovingness and compassion. This is the prime
fruit of the work of the spirit, its chief and crowning goal, and may
be experienced both as warmth and intimacy in relationships and as a
direct sense of the oneness of all beings — not just as a belief or view
of how things are, but as the actual realization of it. The outcome of
the process has evolutionary implications; among the myth and ritual
parallels in history, one can trace the rise of this human-hearted
capacity into a cultural awareness and expression that displaces a
previous predilection for dominance and violence. This occurred in
those several parts of the world where cultures survived through a
sufficient number of centuries in order to attain their fulfilled
maturity.
Spiritual Emergence «/>/</ Renewal 7}
HANDLING THE PROCESS

Because the renewal process causes considerable disruption of the
ordinary conscious mind by robbing its energy, favorable conditions
are required in which to handle this transition during its progress of
several weeks.
The psvche seeks its own privacy by withdrawal. Psychiatrists
generally disapprove, yet ritual procedures included establishing
sacred enclosures for renewal processes to allow a clear differentiation
between sacred and secular; what transpired in such a sanctuary had
different rules. Perhaps the term "retreat" is more fitting than "with-
drawal." One good reason for such safe asylum is that the activity of
the mundane w orld r
is positively painful to people in this state of high
arousal. Such activity can also be confusing since one is dwelling at
this time in a mythic world totally alien to the mundane. This experi-
ence was overt and conscious to people in the ancient cultures of five
thousand years ago, but today it is deeply unconscious and mis-
understood.
The confusing discrepancy between the ordinary and the non-
ordinary worlds also causes distress to the people surrounding a per-
son in this state. A mutually frightening gulf requires comfortable
bridging. A
homelike atmosphere is desirable, and in such a sanctu-
arv the most important element is a staff that can empathize with the
state of mind in which the client is caught.
Diabasis, our resident facility in San Francisco in the 1970s, was
set up to receive people with the most disturbed forms of visionary
experiences, the first episode of acute psychosis. All staff members
were required to agree on a nonsickness view of this dramatic tur-
moil, now called nonlabeling. Though the process does need a name,
it was important to avoid names with damaging implications. The
staff consisted of people who knew the difference between a mean-
ingful inner process and pathology, not through hearsay or because
of a liberal intellectual view, but as a result of actual experience.
Otherwise, in a moment of crisis, the truth of this knowing or not
knowing would come out all too clearly.
Since the process involves a renewing of the Self and the self-
image, it was necessary that the staff respond to the newly emerging
person with genuine caring, with a loving appreciation of the
qualities coming to light. Sensitive discrimination between what is a
person's essence and what is the dross derived from the accidents of
upbringing was important.
Because the process tends to move a person from motivations of

power and prestige to motivations of love and relatedness, this
newly
emerging capacity must be met with responses in kind. A facility
based on the principles of law and order, so prevalent in the hier-
archically organized hospital wards, is self-defeating, or may I say,
Self-defeating. It is too closely a reenactment of the schizogenic fam-
ily setting, the initial faulty starting point.
Thus, the selection of Diabasis staff personnel departed from the
usual criteria of assessment and was based on personal qualities, not
professional qualifications (the categorical prerequisites of education
and training). The attributes sought were sensitive receptiveness, a
respect for another person's quite different mental state, and es-
pecially an understanding of the necessity for the subtle quality of
nonintrusive allowing, as well as the experience of "being there" in
some form or another, if only through therapy. Emotional vitality
and warmth were also necessary in a staff member capable of em-
pathy and honest interactions.
Such a staff forms a community, real, open, close to one another,
and devoted to the client. Members are capable of declaring honest
feelings and experiences of whatever kind, and of straightforward
expression toward each other and toward the clients. If this is the
atmosphere the client enters, one has only to witness the effect to
realize how vital such a sanctuary is. Utmost confusion is resolved
into clarity within a few days. The intent is not merely to be humane
and "nice" to clients — it is all geared to the earnest business of dis-
covering Selfhood.
At Diabasis, a significant part of this policy was a declaration
that there —
were no experts everyone was open to learning and dis-
covering. We provided our and accumulations of experience of
gifts
various kinds. We had no bosses, no government from the top. The

whole staff made policy and decisions. Individuals used their skills in
a spirit of effective division of labor; this included administrators and
psychiatrists. The entire project was viewed as a creation of the staff
by their own vision and effort, belonging to them.
The advantages were evident: the sense of responsibility for the
entire house rested in each member so that at crucial moments each
staff member felt entitled to act with freedom of judgment. Each
represented Diabasis and its way; the whole was represented in the
parts; our little microcosm reflected the nature of the macrocosm!
This rationale of handling spiritual emergencies, no matter how
disturbed the person, is that in the high-arousal state when the arche-
Spiritual Emergence and Renewal 75
typal unconscious is energi/cd and activated, the psyche autono-

mously does its own work in its own fashion. What it needs for this
is not "treatment" but rather a coming into close and deep relation-
ship with another individual who empathizes and encourages but
does not interfere. A therapeutic environment is far more effective
than medication. It offers the opportunity for the individual to con-
centrate on the inner work, to sustain the effort, and to move forward
in the process. Without such an environment there is a tendency for
the process to get stuck, going round and round the same contents
without movement.
The archetypal Self or center tends to become activated in in-
tense relationship and to need an emotional framework (a partner) in
order to progress along the path of the renewal process. The expres-
sion of this process in art pours out and expects a response. In the
"rage room/' the impulse to lash out and destroy is given safe space
and is conveyed to the other in relationship. The past with all its
hurts and fears and angers is intensely reenacted in the sessions be-
tween the two persons, often from birth to the present, and profound
healing can take place.
Hohjcr Kahvcit
WHEN INSANITY IS A
THE MESSAGE
BLESSING:
OF SHAMANISM
My body was quivering. While I remained in this state,

I began tossing. A chant was coming out of me without
my being able to do anything to stop it. Many things
appeared to me presently: huge birds and animals.
. .These were visible only to me, not to others in my
.
house. Such visions happen when a man is about to be-

come a shaman; they occur of their own accord. The
songs force themselves out complete without any attempt
to compose them . . .
ACCOUNT OF ISAAC TENS, A GITSKAN INDIAN,

FROM The Shaman's Doorway BY STEPHEN LARSEN
77
The concept of spiritual emergency, which differentiates transfor-

mational from psychiatric disorders, is supported indepen-
crises
dently by evidence from many different fields. Particularly important

are the data related to the shamanic traditions found in the historical
and anthropological literature. Shamanism is the world's oldest re-
ligion and humanity's most ancient healing art; its origins very likely
reach back tens of thousands of years to the Paleolithic era.
Shaman is a term used by anthropologists for a special kind of
medicine man or woman or witch doctor, who regularly enters non-
ordinary states of consciousness to heal, obtain information by extra-
sensory means, or conduct rituals to influence weather or game ani-
mals. Shamanism is nearly universal; its practice covers the time span
from the Stone Age until the present, and its various forms can be
found in Africa, Europe, North and South America, Asia, Australia,
and Polynesia. The fact that shamanic cultures attribute great value to
nonordinary states of consciousness is extremely important to the con-
cept of spiritual emergency.
The career of many shamans begins with a dramatic episode of
an altered state of consciousness that traditional Western psychiatry
sees as a manifestation of serious mental disease. It includes visionary
experiences of descent into the underworld, attacks from demons, and
inhuman tortures and by a sequence of dying and
ordeals, followed
being reborn and subsequent ascent into celestial realms. During this
time, the future shaman can experience a wide spectrum of extreme
emotions and behave in most unusual ways.
These symptoms suggest a grave psychiatric disorder when judged
by Western medical standards. Yet, if this crisis is successfully over-
come and completed, it results in personal healing, superior social
functioning, and the development of shamanic abilities. The individual
is then accepted by the tribe as an extremely important and useful
member of the group. However, it is important to emphasize that

strange experiences in themselves are not enough to qualify one as a
shaman. Being a shaman requires a successful completion of the epi-
n Insanity Is 4 Blessing: The Message oj Shamanism 79
sode and a return to full functioning in everyday life. Shamanic cul-

.1 clear distinction between people who are shamans and
ire sick or crazy.
After having completed the initiatory crisis, a shaman is typically
able to enter nonordinary states oj consciousness on his or her terms
and terminate them at will. The shaman performs this task regularly
the purpose of healing others, gaining deeper insight into reality,

and receiving artistic inspiration. Like the shamamc crisis, these states
\any features that Western psychiatry tends to see as patholog-
ical. In addition, many shamans have the means and the skills to
induce similar states in their and are thus able to achieve dra-
clients
matic healing of various emotional and psychosomatic conditions.

These observations suggest that the theoretical understanding of
ates and the practical approach to them existing at present
in Western psychiatry have to be seriously reexamined and reevalu-
udence from shamanic cultures certainly supports the cen-
tral concept of this book: that it is possible to approach some
nonordinary states of consciousness in such a way that they have
beneficial results for the individual involved and for the community.
We have chosen an excerpt from the writings of Holger Kalweit y
torn we believe to be uniquely qualified to discuss the relationship
between shamanism and the problem of spiritual emergency. He is a

psychologist with many years of clinical practice, a deep interest in
anthropology, and extensive experience in field research as an ethnolo-
gist in Hawaii, in the rest of the United States, and in the Himalayas.
Kalweit combines in a very original way the study of shamanism, the
mythology of various peoples, transpersonal psychology, and near-
death experiences. In his approach, the cross-culturally obtained data
are subjected to systematic interdisciplinary analysis. The result is a
new transpersonal orientation that integrates anthropology, ethnology,
and psychology.
Kalweit lives in Switzerland and works as a free-lance writer.
His book Dreamtime and the Inner Space: The World of the Shaman
describes shamans of different cultures as pioneers who have prepared
the ground for modern consciousness research by their inner journeys
and discoveries in the unknown territories of the human psyche. His
book Ancient Healers, Medicine Men, and Shamans specifically ex-
plores the healing aspects of shamanism. Another book, Healing of
Knowledge, coauthor ed by Amalie Schenk, discusses the inner way to
knowledge and its relationship to the traditional approach to knowl-
edge as practiced by Western science.
Western culture and medicine have declared total war on sickness and
death: on death because it signifies the end of our earthly existence,
and on sickness because it impairs our enjoyment of life. We look
upon sickness as bad, something to get rid of as quickly as possible,
to put an end to. We see it as something invading us: a virus, a
bacillus or whatever, and so we experience it profoundly as an alien
process that incapacitates, paralyzes, and destroys our body inter-
nally, as an unnatural state of affairs that should be suppressed by
every conceivable means. In short, sickness and death are the gar-
goyles of our civilization.
Sickness to us is a blemish, a dirty spot on the self-deceiving
mirror of our technological megalomania. Suffering and sickness are
seen by our culture as something that emerges from a source hostile
to the body, and so our fight against sickness, death, suffering, and
physical pain is felt by us to be completely natural. Our static view of
the world abhors any kind of change, except perhaps economic and
technological. In particular we resent any alteration of consciousness
and ontological change.
If we were able to understand sickness and suffering as processes
of physical and psychic transformation, as do Asian peoples and

tribal cultures, we would gain a deeper and less biased view of psy-
chosomatic and psychospiritual processes and begin to realize the
many opportunities presented by suffering and the death of the ego.
Our long and continuous battle against death and sickness has so
deeply taken root in our consciousness that even modern psychology
has felt compelled to take up the cudgel against physical weakness
and dying. Consequently, psychic and physical suffering have re-
mained unacknowledged as a means of altering consciousness and as
forces and mechanisms of transformation and self-healing.
In recent years a general revaluation of consciousness — that es-
sence which pervades all our actions in life —has taken place, ac-
companied by a more positive attitude towards states of altered
consciousness. Science has thus begun to reassess the sacred knowl-
edge of past cultures and traditional societies which do not regard
sickness and death as primarily evil and hostile, but acknowledge
their positive internaldynamism. For these traditional cultures sick-
ness, suffering, and death are manifestations of the body's inherent
wisdom, to which we only have to surrender to reach areas of percep-
tion capable of revealing the true basis of our earthly existence.
They look upon life in the Beyond and on death as a way of
regenerating and recovering from our earthly existence. They also see
When Insanity Is a Blessing: The Message of Shamanism si
sickness as a process that cleanses us ot the had habits we have

accumulated by our false attitude to lite. To die mk\ to suiter a severe
sickness are part ot the basic experience ot the shaman's path. This
does not mean that every shaman has to undergo this kind of
initiation — there are several other possibilities— but in the later stages
of shamanic development they are a means ot further transformation.

We therefore have to go let we have held tor genera
of the prejudices
tions and ot our pessimism towards pain and suffering. We must
learn to look death in the face and come to understand sickness as
something resulting from an inner imbalance. Only then will we
discover its true meaning in the context of our existence. Sickness is a
call for self-realization, self-development, and in extreme cases as —

the following narrative shows —
a variety of shamanic initiation.
On his travels through Siberia, the Hungarian explorer Vilmos
Dioszegi collected many reports about shamanic vocations experi-
enced as a result of sickness. Once he asked Kyzlasov, a former
shaman of the Sagay tribe from Kyzlan on the river Yes, how he had
acquired his powers. Kyzlasov reacted with a stony silence. But then
his wife began to tell her husband's story:
How did he becomeshaman? Sickness seized him when he was

a
twenty-three years old and he became a shaman at the age of thirty.
That was how he became a shaman, after the sickness, after the tor-
ture. He had been ill for seven years. While he was ailing, he had
dreams: He was beaten up several times, sometimes he was taken to
strange places. He had been around quite a lot in his dreams and he
had seen many things. He who is seized by the shaman sickness
. . .
and does not begin to exercise shamanism, must suffer badly. He

might lose his mind, he may even have to give up his life. Therefore he
is advised, "You must take up shamanism so as not to suffer!" Some
even say, "I became a shaman only to escape illness." 1
Sunchugasev, another shaman who was present, added:
The man chosen for shamandom is first recognized by the black

spirits. The spirits of the dead shamans are called black spirits. They
make the chosen one ill and then they force him to become a shaman. 2
Suzukpen, former important shaman of the Siberian Soyot

a
community near the Suy-Surmak River, narrated the following about
his long illness and his calling to shamanism:
It has been a long time. With two of my brothers, the three of us went
to hunt squirrels. Late at night we were crossing a mountain, going
after the squirrels, when suddenly I saw a black crow right in the
middle of the road.
We were advancing in single file. I was the first. I came nearer, but
the crow kept crouching in the middle of the road. It stayed right there
and waited for me.
When I reached it, I threw some snow toward it from a branch.
It never moved.
Then I hit its beak with my stick.
Kok-kok. The knock resounded loudly.
What was all this? What was going to happen to me? Because the
night before — —
before seeing the crow I had already felt miserable.
Next day I went back to where I had seen the crow. Not even a
trace of it was to be seen, anywhere! Although the others, that is my
brothers, had seen it too.
From then on, from the time I hit the beak of that crow, I became
very ill. My mind was deranged.
I have been suffering for as long as seven years. 3
Among
the Siberian Soyot most prospective shamans become
ill
— between the ages of ten and twelve and young men at the age
girls
of twenty to twenty-five. They suffer from headaches, nausea, and

loss of appetite. When a shaman is called to attend them he says that
one of the mountain spirits wants to turn the sick one into a shaman.
One shaman by the name of Sadaqpan from the Ulug Dag region was
ill in bed for a year prior to his initiation. He suffered from a heart
condition, frequently screamed out in pain, and behaved like a mad-

man. He was thirty years old at the time. The Soyot call the time
during which a spirit torments a future shaman albys. This period
frequently remains a blank in the shaman's life; he cannot remember
what happened. He gabbles confused words, displays very curious
habits of eating, and sings continuously.
The son of a shaman called Sandyk from the area near the Sistig-
khem told how his father experienced his call to shamanism:
At first, my father was sickly; he had a weak heart and so he suffered

from attacks. That is why people thought he might start practicing the
shaman's art. A spirit appeared to him, or rather two spirits: Saral
coydu and Tamir qastaj. The first one was what we call a "great spirit"
(Uluy aza). Near the Khamsara lived a famous shaman of the Aq codu
tribe, called Amyj or Taqqa. He was brought to see my father and told
When Insanity Is a Blessing: The Message of Shamanism 83
him, "On the fifteenth of this month you will become .1 shaman.'
1
Ann wasi
a great shaman. 4
Among the Siberian Tofa, too, shamans become sick before their
initiationand are tormented by spirits. A shaman called Anjataj suf-
fered tor three years from headaches and pains in his arms and legs.
In his dreams the spirits asked him to become a shaman. He slept for
three days in a row. When he felt better he followed his calling. The
shaman Yassily Mikailovic of the Amastayev clan, who was initiated
at the age of eighteen, was so dangerously ill that he could not rise
from his bed for a whole year. Only when he agreed to the demands
ot the spirits did his health improve. 5
Franz Boas has recorded the experiences of a Kwakiutl Indian
who became a healer after having always doubted and been critical of
shamans. One day he went out hunting with some others, paddling
in a canoe along the coast. He saw a wolf on a boulder which jutted
out from the rock face. The wolf was rolling around on its back and
scratching mouth with its paws. To everybody's surprise the wolf
its
did not run away as they came closer but appeared to be very trust-
ing. There was a deer bone stuck in its bloodstained mouth; it looked
at the hunters as if it expected help from them.
The young hunter soothed the wolf, saying, "You are in trouble,
friend. Now I shall be like a great shaman and cure you, friend. I will
take out your great trouble and set you right, friend. Now reward
me, friend, that I may be able, like you, to get everything easily, all
that is taken by you, on account of your fame as a harpooner and

your supernatural power. Now reward my kindness to you, friend.
Go on! Sit still on the rock and let me get my means of taking out
that bone." Later he dreamt about this wolf which appeared to him
in the form of a harpooner. It told him where the seals were to be
found and assured him that he would always be a successful hunter.
As time passed, he always managed to bring home a good kill.
One day other members of his tribe found some crates full of food
and clothing that did not seem to belong to anyone. But the contents
of these crates had been contaminated with smallpox (perhaps inten-
tionally by white settlers). All his hunting companions died and he
was lying among them without hope when two wolves came trotting
along and began to lick him. They vomited foam all over his body,
which they then licked off again, only to vomit more foam over him.
They continued to do this until he felt stronger. Then he recognized
the wolf he had once saved.
Restored by the wolves, he continued to roam around with his

brother wolves. One day, however, his wolf friend pressed its muzzle
against his chest bone and vomited all its magical force into him. He
fell into a deep sleep and dreamt that the wolf changed into a human
being and told him that he would now be able to heal the sick, to
project energy that and to catch souls. When he
makes people ill,
awoke he was trembling all over. Now he was a shaman. It felt good
and he was all the time in a sort of delirium and sang the four sacred
songs the wolf had bequeathed to him. 6
Here is a somewhat similar story about Lebi'd, another
Kwakiutl Indian. Lebi'd was ill for a long time, three winters in a
row. When he finally died it was bitterly cold outside. The snow and
the storm continued unabated so he could not be buried. Again and
again the people had to postpone the burial ceremony. Suddenly he
was heard singing a song, and the wolves that began to gather around
his corpse were howling with him. Then the people knew that Lebi'd
had become a shaman.
He followed the wolves into the forest, and although the people
looked for him they could not find him. On the second day, a song
could be heard from far off. In the meantime his house had been
cleaned and all were waiting for his return. They had started a fire in
his hearth, and the people beat the drum three times. Then Lebi'd
appeared, stark naked. He sang a sacred song:
Iwas taken away far inland to the edge of the world,

by the magical power of heaven, the treasure, ha, wo, ho.
Only then was I cured by it, when it was really thrown into me,
the past life bringer of Nau'alakume, the treasure, ha, wo, ho.
Lebi'd danced and danced, and when all the people had withdrawn
and only the other shamans remained, he began to relate what had
happened to him, as is the custom.
When he died, a man had appeared to him and invited him to go
with him. He had risen to his feet and had been surprised to see his
body lying on the ground. They had run far into the forest and soon
entered a house where he was given a new name by a man called
Nau'alakume, who had transferred his shamanic power to him by
vomiting a quartz crystal over him. Singing his sacred song, he had
caused the crystal to enter him (Lebi'd) through the lower part of his
chest bone. That is how he had become a shaman. The wolves,
meanwhile, had changed into humans. As Nau'alakume sang, he
a
When Insanity Is a Blessing: The Message of Shamanism ss
pressed Lebi'd's head, first with his left hand, then with his right,
and finally with both. Then he passed his hands all over Lebi'd's
body and shook the illness out ot him, 1 le did this tour times.
All the other creatures present then took ott their wolf masks
and approached his dead body. As Nau'alakume breathed his breath
into him, the wolves licked his body. Before that, they had caused his
soul to shrink to the size ot a fly. His soul was then reintroduced into
his body through his head. Immediately after that, his body came
alive again. He started to sing a sacred song and — this time in his
physical body — set out with the wolves into the forest where Nau'
alakume taught him not only how to cure illnesses, but also to send
out sickness against others. He had also prophesied that Lebi'd
would always dream about him and that he could come to him for
advice whenever he was in need of it. 7
These examples of how two Kwakiutl Indians experienced their
calling feature an encounter with helping spirits in animal form in —
both cases wolves, who were actually humans in disguise. The wolf
vomits his magic strength into the Indian who— often the case
as is in
an altered state of consciousness —becomes euphoric. In most cases
the experience of being resurrected after terrible torments, sickness,
and near-death accompanied by a feeling of euphoria, because the
is
suffering has annihilated all former characteristics of the personality.
The sickness is a cleansing process that washes away all that is bad,
pitiful, and weak. It floods the individual like a raging river and
cleanses it of all that is limited and dull. In this way the sickness
becomes a gateway to life. In all cultures people who have a near-
death experience encounter beings that represent the resurrection of
life. These beings bestow life; they are bearers of divine power. After
the sickness — providing it was sufficiently severe and frightening —
new life, a transformed existence, begins.
Lebi'd's story shows another typical NDE (near-death experi-
ence) characteristic. As he "dies" and leaves his body, he is met by a
being from the Beyond and taken to a "house" —
symbolic of a tran-
—
scendent state where not only is he given a new name to confirm his
inner transformation, but quartz crystals —
symbols of transparence,
illumination, and magical power —
are placed into his chest. The life-
giving spirit splits off these crystals from himself and spits them out,
thereby allowing Lebi'd to share the nature and the living strength of
the spirit.
What happens next reminds one very strongly of methods of
magnetopathic treatment, the laying on of hands by which negative
—
energy —the illness — is stroked away or literally shaken out of the

body. This practice iscommon to psychic healers the world over. The
restored Lebi'd is now the possessor of higher knowledge. The
wolves and the life-bringer accompany him to his dead body and
cause his soul to reenter it. Thereafter the life-bringer is Lebi'd's
helping spirit, who will stand by his side whenever he heals anyone.
Lebi'd became a shaman with the help of the essence of life itself,
supported by wolves representing the forces of the animal realm. He
became a Chosen One, capable of seeing life and nature undistorted,
because the mask of earthly ignorance and delusion was removed
from his eyes.
On the Indonesian Mentawai shamanism
Islands, the calling to
is also preceded by a sickness — by the
in this case malaria —sent
heavenly spirits. The person destined to become a shaman dreams
that he ascends to heaven or goes into the forest to look for monkeys.
If the spirits abduct someone chosen for shamanism to heaven he is
given a beautiful new body like that of the spirit beings. After his
return to earth, the spirits help him with his healing. In this way a
new seer is born, known as a Si-kerei, someone who possesses mag-
icalpowers: "seeing eyes" and "hearing ears." 8
At this point we might properly ask whether the sickness is sent
by the heavenly spirits themselves or whether it should be seen as a
byproduct of a person's spiritual growth, of a process aimed at re-
vealing to the sick initiate the heavenly —
respectively, his inner
world. Be that as it may, in many impetus
tribal cultures the initial
towards transformation comes either from heaven or from the under-
world, because that is where you are given a new body the spirit —
body of the beings in the Beyond which equips the initiate with their
knowledge and powers and enables him to transcend matter, space,
and time.
Among the Zulus someone destined to become a shaman (In-
yanga) suddenly becomes ill, behaves in a curious manner, and is
unable to eat normal food. He will eat only certain things. He con-
tinually complains of pain in various parts of his body and has the
most incredible dreams —he becomes a "house of dreams." He is
quickly moved to tears, weeping at first softly to himself and then
loudly for everyone to hear. He may be ill for several years before he
sings his first great song. When that happens, the other members of
the tribe come running and join in. Now everyone is waiting for him
to die, which might happen any day. The whole village finds hardly
any sleep at night, because someone about to become an Inyanga
When Insanity Is a Blessing: The Message of Shamanism S7
causes .1 great deal oi unrest. 1 le hardly sleeps. And it he falls asleep,
he soon wakes up and begins to sing even in the middle oi the night.
He may get it into his head to climb onto a root and jump around
like a Frog, shaking himself and singing. His helping spirit keeps
whispering into his ear and promises him that he will soon be able to
give advice to those that come to him. He can hear the whistling of
the spirits and converses with them in the language of the humans.
Often, however, he does not immediately realize what they are trying
to tell him.
At this point it is still unclear whether he suffers from a sickness
that will turn him into an Inyanga, or whether he is just crazy. If the
people think that he become a shaman they say, "Ah,
is destined to
now we can see. It's in his head." The helping spirit (Itongo) is at
first perceived rather vaguely by the sick person, who cannot prop-
erly understand it. For that reason, the other members of the tribe
must help him to disentangle what he has seen and heard. Soon the
Itongo will say, "Go to so-and-so and he will give you medicine."
After that the initiate improves. When the helping spirit finally
promises to stand by him he says to the sick person, "It is not you
we will tell them everything they need to
that will talk to people but
know, whenever they come for advice." If the relatives of the sick
man do not want him to become a shaman they summon another
recognized healer and ask him to appease the spirit. In that case
the spirit may leave the man but in all likelihood he will be plagued
by sickness Even if he does not become
for the rest of his life.
an Inyanga, he still has higher knowledge and the people say of him,
"If he had become a seer he would have been a great seer, a first-
class seer." 9
The Mundu mugo, the shaman of the Kenyan Kikuyu, receives
his calling and his spiritual support from God (Ngai). It is however
assumed that he has an inborn disposition for healing. The impulse
for the initiation as a Mundu mugo arises from a sickness charac-
terized by dramatic dreams, hallucinations, inability to concentrate,
weak eyesight, and abnormal forms of behavior. At the same time his
family is visited by a series of misfortunes and accidents. If another
Mundu mugo then describes all these signs as meaningful, the initia-
tion confirmed and publicly sanctioned.
is
This is followed by the initiation ceremony. If the novice is poor

and cannot afford the expensive festivities involved, a ritual is never-
theless performed to relieve his suffering and to accord him the status
of an "unconfirmed" Mundu mugo. If he is rich and can pay for the
.
appropriate festivities, he becomes a fully recognized Mundu mugo.

Thereafter he specializes in particular skills such as prophecy, diag-
noses of illnesses, knowledge of herbs, restoration of the fertility of
women, unmasking of sorcerers, or curing mental illness. 10
According to Young Sook Kim, the calling of Korean shaman-
esses expresses itself in various physiological disturbances, conspic-
uous forms of social behavior, outrageous activities, impoliteness,
and a lifestyle that inverts traditional cultural values. For instance,
the prospective shamaness may wear winter clothes in summer, bathe
in cold water in winter, reveal secrets which are taboo to mention, or
begin to tell the fortune of anyone who happens to be passing in the
street. This illness is known as Sinbyong, "caught by the spirits" or
"the spirits have descended," and may be accompanied by visual and

auditory hallucinations. At first the relatives find it difficult to estab-
lish whether such a woman is really mentally deranged or whether
they are dealing with a vocation for shamanism, because in many

cases the initial symptoms are practically indistinguishable. The
Koreans believe that the spirits visit especially those whose maum
(heart or soul) are "split" and upon whom a tragic fate has been
bestowed. 11
In Korea, shamans (Mu dang), 60,000 of whom are at present
organized in a professional association (the number of nonregistered
shamans is estimated at over 140,000), 12 are no longer accorded a high
social status but find themselves on the lowest rung of the social
ladder, together with prostitutes, shoe menders, soothsayers, Bud-
dhist monks, and dancing girls. Many more women than men feel
called upon to become a Mu dang, although there are some men or

hermaphrodites who feel attracted to shamanism. On the Korean
mainland, 90 percent of practicing shamans are women; on Cheju
Island, up to 60 percent. The behavior and dress of male shamans is
extremely effeminate.
The calling for shamanism occurs in three ways:
1 By birth into or adoption by a Mu dang family

2. By Mu dang apprenticeship
3. By a spontaneous feeling of vocation
The most frequent case, the psychic experience of a calling,

begins with a sickness that cannot be cured by customary methods of
treatment. The person concerned hears voices, speaks in tongues, can
absorb only liquid nourishment, and grows as thin as a skeleton.
When Insanity h ./ Blessing: The Message of Shamanism <s">
Bouts ol depression and a manic compulsion to dance until uncon-

scious alternate. The sick person goes on long walks into the mouii
tains or to the sea and lias dreams in which helping spirits give
instructions .\nd reasons tor founding a new cult. The noviee shaman
is overcome by visions ol the native pantheon ot Clods or may acquire
his objects ot power by suddenly falling to the ground. Alter a tragic
event such as the death ot a relative, an epidemic, famine, or eco-

nomic ruin, a person may become a Mu
dang apprentice if the Bud-
dhist monasteries, to which the mentally ill go to be cured, are
unable to alleviate the symptoms of the sickness. In such cases the
spontaneous calling is followed by an apprenticeship, extending over
several \ ears, with an older and experienced Mu dang. 13
We would like to illustrate the genesis of this sickness with
reports about the calling of two Korean shamanesses:
Mrs. Lee Kum Sun's boyfriend died at which

the age of twenty,
had arranged for
greatly distressed her. Shortly before that, her parents
her to be married to her present husband but her dead boyfriend kept
appearing to her in her dreams. At the age of thirty-two she began to
see him in her dreams continually and developed the first signs of her
sickness. One day she dreamt that she ran barefoot and completely
naked to the foot of a mountain where a white-bearded man appeared
to her and promised her health and good fortune. At the age of forty
she was initiated by an old shamaness. After that everything went well
and her health was restored.
Mrs. Oh Un-sook disliked her husband from the very beginning.

After several years, unusual symptoms developed. She lost her ap-
petite, was unable meat or fish, only drank cold water, and
to eat
developed headaches. She spent most of her time alone. These symp-
toms lasted about ten years. When she was forty years old she dreamt
of thunder and lightning and of a pillar of light that struck her head
three times. Thereupon three old men from heaven appeared to her in
a dream. One day she saw a vision of a great general riding on a white
horse who approached her. Thereafter she dreamt many times that she
went to bed with this general. At the age of forty-seven she was
initiated as a shamaness and all her symptoms disappeared. 14
In one of these two shamanesses the calling was triggered by the

tragic loss of a lover, in the other by an unhappy marriage. Psycholo-
gists would no doubt say that these are clear examples of a desire to
escape an unsatisfactory reality. However, such a conclusion would
be somewhat premature. We must not overlook the fact that an un-
happy marriage and the death of a lover are traumatic experiences

which can provide fertile ground for entering an altered state of
consciousness. Traumatic shock can cause the collapse of psychic
structures, whereupon a more subtle and paranormal sensitivity be-
gins to grow from the Kum Sun
ruins of normal consciousness. Lee
—
met a white-bearded old man the archetype of wisdom and Oh —
Un-sook had a vision of a Korean cultural hero also a symbol of —
wisdom and strength. Moreover, Oh Un-sook shares the General's
bed — a further pointer to her intimate connection and fusion with the
transpersonal.
OhUn-sook's vision of a pillar of light also reinforces the im-
pression thatwe might be dealing with an illuminating manifestation
which afforded her contact with the Beyond and heavenly beings.
These two simple narratives indicate that we may not be confronted
by abstruse creations of a deviant mind but rather a high form of
intuitive insight.
Eduardo Calderon, a Peruvian healer (curandero), began to be
plagued by disquieting dreams and visions in his childhood:
During my youth from more or less the age of seven or eight years I
had some rare dreams. I still remember them. I remember dreams in
which I flew, that my ego departed from the state in which it was, and
I went to strange places in the form of a spiral. Or I flew in a ver-
tiginous manner: ssssssssssss, I departed. I tried to retain myself and I

could not. Strange dreams, strange. I had these until the age of more
or less twelve or thirteen. . . .
I have seen things as if someone opens a door and the door is
closed. I have had nightmares, but not ordinary ones. I have seen
myself introduced through a hole in the air, and went through an
I
immense, immense void. I have felt numbness in all my

body as if my
hands were huge but I could not grasp. I could not hold up my hand. 15
He began to follow his call to serve mankind at an early age.

However, his ambition to study medicine was frustrated by the pov-
erty of his family. So he had no other choice than to earn a living by
the use of his artistic talents. At the age of twenty-one he developed a
typical shamanic illness that modern medicine was unable to diagnose
or treat therapeutically:
In Lima I was studying fine arts and suddenly I began drinking and
spending everything on drink. I came down with a rare sickness. It
\\ ben Insanity Is .1 Blessing: The Message <>/ Shamanism i}
i
happened thai on one occasion 1 saw a cat Oil mv left shoulder. It was
enough that with that impression ot a eat everything that 1 did was
Overturned . . . and 1 lost the power to hold things in mv hand and to
stand up. I completely lost all my strength. I could not hold myself up
in a standing position mk\ walked like a sleepwalker, according to what
they tell mc. w
EduaroVs family had faith in the health abilities ot curanderos

and called in a woman healer conversant with the properties of herbs.
She gave Eduardo a mixture of juices extracted from plants, where-
upon he vomited up a dark brew despite the fact that he had not
drunk any other liquid. He immediately improved. On the basis of

his experiences during his sickness he decided to become a healer. He
supported himself by working as a longshoreman and by produc-
home. At the same time he became the apprentice of a
ing pottery at
He also studied with various shamans in Chiclayo,
local curandero.
Mocupe, and Ferranafe in northern Peru. For several years he acted as
assistant to these curanderos until finally his teacher in Ferranafe
pronounced him fully qualified.
He was twenty-eight years old at the time and had served four
years as an apprentice shaman. He swore never to misuse his powers
and to apply them only for the benefit of mankind. Eduardo con-
siders shamanism to be a simple matter of "seeing," a skill or trade
anyone is capable of acquiring providing he regularly trains himself in
it. It is however open to question whether such training and practic-
ing alone will ensure success, because Eduardo as his life history —
—
shows was called to his trade by a higher power. Moreover, we must
not exclude the possibility that he inherited certain shamanic propen-
sities because both his grandfathers were shamans.
From a description given by W. Sieroszewski we can gain an idea

of the liberating and healing qualities of the shamanic seance when
the shaman himself feels stricken and debilitated by illness. The
Yakut shaman Tiisput, who was critically ill for more than twenty
years, could find relief from his suffering only when he conducted a
seance during which he fell into a trance. In the end he fully regained
his health by this method. However, if he held no seances over a long
period of time he once again began to feel unwell, exhausted, and
indecisive. 17
In general, the symptoms when a
of an illness subside
candidate for shamanism enters a trance. The same phenomenon was
observed by L. W. Shternberg in the case of a Siberian Gold shaman
that even his colleagues were unable to cure. Only when he learned
how to enter a trance state did his illness leave him. 18 Similarly,
G. Sancheyev mentions a shaman who at first refused to follow his-
calling but was forced by illness to consort with the spirits and hold
seances, which in the end led to his recovery. 19
The story of the Yakut shaman Uno Harva also features a relief
from illness once he agreed to take up shamanism:
I became ill when I was twenty-one years old and began to see with
my eyes and hear with my ears things others could neither hear nor
see. For nine years I fought against the spirit, without telling anyone
what had happened because I feared they might not believe me or
make fun of me. In the end I became so ill that I was close to death. So
I began to shamanize, and very soon my health improved. Even now I
feel unwell and sick whenever I am inactive as a shaman over a longer
period of time. 20
Adrian Boshier describes the illness of Dorcas, the daughter of a

Methodist preacher, who is now a recognized Zulu shamaness (san-
goma). For three years she was bedridden and during this time could
absorb only small quantities of food and drink. At night she left her
body and visited distant places; in this way she traveled everywhere.
Even the white doctors were at a loss. Then one night her dead
grandfather appeared to her in a dream. He said he would enter her
body and continue his work on earth in this fashion. Being a devout
Christian she did not agree to this. After that, other shamans ap-
peared in her dreams, scolded her, and called upon her to become one
of them. These visions became more and more frequent, passing
before her inner eye like pictures on a cinema screen.
One night several famous sangomas came to her bedside. Chant-
ing a song, they seriously advised her to submit and make a shamanic
headdress for herself. She still failed to understand what was happen-
ing and wanted to be cured by ceremonies and rites of the Apostolic
church. She was taken to a river to be christened. They guided her
into the water, and just as they were about to submerge her she was
lifted up by a gigantic snake under her feet —
her grandfather! Her
mother then took her to an aunt who was herself a shamaness. Soon
many other healers and shamans assembled, beating their drums and
exhorting her to get up and sing. She then danced and sang hour after
hour. That was the beginning of her training, and from then on she
followed the instructions of the spirits. 21
A refusal to follow the call leads to unnecessary suffering. The

U ben Insanity Is u Blessing: The Message of Shamanism 93
South American Guajiro shamaness Graziela, for example, was asked

by her helping spirits to travel with them to the other world. But
she says:
1 do not like traveling to these distant places. My spirits often Invite
me go there, but I prefer not to go with them. Sometimes I say to

them, "1 do not want to go with you." Whenever I turn down such an
invitation I develop a fever and become very ill. That is my punish-
ment. Then 1 must chew manilla to get better again. I receive many
invitations. 22
Every sickness is an attempt at healing and every healing an

attempt to escape from the everyday neurosis of ordinary conscious-
ness so as to arrive at a more subtle and, in the last resort, super-
human form of perception. The sicknesses that arise as a result of a
calling are surely the highest form of illness —
a sacred illness which
by power makes it possible for mystical and metaphysical insights
its
to arise. As w e have seen, this frequently happens without regard to

r
the feelings and wishes of the chosen one who, in most cases, is not
aware of the fact that his body is undergoing an initiation. To resist
such a process of transformation is a natural reaction to that which is
unaccustomed, mysterious, and without limit. The initiate struggles
against both his pain and suffering as well as the future social func-
tions he will have to perform as a shaman, which all too often will
deprive him of the possibility of leading a normal everyday life.
Resistance to psychophysical change and a disintegration of the

normal structure of existence has always been part and parcel of the
transformative process. Because of this, it forms at least a partial
aspect of every rite of transformation. Rejection of the new and
unknown is a standard human response. True, existence itself is
change, but the leap from three-dimensional to multidimensional per-

ception and experience most fundamental change. To reach a
is the
translogical form of knowledge or realm of wisdom, celestial beauty,
and spiritual essence is one of the most ancient experiential goals of
mankind.
The central issue raised by this chapter is therefore: Why do we
have to become ill before we can accept a new insight? Why is the
entry into a more comprehensive level of experience so frequently
marked by sickness or, one might say, a cleansing process? Purifica-
tion plays a prominent role in the life of all communities that are
close to nature. While our culture attaches primary importance to
physical cleanliness, other cultures still have knowledge of psychic
and spiritual methods of purification which might well be compared

to our psychotherapeutic techniques. We see life as a relatively uni-
form and continuous process marked by merely peripheral changes,
whereas so-called primitive cultures tend to see personal development
as a series of leaps from one mode of existence to another. This is
clearly shown by the traditional rites of passage conducted not only
at birth, puberty, and death but especially at the breakthrough from
everyday existence to a spiritual dimension, as experienced by
religious adepts —
the leap from the human to the superhuman.
The important stages in a person's life are connected by periods
of inner purification so that the individual, being properly prepared
and in a clear state of mind, undistracted by customary thought
processes and memories, may progress to a new and unburdened
existence. This purification may take many forms: either purely
physical such as vomiting, perspiration, fasting, pain, fever, and
cleansing of the body with water, or intense psychic isolation during
which the memory of the constitution of one's ego is shed; extreme
exhaustion which disrupts the regular functioning of the organism
and the psyche; and actual sickness which brings internal obstacles
and defilements to the surface and, indeed, expels them, thereby
producing a heightened sensitivity for the process of being — a sen-
sitivity that ultimately enables the shaman to diagnose and heal the
illnesses of others.
Frequently the shaman enters a patient's state so thoroughly that
he himself experiences the symptoms and pains of the illness and, in
this way, acquires special knowledge as to its cause. There are several
reports about shamans who went so far as to take a patient's illness
upon themselves in order to destroy it. In the course of their painful
existence, many shamans have physically experienced countless ill-
nesses and are therefore conversant with a wide range of physical and
psychic reactions.
Modern Western medicine might consider it superfluous, even
somewhat obscure or eccentric, for a healer to involve himself so
intensely in the process of an illness. Nevertheless, the logic of doing
so can hardly be doubted. It is based on the premise that someone
who has himself experienced and overcome the pain and suffering of
an illness will best be able to diagnose and effectively treat it. Western
medicine, of course, rejects the image of the wounded healer, the sick
doctor who has cured himself. It places too much stress on the purely
\\ hen Insanity Is a Blessing: The Message o) Shamanism 95
technological manipulation ot the patient and has therefore become

increasingly alienated From the actual experience of the patient's
condition.
It we wanted to summarize the effect of a long psychosomatic
sickness on a shaman, we would have to say that the essential crite-
rion lies in his talent to enter into an intensified exchange with real-
ity, thereby transcending the material demarcations between objects
and people. It lies in the very nature of the shaman to perceive the
pulse o\ the universe in himself and others and, by going along with
it, to influence and change it. His approach is based on empathy and
unity with actual life-forces and therefore is inimically incompatible

with the dichotomies and codified differentiations of a materialist
philosophy.
A sickness that is understood as a process of purification, as the
onset of enhanced psychic sensitivity giving access to the hidden and
highest potentials of human existence, is therefore marked by very
different characteristics than those ascribed to pathological condi-
tions by modern medicine and psychology —namely, that suffering
has only negative consequences. According to the modern view illness
disrupts and endangers life, whereas the shaman experiences his sick-
ness as a call to destroy this life within himself so as to hear, see, and
live more fully and completely in a higher state of awareness.
it
The symptoms of shamanic sickness are in most cases confused,

undefinable, and follow no known pattern. Moreover, physical, psy-
chic, and social reactions are closely interwoven. Particularly notice-
able are forms of behavior that reject, and even deride and ridicule,
accepted customs and standards. Initiates become holy fools who
systematically put the world on its head or indulge in unworthy,
shameless, and perverse behavior incompatible with established
morality.
The fool exposes the limitations of human criteria, confronts us
anew with the undefined nature of our cosmic existence, leads us
backstage to make us aware of the artificiality of our cultural values,
and then shows us a world without limit, because it is neither cate-
gorized nor ordered in accordance with artificial opposites. The sick
jester removes these opposites, tears down external and internal bar-
riers, and causes us to tumble head over heels from our tailor-made
world of lines and demarcations into a more comprehensive and
holistic dimension that has no beginning or end.
We have seen that often not only the shaman himself but his
whole family by misfortune, as for instance in the case of

are visited
the kikuyu or the Korean shamanesses. In Siberia, too, the relatives
of a shaman are "sacrificed" as soon as signs of shamanic sickness
appear in a member of the clan. The effects of the call to shamanism
are wide-ranging, and sacrifices have to be made for that call.
The Koreans talk about a "bridge of people' (indari) that comes
'
into being when a member of the family is chosen to be a shaman and

another member has to die as a result of this. They refer to this
process as "spanning a bridge over a human being'' (indari non-
nunda). A God has "entered into" the shaman and, in return, de-
mands another human life. However, if the clan is willing to submit
the member destined to shaman to the requisite ceremony
become a
of initiation as soon as the first symptoms of obsession or sickness
manifest themselves, indari is not inevitable. But most families are
unwilling to have a shaman in their circle, so the indari phenomenon
occurs quite frequently. According to the investigations made by Cho
Hung-Youn, indari occurs on average seven or eight times in every
twenty cases of shamanic vocation. 23
Frequently we find a combination of sickness and out-of-body
experiences. The suffering drains the organism of its will to live,
whereupon consciousness feels itself freed of the body and sheds it
like a lifeless container. The dying are led to far and distant places.
"There is not a single place the exact location of which I do not
know," says the Zulu shaman James. Again and again we are told,
"At night in my sleep I go everywhere." The Peruvian healer
Eduardo flies "into the air through a hole," and Dorcas, the Zulu
sangoma, leaves her body at night to fly through space.
If the near-death experience deepens, the person concerned es-
tablishes contact with supersensible entities. The journeyer enters a

world which presents itself to him symbolically in many different
ways: as "a house of life," a "wise old man with a white beard," or a
spirit animal that transmits a new understanding of life to him. Some-
times the spirits furnish humans with a body in their own image, as is
reported by the natives of the Mentawai Islands, or the bringer of
life — as in the case of Lebi'd —vomits a crystal into the adept which
fills him with supernatural strength.
His journeys to the Beyond often take the shaman to what he
calls "the edge of the world," which we can take to mean the limits
of human existence. Equipped with qualities normally found only in
spirits or spirit animals, and made sacred by his contact with wise
men and bringers of life, the shaman now truly has "eyes that see and
When Insanity h <i Blessing: The Message oj Shamanism 97
ears that hear." He now has "a split soul and a split heart" or feels
like "a house of dreams." The sacredness of the world has given him
power mu\ therein has ehosen him, sometimes against his own will,
to act in accordance with his expanded knowledge ot being and to
introduce this knowledge to our human world. He has been caught
b\ the spirits and must serve the spiritual world.
Lcc Sannrila
KUNDALINI: CLASSICAL
AND CLINICAL
(The Kundalini) creates the universe out of Her own

being, and it is She Herself who becomes this universe.
She becomes all the elements of the universe and enters
into all the different forms that we see around us. She
becomes the sun, the moon, the stars and fire to illuminate
the cosmos which She creates. She becomes the prana, the
vital force, to keep all creatures, including humans and
birds, alive; it is She who, to quench our thirst, becomes
water. To satisfy our hunger, She becomes food. Whatever
we see or don 't see, whatever exists, right from the earth
to the sky is
. . nothing but Kundalini. It is that supreme
.
energy which moves and animates all creatures, from the

elephant to the tiniest ant. She enters each and every
creature and thing that She creates, yet never loses Her
identity or Her immaculate purity.
SWAMI MUKTANANDA, Kundalini: The Secret of Life
99
Pandit Gopi Krishna from Kashmir made the information about

Kundalini available to large Western audiences in a general and
popular form. The credit for bringing the process of Kundalini
awakening to the attention of medical circles and demonstrating its
practical clinical significance belongs to the California researcher Lee
Sannella, M.D. He amassed ample evidence that many American
patients manifest a syndrome that matches the descriptions of Kun-
dalini awakening and signifies a distinct physiological process.
Coming from a nonscientist and representing essentially an East-
y
ern point of view, Gopi Krishna s books made an impression only on
the most open-minded researchers, who put his ideas to a solid scien-
tific test. Sannella's work has played a very important role in demon-
strating to both lay and professional audiences in the West that the
Kundalini phenomenon has indeed penetrated our culture and de-
serves serious attention.
Sannella is a psychiatrist and ophthalmologist with special exper-
tise in the area of holistic medicine. He also has extensive theoretical
and practical knowledge of various spiritual systems. He graduated
from Yale University, where in his early years as a student he was
involved in of which were published in
scientific research, the results
the Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine. He had residencies in both

psychiatry and ophthalmology and conducted scientific studies in these
areas.For two years he was associate examiner for the American
Board of Ophthalmology certifying examinations. During his active
medical practice, Sannella held many teaching positions, and since his
retirement continues to be involved in clinical work. Currently, he
follows spiritual practice based on the teachings of master Da Free
John.
Over the years, Sannella conducted clinical research in healing,
various aspects of nonordinary states of consciousness, and energies of
the body. His pioneering book, The Kundalini Experience: Psychosis
or Transcendence, suggests that a wide variety of emotional and phys-
Kundahni: Classical and Clinical 101
ical disturbances seen by traditional science us medical problems and

diagnosed as mental or even somatic diseases are actually manifesta-
tions of a psychological and spiritual transformation that has all the
acteristics of Kundalim awakening,
Sannclla has also demonstrated that similar phenomena have
n known many
other cultures, ranging from the high cultures of
in
the Orient to nativeAmerican tribes and the IKung bushmen of the

Kalahari Desert. The Kundalim Clinic, which he founded, is designed
to offer counseling and guidance to clients involved in this process.
Since Kundalim awakening is becoming one of the most frequently
wintered forms of spiritual emergency, Sannella's work is an im-
portant contribution to our understanding of transformational crises.
Everv spiritual tradition that is concerned with the rebirth process

has its own model. Most of these are descriptions that stress the
subjective side of the experience, either treating the objective signs as
incidental or ignoring them. Thus, these accounts, however valid they
may be on their own terms, are not helpful in making objective
comparisons of different traditions. When it comes to physiological
interpretations, most of these models have little relevance.
An exception is the Kundalini model from yoga. Kundalini is
seen as an "energy" that usually resides "asleep" at the base of the
spine. When this energy is "awakened" it rises slowly up the spinal
canal to the top of the head. This may mark the beginning of a
process of enlightenment.
In its rise, Kundalini causes the central nervous system to throw
off stress. The stress points will usually cause pain during medita-
tion. When Kundalini encounters these stress points or blocks, it
begins to act "on its own volition," engaging in a self-directed, self-
limited process of spreading out through the entire physiopsychologi-
calsystem to remove these blocks.
Once a block is removed, Kundalini flows freely through that
point and continues its upward journey until the next stress area is
encountered. Further, the Kundalini energy diffuses in this journey,
so that it may be operating on several levels at once, removing several
different blocks. When the course is completed, the energy all be-
comes focused again at the top of the head.
The difference between this final state and the initial state is not
simply that Kundalini is focused in a different place, but that in the
meantime it has passed through every part of the organism, removing

blocks and awakening consciousness there. Thus, the entire process
of Kundalini action can be seen as one of purification or balancing.
Just as an electric current produces light when it passes through
a thin tungsten filament, but not when it passes through a thick
copper wire, because the filament offers appreciable resistance while
the wire does not, so also does the Kundalini cause the most sensa-
tion when it enters an area of mind or body that is "blocked/' But
the "heat" generated by the "friction" of Kundalini against this "re-
sistance" soon "burns out" the block, and then the sensation ceases.
Similarly, just as an intense flow of water through a thick rubber
hose will cause the hose to whip about violently, while the same flow
through a firehose would scarcely be noticed, so also does the flow of
Kundalini through obstructed "channels" within the body or mind
cause motions of those areas until the obstructions have been
"washed out" and the channels "widened." (The terms "channel,"
"widen," "blocks," and so on must be taken metaphorically. They
may not refer to actual physical structures, dimensions, and pro-
cesses, but be only useful analogies for understanding this model of
Kundalini action. The actual process is undoubtedly much more sub-
tle and complex.)
The spontaneous movements, shifting body sensations, and

other phenomena reported in our cross-cultural survey, and in our
own cases, can easily be interpreted as manifestations of Kundalini
action. Furthermore, Itzhak Bentov has recently proposed a phys-
iological model for Kundalini that accounts for much of what we
have reported and observed. His study is evaluated in terms of our
results later. Because of the objective orientation of his Kundalini
model, its universal applicability, and its susceptibility to physiologi-
cal interpretation, we shall adopt it as the basis for our discussions.
However, there are differences between our own observations
and the classical Kundalini concept. Most notably, we observe, and
several traditions report, that the energy or sensation rises up the feet
and legs, the body, back and spine to the head, but then passes down
over the face, and through the throat, finally terminating in the abdo-
men. This is entirely in accord with predictions from Bentov's model,
but somewhat at variance with the reports of Muktananda, Gopi
Krishna, and classic yoga scriptures.
Therefore we propose
the term physio-Kundalini to refer to
those aspects of Kundalini awakening, both physiological and psy-
chological, which can be accounted for by a purely physiological
kitmialmi: Classical and Clinical 103
mechanism. We shall refer to the physio-Kundalini process, the

physio-Kundalini cycle, the physio-Kundalini mechanism, and the
physio-Kundalini complex. Bentov's model describes such phys-
iological changes that require no supernormal forces.
The slow progression of "energy-sensation" up through the
body, then down the throat, accompanied by a variety of movements,
sensations, and mental disturbances that terminate when this travel-
ing stimulus reaches its culmination in the abdomen is so characteris-

tic that we shall call it the physio-Kundalini cycle.
When the energy encounters a resistance, then overcomes it and
purifies thesystem of that block, we shall say that the location of that
block has been ''opened." The "throat-opening" is one typical exam-
ple. This gives us a terminology linked to the Kundalini concept,
suited to the level of our observations, and amenable to physiological

interpretation. At the same time, it preserves the full integrity of the
classical meaning of Kundalini without committing us to a belief that
this mythical concept is accurate to anything objectively real.
We now have two models of Kundalini: the classical yogic de-

scription and Bentov's physiological model, plus our own clinical
observations. Those aspects of the process which could have a purely
physiological basis, either that which Bentov proposes or some other,
we have designated physio-Kundalini. The majority of our clinical
observations fall within the physio-Kundalini category, and we have
just examined to what extent they might be accounted for by Ben-
tov's model. But the physio-Kundalini process, as we have observed
it, differs from the classical yogic description in certain important
respects.
Most notable of these is the pathway taken by the Kundalini
"energy" or body sensation as it travels through the system. Classi-
cally, the energy "awakens" at the base of the spine, travels straight
up the spinal canal, and has completed its journey when it reaches the
top of the head. Along this route, however, there are said to be
several "chakras" or psychic energy centers which the Kundalini
must pass through to reach its goal. These chakras contain "im-
purities" that Kundalini must remove before it can continue its up-
ward course.
On the other hand, in the usual clinical picture, the energy
sensation travels up the legs and back to the top of the head, then
down the face, through the throat, to a terminal point in the abdo-
men. What is the relationship between these two descriptions?
—
We must be aware that yogic descriptions, in addition to being

dogmatic, are often very subtle. Western scientists say that the actual
location of sensory perception is in the sensory cortex, even though
the sensation is felt to be in the periphery. Similarly, the yogis might
mean that the sensations, blocks, and openings (such as the throat
opening) which are felt to be in various body parts are in some subtle
way represented in the spinal chakras.
Still another possibility is suggested by the experience of one of
Muktananda's students (in a personal communication), who says he

feels energy spreading throughout his body, but especially descending
from his forehead over his face to his throat, then to his chest and
abdomen, then to the base of his spine, and only then into and up the
center of the spine itself. He says the sensation in the spine is more
subtle and difficult to perceive than that of the peripheral areas
perhaps because most of the energy has not yet entered his spine.
The time factor is also different in the classical and clinical pic-
tures. All the characteristic elements of the physio-Kundalini com-
plex are included in the classic description. And yet we find quite
"ordinary" people who complete the physio-Kundalini cycle in a
matter of months, whereas yogic scriptures assign a minimum of
three years for culmination of full Kundalini awakening in the case of
the most advanced initiates. Here we have the suggestion that full
Kundalini awakening includes a larger complex of which the physio-
Kundalini process is only a part.
It is too early to say exactly what the relationships are, except
that perhaps the physio-Kundalini mechanism is a separate entity
which may be activated as part of a full Kundalini awakening. Much
of the problem stems from the difficulty of comparing different
stages when many processes are happening concurrently. Individual
differences complicate the picture. But it would be possible to clarify
things by remembering the theoretical definition of Kundalini action
as a purificatory or balancing process.
If the "impurities" or imbalances have any objective reality, it
should be possible to demonstrate them with physiological and psy-

chological tests, and to correlate their removal with specific signs and
symptoms observed clinically. Since we now know that the process
may be triggered and how it may be recognized in its initial stages,
long-term case studies, covering the entire course of the process, are a
logical next step in these investigations. They would be invaluable in
documenting specific objective ways in which the Kundalini process is
beneficial.
Kundalini: ( Classical and ( clinical 105
DIAGNOSTIC CONSIDERATIONS
Our results indicate a clear distinction between the physio-Kundalirfl
complex and psychosis, >\nd provide a number ot criteria for dis-
tinguishing between these two states. We have seen, in some of our
cases, that a schizophrenic-like condition can result when the person

undergoing the Kundalini experience receives negative feedback, ei-
ther from social pressure or from the resistances of his own earlier
conditioning.
Evidence that these states are distinct and separate comes from
two of our cases who became "psychotic" after being confined to a
mental institution for inappropriate behavior. Each of them reported
that during their stay in their respective mental institutions they were
quite sure that they (and several of the other patients) could tell
which of their number were "crazy" and which just "far out and
turned on."
Possibly this is a situation where "it takes one to know one,"
and a person whose own Kundalini has been awakened can intu-
itively sense the "Kundalini state" of another. This is of special inter-
est, as it may point to a use of such people in assisting to decide

which way the balance lies between the two processes in any particu-
lar patient.
Clinicians usually have a finely tuned sense of what is psychotic.

Mainly, it is this sense for the smell of psychosis that tells us if the
patient is unbalanced in this way, or is, instead, inundated with more
is a feeling for whether the person
positive psychic forces. Also, there
isdangerous to himself and others. Persons in the early phases of
Kundalini awakening, if hostile or angry, are, in our experience,
rarely inclined to act out.
Also, those in whom the Kundalini elements predominate are
usually much more objective about themselves, and have an interest
in sharing what is going on in them. Those on the psychotic side tend
to be very oblique, secretive, and totally preoccupied with rumina-
tions about some vague but "significant" subjective aspect of their
experience which they can never quite communicate to others.
With our own results and Bentov's model, we have several more
distinguishing features. Sensations of heat are common in these
"high" states, but are rare in psychosis. Also very typical are feelings
of "vibrations" or flutterings, tinglings, and itchings that move in
definite patterns over the body, usually in the sequence described
earlier. But these patterns may be irregular in atypical cases or in
those who have preconceived ideas of how the energies "should"

circulate.
With all this, bright lights may be seen internally. There may be
pains, especially in the head, which suddenly arise or cease during
critical phases in the process. Unusual breathing patterns are com-
mon, as well as other spontaneous movements of the body. Noises

such as chirping and whistling sounds are heard, but seldom do
voices intrude in a negative way as in psychosis. When voices are
heard, they are perceived to come from within and are not mistaken
for outer realities.
RECOMMENDATIONS AND DISCUSSION

Our results support the view that this force is positive and creative.
Each one of our own cases is now successful on his or her own terms.
They all report that they handle stress more easily, and are more
fulfilled than ever before in relationships with others. The classical
cases indicate that special powers, as well as deep inner peace, may
result from the culmination of the full Kundalini process. But in the
initial stages, stress of the experience itself, coupled with a negative
attitude from oneself or others, may be overwhelming and cause
severe imbalance.
Experience suggests an approach of understanding, strength, and
gentle support. The spontaneous trances which disturbed one indi-
vidual ceased when we encouraged him to enter a trance state volun-
tarily. By recognizing a distinction between "psychotic" and
"psychically active," we had communicated to him an attitude that
the trances were valid and meaningful. Because of our own accep-
tance of the condition, the patient was able to accept it.
The trances themselves ceased to "control" him as soon as he

gave up his own resistance to them and the forces behind them.
Similarly, another case had severe headaches, but these stopped as
soon as she ceased trying to control the process and simply "went
with it." The pain, in other words, resulted not from the process
itself but from her resistance to it. We suspect that is true of all the
negative effects of the physio-Kundalini process.
Symptoms, when caused by this process, will disappear spon-
taneously in time. Because it is essentially a "purificatory" or balanc-
ing process, and each person has only a finite amount of "impurities"
of the sort removed by Kundalini, the process is self-limiting. Distur-
Kundalini: Classical and Clinical 107
bances scon are therefore not pathological, but rather therapeutic,

constituting a removal of potentially pathological elements. The Kun-
dalini force arises spontaneously from deep within the mind, and is
apparently self-directing. Tension and imbalance thus result, not
from the process itself, but from conscious or subconscious inter-
terence with it. Helping the person to understand and accept what is
happening to him may be the best that we can do.
Usually the process, left to itself, will find its own natural pace
and balance. But if it has already become too rapid and violent, our
experience suggests it may be advisable to take steps such as heavier
diet, suspension of meditations, and vigorous physical activity to
moderate its course.
in whom the physio-Kundalini process is most easily
The people
activated, and in whom it is most likely to be violent and disturbing,
are those with especially sensitive nervous systems the natural psy- —
chics. Many of our cases had some psychic experience prior to their
arousal. Natural psychics often find the physio-Kundalini experience
so intense that they will not engage in the regular classical meditation
methods that usually further the Kundalini process; instead, they
either refrain from meditation or adopt some form of their own
devising. But much of their anxiety may be due to misunderstanding
and ignorance of the physio-Kundalini process. Rather than increas-
ing their fear, we should be giving them the knowledge and confi-
dence to allow the process to progress at the maximum comfortable
natural rate.
Much could be accomplished by changing attitudes, first around
people experiencing the Kundalini, but ultimately in society as a
whole. This is not just for the person's benefit, but for all of us who
need models in our own spiritual search. Some other cultures are
more advanced than our own in terms of their recognition of the
positive value of spiritually or psychically developed people.
The trance state in Bali serves an important adaptive function for
the children. In parts of Africa, trance is a social and religious neces-
sity, required for Kundalini arousal.
In South Africa a state which Western psychiatry would proba-
bly call acute schizophrenia is a prerequisite for initiation into the
priesthood by one Kalahari tribe.
Here, we must speak many creative people who are now
of the
suffering because of mistakes that we in the [psychiatric] profession
have made in the past. We have a special obligation to make every
effort to correct those mistakes. At this time in our society it could
be that such charismatic and strangely acting people as shamans,

trance mediums, and masts (the God-intoxicated) might find them-
selves in custodial care.
Possibly there are many now so situated who could be found and
released to more positive usesamong us. The problem is to recognize
them among the other inmates of our institutions. Here Meher
Baba's work with masts would be a useful precedent to study. If it is
true that, to a certain extent, "it takes one to know one," a special
and invaluable use for people who have already experienced the
physio-Kundalini process would be to assist us in such a project.
There are many undergoing this process who at times feel quite
insane. When they behave well and keep silent they may avoid being
called schizophrenic, or being hospitalized or sedated. Nevertheless,
and sense of separation from others may cause them
their isolation
much suffering. We must reach such people, their families, and so-
ciety with information to help them recognize their condition as a
blessing, not a curse.
Certainly we must no longer subject people, who might be in the
midst of this rebirth process, to drugs or shock therapies, approaches
which are at opposite poles to creative self-development.
These people, though confused, fearful, and disoriented, are
already undergoing a therapy from within, far superior to any that
we yet know how to administer from without.
Anne Armstrong
THE CHALLENGES OF
PSYCHIC OPENING:
A PERSONAL STORY
Our normal waking consciousness, rational consciousness

aswe call it, is but one special type of consciousness,
whilst all about it,parted from it by the filmiest of
forms of consciousness entirely
screens, there lie potential
different. We may go through life without suspecting
their existence; but apply the requisite stimulus, and at a
touch they are there in all their completeness.
WILLIAM JAMES, Varieties of Religious Experience
109
When of
cumstances and
the crises spiritual opening occur under favorable
are allowed to reach a natural completion,
cir-
they can lead to very different The outcome depends on the

results.
individual's history, personality, disposition,and life situation. Some-

times, the process initiated by spiritual emergency simply enhances the
quality of existence by healing various emotional, psychological, and
physical problems, or by leading to a better self-image and self-
acceptance. Because of these changes, the capacity to enjoy daily life
increases considerably.
However, in many instances the successful resolution of the crisis
is associated with the emergence of some new capacity or talent. Some

people who have overcome and integrated a spiritual crisis suddenly
develop amazing artistic skills that are expressed through painting,
sculpting, writing, dancing, or original craftswork. Under similar cir-
cumstances, others can discover surprising abilities to work with people
as counselors or as healers.
Among the changes that occur is a distinct enhancement of intui-
tion. Various psychic phenomena are very common concomitants of the
acute phases of the process, and a moderate increase in intuitive func-

tioning belongs to its lasting aftereffects. However, in rare instances a
transformational crisis can result in the development of a genuine
psychic gift. In this case, the intuitive abilities are so consistent and
reliable that they can be used for psychic counseling.
We have chosen for our anthology the story of Anne Armstrong, a
well-known American psychic whose talent emerged gradually during
several years of a challenging emotional, physical, and spiritual crisis.
She and her husband, Jim, are close friends of ours, and we have had
repeated opportunities to witness her extraordinary qualities the un- —
usual reliability and accuracy of her psychic insights, her humility and
modesty, her solid connection with everyday reality, and her high
ethical standards.
Anne Armstrong works as a transpersonal counselor and has of-
fered invaluable psychic guidance to thousands of clients from all over
///
Personal s: lica-
tior. fits, Anne Armsti

illu>: to distm dramatic tran
tntud from mental du thai
i :th snppi medication. Her story is a beauti-
ful example of : help that a sensitive and knowledgeable

m 4 situation where discriminating professional
; a liable.
It is perhaps mv own experience that has made me so aware oi the

manv people who are engaged in the process oi spiritual emergence;
or perhaps it is because this is the experience oi a larger percentage of
the population than thirty or forty years ago. When I started having
what I now know to be the initial symptoms oi consciousness expan-
sion, there seemed to be no one in the helping professions to turn to
for advice. We are all in the process of spiritual unfoldment that is —
our reason for being. The process caught my attention when I was
about thirteen vears old with what was considered to be a nervous
breakdown. I would like to share some of this experience because it
illustrates one way the spiritual opening can occur.
Jim and I began going together when I was in high school, so I

was still living at home. We frequentlv discussed esoteric subjects,
meditation, parapsychology, and spiritual development, but because
my family was Catholic there was not much I could do about it until
r married and I had the freedom to pursue a spiritual practice oi
my choosing. However, soon after we were married I enrolled in the

spiritual development by the Rosicrucian Fellowship
classes offered
of Oceanside, California. I began to immerse myself in esoteric stud-
ies and to meditate twice a dav. Within a few months I began to have
some rather strange experiences, but since I had had some unusual
ones when I was younger I did not think too much about it.
The "nervous breakdown" I had at thirteen was accompanied Di-
vision problems and feelings of disorientation. But now I had a
slightly different set of symptoms. I felt dizzy and disoriented when
I walked around, but when I lay down I felt as though I were
separating into two parts. I know now I was having out-of-the-bodv
—
experiences. There were not any gurus or spiritual teachers in the

small Utah village where we lived, no one who could explain or help
me to understand my behavior.
Every time I became still or concentrated on anything, the sepa-
ration would begin. as though every cell in my body was
It felt
speeding up. Suddenly, would become quiet and I would find one
all
part of me looking at some other part. It would happen at a lecture or

a movie just as easily as it would sitting at home meditating. Once I
got out of my body there was absolute stillness a beautiful feeling, —
but I could not enjoy it because I was so frightened. I did not know if
I was insane or having delusions. If I was out of my body, could I get
back in? I did all the logical things; I went to medical doctors, took
pills and shots. They told me I was neurotic, which I already knew,
but they did not tell me I was having a spiritual emergency, or a

spiritual emergence.
At some point I realized that before I started to study, think
about, and meditate on the strange and extraordinary ideas that Jim
had brought into my life, I had at least been functional. I had been
plagued by migraine headaches since I was seven years old; I had
asthma, hay fever, and then a nervous breakdown, but at least I could
continue to function. So, reasoning that it was the meditation that
was causing my current problems, I stopped the esoteric studies and
the meditation and took up gardening and did a lot of cooking
anything to get grounded and centered. But many of the symptoms
continued. I still felt as if my feet were several inches off the ground;
I was nauseous most of the time, and the migraine headaches that I
had had for fifteen or sixteen years became more frequent and more
intense, until I lived every moment with a headache. The only medi-
cation I could take was aspirin, and that did not help much. The
headaches became so intense that I thought I was going out of my
mind. I was checked for a brain tumor and everything else that could
cause such pain, but the doctors could find no cause.
During the next fifteen years my health got steadily worse. A
rough inventory showed that I had asthma, hay fever, a goiter, condi-
tions leading toward and almost continuous migraine
a hysterectomy,
headaches. As far as I knew
had exhausted all resources for getting
I
well. The Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, wanted to perform a

couple of operations, but offered no explanations for the headaches. I
was about ready to give up.
During the fifteen years since those first out-of-the-body epi-
sodes, we moved many times; finally, we lived in Sacramento, Cali-
The ( challenges oj Psychic Opening: A Personal Story 113
fornia. A new family came and the wife and soon

to live next door, I
found we Had a common ailment in One day she

migraine headaches.
came in all elated — she had no more headaches! Working with a local
doctor who used hypnotism, he had regressed her to a time when she
had had a traumatic confrontation with her mother, and in a few
more sessions her headaches were gone. Naturally, she wanted me to
see her doctor and get rid of mine.
This all soundedon the surface, but I had read in some of
fine
the esoteric literature that you should not turn your control over to
anvone, especially not to a hypnotist. To help allay my misgivings,
she loaned me a short do-it-yourself book on hypnotism. One rainy
Sunday afternoon I asked Jim if he would hypnotize me. He thought
the headaches had finally driven me out of my mind. After he took
me seriously, I explained what had happened to our neighbor, but
that I did not want just anyone to hypnotize me. I trusted him and
wanted him to do it. I then went on to say that I even had a book
that he could read to tell him how to do it.
After reading a couple of pages in the middle of the book on
"techniques," Jim proceeded to give me my first hypnosis session. It
ended when I became hysterical because he asked me about some
events in my childhood, but he managed somehow to return me to
sanity. We tried it again after he read a couple more pages, but we
could not get past the hysterical crying. So we concluded that hyp-
nosis did not work either. Little did we know that this was a begin-
ning, not the conclusion to the process. The following week, through
a chain of interesting circumstances, we joined a local hypnosis club.
In the succeeding weeks we spent all our spare time learning and
practicing hypnotic skills. Then one night while I was in an altered
state, Jim assured me that some part of my being knew the cause of
the headaches and that all we needed was the key. Then, with a small
degree of skill and a lot of luck, he regressed me into what appeared
to be a past life, which for therapeutic reasons we both treated as if it
were real.
It was as ifI had awakened in the body of a 230-pound male,
2,000 years ago, on a torture rack in a Roman dungeon. But at the

same time I was aware of "Anne." So I was able to experience myself
as this huge male and still analyze the situation as twentieth-century
"Anne." The man being tortured was an athlete who lived at the time
of Caesar, and who had gotten involved in some political intrigue and
was about to be killed because he would not divulge certain secrets.
In addition to the practice therapy Jim and I were doing at
home, I was also seeing a hypnotherapist —

the hypnosis club
instructor —for a couple of private sessions each week. In the suc-
ceeding weeks, both Jim and Irene (the hypnotherapist) took me
backward and forward to death many times,
to birth in that life
trying to take the charge off the traumatic events, and to get me to
identify the Roman soldier that was directing the torture.
It seemed that the most significant breakthroughs came when
Jim and I were working together. For weeks I had very cleverly
avoided identifying my torturer. I would describe the fancy Roman
uniform from the sandals right up to the chin strap on the helmet and
then jump over the face and describe the helmet with its brillant
plume, but never look at the face of the Roman officer. Finally, after
weeks of therapy, I identified the Roman officer, my torturer and
killer, as Jim.
I do not know whether or not this was my "past life, " but it was
a great therapeutic tool that allowed me to say 'Tm being tortured."
I had always allowed everyone to run my life and would never speak
up but would resent it. I felt that I had no power, that I was always a
victim. Jim did not know it because I had never even hinted at my
discomfort. But this gave me a vehicle to speak up, to be courageous,
to be straightforward and honest for the first time in my life.
Both Jim and Irene continued with the therapy, digging deeper
into this apparent past life, looking for answers. Almost immediately
after identifying my torturer, and talking about it, the headaches
began to become less frequent, until in about six months or less, I
was totally free of migraine headaches. A few weeks after the identi-
fication of Jim as my torturer, he said to me one night when I was in
an altered state, "Haven't you ever had a lifetime when you were
happy?" Almost immediately I felt as if I was in the body of a petite
Siamese temple dancer, performing in front of a huge golden statue of
Buddha. Jim instructed me to stay in my altered state, and get up and
perform the rituals that I said I had been taught since I was a small
child. I chanted in a voice range that I could not even approach in my
normal state; and I performed beautiful temple dances and elaborate
hand rituals for the next 45 minutes, to the utter amazement of some
part of me who was witnessing the whole scene. This life was also
treated as real and was followed from birth to death, while we sought
to reap as much wisdom as possible from the experience.
Then one day, after having tea with one of the ladies from the
hypnosis class, I became the hypnotic subject and found myself in the
paralyzed body of an unscrupulous Egyptian woman. She was tall,
The ( challenges oj Psychic Opening: A Personal Story lis
dark, and seemed to possess psychic abilities that she used to gain
and maintain power. was reluctant to reexperienee this lite for fear
1
oi becoming contaminated by her wicked ways. But this was the life
that inv therapist, Irene, chose to use for most of my therapy, proba-
bly because ol the issues of good, and evil, and guilt, and the psychie
abilities exhibited by this Egyptian woman.
The idea that might be aetivating certain psychic abilities was

1
never mentioned by Irene, but she very subtly started giving me

books to read on the life of Edgar Cayce, the best documented psy-
chic in the world. So the whole thrust of the therapy around this
"lifetime" was to convince me that if I had actually been this wicked
woman with these strange psychic abilities, I was now a moral, ethi-
cal person who would use psychic abilities for constructive purposes.
If one were to look at the psychological significance of these
three "lifetimes," one might say that the life of the Roman athlete
gave me an opportunity to reclaim my masculine traits of power,
courage, loyalty, and strength. The petite Siamese temple dancer let
me reclaim my femininity, spirituality, grace, artistic skills, and tal-

ents. And the wicked Egyptian woman impressed upon my con-
sciousness what are the improper ways to use psychic abilities. But at
the same time she let me sense the power of these abilities if used for
the good of consciousness evolution.
The hypnotic induction was probably a way of returning me to
the meditative state I had abandoned fifteen years earlier. Through
hypnosis I had been tricked into entering a similar state, but by
mechanical means. Within a couple of months I found I no longer
needed to be hypnotized to do my therapy. I would just lie or sit
down, close my eyes, take a couple of deep breaths, and I was ready
to go to work. I continued to do intensive therapy with both Jim and
Irene for about a year. At the end of that time we all realized that my
health was significantly improved. The migraine headaches were
gone, the goiter became dormant, I no longer needed a hysterectomy,
and spring came and went with virtually no hay fever or asthma. So
we knew we were on the right track.
Irene, my hypnotherapist, was aware that for many months I
had more or less run my own therapy, asking the questions and
getting my own answers. She was also aware that I was starting to
exhibit considerable psychic talent. So one day she said, "You have
been very effective in getting information helping you to heal your-
self; do you think you could get information to heal someone else?" I
found the very thought of it frightening. But just as an experiment,

she handed me a case folder and asked that I simply hold it not read —
— and
it see if anything occurred to me. She gave me the client's name
but nothing else. I took the folder, and in a few
closed my eyes,
seconds I had the feeling that there were several compartments in my
head. At her suggestion I "went into" each of these compartments
and described and acted out what I felt.
While in one compartment I felt and acted like a socialite, with-
out children, and with lots of money, fancy clothes, an expensive car
and home. In another compartment I became a dowdy housewife,
with several children, a no-go husband, a dumpy home, and hand-
me-down clothes. When
I moved into the next compartment I felt
like a real flirt. My

whole attention seemed to be on looking for
someone to seduce. The fourth compartment seemed to contain the
personality of a frustrated, down-at-the-heels artist, no husband, no
job, just problems.
After about 45 minutes of describing and acting out these several
personalities, Irene stopped me and
explained that this was the be-
havior of the client. In her daily and during therapy she exhibited
life
these and other personalities. Her frustrated husband never knew

which personality she would be when he came home from work. She
had tried repeatedly to seduce previous male therapists, and while
working with Irene she had gone in and out of these personalities and
a couple of others. Before Irene let me look at the case folder, she
asked me whether I could gain any insight into why the client needed
to exhibit these several personalities. She took the information I gave
her and used it successfully in future therapeutic sessions.
Even though my own therapy was far from complete, Irene
asked me to start working behind the scenes in her office on difficult
cases. She would then use the information in her therapy with her
clients.I did this for almost a year before I gained enough courage to
meet clients face-to-face. Even then I always worked with my eyes

closed so I would not be influenced by a client's reactions to the
information I was sensing. This was the way I got started doing the
transpersonal counseling that I have now done for nearly twenty-five
years.
Another phase of my therapy, or training, started about a year
or so after the first hypnosis session. By that time it was apparent
that myawareness had moved beyond our ordinary so-called real
world. It had become very obvious that I had access to information
not normally available to our familiar brain/mind system. I could
sense presences beyond my normal range of sight, and I could ask a
—
The Challenges oj Psychic Opening: A Personal Story 117
question And the answer would instantly become apparent. Then one
day during my morning meditation 1 had the feeling ol such a strong
presence .\nd I received a detinue telepathic communication that I was
to set aside two to three hours a d.\\ tor "instruction." The next day
the instruction began. Again I sensed or knew the presence of some
form oi intelligence beyond my own. It would not be accurate to say
that I"saw •" anything, except perhaps the way one sees in a dream
that kind ol seeing. The telepathic communication was more a sense
of "knowing."
The instruction began with breath training all kinds of —
exercises —each day becoming more complicated and more exacting.
Next came yoga asanas. I had never even heard the word, but I
instinctively knew what to do. Whenever possible, Jim did the ex-
D with me. I seemed to know ahead of time what I was

ercises alonii
going to do and I would pass along the instructions. Along with this,
I was given instruction on food, sleep habits, thought and emotional
behavior, meditation techniques. In short, I was instructed in how to

live a more productive life. Since I found nothing in these instructions
that conflicted with good common sense and logic, and since my
health had improved so much in the previous year, I followed the
instructions. It was like having my own private guru. Irene was so
fascinated when she heard about this new development that at times
she would invite me to come to her office during my daily instruction
period. Within a month or so the breathing patterns and yoga asanas
became very complicated. Jim bought and borrowed books on yoga
and pranayama just to see what instructions were being given. In
most cases we could identify the process or positions.
A month or so after the yoga training started, I became very
aware of a presence during the instruction. The awareness was so
vivid what I could "see" every detail of the face and headdress.
About 18 inches above and to the right of my head would appear this
beautiful Hindu face, turban and all. He seemed to be the source of
the training I was receiving. I also found that any time I needed
clarification on almost any subject, I could put out my hands, palms
up, and I would feel an energy surge through my body; then this
beautiful Hindu would appear, and information would start flowing
through my mind.
This went on formany months, and then one day I put out my
hands and nothing happened. I was devastated. By the time Jim got
home that night I was in a state of depression. My direct pipeline to
the "Source" was gone. What had I done wrong? Jim listened to me
for a few minutes and then reminded me that for months I had been
receiving information from this "guru" and passing it along without
taking responsibility for the content. He suggested that I go meditate
on this for a while. I did. I meditated for about an hour, really
looking at all the things that had happened to me in the last couple of
years, all the help I had been given, and what I had done with the
information that had been passed along to me. Suddenly, my Hindu
friend appeared one more time, smiled as if to say, "You got the
—
message so long, kid," then waved good-bye and disappeared. But
I felt that he had moved to some place inside my being. That may be
where he originally came from.

Even though we lived in a very "straight" neighborhood (a psy-
chiatrist on one side and a professor of philosophy on the other),
people began to hear about my remarkable recovery and the interest-
ing things we were doing. Soon a small informal group began to
—
gather the Friday Night Group. There would usually be random
discussion until everyone arrived. We would then meditate for ten to
fifteen minutes, asking that we be given information that would be
useful for our spiritual growth at that time in our lives. When I was
centered, and I felt the impetus, I would begin to deliver a spon-
taneous lecture, seemingly tailored to the needs of the group. Over
the next several years, the subjects covered included esoteric teach-
ings, food, psychology, and commentary on economic, political, and
social situations, but all slanted toward how to live a more useful,
productive life. I do not recall giving any information in those lec-
tures thatwas obviously untrue or misleading. The esoteric material,
although going beyond most texts that I have seen, was in basic
agreement with classic esoteric writings, whether Christian mysti-
cism, the Kabbalah, Tantric Buddhism, the esoteric aspects of Islam
and Hinduism, or the teachings of the Mexican Yaqui Indian Don
Juan.
During the transmission I was totally present, but I did little or
no thinking. However, there seemed to be different levels of aware-
ness and transmission. The lowest level occurred when I was shown
something and then I would use my own vocabulary, organizational
ability, and sentence structure to describe what I saw. The highest
level occurred when, although I was perfectly conscious and totally

aware, the words simply formed in my larynx without conscious
effort. I literally would not know what the next word would be. I can
remember many times saying, in effect, "now I'm going to discuss
these five points ," when I had no conscious idea what the first
. . .
The ( 'ballenges oj Psychic Opening: A Personal Story tl9
one was going to be much less the other tour. Jim would find that if
this material was taken from a tape for printing, it would require
little or IK) editing; it would be almost letter perfect. And of course

there were all gradations between these two extremes.
I (bund that there were all gradations of integrity in this
also
more subtle realm. Once I submitted to a deep trance, and a hell-fire-
and- dam nation preacher took over for about thirty minutes. When I
returned to consciousness and listened to the tape I was shocked by
the religious garbage that I had given voice to. I never let that happen
again. But I have found that the more I cleared up my own psycho-
logical problems, the better the quality of the lecture material be-
came. I also believe it is for this reason that I have not had an
unpleasant experience in this area for fifteen or twenty years.
I feel that humanity can obtain from this more a lot of help
subtle realm if it But it takes
will prepare itself to receive that help.
discrimination. Material received from the psychic realm must be
judged just as critically as (or more so than) that from more mundane
sources. The unscrupulous entities in these etheric realms will take
advantage of the personality weaknesses of the budding sensitive.
Our mental institutions are full of examples. Theless blatant exam-
pies are the corner psychics that will solve all your financial, mar-
riage, sex, professional, and spiritual problems for anywhere between
$5 and $250.
The intensive training that began a year or so after my first
experiment with altered states of consciousness continued for about

six years. In addition to the spontaneous lecture work I did with the
Friday Night Group, Jim and I made ourselves available several times
during the week for additional instruction. All of this training mate-
rialwas taped. Some was edited and printed for use by the Friday
Night Group. Some has been put on cassettes, but most of it has only
served as guidelines for our spiritual practice and our way of life.
So Jim and I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that it is possible
to reach beyond the brain/mind system and obtain information use-
ful for one's own development —
physical, mental, emotional, and
spiritual.
I want to say again that this is an area for discrimination, logical
examination, and skepticism. Budding psychics are not messengers
from God. They are just members of the human race who for one
reason or another have glimpsed a realm beyond the physical reality.
Sincemost people want someone else to solve their problems and tell
them how to live their lives, the budding psychic has a fertile field to
till. So many people and give them

are just waiting to feed their egos
all the power they one begins to open up psychically,
will accept. If
the information received should be used discreetly to improve one's
own life. If one becomes a significantly better person as a result of
psychic/intuitive abilities, one can then consider sharing with
others — if asked to share.
Keith Thompson
THE UFO ENCOUNTER

EXPERIENCE AS A CRISIS
OF TRANSFORMATION
They didn 't touch me, but they held out their hands as if
to assist me. There seems to be a platform there . . .
and Vm stepping on the platform. The light's above

there. And it's bright — bright, and it's got those streaks
of light coming out of it. It seems like it's moving

me upward! . . . The light is getting brighter and
brighter . . . I'm engulfed in light . . . bright white
light.I'm just standing there. It doesn't seem to hurt. It's
not hot. It's just white light, all around me, and on
me . . .
BETTY ANDREASSON DESCRIBING HER 1967

ENCOUNTER WITH UFO OCCUPANTS IN
The Andreasson Affair
121
While the existence of intelligent life outside our planet remains

an and convincing experiences of com-
open question, vivid
munication and encounters with extraterrestrial beings are extremely
common. They belong to the most interesting and intriguing phe-
nomena in the transpersonal domain. It is becoming increasingly clear
that they deserve to be seriously studied, whether or not they reflect
objective reality.
The experiences involving encounters with extraterrestrial intel-
ligence share many important characteristics with mystical experiences
and can lead to similar confusion and psychospiritual crises. The most
interesting and promising avenue of UFO research has moved away
from the heated debate as to whether the earth has actually been
visited by beings from other worlds, to the study of the UFO experi-
ence as a fascinating phenomenon in its own right.
Keith Thompson is an ardent student of the psychological charac-
teristics of these experiences. He has a degree in English literature
from Ohio State University and is a highly sensitive and perceptive
writer exploring new developments in contemporary philosophy, psy-
chology, psychotherapy, science, and spirituality. His articles regularly
appear in the Common Boundary (of which he is a contributing edi-
tor), Esquire, New Age, Utne Reader, the San Francisco Chronicle,
and the Yoga Journal. He also writes a weekly feature column for the
Oakland Tribune, revolving around themes reflecting "the soul of
modern science and the emerging science of the soul."
A resident of Mill Valley, California, Thompson has followed
with great interest the developments in the field of transpersonal psy-
chology, a discipline that originated in the San Francisco Bay area. He
has been intrigued particularly by broadening interface with revo-
its
lutionary advances in science. His close connection with the Esalen

Institute in Big Sur, California, made it possible for him to acquire
knowledge of a variety of psychotherapeutic techniques.
Having completed advanced training in hypnosis and Gestalt
'/'()
The i Encounter Experience as a ( 'risis oj Transformation 123
therapy, Thompson has used these two approaches in studying the

deeper meaning of n'onordinary states of consciousness, an area that
many years has been among his most passionate interests. The
experiences oj UFO encounters and contacts with extraterrestrial
intelligence seem to him particularly challenging and puzzling.
Thompson is currently writing a book, Aliens, Angels, and Arche-
types, exploring the mythic dimension of the UFO phenomenon.
While Thompson's contribution addresses the specific problems of
those who have had UFO-related experiences, the themes he develops
with regard to such episodes as forms of initiation speak to all who
t been touched by spiritual crisis.
Of all the difficult questions asked by people who have been up-
close-and-personal with a UFO, perhaps the most perplexing, and
the most common, is "Why me?" This question runs throughout
Whitley Streiber's best-selling account of his abduction experience,
Communion (1987), and Budd Hopkins' chronicle of the UFO-
abductions phenomenon, Intruders (1987).
It is precisely this sense of having been selected for some un-
known some unknown purpose or mission that I

reason to carry out
want Through many long conversations with individuals
to address.
—
who have chosen quite bravely, I feel to come to terms with their —
experience, I have found that the question usually manifests itself as
"Have I been inducted or initiated? If so, by what or whom? Toward

what end?" Lately I have been looking into anthropological data to
get a better understanding of the stages, structures,and dynamics of
initiation ceremonies, and to see whether it makes sense to speak of
parallels between human-scale initiations and human experiences
with the unknown Other called UFOs.
Here I am concerned with what people report about their experi-
ence, not about what is ultimately, objectively true. The latter is a
different debate, one that would take me in a very different direction.
Adapted from made in July 1987 at the Eighth R.ocky Mountain Conference on
a presentation
UFO Investigations at Laramie, Wyoming. This annual conference is informally known in

UFO circles as "the Contactee Conference." The convener, Dr. Leo Sprinkle, seeks to provide
a "safe place" where individuals who have had what they consider a "UFO experience" and
UFO investigators can come together to explore the experiential dimensions of a baffling
phenomenon.
My approach is phenomenological: I take as primary data that which

is reported by the UFO percipient as his or her experience. I will leave
it draw inferences about the nature of the reality that
to others to
underlies and causes "mere appearances." That debate invariably is
populated by assumptions about what can and cannot be real,
whereas in my approach I put these assumptions in brackets. This
allows for exploration of UFO experiences (or UFOEs) and other
extraordinary phenomena, undebauched by metaphysical biases and
exclusionary beliefs about what data are important.
The intensity of the existential or transpersonal crisis that may
be precipitated by a UFOE does not appear to depend upon whether
a percipient feels he or she has interacted with a traditional unidenti-
fied flying object, or instead feels he or she has had a powerful
"psychic," "imaginal," "archetypal," "near death," "out of body,"
or "shamanic" experience. The experiential authenticity of a UFOE
seems largely to depend upon the extent to which the percipient
experiences interaction with otherworldly beings, presences, or ob-
jects as significantly substantial and fundamentally real, even as
"more real than real." If these conditions are met, neither does the
profundity of a UFO-related transpersonal crisis seem to depend on
whether the percipient hypothesizes the "UFO beings" to be deni-
zens from "outer space," "parallel universes," "the collective uncon-
scious," "heaven," "hell," or other numinous locales. It is the
patterns of these accounts that I take as a starting point in exploring
the initiatory nature of UFOEs.
Professor Arnold Van Gennep has defined rites of passage as
"riteswhich accompany every change of place, state, social position,
and age." Our movement from womb to tomb is punctuated by a
number of critical transitions marked by appropriate rituals meant to
make clear the significance of the individual and the group alike to all
members of the community. Such ritualized passages include birth,
puberty, marriage, and religious confirmation, including induction
into mystery schools of various kinds. To which list I add a new
category of experience: the UFO/human encounter, an interaction
that has many structural and functional likenesses to other initiatory
occasions.
Looking at what I consider the central paradox of human-alien
interaction —namely, the continuing unsolvability of the UFO phe-
nomenon by conventional means and models, coupled with the con-
tinuing manifestation of the phenomenon in increasingly bizarre
—
The I
7 •'(
) Encounter Experience us a Crisis of Transformation 12$
tonus it is difficult to avoid the impression that the very tension o\

this paradox has had an initiatory impact. While the debate between
true believers on both sides ot the UFO question presses on with

predictable banality, our personal and collective belief systems have
been changing in ways that have been at once imperceptible and
momentous.
Without our notice, the human mythological structure has been
undergoing a fundamental shift. Public-opinion surveys and other
measures of the collective pulse reveal that more people than ever
now take tor granted that we are not alone in the universe. The very
unwillingness of the UFO phenomenon either to go away or to come
considerably closer to us in a single step has been conditioning us
initiating us, if you will — to entertain extraordinary possibilities
about who we are at our depths, and what the defining conditions of
the game we call reality might be.
Van Gennep showed that all rites of transition are marked by
three phases: separation, marginality, and aggregation or consumma-
tion. Phase one, separation, involves the detachment of individuals
and groups from an earlier fixed social position or set of cultural
conditions, a detachment or departure from a previous state. For
example, the young male who proceeds into a male initiatory cere-
mony in a traditional culture is forced to leave his self-identification
as "boy"at the door of the initiation lodge.
Phase two, marginality, involves entering a state of living in the

margins, betwixt and between, not quite here and not quite there.
Marginality (also called liminality, from the Latin limen, meaning
"threshold") is characterized by
profound sense of ambiguity about
a
who one really is. The young male is no longer a boy but has not yet
become, through specially designated ritual, a man.
Aggregation, then, is a time of coming back together but in a
new way, moving out of the margins into a new state of being. This is
the consummation or culmination of the process. Now the male has
earned the right to be called, and to consider himself, a man.
Joseph Campbell, easily the world's most creative and insightful
mapper of mythological realms, has written a great deal about the
many forms the separation phase might take. In his classic work on
the universal myth of the hero's journey, The Hero with a Thousand
Faces, Campbell writes: "A hero ventures forth from the world of
common day into a region of supernatural wonder." What a magnifi-
cently succinct description of the first moments of a UFO
encounter —
even though, of course, UFOs are not mentioned once in
Campbell's book. He speaks further of this first phase of the journey
as the Call to Adventure, signifying
that destiny has summoned the hero and transferred his spiritual center
of gravity from within the pale of his society to a zone unknown. This
fateful region of both treasure and danger may be variously repre-
sented: as a distant land, a forest, a kingdom underground, beneath
the waves, or above the sky, a secret island, lofty mountaintop, or
profound dream state; but it is always a place of strangely fluid and
polymorphous beings, unimaginable torments, superhuman deeds, and
impossible delights. The hero can go forth of his own volition to
accomplish the adventure, as did Theseus when he arrived in his fa-
ther's city, Athens, and heard the horrible history of the Minotaur; or
he may be carried or sent abroad by some benign or malignant agent,
as was Odysseus, driven about the Mediterranean by the winds of the
angered god Poseidon. The adventure may begin as a mere blunder, as
did that of the princess in the fairy tale "The Frog Prince"; or still
again, one may be only casually strolling, when some passing phe-
nomenon catches the wandering eye and lures one from the frequented
paths of man. Examples might be multipled, ad infinitum, from every
corner of the world.
I have taken the liberty of quoting this passage at length because

I find myself captivatedby the many parallels between the hero's call
to adventure in mythology and the numerous examples from UFO
lore of individuals summoned "from within the pale of society to a
zone unknown." Many contactees open with curiosity, even excite-
ment, to the encounter with UFO aliens; abductees are carried away
against their will. I have met many people who have been "in touch"
with UFO agents through what they consider some kind of blunder,
or simply in consequence of going about their lives, minding their
own business.
In any case, the hero (or contactee or abductee; for our purposes
the terms are interchangeable) is separated or detached from the col-
lective, the mainstream, in a powerful and life-changing way. This
brings us to the quite frequent response to the Call to Adventure: the
refusal of the call. Because separation from the collective is frequently
terrifying, the hero often simply says, "Hell, no, I won't go," or,
more accurately, "I didn't go."

In terms of the UFO experience, the contactee or abductee con-
cludes (often as a way to preserve his or her sanity) that "it couldn't
have been real ... It didn't happen to me ... It was only a
The I / O Encounter Experience as a Crisis of Transformation 127
dream ... It just keep the memory to myself, maybe it will just go
1
away ..." Refusing the call, writes Campbell, represents the hero's
hope that his or her present system of ideals, virtues, goals, and
advantages might be fixed and made secure through the aet of denial.
But no such luck is to be had: "One is harrassed, both night and day,
bv the divine being that is the image of the living self within the
locked labyrinth of one's own disordered psyche. The ways to the
gates have all been locked: there is no exit."
The world's and philosophic traditions speak in
great religious
different ways about this crucial moment, which we may describe as
"wrestling with one's angel." The being or beings who guard the
threshold admit of no detour; the way beyond is the way through.
The numinous Other in any and all of its guises frequently demands
something that seems to the initiate unacceptable; yet refusal seems
impossible in this new and unfamiliar zone. The terror is often over-
whelming, as Whitley Streiber writes in describing his UFO
abduction:
"Whitley" ceased to exist. What was left was a body in a state of fear
so great that it swept about me like a thick, suffocating curtain, turn-
ing paralysis into a condition that seemed close to death. I do not
think that my ordinary humanity survived the transition.
How graphic this depiction of being forceably separated from

one's deepest sense of oneself by an utterly alien agency, and left
hanging ambiguous margins of being. Streiber's experience is
in the
common to that of many, but not all, UFO abductees.
Might we be justified in suggesting that what is at stake in
human-alien encounters is a certain concept of humanity? It seems
more than likely that our culture-wide ambivalence toward accepting
the UFO phenomenon as real reflects a collective sense that the stakes
of the game are high indeed. Meeting the gaze of the Other requires
us to face Rainer Maria Rilke's painful recognition: "There is no
place at all that is not looking at you: You must change your life."
As a culture —perhaps asa species —
we are fatally drawn to,
beckoned by, this mysterious unknown; and yet Streiber's fear is not
his alone. Acknowledging the long-term existence of what Streiber
calls the "visitor phenomenon" invites us to accept, in his words,
"that we very may be something different from what we believe
well
ourselves to be, on this earth for reasons that may not yet be known
to us, the understanding of which will be an immense challenge."
For those of us who have not been borrowed and maligned by

aliens, the refusal of the call can be far more subtle. Many whose
contact with the Other is telepathic, or characterized by visionary
phenomena with mythological motifs, may find themselves at first
resisting their experience by simply tuning it out. Who among us
looks forward to giving up our familiar, safe sense of who we are? All
of us are haunted by the presence of our Shadow, of that within and
around us which refuses to be easily colonized by the avaricious focal
point called ego. Yet once a certain amount of one's life is lived, it
becomes harder to ignore the Other's constant coaxing for recogni-

tion, for a return to a central and active place in our lives.
The ancients knew the importance of maintaining an intimate

conversation with one's double or daemon, called genius in Latin,
"guardian angel" by Christianity, "reflex man" by Scots, vardogr by
Norwegians, Doppelgdnger by Germans. The idea was that by taking
care to develop one's "genius," this spiritual being would provide
help throughout the mortal human's and into the next. Humans
life
who did not attend to their personal Other became an evil and men-
acing entity called a "larva," given to hovering over terrified sleepers
in their beds at night and driving people to madness.
The hero, then, moves beyond refusing to accept the call be-
cause, finally, it is impossible not to accept it. We choose to work
with the aftermath of UFO experiences, or to walk the spiritual path,
or to accept that which presents itself as a personal calling, when we
realize that accepting the call is less painful than the feared ramifica-
tions of leaving the collective, the herd, or whatever one wants to
describe as one's former way of being. Paracelsus wrote that each of
us has two bodies, one compounded of the elements, the other of the
Accepting the Call to Adventure whether in the form of
stars. —
"owning" one's UFO
encounter or near-death experience or some
other confrontation with nonordinary reality — is tantamount to de-
ciding to inhabit one's Star Body.
Which brings us to the second, and insome ways even more
difficult, initiatory phase: living in the ambiguous not-quite-here-
and-not-quite-there. It is this transition between states of being that I
want to focus on, simply because I believe this is a place of enormous
fertility and spacious potential, even though most of us tend to expe-
rience openness and receptivity as emptiness and loss. In his classic

essay "Betwixt and Between: The Liminal Period in Rites of Pas-
sage," Victor Turner writes that the major function of the transition
The i 7 '( ) Encounter Experience as a ( Vuts <>/ Transformation 12')
between states is to render the subject invisible. For ceremonial pur-

poses, the neophyte — that is, the one undergoing initiation —
is con-
sidered structurally "dead." That is, classifiable neither in the old nor
in a new way. Invisible not seen. —
In his book examining the details ot several UFO abductions,
Intruders, Budd Hopkins includes an extended section of a letter he
received trorn a young Minnesota woman who reported having been
abducted by UFO aliens first as a child and then again as an adult.
Because this woman is so articulate in describing the existential crisis
faced by abductees, I quote at length from her correspondence:
For most of us it began with the memories. Though some of us

recalled parts or all of our experiences, it was more common for us to
have to seek them out where they were —buried in a form of amnesia.
Often we did this through hypnosis, which was, for many of us, a new
experience. And what mixed feelings we had as we faced those memo-
ries! Almost without exception we felt terrified as we relived these
traumatic events, a sense of being overwhelmed by their impact. But
there was also disbelief. This can't be real. I must be dreaming. This
isn't happening. Thus began the vacillation and self-doubt, the alternat-
ing periods of skepticism and belief as we tried to incorporate our
memories into our sense of who we are and what we know. We often
felt crazy; we continued our search for the "real" explanation. We
tried to figure out what was wrong with us that these images were
surfacing. Why is my mind doing this to me?
This woman shows that she understands quite well the feelings
associated with being rendered "invisible" by virtue of reporting an
experience at variance with the possibilities allowed by "consensus
reality":
And then there was the problem of talking about our experiences with
others. Many of our friends were skeptics, of course, and though it
hurt us not to be believed, what could we expect? We were still skep-

tics ourselves at times, or probably had been in the past. The responses
we got from others mirrored our own. The people we talked to be-
lieved us and doubted us, they were confused and looked for other
explanations, as we had. Many were rigid in their denial of even the
slightest possibility of abductions, and whatever words they used, the
underlying message was clear. I know better than you what is real and
what isn't. We felt caught in a vicious circle that seemed to be imposed
on us as abductees by a skeptical society:
Why do you believe you were abducted?

You believe it because you're crazy.
How do we know you're crazy?
Because you believe you were abducted.
. . . We learned the hard way, through trial and error, whom we

could and could not trust. We learned the subtle difference between
secrecy and privacy. But many of us experienced a strong sense of
isolation. We felt the pain of being different, as though we were only
"passing" as normal. Some of us came to the difficult realization that
there was no one with whom we could be our complete selves, and
that felt like a pretty lonely place to be.
To summarize: many UFO contactees and abductees, along with

those who have a direct, immediate, incontrovertible experience of
the Mysterium, the sacred, know what it feels like to be invisible to
those who have not been similarly called —or who are still refusing
the call. This ambiguity pronounced for those who have
is especially
returned from the edge of death. Having been declared clinically dead
and having floated toward a tunnel peopled by beckoning beings of
light, only to return to the living with an inexplicably radiant sense of
being and purpose, many near-death initiates report no longer feeling

human in exactly the same way. The ambiguity is heightened when
family, friends, and various authority figures discount the experience.
When I have talked informally with UFO initiates about these
ideas, they invariably recognize the feelings of the marginal world. It
is as if the neophyte glimpses something so profound that certain
"facts of life*' prior to the experience are no longer exclusively true.
Often he or she is frustrated that others do not see that the rules of
thegame have changed, or that the old rules were always one of
many ways of organizing perception rather than iron-clad "laws of
nature."
On the other side of the frustration of life in the margins lies a
perception available to those willing to enter it: not being able to

classify oneself freedom from having to cling to a single iden-
is also
tity. Living betwixt and between, in the realm of uncertainty and
not-knowing, can make possible new insights, new ways of "con-

structing reality/' In this sense the UFO experience serves as an
agent of cultural deconstruction, prodding us to take apart easy ideas
about the supposedly interminable gulf between mind and matter,
spirit and body, masculine and feminine, nature and culture, and
other familiar dichotomies.
The I
7 '() Encounter Experience as a ( 'risis oj Transformation /.»/
Living in the ambiguities ot marginality can be seen ill terms ol
paradise lost, or else as a refreshing freedom from having to keep a
particular one-dimensional sense ol paradise intact. We can mourn

the loss ot clear boundaries, ot black and white, right and wrong, us
mu\ them, or we can willingly enter the marginal, liminal, twilight
realms ot being, discovering tace-to-face our unmet demons and
angels — facing them, it we choose, as fiercely as they face us.
In short, the game can be seen as one of choosing to enter

paradox and live there, or, as my friend Don Michael puts it, "land-
ing with both feet planted firmly in midair." Much can be said about
this place where fuzzy edges present not just a challenge to restore
lost order but an opportunity to play in the vast polymorphous per-
versitv of the Creative Matrix; the space where Trickster resides, part
Mother Teresa, part Pee-wee Herman; where, as in the Grimm
brothers' fairy tale "Iron John," the wet, hairy Wild Man discovered
at the bottom of the pond is found also to have a special connection
to gold. One characteristically feels a certain emptiness upon realiz-
ing how unremittingly our Judeo-Christian heritage has denied the
connection between sensuous, life-affirming wildness and the experi-
ence of the sacred.
There is also a collective dimension of marginality, as the con-
tinuing borderline awareness of UFOs since the late 1940s makes
clear. Whether we like it or not, our culture, human culture, is also
living in the margins, on the edge, in between. Heidegger has said
that we are living in the time between the death of the old gods and
the birth of the new, and Jung believed UFOs to be a fundamental
symbol of "changes in the constellation of psychic dominants, of the
archetypes, or 'gods' as they used to be called, which bring about, or
accompany, long-lasting transformations of the collective psyche."
But how are we to ground, to real-ize such ideas? By starting
—
where we are here, spanning the "crack in the cosmic egg." By
definition, transitions are fluid, not easily defined in static or struc-
tural terms; and so it is with UFO initiations. Many who have had
such initiations feel that they have ceased to exist. In truth, they have
ceased to exist at the level that they were familiar and comfortable
with. Our culture, too, has gone beyond the pale, beyond the com-
fort and security of Newtonian-Cartesian dualism. "No creature,"
said the philosopher Coomaraswamy, "can attain a higher level of
nature without ceasing to exist."
People who have had a close encounter tell me they have been
forced to come to grips with the idea that the world is not as simple
as it seemed when they were growing up with mom and dad nearby.
They have had to realize that the world is filled with enormous vistas
and abysses. How does a UFO experience accomplish this? I do not
know for certain, but I suspect it has something to do with having
been let in on the secret, the cosmic joke; with having "seen too
much," such that going back to a world of naive Newtonian atomistic
thinking is no longer an honest option.
It is possible that UFOs, the near-death experience, apparitions
of the Virgin Mary, and other modern shamanic visionary encounters
are as much of a prod to our next level of consciousness as rapidly
blooming sexual urges are a prod to a teen-ager's move from child-
hood to adolescence. Both represent a death of a previous naive way
—
of being. The privilege of being young a young person, a young
planet, a young soul —
is believing we can remain innocent forever.
But once the threshold into the marginal, not-here, not-there realm
of being has been crossed, we can avoid dying to prior identities only
by taking the path of false-being, the life of denial.
It seems perfectly appropriate to me that the UFO has con-
founded science, academia, and governmental investigating commis-

sions. This very jamming of our cognitive signals might be taken, if
we choose to do so, as a wonderful opportunity to stop trying to put
Humpty Dumpty together again — to begin instead clearing out the
noise from the circuitry of communication, the distortions that arise
from individualized, limited, ego-oriented consciousness mistaking
itself for the whole. Allowing the cosmic egg to stay broken frees us
to begin backing out of the garbage of profane culture, out of a way
of based on denial of a symbiotic relationship to Gaia, earth,
life
whose continuous stream of communication we pretend not to hear,

owing to the particular altered state of consciousness we call rational
intelligence.
What I believe is that there is not much to be had in waiting
around for an abstract "solution" to the UFO "problem," as if such
a solution might ever be separate or separable from our very effort to
know. We have wandered far from our birthright the felt presence —
of the mysterium tremendum, the mystery of being that makes you
—
shudder and only we can turn that around. Terence McKenna puts
it this way: "Gnosis is privileged knowledge vouchsafed to the coura-
geous." Can we summon the courage to receive true knowledge?

Joseph Campbell speaks of the one who moves from ordinary
reality into contact with supernatural wonders —
and then back to
—
ordinary reality again as the Master of Two Worlds. Free to pass
/•'()
The I Encounter Experience as * ( risis oj Transformation 133
back and forth across the divisions between realms, from time to
timelessness, from surfaces to the causal deep and back again to
surfaces, the Master knows both realities and settles exclusively for
neither. Says Campbell:
The disciple has been blessed with a vision transcending the scope oi
normal human destiny, and amounting to a glimpse of the essential
nature ot the cosmos. Not his personal fate, but the fate of mankind,
ot lite as a whole, the atom and all the solar systems, has been opened
to him; and this in terms befitting his human understanding, that is to
say, in terms of an anthropomorphic vision: the Cosmic Man.
Notice Campbell's insistence that the transformative vision is

revealed "in terms befitting hishuman understanding." Among other
things, this cautions us about the enormous ego-inflation that often
attends a UFO experience, especially when channeling is involved.
Precisely because the UFO vision seems absurd to ordinary, noniniti-
ated consciousness, the experience (and the one who had it) will be
ridiculed by the collective. With feelings of rejection as insult added
to the injury of the reality shattering UFO experience, the UFO
initiate is tempted to relieve the feeling of being rendered less than
ordinary by pretending to be s^per-ordinary, sometimes taking on
the role of a cosmic prophet who has glimpsed the new cosmic
horizon.
All of us who have had extraordinary experiences should watch
out for this tendency. We must bear in mind that being invisible to
the culture at large can be as much a blessing as a curse — that being
unregarded, ignored, and devalued can be an impetus to take another
route: the quiet way. The gentle, steady, behind-the-scenes path. This
is the invisible way of empowerment, the slow path of alchemy. Soul
work takes time. This means we must intentionally make time, es-
pecially in our increasingly hyperactive, extroverted secular culture.
The question we must ask, involved as we are in exploring extraordi-
nary phenomena devalued by mainstream consciousness, is whether
the burden of being disregarded by noninitiates is truly greater than
the burden of trying to convince them that we have had an experience
that, at least by implication, makes us somehow "special."
I prefer the first path, for the sense of freedom it gives from
having to know what reality is all about. For as much as a UFO

experience is a "wrenching" from old moorings, it also provides an
opportunity to thrive outside the accepted realms of classification in
our culture, to ask questions about things we once took for granted,
and to gain perspective on an even larger transition than our personal

one: the shift to a new way of being for humanity.
I can say I have been lucky to have met a few UFO initiates
who, like those who
have entered into the mystery of the sacred
along other paths, have become Masters of the Two Worlds precisely
because they have transcended the illusion that their experience,
whether positive or negative, belongs to them, or even happened to
them, personally. Whitley Streiber, who took his UFO experience
personally indeed, admits at one point in Communion that when he
asked his UFO captives, "Why me?" he got this answer: "Because
the light was on —
we saw the light."
In what would surely be a blow to my ego, Whitley is told that
they stopped by his place not because they intended to anoint him
avatar of the New Age, not even to urge him to write a best-selling
confessional account of his experiences. They stopped by, rather,
because he left the light burning in the living room! Here again, a
wonderful opportunity to make the most of one's invisibility, to
allow the UFO encounter to release new levels of ego identifications,
personal limitations, and fears. "His personal ambitions being totally
dissolved," writes Campbell, "he no longer tries to live but willingly
relaxes to whatever may come to pass in him; he becomes, that is to
say, an anonymity."
How is one to live "anonymously" in the world, with the secret
of extraordinary knowledge so close at hand? Listen to the words of
the religious scholar Shankaracharya on this very theme:
Sometimes a fool, sometimes a sage, sometimes possessed of regal

splendor; sometimes wandering, sometimes as motionless as a python,
sometimes wearing a benignant expression; sometimes honored, some-
—
times insulted, sometimes unknown thus lives the man of realiza-
tion, ever happy with supreme bliss. Just as an actor is always a man,
whether he puts on the costume of his role or lays it aside, so is the
perfect knower of the Imperishable always the Imperishable, and
nothing else.
Part Three
THE STORMY
SEARCH FOR THE
SELF: PROBLEMS OF
THE SPIRITUAL
SEEKER
Jack Km i
field
OBSTACLES AND
VICISSITUDES IN
SPIRITUAL PRACTICE
Only to the extent that man exposes himself over and over
again to annihilation, can that which is indestructible
arise within him. Inthis lies the dignity of daring . . .
Only if we
venture repeatedly through zones of annihila-
tion can our contact with Divine Being, which is beyond
annihilation, become firm and The more a man
stable.
learns wholeheartedly to confront the world which threat-
ens him with isolation, the more are the depths of the
Ground of Being revealed and the possibilities of new life
and Becoming opened.
KARLFRIED GRAF VON DURKHEIM,

The Way of Transformation
137
Itand well known

is that the
and that systematic
pitfalls
path has a variety of difficulties
spiritual
can occasionally
spiritual practice
lead to serious psychological and even physical complications. Great
prophets, sages, saints, and teachers of all religions had at important
junctions of their spiritual development dramatic experiences that from
a traditional point of view would be seen as psychotic.
The Buddha's visionary adventure with the master of the world's
illusion, Kama Mara, and the demonic hosts who tried to prevent him
from reaching enlightenment is a dramatic example of such a situation.

The New Testament describes a similar episode in the life of Christ,
involving his temptation by the devil. The biographies of Christian
saints, fathers, and monks abound in vivid episodes of extraordinary
visions involving devils as well as celestial beings.

Countless additional examples can be found in the lives of Hindu
saints, Tibetan Buddhist masters, Zen teachers, and famous represen-

tatives of other religions. The most outstanding modern description of
the vicissitudes of the spiritual journey is the autobiography of Swami
Muktananda, Play of Consciousness. Irina Tweedie's spiritual diary
Daughter of Fire and Carlos Castaneda's series of best-selling books
show that the problems and pitfalls of spiritual apprenticeship are
highly relevant for contemporary seekers.
In our anthology, the important problem of obstacles and diffi-
culties of the spiritual path is discussed by jack Kornfield. Kornfield
has very special professional and personal qualifications for this task,
since his background includes training in traditional Western psychol-
ogy, as well as many years of spiritual practice as a monk in various
Oriental countries.
He has been fascinated by Asian philosophy and culture since his
early years. After majoring in Asian studies and the Chinese language
at Dartmouth College, he left for Asia,where for more than six years
he studied the theory and practice of Buddhism, at first as a layman
and later as an ordained monk. He spent this time in Thailand,
Burma, and Laos, in intensive Buddhist retreat centers and forest
Obstacles *///</ Vicissitudes in Spiritual Practice 139
monasteries, receiving much of two of

of this training in the lineage
the foremost teachers of Theravada Buddhism, the venerable Aachan
.ih and the venerable Mahasi Sayadaw of Burma.
After his return to the United States, he obtained a doctorate in

clinical psychology from the Saybrook Institute and worked as a psy-
chologist and meditation teacher. In following years, he has returned

to Asia many times for additional studies with other teachers in
ious monasteries in India and Sri Lanka. During the Cambodian
crisis in 1979, he did voluntarywork with inmates of a refugee camp.
He is also the founding faculty member of the Naropa Institute,
the first Buddhist university on the American continent, as well as the
founder of the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts,

and the Spirit Rock Center in Woodacre, California. For many years,
he has led intensive Buddhist meditation retreats worldwide and has
also Among his books are Guide to Medita-
been active as an author.
tionTemples of Thailand, Living Buddhist Masters, Still Forest Pool,
and Seeking the Heart of Wisdom.
In recent years, Kornfield has established a home base in Califor-
nia, where he with his wife, Liana, and daughter, Caroline,
lives
whom he jokingly refers to as his most important guru. He has a

unique and rare ability to balance and integrate deep spiritual experi-
ences and insights with ordinary everyday existence.
In his contribution to this book, Kornfield addresses the issue of
complications of meditation and the spiritual journey in general from
the point of view of the Buddhist tradition, particularly the basic
teachings of the Theravada school. He discusses the physical diffi-
culties, mental hindrances, energetic states, and a common sequence of
altered perceptions that arise in the course of intensive Buddhist prac-

tice. Occasionally, he makes brief excursions into Hinduism, Christian
mysticism, and the shamanic traditions.
The is extremely important in
topic Kornfield explores in his essay
view of the increasing popularity of various forms of spiritual practice
in the West and the fact that emotional and physical challenges are
inherent in spiritual growth. Knowledge of the cartography of these

precarious territories provides invaluable help on the spiritual path.
In this presentation I would like to address the kinds of issues and

difficulties that arise for a person undertaking a systematic path of
spiritual practice. To be involved in such practice is one of the deepest
and most exciting, arduous, wonderful, and difficult adventures that

we can take as human beings. It is a journey on which one can
explore the farthest inner realms of consciousness, awaken to the
myriad parts of oneself, and bring mind and heart as far as they can
reach into our deep connection with the whole of the universe.
However, it is not necessarily an easy or gentle journey. I heard a
story about Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, who, while giving a talk in
Berkeley once, sat up in front of a large hall filled with people who
had all paid fifteen dollars to see him, and said to them, "How many
of you are just beginning a spiritual practice ?" A number of people
raised their hands. He said, "Fine. My suggestion you go
is that
home. At the back door, they will give you your money back and
you can go home now and not get started in this very difficult and
terrible process." He continued, "It is a lot more difficult than you
know when you begin. Once you start it is very difficult to stop. So
my suggestion to you is not to begin. Best not to start at all. But if
you do, then it is best to finish."

For it often happens that people, in their spiritual practice or in
the course of everyday life, encounter phases of their inner develop-
ment in which things fall apart.
Of course these "crises" are experienced not just by people un-
dertaking systematic spiritual practice, but also by many persons who
in the course of their lives have a natural spiritual awakening. They
can be brought on by many things, such as death of an important
person, childbirth, a powerful sexual experience, or having a near-
death accident and realizing through an out-of-body experience that
you are not this physical body. At other times, they can be triggered
by the illuminations that come through spending time in the high
mountains or through a difficult divorce or some life-threatening
illness like cancer.
In all of the great spiritual traditions there is attention given to
the problems or pitfalls of spiritual practice. In the Christian tradi-
tion one of the great texts available is The Dark Night of the Soul by
St. John of the Cross, in which he about the dark night that one
talks
goes through after the initialawakenings into the Light. Evagrius,
who writes in Latin as a teacher of monks in early Egypt for Chris-
Revised version of a talk in the monthlong seminar entitled "Jewel in the Lotus: Buddhism and
Western Psychology," coordinated by Stanislav and Christina Grof and held at the Esalen
Institute in Big Sur, California, November 1986.
Obstacles and Vicissitudes in Spiritual Practice HI
dan Desert lathers, has a whole text on the demons that arise when
people go ott in the desert to become hermits and undertake a medi-
tation praetiee. These include the demons of pride, the demons of
tear, the demons ot thirst, the noonday demon who is the demon of
sleep, M\d so forth.
In Eastern traditions there are similar deseriptions of the kinds
of pitfalls that arise — the initial difficulties, the pitfalls of attachment,
the pitfalls oi false enlightenment. In Zen, the visions and the lights
that come are called makyo, or illusion. They are a kind of superillu-
sion: this in which we already sit and experience is considered a kind
oi illusion, and makyo is an illusion beyond that.
How does one begin to look at the pitfalls and the difficulties? I
would like to begin to answer this by briefly presenting some of the

basic Buddhist teachings that talk about the early pitfalls and diffi-
culties in practice. This will be an overview, without much detail,
since more specific information is available in current Buddhist litera-
ture, especially through the writings of Joseph Goldstein, Stephen

Levine, and Tibetans like Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche. Let us look
briefly at how and physical pain in the
to deal with early hindrances
body, and then move into the more extreme, delightful, and terrifying
kinds of visions and states and difficulties that occasionally arise for
people in more intensive or advanced spiritual practice.
When one begins a spiritual sadhana, whether it is Buddhist
meditation practice or some other systematic discipline that trains
awareness and concentration, it brings one into the present. This is
the first element of any spiritual practice, a technique that focuses and
steadies the fluctuating, vibrating mind.
To come into the present moment is the first entry into the
spiritual realms, because the spiritual realms are not found in the past
and the future. The past is just memory, and the future is just imag-
ination. The present moment provides the gateway to enter into all
the realms of consciousness that are beyond our normal everyday
busyness. To be here requires a steadying of the mind, a concentra-
tion, and an attention. It is that old phrase from the Las Vegas
casinos: "You must be present to win." You have to be present at the
casino, and you have to be present in your meditation practice.
To start, then, one undertakes the discipline, following the
breath, doing a visualization, doing a loving-kindness meditation,
one of many kinds of practices that focus and develop our attention.
This brings us more fully into the present of our body and mind. As
we pay attention, what begins to happen? First of all, there are
physical difficulties that arise in the body. There are three categories
of pain that arise.
There are the physical pains that are a signal that you are sitting
in the wrong way, so you have to find a way to sit comfortably. Then
there are the physical pains that arise out of an unaccustomed pos-
ture. Our posture has to be stretched out and borne with, allowed,
until the knees and the body and the back get used to meditating in a
way that is where we can allow the body energies to open
still,
without too much movement. This is a steadying and bringing to-

gether of the body and mind.
The third and most interesting kind of pain that arises is the pain
of various releases of tension and holding, a surfacing of the deep
patterns of blocks and bound energies in our body that accumulate
during the reactions of our daily life. Each of us has areas of holding:
—
our jaws, our neck, our face whatever it is that becomes tight and
accumulates tension in stressful situations. Through the stillness of
sitting, these patterns of energy or holding come into awareness or
consciousness. As they release, they can bring pain and vibration and
sometimes also powerful images from the These may be images past.
of surgery or accidents, or times that we got angry and squashed it
inside, times of past wounds or even past lives. All kinds of past
situations will arise and manifest themselves through the opening of
the body.
Most people who have sat for even a day are familiar with these
various kinds of physical pains. One of the first parts of practice is to
learn how to sit comfortably still and be steady with these physical
openings. Beyond the initial physical openings there arise hindrances,
or the difficult states of mind that come as one starts to concentrate.
To collect or steady the mind —which is initially like a wild monkey,

or like a fish that is out of water, flopping around on dry land — is a
difficult process. You give it a very simple task: "Mind, please follow
the breath." Does it For about two seconds. My daughter,
listen?
who is and four months old, behaves better than my mind,
a year
generally speaking, and she is in the phase now where she says, "No,
no, no" very often. She will even get up in the middle of the night,
kind of roll around, half awake, rustle the covers a little bit and say,
"No, no, no, no," and then go back to sleep.
The mind is worse than that, if you have noticed. It is untrained
for decades, for millions of mind moments, if not many lifetimes.
The process of beginning to collect it is an arduous one. It requires a

breaking of our habit of being lost in the past and future. It requires a
Obstacles and Vicissitudes in Spiritual Practice t43
willingness to be present with experiences from which we usually run

away. Five of the common difficulties that arise in practice, called by
the Buddha the five hindrances, are written about in many books. A
good description ol them is found in Joseph Goldstein's The Experi-
)f
Insight These five hindrances are quite familiar to all those
who have been sitting.
The spirit oi working with the hindrances is illustrated in the
story ol G. I. Gurdjieff's disciple. There was an old man in his
community who was difficult for everyone to live with. He was
obnoxious and noisy and smelly and a troublemaker and argumenta-
tive. Finally, after many months of arguing with the other com-
munity members, he got discouraged and quiet and left to live alone
in Paris. Gurdjieff, when he heard about this, went directly to Paris,
found him and convinced him to come back, but only by offering
him a great deal of money, a big monthly stipend. Whereas everyone
else paid for their practice, this man was getting paid to return. When
they saw him return and found out he was actually being paid for it,
the community was quite upset. They said: "What are you doing?"
Gurdjieff explained: "This man is like yeast for bread. Without him
here you would not really understand the meaning of patience, the
meaning of loving-kindness or compassion. You would not learn how
to deal with your own anger and irritation. So I bring him here and
you pay me to teach and I pay him to help."
The practice of working with our blockages and hindrances is to
allow them to arise and to observe them with awareness. We use the
opportunity to learn directly about anger, fear, and desire, to learn
how to relate to them without being so identified, without resist-
ing, without being caught up in them. It takes quite a bit of practice
to do so.
In order to work with the hindrances we must identify them
clearly. The first is desire and wanting. The second is its opposite,
—
which is aversion anger and dislike, judgment and fear all those —
states that push away experience. The next pair is sleepiness dullness, ,
and lethargy, or resistance to experience, and their opposite, which is

agitation and restlessness of mind. The fifth is doubt, the part of the
mind that says, "I cannot do it. It is too hard, I am too restless, it is
the wrong day to meditate. I should wait to meditate. I should wait
until evening. Morning is not a good time. Maybe I should do some-
thing a little more entertaining like Sufi dancing. This watching the
breath is too boring or too dull."
As we begin working with the hindrances, we actually study
them, observing and allowing them to be incorporated into the medi-

tation practice. When desire arises, we begin to examine desiring
mind with mindfulness. We note, "Desiring, desiring," and feel its
quality. To look at desire is to experience the part of ourselves that is
never content, that always says, "If only I had some other seeing,
hearing, smelling, tasting, touching, feeling, that would make me
happy, some other relationship, some other job, some more comfort-
able cushion, less noise, cooler temperature, warmer temperature,
another meditation shawl, a little more sleep last night, then I could
sit well." All these things come as desire. "If had something to
only I
eat now. I would eat and then I would be satisfied and then I could
get enlightened."
Our way of working with desire is not to condemn it but to turn
the attention to the state of mind of and experience
desire,
at look it
it, and label it "hunger, wanting." In this way we can learn to be

aware of mental states like desire fully without being so caught up by
them, and find a way to observe with the full freedom of our atten-
tion. This brings real understanding.
Similarly in working with anger, aversion, or fear. We may have
to watch fear eighty times before it becomes familiar to us, or even a
hundred or two hundred times. But if we sit and every time fear
comes, we note, "Fear, fear," and let ourselves be mindful of the
trembling and the coolness and the breath stopping and the images
and we just stick with it, one day fear will arise and we will say,
"Fear, fear, oh, I know you, you are very familiar!" The whole
relationship to the fear will have changed, and we will see it as an
impersonal state that comes on the radio for a while and passes away,
and we will be freer and wiser in our relationship to it.
This may sound easy, to just observe with a balanced and soft
attention, but it is not always so. There were some therapists at one
long California retreat I taught who were schooled in the primal-
scream tradition. Their way of practice was one of release and ca-
tharsis, and they usually set a period aside every morning to release
and to scream. After sitting for a few days they said, "This is not
working, this practice." I asked, "Why not?" They replied, "It is
building up our inner energy and our anger and we need a place to
express it. Could we use the meditation hall at a certain hour of the
day to scream and release? Because otherwise it gets toxic when we
hold it in."
The suggestion that we made was that they go back and sit with
it anyway, that it probably would not kill them. We asked them to sit
des in Spiritual Practice /-/>
and sec what happens since they were there to learn something new.
The\ did. And after a few days they came back .md said, "Amaz-
1
ing.* 1 said: "What was amazing?" They said: "It changed!" Anger,
tear, desire — all wisdom when they
of these things can be a source ol
are observed, because as we observe them, they come according to
certain conditions. Thev come, and when they are here, they affect
the body and mind in a certain way. It we are not so caught up in
them, we can observe them like we would a storm, and then, atter
being there tor a time, they pass away.
When we become skillful at observing these hindrances and look
carefully and closely, we find that no state of mind, no feeling, no
emotion actually lasts more than fifteen or thirty seconds before it is
replaced by some other one. But we must look really closely to see
this. We might be angrv, and then, if we really watch it, "angry,
angrv, " then all of a sudden we discover or realize it is no longer

anger, it has now turned into resentment. The resentment is there for
a little while and then it turns into self-pity. Then we observe the
self-pity and it turns into depression, and we observe the depression
for a little while and it turns into thinking, and then that turns back
into anger. If we look we see that the mind is constantly changing,
and it teaches us about impermanence, movement, and no need to
identify.
Similarly, when sleepiness and restlessness arise, one observes
them with the eye of awareness and the heart of tenderness and of
caring. It is important to allow those to arise, to see sleepiness, to
discover its nature, or if resistance is a part of it, to just sit and say,
"What is going on here that I put myself to sleep about?" See if you
can wake vourself up to it.
The same with restlessness. If you are very restless, you note,
"Restless, restless," feel it, and if it is very strong, you allow yourself
to surrender and say, "All right, I will just die. I will be the first
meditator ever to die of restlessness," and let it take you over and see
what happens.
Through systematic training with the hindrances, you discover a
way of relating to them wisely and with less identification, without
being so caught by them. And finally the same for doubt. You can
learn to observe it come and go without identification or concern.
For your further information, there is also a series of antidotes
for these hindrances. For desire, there is an antidote of reflection on
impermanence and on death. For anger, there is an antidote of loving-
kindness that can be done, but only at the completion of a certain
degree of forgiveness. For sleepiness, the antidoteis to arouse energy
through posture, visualization, inspiration. For restlessness the anti-

dote is to bring calm or concentration through inner techniques of
calming and relaxing. And for doubt the antidote is faith or inspira-
tion through reading or speaking with someone wise or finding some
way to inspire oneself.
This a brief account of the common hindrances you may
is
encounter when you begin practice. If you do not have training and
skill to help work with these, they can seem overwhelming and too
difficult and you may want to stop. This is why we need a teacher
and systematic training to begin to work with our minds: our minds
and the forces we encounter there can be very confusing.
In the beginning of Buddhist practice one hears the basic roots
of human difficulty expressed as "greed, hatred, and delusion."
These are what get us into trouble. We may say, "Oh, just our desire
and aversion, our dislikes and ignorance, and a little bit of unclarity
of mind. That is not too bad." Once we have sat for a while, what we
discover is that greed means confronting attachment in the deepest
sense, that our desires are powerful and primal kinds of forces, and
that hatred is discovering a rage within us like Attila the Hun and
Hitler. All of these are found in each person's mind. Greed is like the
hunger for the world, the deepest kind of hunger. Delusion is the
darkest kind of confusion and ignorance.
These forces are tremendously powerful. They are the forces that
make war in the world. They are the forces that create poverty and
starvation in one country and abundance in another. They are
the forces that cause the whole cycling of what is called the sam-
saric world of life and death to take place. So one encounters them
when one tries to live in the present moment with concentrated
attention.
It is not an easy process to work with them.
It is always difficult,
but at times seems overwhelming. Yet here is where we learn.

it
Thomas Merton said at one point, "True prayer and love are learned
in the hour when prayer becomes impossible and the heart has turned
to stone." Sometimes in facing the most difficult of your hindrances,
if you let yourself sit with them, will come a real opening of the
heart. A real opening of the heart, the body, and the mind takes
place, because we finally stop running away from our boredom or
our fear or our anger or our pain.
In addition to the descriptions of the five hindrances, Buddhist
( testacies and Vicissitudes in Spiritual Practice \47
teachings also otter the following five systematic ways o\ working

with difficult energies when they arise. For the sake of this essay, 1
will mention them, but without extensive elaboration.

The tirst way of working when something difficult arises — like
Strong desire, tear, or anger— is to just let it go. Or if you eannot let it
44
go, let it be. To let be" is a better expression of letting go anyway,
because usually when we hear "let go" we think of it as a way to get
rid oi it, but we eannot really just get rid of it. To do so is adding
more anger; it is saying in effect, "I don't like it." But that is like
getting rid of your own arm; it is a part of us in some way. So instead

of letting go, letting be means to see it as it is — clearly. There is fear,
there is anger, there is joy, there is love, there is depression, there is
hatred, there is jealousy. There is something else that is yucky. There

is judgment about it. Then there is self-pity, then there is delight.
They are just different states of mind. It is the mind, the universal
mind that has all of these things, and our task is to learn to relate to
the mind in a compassionate and wise way.
The second step, if we are unable to let it be, is to sublimate it.
This means to take the energy of our difficulty and transform it
outwardly or inwardly. For example, in working with anger out-
wardly we might go out and chop the winter's wood as a way to
transform and use the energy. Similarly, for inward transformation
there are exercises for moving energy within the body, from a place
where it is caught to a more useful expression. For example, the
energy of lust and of obsessive sexual desire can be moved inwardly
up into the heart, where it becomes an energy of desire for connec-
tion, but through compassion or caring. The inner transformation is
more difficult.
A third way of approaching difficulties is the appropriate use of
suppression, which is tricky, but can be very useful at certain times.
An example given is of a woman who is a surgeon, and this woman is

having a fight with her husband, and her beeper goes off; it is time to
go directly to the hospital emergency room. At that point, she is
needed to do cardiac or thoracic surgery. That is not the time for her
to continue processing what is going on with her husband. It is a
time to put it aside and do her surgery, and only later on, when the
circumstances are suitable, to go home and continue the dialogue that
needs resolution.
So there are suitable times in spiritual practice to suppress or put
aside very difficult energies and wait for a circumstance that is quiet
or supportive. This might be a quiet period or work with a teacher or

a therapy session —using whatever can help us to deal with it in a
skillful or wise way.
Additional ways of dealing with difficulties are to explore them
through imagination or to mindfully act them out. These practices
get more difficult and more Tantric as we go down the list, because if
they are not done with careful attention, it is possible to create more
desire or give more power to the anger. The fourth way, to act them
out in imagination, requires a and careful attention to do it
full
properly. Here you allow yourself to envision the action fully with all
its consequences. For example, with anger, you would see yourself
biting or hitting, or with greed you would visualize yourself fulfilling

that desire, whether it is sex, food, love, or whatever. Get abundance
of it and imagine what it is like and then see where you are after you
have had your fill. By actually allowing and exaggerating these feel-
ings you can then learn what it means to be released from them.
The fifth way is the most Tantric on this list. That is to act out
the mind state. Of course, in a way that is what we do most of the
time anyway. But here it means "Act it out with awareness, with
attention, with mindfulness, so pay attention to driving, to paying
bills, or to the people around." It is a frequent and a sincere difficulty
for people, and it needs to be discussed.
It is addressed primarily through grounding, and through prac-
tices that bring our attention more fully into the body and awaken
the lower chakras. One has to do more walking and other physical
exercises and bring attention into the belly, rather than having it up in
the head, eyes, or nose. Otherwise practice becomes heady, vision-
ary, mental, and one-sided. It is extremely important to integrate the
"higher" chakras and states into the body and feelings of this physi-
cal incarnation.
This mental/physical imbalance is a common phenomenon, even
for people who are relatively balanced in practice. A very balanced
meditator may require just a few days' integration period. But when-
ever we take a concentrated and intensive inner journey in a retreat,
we have to build into the system a reentry process, and a way to
integrate the experiences, either as we go along or at the end.
A
second kind of difficulty that arises is an inability to make
decisions. Many people who have done some spiritual practice tend to
lose their ability to remember things and develop an increasing in-
ability to make decisions. In the extremes, they can become "spiritual
basket cases" — pushovers, weak, and indecisive. The thinking may
Uades and Vicissitudes m Spiritual Practice t4 l)
go: "Oh, well, happening, and we will just wait and sec what
it is all
the I They arc unable to act mu\ live in terms of

ord provides for us."
work, family, and relationships, or answer questions such as "Where
should go?" or "What should I do next?"
I
This happens tor a couple oi reasons. One is because there is a
disorientation when we spend time in a retreat setting or ashram or

even at home doing a lot of meditation, since our attention is not on
the world, but on some other set of experiences and references. Sec-
ondly and quite significantly, spiritual practice can often genuinely
undermine worldly motivation. We set our motivation to look for the
discovery ol how the consciousness can grow, or how to develop the
mind and feelings of universal love. While all these things are your
focus, your motivation to get a job is turned down; you have turned
down the heat, the interest in worldly things.
There arises an alternate set of values that brings many students
into conflict when they reenter the world. We have to see if in fact we
want to ordain or renounce the world and live in a monastery. If not,
we have to come to terms with the difficult task of what it means to
live in the world in a spiritual way. That again is a part of the natural
course of spiritual practice and the kind of difficulty that people have
to work with in their path and understand in themselves.
The third difficulty arises because the thought processes will stop
when we get concentrated. And when the thinking process slows
down, because it is the basis for comparison used in making deci-
sions, it is even hard to think straight. Without it we feel empty or
confused and unable to actually decide anything.
The fourth difficulty is that as we learn to develop an even-
handed attention, our minds come to a state that neither grasps at the
pleasant nor resists the unpleasant, which is the balanced kind of
awareness needed for inner exploration. Yet it is different from the
kind of attention that is needed to decide career plans or a marriage
choice or how to take care of our house or our car. That is a second
kind of attention, called "directed or skillful means," a wise reflec-
tion or a wise action, often not strengthened (or even weakened at
times) by meditation.
The kind of attention that one develops in inner meditation is
more of a passive attention where the active component is simply the
brightness of your observation or investigation, but does not include
the active component of choosing or deciding.
The way to work with these difficulties as they arise is to de-
velop grounding in practice. There are many exercises and ways of
meditation that can bring us back and connect us to our bodies and to
the earth-plane. This also requires a willingness to look at our attach-
ments and to realize that unless we choose to live as
are going to
monks or nuns, we have to come back and integrate our lives in the
world. It means we must start our thinking mechanism going again,
reflect about our life —
looking at money, looking at the particular
needs of our society and how we are going to live in it. At first, the
process of dealing with these things when the mind is quiet may seem
actually somewhat painful. There is an actual reentry through a do-
main of dizziness and the pain of accepting that we are limited beings
in a physical reality, which must be faced for the heart to open and
the mind to be able to fully come back into the world.
Another difficulty in leaving retreats or after powerful inner
practice arises for those who discover that they have used practice as a
way of escape, as a way of denial or suppression in their life. Many
students have used meditation not only to discover inner realms and
find inner balance but also to escape. Because we are afraid of the
world, afraid of living fully, afraid of relationships, afraid of work, or
afraid of some what it means to be alive in the physical
aspect of
body, we run to meditation. Whoever has practiced for a while will
probably have seen some element of that in his or her own heart
and mind.
We must understand that meditation, like any kind of therapy or
discipline, can be used in skillful ways, for freedom, for liberation,
for opening the heart. It can also be used in defensive ways, in service
of the ego and of our fears, by quieting ourselves so we do not have
to deal with certain difficulties, by following our breath in a way that
we do not even feel certain difficult emotions, by paying attention
to the light so that we can avoid certain aspects of our shadow, our
dark side.
There is a brilliant exposition of how spiritual practice can be
misused to bolster our ego or to create a new improved self-image; it
is all clearly spelled out in the book Cutting Through Spiritual Mate-
rialism by Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche. In outward ways, through
emotions and especially through attachment to new views and ideals,
we may unconsciously do an imitation of spirituality, using its forms
and meditations and beliefs as a place to hide or seek security from
the ever-changing world.
As we mature in our practice, we have to bring to consciousness
and face the ways in which we have tried to escape or imitate or hide
if we wish to come to a fuller sense of freedom. Those who do not
Obstacles and Vicissitudes in Spiritual Practice /5/
face this after sonic period of practice may become stuck, chronic
meditators who growth pro-
are inwardly depressed, because the real
cess has stopped, vet on the outside they follow the forms and ideals
ot practice mu\ pretend to be fulfilled in it. These issues need inves-
tigation .mc\ heartfelt integrity to open us again to the growth of real
spiritual opening.
Each person will also bring his or her neurotic style to practice.
In Buddhist psychology these are described based on the three root
types of greed, aversion, and confusion, while in other systems other
neurotic categories are outlined. Again, to avoid this pitfall, we must
become aware of our basic neurotic style so that it does not become a
trap for us in practice.
Otherwise, greed types will find themselves being greedy for
spiritual experiences, spiritual knowledge, spiritual friends, form, and
ceremonies, not seeing the neurotic aspect. Similarly, aversion types
who ordinarily dislike experience may use practice to condemn and
try to escape from the world or as a way to judge many other ways as
wrong. Confusion types have a danger of getting stuck in doubt or in
its opposite, "blind" faith, which brings relief but does not serve as
an illumination for them. We should also understand that each of

these traps presents great possibility for inner development, as well as
danger. Every neurotic style can be transformed into useful positive
qualities through the development of our awareness. Many of the best
books on Tantra describe this process.
Still, it is common for us to encounter ways in which meditation
is used for escape or misinterpreted to strengthen our fears and isola-
tion. We are taught that there arises through meditation practice the
divine qualities of loving-kindness equanimity, sympathetic joy, com-
,
passion. Yet these all have near enemies that come in disguise close to
them, and so there is a systematic teaching of how to recognize these
and not get caught up in them.
The near enemy of loving-kindness is attachment. When it
arises, it masquerades as loving-kindness, but actually it is a state of

being caught in wanting or desiring some events or people rather than
loving them. There arises a sense of separation, and thus we feel "I
need you" rather than openly loving that person or thing or experi-
encing it exactly as it is.
Similarly, the near enemy of compassion is pity, which says,

"Oh, those poor persons over there, they are suffering," as if some-
how they are different from ourselves. It separates us, whereas true
compassion sees that we all are in the soup together, that we all suffer
universally, we
all a part of the heart of the mother of the world
are
and mother of the world, each of us is endowed with a
that, like the
certain measure of cosmic pain. Each one of us has a certain amount
of suffering. That is part of what it means to have a heart, to be alive.
And we are called upon, it is said, to meet this in joy instead of self-
pity, to learn how to relate to it with opening rather than with fear.
The third near enemy is the near enemy of equanimity, which is
called indifference. Indifference says: "I don't care; I will stay calm
in myself and forget about the rest. It is all 'empty' anyway. If one
marriage does not work out, I can marry somebody else. If this job
does not work out, I can get another one. I am not attached." You
have probably heard that tone or that phrase. It is not equanimity but
indifference. Each one of these three near enemies masquerades as
love or compassion or equanimity, but each is based on separation,
on ignorance, and on fear.
True spiritual practice and true equanimity are not a removal
from life, but a balance that relates totally and fully to life. In prac-
tice, one opens the body and mind and heart and in a way becomes
more transparent, able more fully than ever to receive life with bal-
ance. Spiritual opening is not a withdrawal to some imaged realm or
safe cave. It is not a pulling away, but a touching of all the experience
of life with wisdom and with a heart of kindness, without any
separation.
At this point, we have learned to deal with the preliminary
difficulties in our practice. We can deal with pain, we know the
difference between equanimity and indifference, and we have learned
how to work with the hindrances. They have not gone away, mind
you; they are there for a very long time. Even when I ask a group of
quite advanced students, "What are the difficulties you are working
with?" they inevitably answer: "Laziness, fear, greed, anger, delu-
sion, self-judgment" —
the same old stuff. The advanced and the be-
ginners, it seems, are the same. When you have gotten better, you
learn how to relate to it more wisely, but it is a very long time before
it stops arising.
Still, at this point the heart and mind are calmer and better able
to relate wisely and mindfully to what arises in the present. Then we
may decide to do further practice. To undertake this journey requires
a foundation of virtue, an establishment of basic morality, of non-
harming. The traditional Buddhist precepts are five: (1) not killing,
(2) not stealing, (3) not speaking falsely or with words that are gos-
sip, undermining, or untrue, (4) refraining from sexual misconduct,
—
Obstacles and Vicissitudes ui Spiritual Practice / 5.?
from sexual activity thai causes suffering or harm to another person,

\wc\ (5) refraining from intoxicants that lead to the point o\ heedless-
ness or loss ol awareness. We have to see that practice is not separate
from our life, and we have to examine our lite for the areas ol conflict
and unconsciousness. A powerful means ot establishing our life in
ways harmony with the world around us is through the

that are in
precepts ot nonharming other beings. Otherwise our minds will be
filled with conflict, guilt, remorse, and complexity. To follow the
precepts is a way of stabilizing the heart and not harming ourselves,

as well as not harming others. There are many important teachings
about how to employ moral training precepts to develop awareness
r
and a loving, reverent relation to life.

Without these precepts as a safeguard one cannot undertake the
spiritual journey in a deep way. Some of the pioneers in recent West-
some of those who used psyche-
ern spiritual practice, particularly
and other powerful means, had times when they really got in
del ics
trouble because they did not understand the ground of these precepts,
of not harming others or oneself through wrong speech, through
wrong through misuse of sexuality or intoxicants. These ways
action,
of conduct are the basis for quieting the mind, they are the basis for
living a life that is in harmony with the plants and the animals and the
planet around us. They become the basis for disconnecting ourselves
from the most strident powers of greed, hatred, and delusion. Al-
most all occasions when we would break such a precept arise when
the mind has become filled with one of these forces of greed, hatred,
and delusion, often beyond our own wishes. The precepts are a
source of consciousness whenever this happens. The foundation for
safely going further in spiritual practice requires then that we take
care of our words, our actions, our sexuality, our use of intoxicants.
A second understanding that is a foundation for further practice
is the realization that practice may initially be used to create a sense
of well-being and delight, of spiritual ease and pleasure in our life.
But there are two levels to spiritual practice. The first level is that in
which we quiet ourselves, do some yoga, open the body, do a few
breathing exercises, "aum" before dinner, hold hands with people,
and follow a simpler, more moral life. All of those things
developing virtue, living a moral life, and quieting and concentrating
the mind —
lead us to delight and joy. They lead to happiness and
harmony in our lives.
The second kind of spiritual practice, the next level, is under-
taken by those who are interested in practicing for the sake of libera-
tion, for the sake of the deepest kind of freedom possible for a human
being. And this level of practice has nothing whatsoever to do with
happiness or comfort in the normal sense.
One begins with virtue and concentration and calming and a
softening of thebody and an opening of the heart and the develop-
ment of loving-kindness. But then when we are ready to go deeper, it
means to open the whole of the inner world. What this requires of us
is a willingness to face pleasureand pain equally, to open, to touch
what Zorba whole catastrophe" and to look directly into
called "the
the light and the shadow of the heart and the mind.
Suppose we wish to do that. We have already learned how to
work with the hindrances, we have our virtue and our actions in the
world intact as a basis for practice, we have begun to concentrate the
mind and not be so caught up in restlessness and fear and desire, we
have learned to pay attention and be more fully in the present mo-
ment. What happens next?
What often happens next is that concentration will really start to
develop, and with further training the mind starts to get steadier on
the meditation object —the breath or the visualization or the light or
whatever. As this steadiness of mind builds, it becomes the gateway
through which most of the spiritual realms start to emerge.
As concentration develops, a great variety of so-called spiritual
experiences can begin to happen. Many are, in fact, just side effects of
the meditation, and the better we understand them, the less likely we
are to get stuck in them or confuse them with the goal. Let us con-
sider what may arise with the development of stronger concentration.
First of all, for many people there will arise rapture. Rapture has
five traditional levels or grades to it. While rapture arises for many
people, it tends to be more common on intensive and long retreats,
ten days or longer, although for some people it comes in their daily
practice as well. It does not arise for everybody, nor is it necessary to
find rapture before wisdom. But at certain points in many people's
practice, there arises rapture.
This process often involves trembling and even powerful, spon-
taneous releases of physical energies in the body, called kriyas, that
can be scary to people. These can come in many different forms.
Sometimes they appear as a single, involuntary movement, or as a
release of a knot or tension. At other times, they can take the form of
dramatic, complex movements that can last for days. I remember
sitting for a one-year retreat as a monk, meditating by sitting and
walking alternately each hour for about eighteen hours a day in a
( )bstades and Vicissitudes in Spiritual Practice /ss
Thai monastery. At one point a very powerful release came and then
mv arms started to involuntarily flap like was a chicken or another I
bird. tried to stop them M\d

I could barely do it, and it
1 relaxed at I
all they would flap. So 1 went "Are you being

CO the teacher. 1 le said:
aware of it?" said, "I sure am." lie said: "No, are you really being
I
mindful? You do not like it. You want it to go away." I said, "You
are right." He said, "Go back and just observe it." For two days I
sat there, arms Hap.

watching my
It is important to understand and respect how deep our patterns
of holding are. There are very profound kinds of releases and open-
ings in the body that take place over months and years in spiritual
practice. Some of the deepest kinds of bodywork take place as we sit
silently and the energy of our body system opens and balances itself.
Many other kinds of raptures can arise, such as pleasant kinds of
thrills through the body, vibrations, tingling, or prickles. Sometimes
it is as if ants or some other kind of bugs were crawling all over you;
at other times you feel very hot, as if your spine were on fire. This
can alternate with feelings of cold, beginning as a little bit of chill and
turning into very profound, deep states of cold. You might also see
various colored lights; initially, these are blues, greens, or purples.
Then as concentration gets stronger there arise golden and white
kinds of light and finally very powerful white light. It might be like
looking right into a headlamp of an oncoming train, or as if the
whole sky were illuminated by a brilliant white sun. Or your entire
body may dissolve into light. These are some of the grades of rapture
that arise, not just for yogis, but for Westerners who do intensive
practice. It is not uncommon for people who get skilled in concentra-
tion to have these experiences.
There also can arise a whole series of strange altered perceptions.
For example, the body may seem very tall or very short. You may
feel that you are heavy like a stone or being squashed under a wheel.
Or you may feel that you are floating and you have to open your eyes
and peek to make sure that you are still actually on the ground. This
has happened to me many times.
There are similar experiences when you are doing walking medi-
tation. One can walk and be so concentrated on the steps that it
appears that the whole room begins to sway as if you were on a ship
in a storm; you put your foot down and you feel like you are drunk
or moving. Or there is dissolution and everything starts to sparkle
and turns into light.
All these kinds of things can happen. Sometimes it feels like
1
your nose is located outside your body and your breath is four feet
away from you, or your head is twisted on backward. There are also
physical pains that arise at times, particularly with the opening of
different chakras. Just as there are physical sensations, so too there
can be powerful inner sounds released —
bells, notes, and things like
that. There are a hundred kinds of strange altered states.

Similarly on the emotional level. As one goes deeper in practice,
there is a release of the strongest kinds of emotions —
despair, delight,
rapture, very profound grief, and many kinds of fear. Also there can
be worry and remorse and guilt from things in the past and anxiety
about the future. The primary unconscious emotional storehouse is
allowed to release. Initially, there are very great swings in emotions,
which require some guidance of a skilled teacher to help one through
with a sense of balance. Then there are visions of past lives, great
temples, scenes from other cultures, or things that you have never
seen, in addition to colors and lights. These states tap into the collec-
tive unconscious that has all the visions of humanity within it, and
these can arise in meditation.
There are great openings of the senses that can become incredi-
bly refined. You can hear or smell or see in a way that is by far
superior to your everyday perception. I remember walking one time
with my begging bowl on alms rounds. I generally cannot smell well
because of my That morning it was as if I were the most

allergies.
sensitive dog. As I walked down the streets, every foot or two there
—
was a different smell something cooking, the shit on the sidewalk,
the fertilizer over there, the new paint on part of a building that I
went by, or someone lighting a charcoal fire in a little Chinese store.
It was an extraordinary experience to go through the world primarily
attuned to smell. I hardly saw or heard anything because the smells

were so powerful. The same can happen with the ears or the eyes,
and beyond this there is a psychic opening where one can even touch
visions and smells and things beyond the present moment, visions of
past lives and future events, and so forth.
All of this great variety of unusual experiences poses an obstacle
course of repeated difficulties and pitfalls for the spiritual journey.
The main difficulty with all these altered states is that people either
get frightened by these experiences or and judge them: "My
resist
body is dissolving, I burning up, I am too

have got prickles, I am
cold, the sounds are too loud, there are too many inner sounds and
they are bothering me." There arise aversion, contraction, and fright
of these experiences. Each time we resist them, we get trapped by
—
Obstacles and Vicissitudes in Spiritual Practice iw
them and through tear >\nd misunderstanding we ean Struggle with

them for a long time. It we are not at raid ot these experiences and
enjoy them, then we ean get trapped in the opposite response —an
equally powerful attachment to them. Because many of the unusual
mk\ other such phenomena are very
experiences ot lights or rapture
pleasant and seem even to be important in meditation, we tend to
become immediately attached to them, and because they feel wonder-
ful, we try to hold and repeat them. Repeating them is called settling
for "the booby prize" in meditation.
You might have such an experience and then in the next medita-
tion try very hard to get it back. You hold your body at what you
found was the right angle and repeat your breathing the way you did
the last time. You may succeed, but to do so does not allow you to
open to the next experience. It stops you completely. In fact, the true
path is one of and the process of awakening includes
letting go,
opening up every realm of the body and mind, and finding freedom.
The Buddha declared that the sole purpose of his teaching was
not merit, or good deeds, or rapture, or insight, or bliss, but the Sure
Heart's Release, a real liberation of our being in any realm. This and
this alone is the purpose of any true teaching.
Naturally, meditation will produce experiences of calm and rap-
ture and ease and other more unusual phenomena. While beneficial in
a way, these must actually be considered side effects on the path.
These states are called "the corruptions of insight": concentration,
light, rapture, delight, visions. They are called that because even
though they are positive results of meditation, when they arise, our
tendency is to take them as "I" or "mine," to get identified with
them and to grasp onto them. We then end up stuck and do not learn
what real freedom means.
So there is a necessary realization that must come at this com-
—
mon sticking point in meditation the realization that true freedom
in practice comes only from letting go of whatever is present, no
matter how beautiful or how painful. It requires that we learn that as
we observe with mindful and wise attention, any one of three things
will happen to our experience: it will go away, it will stay the same
for a while, or it will get worse. And this is not our business! Our
job is to experience the phenomenal world in all its infinite richness
see, hear, smell, taste, touch, and think — and freedom and a
to find a
greatness of heart in the center of all this overwhelming sensory
input.
It is a big stage in practice to learn to deal with the new phe-
nomena that arise; at this point it usually takes guidance from a

skilled teacher. When we have learned to observe without getting
entangled in the corruptions of insight and their stickiness, to flow
with all these positive experiences, then there can arise deeper levels
of insight, and with them new difficulties.
At this point, important to note that not everyone will have
it is
these kinds of experiences in their spiritual life, nor are they neces-
sary. They should not become a source of comparison or judgment,
but a reminder of one aspect of the spiritual journey, where some
people get caught and some people get free. But these intense experi-
ences are only one aspect of the journey, and may be not even the
most important one.
There are many different cycles in practice. Some of the things
one encounters in the most ordinary daily practice can be as pro-
found and as essential as, maybe even more essential than, these
altered states. Still, it is very important for our spiritual practice to
know how to deal with the variety of these altered states when they
occur.
At this point in continuing practice, or perhaps earlier for some,
there can be a whole series of powerful energetic phenomena, some-
times called the awakening of the Kundalini. What this means is
simply a profound opening of the energy centers of the body, or the
chakras, and a simultaneous opening of the nadis, or the energy
channels of the body. While there is a basic pattern to this, it may
happen in many different ways.
Sometimes as one sits and gets more concentrated, the body will
begin to burn or there will be a feeling of heat in the spine, vibrations
and tingling. At times, one can actually feel energy move physically
in the body as if fire, pulsations, or vibrations moved spontaneously
through blocked energy channels as a way to open and free them.
These energetic openings can take hours, or weeks, or months. It is
all a part of the process of psychophysical opening and purification.
When the different chakras open, there will be a whole variety

of unusual physical phenomena. At the throat there can be tension
and coughing: I have seen people who sat and swallowed for days in a
row. With the lower chakras, the initial opening can include tension
and fear; there can be nausea and the release of vomiting. With the
opening of the sexual chakra there can be other experiences, includ-
ing visions of every kind of sexual encounter one can imagine, and
tremendous waves of lust and rapture.
When the heart chakra opens, there is sweetness and love, but
Obstacles and Vicissitudes in Spiritual Practice 139
usually this accompanied by a great deal of pain, because most of

is
us have bands and holding over our heart. In many retreats

ot tension
people, especially physicians M\d nurses, have come to me asking:
"Please, could you call an ambulance? am having a heart attack; I
I
can tell, know the symptoms. I am a physician. I understand this."

1
Or "It hurts here and it hurts my arm. It is my angina but it is worse

now," and so forth. And almost always what it is is the opening of
the heart chakra.
I usually say to them, "What better place to die than a retreat?
Don't you think so?" We have not lost anybody yet, although some
day it may happen. Still, it is important to have one's heart opened.
So 1 say: "Go back and sit. Either your heart will open in your body
or out of your body."
There are many kinds of chakra experiences. The energy released
can become very powerful, to the point where there is so much
energv coursing through the body that one cannot sleep for a number
of nights. The body will vibrate. There can be weeks where it
entire
is tilled with fire and where vision is altered, almost as strongly as
being on LSD. The eyes can burn and hurt, and many other kinds of
symptoms can be involved.
As far as pitfalls and difficulties go, one may well ask what to do
when it gets to a degree of excess, to a level of release that is beyond
the capacity of the person to work with it skillfully. The answer is to
slow the process down and focus on doing basically grounding
things. Take showers, do a lot of jogging, walking, or tai chi, dig in
the garden, do anything that connects with the earth. Inwardly, bring
the attention down through the body, visualize the earth, get some
good bodywork or massage, or use whatever movements help to
release it. Also, acupuncture can work very well for heavy Kundalini,
especially if it is done by someone who knows how to balance the
elements in the system of acupuncture. It also helps to change the
diet and eat heavy foods, grains and meats, to ground one. Do the
kinds of activities that slow and bring one back down.
Sometimes these experiences can get extraordinarily powerful.
There was one young karate student who sat for a three-month re-
treat at our center in Massachusetts. He was one of those overzealous
young spiritual men, and at one point while in the retreat he decided
to do anything to get enlightened. Contrary to our instructions, he
sat without moving from early morning one day through that day
and through the next night. The next morning he got up and came
into the dining hall after sitting nonstop for about twenty-four hours.
He had sat through sensations of fire and intense pain; if one

does that, consciousness becomes at some point almost wrenched
away from its identification with the physical body. The pain, the
fire, the heat, or whatever gets so powerful that consciousness gets
catapulted out of the body. There are many more gentle ways to have
out-of-body experiences, but this happened to him very abruptly and
he came in filled with enormous energy. And in the middle of the
dining hall he completely flipped out; it was a temporary Kundalini
psychosis. He started yelling and went through his karate routine, at
three times normal speed. You could not get near him. It was very
powerful. Around him were all these people who had been sitting in
silence for two months. The whole room was filled with his energy,
and in the silence one could feel the fear that arose in many people,
sensitive from so much meditation and overwhelmed by that kind of
energy.
After he started to make sounds, he said, "I look at each of you
and I see not only the body, but I see a whole string of past lives for
each person that I He was living in a very different realm of
look at."
consciousness, which he had attained through stressing his body to
that limit. But he could not sit still at all, or focus, and he had a
strong fear of the agitation and the manic state in which he found
himself. It was as if he had gone temporarily crazy.
What did we do with him? We started him jogging, since he was
an athlete anyway. We got him to run ten miles a day, in the morning
and in the afternoon. We changed his diet; while everyone else was
eating vegetarian food, we got him meat loaf and hamburgers. We
made him take frequent baths and showers. We had him walk and
work and later dig in the garden. In about three days he came down.
While his experiences may have been valid psychic and spiritual open-
ings, they were not brought about in a natural and balanced way, so
he could not integrate them.
There are states resembling psychosis that can arise at certain
points in meditation. We have had many thousands of people at our

retreats over the past twelve years. Out of these about half a dozen
had psychotic breaks. For the most part they were people who had
been previously hospitalized for mental illness. Many people who
have been previously hospitalized will come to do meditation practice
and find themselves repeating their so-called psychotic experiences. It
is almost a necessity in spiritual practice, because whatever it is that
we are most afraid of will eventually come up. It is like saying,
"Don't think of an elephant/'

Obstacles dud Vicissitudes in Spirit Hiil Practice k>i
When we become silent, it is there. For the most part people are
able to reexperience these past traumas in the context oi the safety
and balance The meditation provides enough support
oi the retreat.
that they can remember and touch the places ol tear again and see
that it is just another part ot the mind. But lor a lew people intensive
meditation can reactivate the psychosis, and they are catapulted out
ot the body and unable to relate in a normal way.
These cases include auditory and visual hallucinations, so strong
that the student could not stop long enough to eat or talk to some-
one. Other cases were marked by obsession, sleeplessness, and
various kinds of paranoia and fear. While most students were encour-
aged to sit and ô through their experiences, in these few extreme
cases we would try to calm them or ground them and slow the
process down. If that did not work, one of our psychiatrist friends
would prescribe a dose of a tranquilizer in small amounts, to bring
people down. A couple of these people were then hospitalized for a
tew weeks. Basically we used the medication as a way to bring some-
one back down to earth, because we did not have the facilities of a
halfway house to continue to work with them.
There is an article by the psychiatrist Roger Walsh that describes
his treatment of a number of people at various Buddhist and Hindu
retreats, including one taught by Ram Dass. The Ram Dass retreat
was the first one where Walsh saw someone flip out, and he said:
"Good, I'm going to get to see Ram Dass deal with a psychotic
person in a spiritual way." As Walsh tells the story, this young man
was ranting and raving and Ram Dass was doing whatever he could,
chanting and trying to center and calm him down. Then the man got
somewhat violent and as they were trying to hold him down, he bit
Ram Dass in the stomach. Ram Dass called for the tranquilizer at
that point. Enough is enough. While I do not favor the frequent or
indiscriminate use of these drugs, there are circumstances where they,
too, have their place.
The basic principle here, as with extreme Kundalini phenomena,
is grounding. When I worked in a mental hospital, it was clear that
the patients could not meditate; many were already too lost in their
minds. In fact, the people who most needed meditation were the
staff — the doctors, nurses, social workers, many of whom had their
own tension and fear in relation to the patients' difficulties. But on
the level of those who are patients one does not try to teach medita-
tion, but to get people to stop sitting. The useful meditation is to
work in the garden, touch the earth, use the hands, do yoga, come
back into the body, do whatever physical activities bring the mind
back to earth. In meditation we are not trying to produce an out-
of-body experience, but to get people to have a fully in-the-body
experience.
There is an explicit text from the Zen tradition that deals with
meditation-induced psychosis, found in a book called The Tiger's
Cave. It tells the story of one of the most famous Japanese Zen
masters, named Hakuin, who entered the way of practice and after
making strenuous efforts under the guidance of a great Zen master
had an enlightenment experience when he was only thirty years old.
For months he experienced a profound joy and a sense of being at
peace in the stillness of the forest. But soon after this he found he was
no longer in harmony. "Activity and stillness. I was not free to take
up anything or leave it. I thought: 'Let me boldly plunge into my
practice again and throw my life into it.' Teeth clenched, eyes aglare,
I sought to free myself from this new flood of thoughts and sleep-
lessness."
But to no avail. It got worse. His mouth was burning, his legs
were freezing, and in his ears was a rushing sound like a stream. Even
after being certified for first satori, or enlightenment, by a Zen mas-
ter, nothing he could do would stop it. He describes a profuse sweat-
ing and eyes full of tears, and yet after trying to cure it, it just
continued. So he went to the best Zen masters and healers of his day
for assistance, but no one was able to help him.
Finally someone said: "We have heard of an old Taoist hermit in
the mountains who may know of the secrets to cure your medita-
tion." He climbed the mountain to see the Taoist hermit, who would
not talk to him So Hakuin sat outside the cave and persevered
at first.
until the hermit realized he was a sincere monk with a real problem.
Finally, the hermit spoke with him and asked about his problem.
Hakuin described the difficulties he had been experiencing.
The hermit gave him a series of teachings outlined in this text
that deal primarily with the two aspects of grounding and balancing
the inner energy. One involves drawing the attention from the top
chakra, where it gets lost and leaves the body, down into the belly,
using the belly and special breathing to ground the energy in the
physical body. Secondly, the hermit gave Hakuin a series of visualiza-
tions based on Taoist inner yoga to create a balanced energy source
and circulate it throughout the body. Following this routine and some
other exercises he received from the hermit, Hakuin not only re-
gained his balance but in fact reached a deeper level of enlightenment
Obstacles dnd Vicissitudes in Spiritual Practice t63
.md became a great teacher, particularly skillful with people who had
difficulty in their meditation practice.
So these difficulties are not happening just in modern days; there
are descriptions ot yogis encountering them in all ages and major
methods ot practice. To give a further sense oi the deeper levels of
difficulties in meditation, would like to describe a sequence ot states
1
one encounters advanced Buddhist practice. At the point where

in
one has stabilized meditation and through the power of concentration

has passed through the various difficulties and hindrances, one
reaches the level of what is called "access concentration." Access
concentration means that stage where one has access to deeper realms
of insight. At this point, one can also direct consciousness into the
realms of absorption up to the level of cosmic consciousness. These
dbyanaSj or absorption levels, begin when the mind becomes filled
with rapture and and most thoughts and outer perceptions stop.
light,
One can enter them through focusing on loving-kindness, through

concentrating on a color, through a particular mantra or visualiza-
tion, or through working with the breath. The path and practices that
involve entering these states of high concentration are well described
in the Buddhist text The Path of Purification. In general, these are
difficult levels of practice to attain for busy Western minds, although
for those with a natural ease in concentration they can be reached in a
few weeks of intensive practice. One of the difficulties that come in
relation to these states though the mind becomes very still and
is that
peaceful, there is not much cause for insight to arise. To concentrate
so fully brings a temporary halt to fears and worries and suppresses
desires and plans, but when we emerge from this state of peace, the
difficulties rearise immediately.
Therefore the Buddha recommended establishing a certain de-
gree of concentration and then using it not to find temporary peace
but to examine fully the body and mind. One reaches the level of
access concentration where there is great stability, where the mind
does not wobble and there is very little thought. At this point aware-
ness is quite fully in the present moment, and it can then be directed
to the changing sensory experiences, the breath, or the body to reveal
the deeper levels of insight. It will reveal a constantly changing expe-
rience of the physical body and rapid mental events, arising and
interacting in an almost mechanical way. One will notice movements
of the body conditioned by mental states and mental states arising
conditioned by sensory input. It will all appear as an obviously im-
permanent and selfless process.
When the observation and insight into changing body and mind
become initially stabilized, a great sense of freedom and joy arises,
which is described by Daniel Goleman in The Meditative Mind (orig-
inally published as The Varieties of Meditative Experience) as pseudo-
nirvana. Here one encounters joy, balance, strong faith, concentra-
tion, and mindfulness. Yet all these states, which are important fruits
of the meditation, pose a new danger, called the corruptions of insight.
On first experiencing them one is delighted and grasps them, trying
to keep them and identifying them as the goal of meditation. There is
nothing inherently wrong with these states, but they are a sticking
point because we grasp them. So a profound realization must now
come that the true path to liberation is to let go of everything, even
the states and fruits of practice — to be open to that which is beyond
this very limited body and mind. Then practice goes on to deepen.
We get to the level where the corruptions of insight arise and we
abandon them. We say, "I am not going to be attached to the light
and the equanimity and the rapture, or the sense of inner power. I am
not going to be attached to these things, but I will let them all come
and go freely." These dangers were also described by Castaneda's
Don Juan as attachment to the clarity and power that arise. There
will arise a sense of tremendous well-being or incredible faith or
visions into one's own past lives.
All of these need to be abandoned. And when they have been,

we go into the next level of the dark night; our letting go allows an
opening to a much deeper level and a profound series of new percep-
tions.What happens at this point is that the level of concentration
and attention becomes yet greater and we actually see and feel the
entire world begin to dissolve in front of us.
Wherever we focus, our world of seeing, hearing, smelling, tast-
ing, or touching starts to dissolve. We look at someone, we see them
arise, we see them pass away. We look away from that image and we
just see it and the next thing appears and we look away and
dissolve
we notice the dissolution of that. Sounds come and we feel them
tinkling on the ear and dissolving one moment after another. Sensa-
tions, smells, tastes, thoughts, feelings —
wherever we turn our atten-
tion, there is a sense of dissolution.
For most people, with this dissolution comes spontaneously a
great sense of unease and fear, even an experience of terror. Not only
is the outer world dissolving when we observe the lights and colors
and sense objects arise and dissolve, but the inner world starts to
dissolve as well, and we lose our entire sense of reference. We ask:
Obstacles and Vicissitudes if; Spiritual Practice t6)
"Well, who am 1 in this? Wherever I look, things start to dissolve."

At this point, there can also arise very powerful visions. These some-
times involve visions of one's own death, or the death ot other peo-
ple, wars, dying armies, or eharnal grounds. Sometimes we look
down and pieces ot our body start to melt away and decay as it we
were a corpse. These are verv compelling visions, where we see more
and more elearlv not only how the world comes into being — that is
the part we saw before — but how it inexorably passes away.

There comes with this a sense of terror, a sense of unease, and a
verv deep realization of suffering. There can be tremendous sympa-
thy for the sorrow of the world. There is not only the suffering of
having things be painful in our life or of having pleasant things
dissolve so we cannot hold on to them, but the suffering of the end of
all that is created or loved by us. It seems that no matter what there is
in the world of our senses —family members, loved ones, one's own
body — all of it will be lost.
In this realm of terror there will also arise periods of paranoia.
Wherever we look, it is fearful. If we walk out of the door, something
could come and run us over. If we take a drink of water, there could
be microbes in it, and we could die. Everything becomes a source of
potential death or destruction at certain phases in this dark night.
There arise periods of claustrophobia and oppression as well. I
do not want to give too much detail, because it does not always
happen in exactly the same way. I do not want people to think that
this is exactly what is going to happen to them. Some people experi-
ence one aspect strongly; others skip right over that or go in a dif-
ferent way through their practice. But dissolution of the solidity of
the body and world, fear, and a sense of deep suffering are common
experiences. They eventually lead to a new level, a very profound
letting go.
Out of this arises a deep desire for deliverance. We say: "I want
to relate to thisworld in a different way than I did before. I want to
really find a freedom that is not bound up in seeing, hearing, smell-
ing, tasting, and touching, or in this separate sense of self, of body,
and of mind."
There may also arise a sense of how hard it is to let go of the
self, which is called "the rolling up of the mat." It is a sense that we
cannot do it, it is too hard, the world is too difficult, and the tangle
of being identified with all these things is too deep. It seems beyond
us to find a way out. We wish only to quit and go home.
These powerful stages of fear and dissolution are tricky to work
—
with. This very important place to have a teacher; otherwise

is a we
get caught in them, or lost or overwhelmed, or we quit. And if we
leave at any of these stages —the stage of fear, or the stage of
claustrophobia — because they touch a very deepandlevel of the heart
unconscious mind, they become the undercurrents in our uncon-
scious and can last for months or years until we do something to take
ourselves back to that level and resolve it.
The same can happen for people on LSD trips when they have a
very deep but difficult experience that is incomplete. That flavor stays
close to the surface, and they can be depressed or fearful or angry for
a very long time. They must usually go back through deep therapy or
meditation or psychedelics, back down to that level, and bring it to
resolution.
At these stages, it is very important to work with a teacher who
understands what it means to go through them. What it means to go
through them is that we get to the place where we look them straight
in the eye and say: "This too will pass," and we neither resist it nor
grasp it. We look at the horrors and the joys with an equal heart and
an open mind, and let go of the very deepest of our attachments.
When we finally can do that, there arises the most beautiful and
profound equanimity where everything that appears is singing one
song, which is the song of emptiness. It says: "It arises by itself, it is
ungraspable, none of it is T
or 'mine.' It is just a world of phe-
nomena, of consciousness, and of light and dark playing out. In it
there is no sense of separation, no sense of self."
There are just moments of seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting,

touching, and mental events, all seen very clearly as anicca, dukkha,
and annata, as impermanent, as unsatisfactory, as ungraspable. We
cannot grasp them and say, "Here is where I will be happy." From
this vantage point all the movements of body and mind have an
inherent unreality and unsatisfactoriness to them.
This level of equanimity brings a profound kind of rest, where
the mind becomes like a crystal goblet or like the sky, in which all
things are balanced. One becomes completely transparent, as if every
phenomenon just passes through the mind and body and one is sim-
ply space. The whole identity shifts and reveals the empty or true
nature of mind before we get caught in a body and identified
thinking, "This is who I am" —
and then become afraid to lose it,
embarrassed about how it looks and having to take care of it, in all
the ways that we do.
Obstacles and Vicissitudes in Spiritual Practice 167
This long and deep spiritual process of dissolution and opening

takes one CO what is called in the Christian mystical tradition "divine
apathy." It is not a lack ol caring, but it is like the eye of God that
sees the creation and the destruction and the light and the dark of the
world with a heart that embraces it all, because it is all of that. We see
that we are nothing and we are everything.
From this place of balance where the characteristics of imperma-
nence, of selflessness, and of unsatisfactoriness become clearer than
any of the content of the world, comes finally the possibility of
liberation. We get a taste of what it is like to be in the world but not
to be caught by a single thing in it. Out of this balance one has access
to extraordinary states of mind, where one can enter the void and the
whole thing just disappears and then reappears all by itself. The
whole universe comes and goes, just like mind and body and sight
and sound. There is also a realization of the inherent completion and
perfection in all things. Liberation does not mean changing the
world, but touching its true nature.
These are experiences that many people have in deep meditation.
Through them one comes to discover the art of balance and the
greatness that is possible for the human heart. We know what it
means to be free of greed, hatred, delusion, fear, and identification.

And even if we do not always remain in that state, it is like climbing
to the top of a mountain. We have had a taste of what liberation
really means, and it informs and affects our whole life thereafter. We
cannot ever again believe that we are separate. We cannot ever really
be afraid to die, because we "dying
have died already. This is called
before death"; it brings the most wonderful kind of detachment and
equanimity.
Then we come back at the end of it to realize in a most simple
way the basic teachings of the dharma. We see them again and again
more deeply. We see clearly Buddha's Noble Truths that there is —
suffering in life, that the suffering is inherent in it, that the cause of it
for us is our grasping or our identification. When we learn to be free

in that way, nothing can touch us. We discover that there is a real
liberation that is possible for every human being. We come to under-
stand the teachings of the heart and see that it is possible for the heart
to open and to contain the entire universe. We realize that the great-
ness of the heart is such that every single thing in life, the ten thou-
sand joys and the ten thousand sorrows, can all be contained within
the wholeness of the heart.
We finally come to see that spiritual practice is really very sim-

ple; it is a path of opening and letting go, of being aware and not
attaching to a single thing. As my teacher Aachan Chah said, "The
whole teaching is simple. When I see someone getting lost in the
sidetrack on the right side of the road or going off in a ditch, I yell,
'Go left.' If that same person is going down the road and they are
about to get lost in a sidetrack on the left or they fall off in the ditch,
I yell, 'Go right.* That is all I do. Wherever you would be attached,
let go of that and come back to the center, to see the movement of life
from a place that has a sense of grace and balance and openness."
But even after this tremendous and enlightening journey one
inevitably comes down. Very often in coming back one reencounters
all the difficulties of the journey again, but at least one can bring to
them a greater sense of balance and disidentihxation, an ease and

tenderness of one's heart and mind.
To close, there is a story of an old Chinese monk who decided to
go off and practice on top of a mountain, to either get enlightened or
die. He had sat in a Zen monastery and had many years of peaceful
meditation, but he was never enlightened. Finally he went to the
master and said, "Please, may I just go to the mountains and finish
this practice? That is all I want from life now, to see what this
enlightenment is about." The master, knowing he was ripe, gave
permission.
On the way up the mountain he met an old man walking down
with a big bundle. The oldman was really the bodhisattva Manjusri.
He is said to appear to people when they are ready for enlightenment.
Usually he is depicted carrying a sword that cuts through all illu-
sions. But here he had this bundle.

The old man comes down the mountain and says: "Where are
you going, monk?" The monk says: "I am going up to the top of the
mountain with my bowl and a few belongings. I am going to sit there
and either get enlightened or die. That is all I want. I have been
a monk for a long time, and now I must know what this liberation
is about."
Since the old man looked very wise, the monk asked: "Tell me,
old man, do you know anything of this enlightenment?" At which
point the old man simply let go of the bundle and it dropped to the
ground. As in all good Zen stories, in that moment our monk was
enlightened! "You mean it is that simple, just to let go in this moment
and not grasp anything?"
( )b$tacles and Vicissitudes in Spiritual Practice 169
This truth is very hard for US to realize, because our attachment

to the process ol the body and the mind, the physical and mental
events, is SO Strong. We take it so powerfully to be ourselves that it
takes thewhole deep process I have described to untangle and undo

the knot of self. For most people it takes a really deep, systematic,
and disciplined path of practice to break open the source of inner
bondage.
And in the process one passes through all the realms of fire and
dissolution, the storms and emotions, the whole series of tempta-
tions, hindrances, and difficulties. And in the end, we still must
return. So the newly enlightened monk now looks back at the old
man and asks, "So now what?" In answer, the old man reaches down
and picks up the bundle again and walks off toward town.
The story has both sides of practice. It teaches us to let go in a
verv profound and deep way to relinquish our grasping, our fears,
our identification with all things. It helps us to see directly that we
are not this body, we are not the feelings, we are not the thoughts;
that we just rent this house for a while. And
once we have realized
that, it teaches us that we must reenter the world with a caring heart,
with a universal compassion, and with a great deal of balance and
wisdom. We must pick up our bundle and take it back into the realms
of form, the realms of humans. But now we can travel as a bodhi-
sattva, as one who has traversed the terrain of life and death and
understands it deeply enough to be free in a whole new way. And
from freedom to bring a deep wisdom, and a heart of under-

this
standing and compassion, to a world that needs it so much.
Ram Doss
PROMISES AND
PITFALLS OF THE
SPIRITUAL PATH
Friend, please tell me what I can do about this world
I hold to, and keep spinning out!
I gave up sewn clothes, and wore a robe,

but I noticed one day the cloth was well woven.
So I bought some burlap, but I still
throw it elegantly over my left shoulder.
I pulled back my sexual longings,
and now I discover that Vm angry a lot.
I gave up rage, and now I notice

that I am greedy all day.
I worked hard at dissolving the greed,
and now I am proud of myself.
When the mind wants to break its link with the world
it still holds on to one thing.
Kabir says: Listen my friend,
there are very few that find the path!
KABIR, The Kabir Book
171
this century, the spiritual quest and its challenges

Inwere
the first half of
interesting and relevant for a narrow circle of seekers. The
mainstream culture was enmeshed in the pursuit of material values
and external goals. This situation started to change very rapidly in the
1960s, a period that brought a wave of interest in spirituality and
consciousness evolution. Among
most obvious manifestations were a
its
widespread and often irresponsible experimentation with psychedelic

substances, a mushrooming of various non-drug-related techniques of
deep self-exploration, such as experiential forms of psychotherapy and
biofeedback, and a new enthusiasm about ancient and Oriental phi-
losophies and practices.
This time of extraordinary turmoil and rapid change provided
many valuable lessons for a deeper understanding of the transcenden-
tal impulse and of the promises and pitfalls of the spiritual path.
Besides the widely publicized excesses and casualties of this stormy
development, there were also many instances of genuine spiritual
awakening leading to a serious search and a life of service. In a less
dramatic and ostentatious way, this wave of spiritual fermentation has
continued to this day.
An increasing number of people seem to be undergoing a process

of gradual spiritual emergence, as well as more dramatic forms of
transformational crisis. It would be difficult to find a more articulate
and knowledgeable person to convey the lessons of this stormy period
than psychologist, consciousness researcher, and spiritual seeker
Richard Alpert (Ram Dass).
Alpert received his Ph.D. in psychology from Stanford University
and has taught at Harvard, Stanford, and the University of Califor-
nia. In the 1960s, he was one of the pioneers of psychedelic research.
This work evoked in him deep interest in consciousness evolution and
in the great spiritual philosophies of the East. At this time, he pub-
lished, jointly with Timothy Leary and Ralph Metzner, The Psyche-
delic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead.
Promises arid Pitfalls of the Spiritual Path 173
In 1967) his personal and professional interest in spirituality and

k took him o)i a pilgrimage to India, hi a small village in
Himalayas, he found his guru, Seem Karoli Baba, who gave him
the name Ram Dass, oi "Servant of God." Since that time, Ram Dass
has explored a broad spectrum of spiritual practices, including Zen
dilation, Sufi Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism,
techniques,
and various systems of yoga, or ways toward union with God: through
Hum (hhakti yoga), service (karma yoga), psychological self-
\>'iment (raja yoga), and activation of inner energy (Kundahni yoga).
Ram Pass has made great contributions to the integration of
item philosophy and Western thought. By reporting with unusual
honesty and an extraordinary sense of humor all the successes and
mistakes of his personal quest, he has become an important model and
cher. He has generously made this information available through
public talks, lectures at professional conferences, audio- and video-
tapes, and a series of books.
Ram Dass is the author of many articles and the books Be Here
Now, The Only Dance There Is, Grist for the Mill, Journey of
Awakening, and Miracles of Love. He coauthored (with Paul Gor-
man) a unique companion book for people assisting others in crisis,
entitled How Can I Help? It is written from a spiritual perspective
and offers many useful guidelines for professionals, volunteers, friends,
and family. Many of its insights are applicable to work with spiritual
emergencies.
For many years, Ram Dass has dedicated his life to service, which
he considers his primary yoga, or vehicle for spiritual liberation. In
1973 hefounded the Hanuman Foundation, an organization for en-
hancement of spiritual awareness in the West and for manifesting
compassion in action. Among the projects initiated by this foundation
are the Prison/Ashram Project, inspiring inmates of prisons to use
their time there for spiritual practice, and the Living/Dying Project
and Dying Center, which teach people conscious approaches to dying.
Ram Dass has also been instrumental in the work of the Seva Founda-
tion, a nonprofit organization dedicated to manifesting compassion in
action on a global scale. It helps to raise and distribute funds and to
create and staff a variety of service projects throughout the world.
During the last twenty-five years Ram Dass has become a cul-
tural archetype of a true spiritual seeker, devoting most of his time to
practice and service. The following is adapted from a talk on the
promises and pitfalls of the spiritual path that he gave at the Tenth
International Transpersonal Conference in Santa Rosa, California, in

October 1988. In it he draws on his profound personal experience as
well as his work with countless people in the United States and abroad.
In the 1960s, we underwent a major shift away from absolute reality.

We realized that what we saw and understood was only one kind of
reality and that there were other kinds of reality. William James said
many years before that "our normal waking consciousness is but one
type of consciousness, whilst all about it, parted from it by the
filmiest of screens, there lie potential forms of consciousness entirely
different. We may go through life without suspecting their existence,
but apply the requisite stimulus and at a touch there they are in their
completeness."
Up primary containers of spirituality and
until the 1960s, the
ethical constraints in our culture were organized religions. These
institutions motivated people to ethical behavior through fear and
internalized superego. The mediator between you and God was the
priest. And what the 1960s did, through the use of psychedelics
initially, was blow that whole system apart. That era once again made
the relationship to God a direct experience of the individual. Of

course, the Quakers have had a history of such experience, as have
other traditions. But in terms of the mainstream, a new concept was
coming into the culture, one that was spiritual and not formally
religious.
Most of the time prior to the 1960s, mystical experience had been
denied and treated as irrelevant in our culture. I was a social scientist,
and I also spurned it. Rainer Maria Rilke said of that period:
The only courage that is demanded of us, is the courage for the most
strange, the most singular, the most inexplicable that we may encoun-
ter. Mankind has in this sense been cowardly, has done life endless
harm. The experiences that are called visions, the whole so-called spirit
world, death, all these things that are so closely akin to us, have by
daily paring been so crowded out of our life, that the senses with
which we could have grasped them are atrophied, to say nothing of
God.
But in the 1960s many of us recognized something in ourselves that

we had never known before. We experienced a part of our being that
was not separate from the universe, and we saw how much of our
Promises and Pitfalls of the SpmtK.il Path 175
behavior was based on the desire to alleviate the pain that came from
our own separateness. For the first time many ot us broke out of the
alienation that we had known all ot our adult lives. We began to
recognize the health ot our intuitive, compassionate hearts, the health
thathad been lost behind the veil ot our minds and the constructs we
had created about who we were. We transcended dualism and experi-
enced our unitive nature with all things.
But it is interesting how mainstream those ideas have gotten in
the twenty-five years since that time. When I was lecturing in those
days, I was speaking to an audience between the ages of fifteen and
twenty-five, the explorers of that time. These lectures were like meet-
ings tor the explorers club, and we were comparing maps of the
terrain of our Today when I speak in a place like Des Moines,
travels.
Iowa, there are fifteen hundred people, and I am saying roughly the
same thing that I was saying back then. I would say 70 to 80 percent
of those people have never smoked dope, have never taken psyche-
delics, have never read Eastern mysticism, but they are all shaking
their heads in agreement. How
do they know? Of course the reason
they know is that these values —
the shift from our narrow view of
reality into a relative reality —
have permeated the mainstream of the
culture. We now have many more options about reality, reflected in
the many new kinds of social institutions for education.
To understand what was happening to us twenty-five years ago,
we maps, and the best ones available to us at that
started looking for
time seemed to be Eastern maps, particularly Buddhism and Hindu-
ism. In most of the Middle Eastern religions, the maps about the
direct mystical experience were part of the esoteric rather than the
exoteric teachings, and were guarded. The Kabbalah and Hassidism
were not as popular as they are now. So in those early days we were
going to the Tibetan Book of the Dead, the Upanishads, and the
Bhagavad Gita. We turned to varied forms or practices in order to
further experience or to integrate what had happened to us through
psychedelics.
In the early 1960s, Tim Leary and I had a chart on our wall at
Millbrook, a geometric curve that showed just how fast everyone
would get enlightened. It did involve LSD being put in the water
supply, but other than that it was not very dramatic. Collective en-
lightenment seemed so inevitable and irrevocable, because of the
power of the psychedelic experience. We surrounded ourselves with
other people who had experienced transformation and were soon
considered a cult at Harvard, due mainly to the fact that people who
—
had not experienced this type of breakthrough could no longer com-

municate with us. Having gone through the experience to the other
side, our language had changed, thereby creating an unbridgeable
gulf.
On another was
kind of naive expectation that the
level, there a
process was going to be over immediately. This expectation was ne-
gated by the information that we read, but we felt that psychedelics
were going to work where Buddhism and Hinduism fell short.
When the Buddha described how long humanity had been on the
journey, as he spoke of reincarnation he talked of a mountain six
miles wide, six miles high, six miles long. Every hundred years a bird
would fly with a silk scarf in its beak and run it over the mountain
once. The length of time it takes the scarf to wear away the mountain
is the length of time you have been on the path. If you apply that to
you begin to see that it is less than a blink of the eye, each
this life,
birth being a moment, much like still-frame photography. With that
kind of time perspective, you relax and take the chart off the wall.
Yet at the same time, much of the spiritual literature speaks of
urgency. Buddha says, "Work as hard as you can." Kabir said:
Friend, hope for the guest while you are alive.

Jump into experience while you are alive . . .
What you call "salvation" belongs to the time before death.

Ifyou do not break the ropes while you are alive,
do you think
ghosts will do it after?
The idea that the soul will
join with the ecstatic
just because the body is rotten
that is all fantasy.
What is found now is found then.
Ifyou find nothing now,
you will simply end up with an
apartment in the city of death.
If you make love with the Divine now, in the next life you
will have the face of satisfied desire.
So plunge into the truth, find out who the teacher is,
Believe in the great sound!
So there was this desire to get on with it, which we interpreted

as taking the entire spiritual journey and turning it into an achieve-
Promises and Pit fulls of the Spiritual Path 177
meni course. There is a lovely story ol a boy who goes to a Zen

master and says, "Master, 1 know you have many students, but if I
Study harder than all the rest ot them, how long will it take me to get
enlightened?" The master said, "Ten years." The boy said, "Well, if I
work da\ and night, and double my efforts, how long will it take?"
The master said, "Twenty years." Now, the boy talked of further
achievement and the master said, "Thirty years." The boy replied,
"Whv do you keep adding years?" and the master said, "Since you
will have one eye on the goal, there will only be one eye left to have
on the work, and it will slow you down immeasurably."
In essence, that was the predicament we found ourselves in. We
got so attached to where we were going that we had little time to
deepen our practice to get there. But over the years we have grown.
We have developed patience, and as a result, we have stopped count-
ing. That in itself is great growth for a Western culture. I do my
spiritual practices because I do my spiritual practices; what will hap-
pen will happen. Whether I will be free and enlightened, now or in
ten thousand births, is of no concern to me. What difference does it
make? What else do I have to do? I cannot stop anyway, so it does
not make any difference to me. But one concern is to watch that you
do not get trapped in your expectations of a practice.
There is a lovely story about Nasrudin, the Sufi mystic slob and
bum. Nasrudin goes over to his neighbor's to borrow a large cooking
pot. His neighbor replied, "Nasrudin, you know that you are very
undependable and I really treasure this big pot. I don't think I can
give it to you." And Nasrudin said, "My family is all coming, I
really need it. I will bring it back tomorrow." Finally, begrudgingly
the neighbor gave him the pot. Nasrudin took it home very appre-
ciatively and the next day he was at the door with the pot. The
neighbor was delighted and said, "Nasrudin, how wonderful." He
took the pot, and inside the big pot was a little pot. He said, "What's
that?" Nasrudin said, "The big pot had a baby." So the neighbor of
course was very pleased. The next week Nasrudin came and said, "I
would like to borrow your pot. I am having another party." The
neighbor said, "Of course, Nasrudin, take my pot." So he did, and
the next day Nasrudin did not appear. The day after that, still no
Nasrudin. Finally, the neighbor went to Nasrudin and said,
"Nasrudin, where's my pot?" Nasrudin said, "It died." See how you
can get sucked in by your own mind?
Starting in the 1960s, there was an influx of Eastern spiritual
teachers into the West. I can remember going to the Avalon Ballroom
in the company of Sufi Sam to hear Alan Ginsberg introduce

A. C. Bhaktivedanta, who was going to chant this weird chant called
Hare Krishna. The Beatles were jetting with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.
At one point, I went with a group of hippies from the Haight Ash-
bury to meet with the elders of the Hopi in Hota Villa. This was to
arrange a Hopi/hippie be-in in the Grand Canyon. We were honoring
them as our elders, but they did not really want to be honored by us,
I do not think. Because when we went there we made terrible mis-
takes, we gave feathers to the children and some of us made love by

the well. We did not know how to honor lineages properly.
Over the years we learned how to honor lineages through our
connection with Eastern traditions. Our problems with lineages came
from the question of how much of them we would incorporate as
they were, and how much we would modify them. You must modify
traditions from within, not from without. What many Westerners
started to do was take a tradition from Mahayana Buddhism and say,
"That is fine for Tibetan Buddhists, but really what we should do
is ... " We attempted these modifications before fully understand-
ing the practice from the deepest place within both ourselves and the
lineage. Carl Jung writes about Richard Wilhelm in his preface to the
I Ching. He calls Wilhelm a Gnostic intermediary, saying that
Wilhelm had incorporated the Chinese being into his blood and his
cells. Wilhelm had transformed himself in the fashion that is neces-
sary to properly approach lineage.

Many of us were so eager to get ahead that we thus did violence
to a number of the lineages. We went to the East and brought them,
but kept modifying them for our own convenience and comfort. In
the West, we are a cult of the ego. We are more focused on "what /
want, what / desire, what / need." This attitude is not equally true of
Eastern cultures. Many of the Eastern spiritual practices are not
focused around personality and therefore are not immediately trans-
ferable to the West.
At first, I did not really understand the importance of lineage. I
remember doing a television show with Chogyam Trungpa Rin-
poche; we were talking about nonattachment as a highly desirable
quality of mind. I said to him, "Well, if you are so nonattached, why
don't you give up your lineage?" He said, "I am not attached to
anything but my lineage." And I said, "Well, you have a problem."
My judgment came from my lack of appreciation for the intimate love
affair one has with a method. One goes into method as a dilettante,
Promises and Pit fulls of (he Spiritual Path 179
becomes attached to it in way, and then emerges From

a rather fanatic
the method >\nd "wears" without being attached to it.

it
In the 1960s, we gathered together around our newfound spir-

itual awakenings and all the ways we knew about how to get high.
You would find groups gathered around sexual freedom, drugs,
chanting, .md meditation. We used Eastern names like the satsang
and the sangha, but eventually our activities formed boundaries
around them. Often there was a sense of elitism, a concern with who
was and was not a part of our group. There was a common assertion
that "our way" was the only way. Many of us recognize how much
violence can be done with this attitude of exclusivity.
I am reminded of the story of God and Satan walking down the
street, and they see this brilliantly shiny object on the ground. God
reaches dowm, picks it up, and says, "Ah, it's truth." And Satan
says, "Oh, yes. Here, give it to me and Til organize it." That is
roughly what it felt like, when "truth" become institu-
started to
tionalized and structured in the 1970s. became fashionable to be
It
part of these large spiritual movements (which were beautiful and got
people incredibly high).
The predicament came from the fact that many of the Eastern
teachers that came over had come from primarily celibate, renunciate
paths. They were not ready for Western women, who were in the
middle of experiencing sexual freedom and feminism. The teachers
were absolutely vulnerable and fell like flies.
These people were teachers, not gurus. A teacher is pointing the

way, while a guru is the way. A guru is a cooked goose: the gurus are
done. We, however, took the concept of guru and limited it with our
need for a good father in a psychodynamic sense. We wanted the
guru to "do it to us," when the guru in fact is rather a presence that
facilitates or allows you to do your work. Depending on your karmic
predispositions, you "do it" to yourself.
We eventually brought our judging mind into the spiritual scene.
I, was surrounded by gossip about this spiritual teacher or
personally,
that one. seemed as if everyone was becoming a connoisseur of clay
It
feet. Many of us were busy deciding whether or not v/e could afford
to take a teaching from someone who was impure in our eyes. We

misunderstood the concept of surrender. We thought that you sur-
render to someone else as a person, when what you do is surrender to
the truth. Ramana Maharshi says, "God, guru, and self are one and
the same thing." So what you are surrendering to is your higher truth
or higher wisdom in the guru. Surrender is an interesting issue. We in

the West see it as a We associate surrender with
very unpleasant idea.
images of MacArthur and the showing of the neck in vulnerability.
The fact that surrender is such an important facet of the spiritual path
is something that we have had to stretch to understand.
As we learned more about the traditions, we realized that if we
were to incorporate what happened to us through psychedelics, we
were going to have to do a great deal of purification. At first we were
reluctant, but we began to see that we would have to stop creating
karma to get ourselves into a place where we could get high and not
come down. There was a big push for renunciate practices. There was
a feeling that this earth-plane was the illusion and the source of the
problem. There was a consensus that it was an error that we had
ended up here anyway. The best thing to do was to get "up there, out
there," where it was all divine. People began to feel that if they gave
up worldly possessions, they would become purer and better able to
have deeper experiences. Many did, but the problem again was that
such experiences were collected like achievements.
Meister Eckhart said, "We are to practice virtue, not to possess
it." We tried to wear our virtue like marks on our sleeves to show
how pure we were. Nonetheless, our practices and rituals affected us

and we started to have many more spiritual experiences, leading to a
time when everyone was in a state of spiritual bliss.
We reacted to that experience by becoming enamored of all the
phenomena that occurred as a result of our practices, meditation, and
spiritual purification. We were very vulnerable to spiritual material-
ism. If we had a Ford in the garage, we had an astral being in the
bedroom. The traditions warned us about this attitude; Buddhism,
for example, cautions against getting stuck in the trance states, be-
cause you will experience omniscience, omnipotence, omnipresence.
Buddhism advises that we simply acknowledge these states and move
on. But the temptation to cling to such experiences as achievements
persists. It is very hard to understand that spiritual freedom is ordi-
nary, nothing special, and that this ordinariness is what is so precious
about it.
With all these powers came a tremendous amount of energy,

because when you meditate and quiet your mind, you start to tune
into other planes of reality. Ifyou were a toaster, this experience
would be your plug into 220 volts instead of 110 volts,
like sticking
and everything fries. Many people have had incredible experiences of
energy or shakti, or what is often called Kundalini, the cosmic en-
"
Promises and Pit fulls of the Spiritual Path is I
eigy rising up the spine. recall the first time it happened to me; I
1
thought had damaged

1 myself, because it was violent. As it started
up my spine, it felt like a thousand snakes. As the Kundalini reached
m\ second chakra ejaculated automatically and it continued to rise.
1
I remember being really frightened, mainly because I had not ex-

pected anything so horrendous.
1 get phone calls all the time, as I imagine the Spiritual Emer-
gence Network does, from people who are having Kundalini experi-
ences. For example, a therapist from Berkeley called and said, "This
thing is happening to me and I am riding my bike six hours a day, I
don't get tired, I can't sleep, I cry at the strangest moments, and I
think I'm going insane." I said, "Let me read you a list of all the
svmptoms, I have a Xerox." And she said, "I thought I was the only
one having this experience." I said, "No, it's Xeroxed. Swami Muk-
tananda published it a long time ago, and it ismother Kundalini
just
at work. Don't worry, it will pass. Just breathe in and out of your
heart and keep it soft.
These phenomena started to happen to us, and they scared or
excited or trapped or enamored us, and we stopped to smell the
pretty flowers. Many people brought their egos up with them when
they w ent
r
to experience this plane; they claimed the power available
in these realms as their own. They then went into a messianic jour-
ney, trying to convince everyone that they were "the One." These
episodes w ere very
r
painful for everyone.
I remember a moment with my brother when he was in a mental
institution, because he thought he was Christ and he was doing
terrible things as Christ. There was a point where the doctor, my
brother, and met in a hospital ward. The doctor would not let
I my
brother see anyone without being present himself.
I came in with a beard, robe, and beads, while my brother was
in a blue suit and a tie. He was locked up and I was free, the humor
of which did not escape any of us. We talked about whether the
psychiatrist would become convinced that my brother was God. All
the while, the doctor was writing on his clipboard, obviously uncom-
fortable, because my brother and I were really out there floating.
Then my brother said, "I don't understand, why am I in a hospital
and you are out there free? You look like a nut." I said, "You think
you're Christ?" He said, "Yeah." I said, "Well, I'm Christ, too." He
said, "No, you don't understand." I said, "That's why they're lock-
ing you up." The minute you tell someone they are not Christ, watch
out.
' "
Many people, when became so intense from their

the energy
grounding on this plane. The Spiritual
spiritual practices, lost their
Emergence Network has been assisting people in the process of get-
ting back to a grounded place. In India, people who experienced this
type of separation were called "God-intoxicated." Anandamayi Ma,
one of the greatest saints of all times, was a very dignified Bengali
woman who spent two years doing cartwheels in her front yard. She
was known to have thrown off her sari during that time as well. In
our culture, such behavior is Bellevue material. In Indian culture,
they say, "Ah, there's a God-intoxicated saint. We must take care of
him at the temple.'
In our culture, we do not have a support system for this kind of
transformative loss of ground, the process of which you need to go
through at times. Of course, a great many people have just gone into
come back. The complete process is one of losing
outer space and not
ground and then moving back to this plane. In the early days the
whole game was to get people out there, to get them to let go of their
minds and the heaviness they had taken into their lives. Then you
looked out and everyone was floating. I look at half the audience and
I want to say, "Hey, come on up for air, it's okay. It's not so heavy
in life." To the other half, I feel like saying, "Come on, get your act
together, learn your zip code, go get a job.
When spiritual practices work a little bit, but you are not stable
in your transformative experience, your faith flickers and the mos-
quitoes of fanaticism breed strongly. Most disciples fall victim to this
kind of fanaticism, whereas their teachers have long ago left it be-
hind. When you meet a spiritual master in any tradition Zen, Sufi, —
—
American Indian, Hindu, Buddhist you recognize another mensch.
They do not sit around saying, "Well, you're not following my way,
so you are lesser." But all the disciples right under them usually
do; they have not gone deep enough in their faith, or come out the
other end.
For a method to work, it has to trap you for a time. You have
got to —
become a meditator but if you end up a meditator you have
lost. You want to end up free, not a meditator. There are many people
"
who end up meditators: "I have meditated for forty-two years . . .
They look at you with earnestness, the golden chain of righteousness

having caught them. A method must trap you, and if it works, it will
self-destruct. You will then come through the other end and be free
of method.
Promises and Pitfalls oj the Spiritual Path IS.i
That one ol the reasons Rama Krishna's gospel is SO wonder

is
tul; you get to sec hun go through Kali worship, conic out the other
end, .md then explore other methods. Once you come through your
method, you see that all methods lead you to the same thing. People
Say, "How come you ate a Jew, do Buddhist meditation, and have a
lk
Hindu guru?" I say, l don't have any problem, what's your prob-
lem? There is only one God, the One has no name, so there's no
form and that is don't have any problem with that."
nirvana. I
The way which we were approaching the spiritual path had an

in
element ot righteousness to it, and there were teachers who assisted

us in moving through that dilemma. The one who probably helped
me most was Chogvam Trungpa Rinpoche. What you look for in a
realty good teacher is that quality of rascalness. Not scoundrelness,
but rascalness. I remember when I was teaching at Naropa that first
summer, I was having a hard time with Trungpa Rinpoche. One of
the problems was that he had all of his students drunk all the time,
busy gambling, and on heavy meat diets. I thought, "What kind of a
spiritual teacher is this?" I came out of a Hindu renunciate path. The
Hindus are always afraid of falling over the edge. Yet here was this
man taking them all down the path to hell, as far as I was concerned.
Of course, I was sitting in judgment. When I looked at those
same students several years later, I saw them deep in the Hundred
Thousand Prostrations and the heaviest spiritual practices. Trungpa
Rinpoche had taken them through their obsessions and on to deeper
practices. He was not afraid, while most of the other traditions
avoided such risks for fear that someone would get lost along the way.
A Tantric teacher is not afraid to lead us through our own dark side.
Thus you never know whether the Tantric is an exquisite teacher or
hung up on his or her own obsessions. There is no way that you can
know. If you want to be free, all you can do is use these teachers as
hard as you can, and their karmic problems will remain their own.
That is the secret you finally find out about teachers.
You get to the point where you see that you can proceed on the
spiritual path only so fast, because of your own karmic limitations.
Here you begin to recognize the timing of spiritual work. You cannot
get ahead of yourself, or be phony-holy, because it comes back and
hits you in the head. You can get very high, but you may fall.
So many people say that they have "fallen off the path." I say to
them, "No, you didn't fall off the path. The impurities have had
their karmic effect. This is all the path, and once you have begun to
awaken, you can't fall off the path. There's no way. Where are you
going to fall to? Are you going to make believe it never happened?
You can forget for a moment, but what you think you have forgotten
will keep coming back to you. So, do not be upset, just go ahead and
,,
be worldly for a while.
One of our expectations was that the spiritual path would get us
healthy psychologically. I was trained as a psychologist. I was in
analysis for many years. I taught Freudian theory. I was a therapist. I
took psychedelic drugs for six years intensively. I have a guru. I have
meditated since 1970 regularly. I have taught Yoga and studied Sufism,
plus many kinds of Buddhism. In all that time I have not gotten rid
—
of one neurosis not one. The only thing that has changed is that,
whereas previously my neuroses were huge monsters, now they are
like these little shmoos. "Oh, sexual perversity, I haven't seen you in
days, come and have some tea." To me the product of the spiritual
path is that I now have another contextual framework that makes me
much less identified with my known neurosis, and with my own
desires. If I do not get what I want, that is as interesting as when I
get it. When you begin to recognize that suffering is grace, you
cannot believe You think you are cheating.
it.
Along the way on the spiritual path, you begin to get bored with
the usual things of life. Gurdjieff said, "That's just the beginning."
He said, "There's worse to come. You have already begun to die. It
is a long way yet to complete death, but still a certain amount of
silliness is You can no longer deceive yourself as
going out of you.
sincerely asyou did before. You have now gotten the taste for truth."
As this growth happens, friends change and you do not grow at
the same rate. Thus you lose a great many friends. It can be very
painful when people you have loved, even in marriage, are not grow-
ing along with you. It is a pitfall that caught many of us feeling guilty
about letting go of friends and realizing that we needed new kinds of
relationships.
Along the way, when you can no longer justify your existence
with achievements, life starts to become meaningless. When you
think you have won and find that you really haven't won anything,
you start to experience the dark night of the soul, the despair that
comes when the worldliness starts to fall away. Never are we nearer
the light than when darkness is deepest. In a way, the structure of the
ego has been based on our separateness and our desire to be comfort-
able, happy, and at home. Trungpa Rinpoche said in his rascally way,
"Enlightenment is the ego's ultimate disappointment."
Promises and Pitfalls of the Spiritual Path 185
That is the predicament, "ton see the fact that your spiritual
journey is game than the path you thought

an entirely different ball
you were on. It is very difficult to make that transition. Many do not
want to. They want to take the power from their spiritual work and
make their lite nice. That is wonderful and honor it, but that is not I
freedom and not what the spiritual path offers. It offers freedom, but
that requires complete surrender. Surrender of who you think you —
are and w hat you think you are doing into —
what is. It is mind-
boggling to think that spirituality is dying into yourself. But there is
a death in it and people grieve. There is a grief that occurs when who
you thought you were starts to disappear.

Ralu Rinpoche said, "We live in illusion, the appearance of
things. But there is a reality, and we are that reality. When you
understand this, you see that you are nothing, and being nothing,
you are everything." When you give up your specialness, you are
part of all things. You are in harmony, in the Tao, in the way of
things.
Mahatma Gandhi said, "God demands nothing less than com-
plete self-surrender as the price for the only freedom that is worth
having. When a person loses himself/herself, they immediately find
themselves in the service of all that lives. It becomes their delight and
recreation. They are a new people never weary of spending them-
,,
selves in the service of God's creation.
I am reminded of the story of the pig and chicken that are
walking down the street. They are hungry and they want breakfast.
They come to a restaurant and the pig says, "I am not going in
there." And the chicken says, "Why not?" "Because there's a sign
that says 'ham and eggs.'" The chicken says, "Oh, come on, we'll
have something else." The pig says, "That's okay for you, 'cause
from you all they want is a contribution. From me they want total
surrender."
One of the things we develop along the way is the witness. The
ability to quietly observe the phenomena, including our own be-
havior, emotions, and reactions. As you cultivate the witness more
deeply, it is as if you are living simultaneously on two levels. There is
the level of witness, then the level of desire, fear, emotion, action,
reaction. That is a stage in the process, and it gives you a great deal of
power. There is another stage beyond that, which is surrender. As a
Buddhist text states, "When the mind gazes into the mind itself, the
train of discursive and conceptual thought ends, and supreme en-
lightenment is gained." When the witness turns in on itself, when it
witnesses the witness, then you go in behind the witness and every-
thing justis. You are no longer busy with one part of your mind
watching another. You are not busy watching, but rather just being.
Things become simple again. I am having the most extraordinary
experience these days. I have tried so many years to be divine, and
lately I have received an enormous amount of letters saying, "Thank
you for being so human." Is that not far out?
One we have in the West is our intelligence,
of the big traps
because know that we know. Freedom allows you to be
we want to
wise, but you cannot know wisdom, you must be wisdom. When my
guru wanted to put me down, he called me "clever." When he
wanted to reward me, he would call me "simple." The intellect is a
beautiful servant, but a terrible master. Intellect is the power tool of
our separateness. The intuitive, compassionate heart is the doorway
to our unity.
The spiritual path at its best offers us a chance to come back
to the innate compassionate quality of our heart and our intuitive
wisdom. The balance comes when we utilize our intellect as a servant
but are not ruled by, or trapped in, our thinking mind.
What I have done here is try to show that the spiritual path is a
graceful opportunity for us. The fact that you and I have even heard
that there is such a path is such grace from a karmic point of view.
Each of us must be true to ourselves to find our unique way through.
If you get phony-holy, it will end up kicking you in the butt. You
must stay true to yourself.

We have the chance to become the truth we are all yearning for.
One of Gandhi's strongest lines is, "My life is my message." The
rabbi said, "I went to see the Sadie, the mystic rabbi in the other
village. I did not go to study the Torah with him, but rather to see
how he ties his shoes." St. Francis says, "It doesn't pay to walk to
preach, unless our preaching is our walking." We must integrate the
spirituality into our daily life, bringing into it equanimity, joy, and
awe. We must take with us the ability to look suffering in the eye and
embrace it into ourselves, without averting our glance.
When I work with AIDS patients and I am holding someone,
my heart is breaking, because I love this person and they are suf-
fering so much. Yet within me at the same time is equanimity and
joy. The paradox is almost too much for me to be able to handle. But
this is what real helping is all about. If all you do is get caught in the
suffering, then all you are doing is digging everyone's hole deeper.
Promises And Pit falls of the Spiritual Path IS7
You work on yourself, spiritually, as an offering to your fellow

beings. Because, until vou have cultivated that quality of peace, love,
joy, presence, honesty, and truth, all of your acts are colored by your
attachments. You cannot wait to be enlightened to act, so you utilize
\ our acts as ways of working on yourself. My entire life is my path,
and this is true for every experience I have. As Emmanuel, my
ghostly friend, said to me, "Ram Dass, why don't you take the
curriculum? Try being human." All of our experience, high and low,
is the curriculum, and it is exquisite. I invite you to join me in
matriculating.
Part Four
HELP FOR PEOPLE

IN SPIRITUAL
EMERGENCY
Christina Grof and Stanislav Grof
ASSISTANCE IN
SPIRITUAL EMERGENCY
We shall not cease from exploration

And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
T. S. ELIOT, Four Quartets
191
There are many forms of spiritual emergency involving varying

degrees of intensity. The extent of assistance required thus de-
pends upon the situation. In some instances, treatment can be limited
to specific support for the person in crisis; at other times it can be
extended to involve relatives and friends, or supportive groups.
However, if the process is especially dramatic, professional therapeu-
tic help might be necessary around the clock. The approach to people
in crisis has to be flexible and creative, based on the assessment of the

individual nature of the crisis, and utilizing all the available resources.
The most important task is to give the people in crisis a positive
context for their experiences and sufficient information about the
process they are going through. It is essential that they move away
from the concept of disease and recognize the healing nature of their
crisis. Good literature and the opportunity to talk to people who
understand, particularly those who have successfully overcome a

similar crisis, can be invaluable.
Being surrounded by people who have at least a general under-
standing of the basic dynamics of spiritual emergency is of great help
to a person in psychospiritual crisis. Whether the attitudes and inter-
actions in the narrow circle of close relatives and friends are nourish-
ing and supportive or fearful, judgmental, and manipulative makes a
considerable difference in terms of the course and outcome of the
episode.
Ideally, and important friends should be in-
family, partners,
cluded in the support network from the beginning and offered as
much information about the situation as possible. Exactly who
should be included, at what time, and how depends on individual
circumstances. The quality of the relationship with the person in
crisis, the general compatibility of the personality characteristics of
the potential helpers, and their attitude toward the process are among
themost important criteria on which we base our decisions. Besides
books and discussions of the subject of spiritual emergency, experien-
tial therapy groups can be an important source of understanding of
issistdnce in Spiritual Emergency t93
nonordinary states >wd their positive potential for those in the posi-
tion ol helping someone in crisis.
In many instances, a ôod spiritual teacher who knows the inner

territories from his or her experiences or a local spiritual
group ean be
very helpful. Such individuals might be able to provide an oppor-
tunity to discuss some unusual experiences and otter understanding
m\A support tor someone in spiritual emergency. Guided individual
or group spiritual practice ean provide a good context for work with
the emerging experiences, it the process is not too overwhelming.
It would be ideal to have a network of support groups specifi-
cally designed tor people experiencing spiritual emergencies and their

familiesand friends, similar to the already existing programs in the
addiction held, such as Alcoholics Anonymous. To our knowledge,
no groups of this kind exist at present in the area of spiritual emer-
gency, but with a little effort, such a network could develop quite
rapidly.
For spiritual crises that are not extreme, the above resources
might be sufficient. Many people who have unusual experiences are
puzzled and bewildered by them, but they can manage to function
adequately in everyday life. Access to the right information, occa-
sional supportive discussion, and a good context for spiritual practice
are all they need.
Under favorable circumstances, if good support systems are
available, it is possible to handle even more challenging experiences
would not be able to confront without assis-
that the person in crisis
tance. However, if the process becomes overwhelming and seriously
interferes with everyday functioning, more specific therapeutic mea-
sures have to be undertaken. While many of the judgments and pro-
cedures described in the following text require therapeutic experience,
the basic rules and strategies we will discuss can be helpful for anyone
with a desire to help.
The and most important task for someone working with
first
people in is to establish an open and trusting relationship.

crisis
Initially, this rapport will help to get an account of what is happening
that is as honest and accurate as the person is able to give under the
circumstances. Later, trust will be the most critical factor in actual
psychotherapeutic assistance.
In addition to the usual qualities that invite trust, such as gen-
uine human concern, personal integrity, and basic honesty, a solid
knowledge of nonordinary states of consciousness from personal ex-
perience and from work with others is essential. The person in crisis
is very sensitive and will immediately recognize whether the ap-
proach of his or her helper is based on true empathic understanding

or on a professional routine stemming from the medical model. Inti-
mate knowledge of the cartography of nonordinary states can be of
great help in this process.
The next step for the helper is to decide whether using the
strategies of transpersonal psychotherapy is appropriate for the par-
whether conventional medical treatment is indicated. A
ticular case or
good medical examination is an absolutely necessary part of this
decision. We do not want to miss, and therefore neglect, conditions
that can be diagnosed by today's clinical and laboratory techniques
and require medical attention, such as infections, tumors, or circula-
tory diseases of the brain.
When medical tests are negative, we have to evaluate the person's
attitude and "experiential style." It is essential that the individual
is open to the idea that the problem resides in his or her
in crisis
own psyche and that this person does not "project" and blame every-
body and everything else in the world for his or her own difficulties.
And, naturally, he or she has to be willing to confront powerful
experiences.
Once the therapeutic work begins, it is important that the facili-
tator and the person in crisis share certain basic concepts. They must
agree that the difficulties are not manifestations of a disease, but of a
process that is healing and transformative. They accept all the emerg-
ing experiences —biographical, perinatal, and transpersonal — as nor-
mal constituents of the human psyche. They must agree that the
condition is not pathological per se, although it can be extremely
inconvenient and inappropriate under ordinary life circumstances.
Confrontation with such unusual experiences has to be limited, as
much as possible, to situations where it does not create problems and
where there is support.
The conscious world of consensus reality and the archetypal
world of the unconscious are both authentic and necessary aspects of
the human psyche. They complement each two sepa-other, but are
rate and very different realms that should not be confused. While it is
important to acknowledge both of them and respect their require-
ments with good discrimination, each at appropriate places and
times, responding to both of them simultaneously is confusing and
can be detrimental to functioning in everyday life.
This general understanding of the process leads to a combination
of two alternative strategies. In the first category are various ap-
Assistance in Spiritual Emergency \9$
MOaches that facilitate the process and cooperate with its healing
potential; these are definitely preferable whenever it is possible to use
them. In the second are various measures that can be used to slow it
down; these should be employed only in situations where the person
in crisis has to attend to demands of everyday life and the circum-
stances are not favorable for experiential work.

Among the gentle techniques that facilitate and accelerate the
transformative process are various types of meditation, movement
meditation, group chanting, and other forms of spiritual practice. A
more approach is to create situations where one can go within
radical
oneself, preferably with the use of music, and give full expression to
emerging emotions and physical energies by crying, screaming, —
shaking, or full —
body movements following the natural trajectory of
the process. Working with dreams, expressive dancing, drawing and
painting, and keeping a diary can also help in assimilating the inner
experiences. The disturbing emotional and physical energies can also
be dissipated in various physical activities, such as hard manual work,
swimming, or jogging.
The next option in the facilitating strategies is systematic work
with a trained therapist, either individually or in a group. Various
approaches developed by humanistic and transpersonal psychology
can be useful in spiritual crisis, such as Jungian active imagination,
Fritz Perls' Gestalt practice, Assagioli's psychosynthesis, various
neo-Reichian approaches, Dora Kalff's sand-play therapy, and oth-
ers. Since the experiences often have an important psychosomatic
component, good bodywork should be an integral part of a com-
prehensive approach to spiritual emergencies. Also, acupuncture has
its place here; it can be extremely effective in removing energy block-
ages in various parts of the body and can equalize difficult emotions.
For optimal results, the general therapeutic strategy has to meet
certain basic criteria. It should not be limited to talking and should
allow full experience and direct release of emotion. It is absolutely
essential to respect the healing wisdom of the transformative process,
to support its natural course, and to honor and accept the entire
spectrum of human experience, including the perinatal and transper-

sonal range. The therapist, of course, has to be open to the spiritual
dimension and recognize it as an important part of life. Without this
condition, the therapeutic process will be skewed and awkward and
will not be able to reach its objectives.
We have developed an experiential technique that includes all the
above criteria. This approach, known as Holotropic Breathwork,
combines controlled breathing, evocative music, and focused body-

work. It can activate the psyche and bring important unconscious
material into consciousness, which makes it available for the neces-
sary therapeutic work. In situations such as spiritual emergencies,
where the unconscious is already active, this technique can facilitate
and accelerate this process. It is beyond the scope of this paper to
discuss this method any further; all of its various aspects have been
described in Stanislav Grof's book The Adventure of Self-Discovery.
Creating special situations in one's life where it is possible to
confront and process the emerging unconscious material helps to
clear the rest of the day from unwelcome intrusions of its disturbing
elements. This requires a place where one can fully express by loud —
noises, if necessary —these emerging emotions. When the circum-
stances do not allow such an approach and one has to attend to
urgent practical tasks, it is possible to resort to techniques in the
second category — those that inhibit the process and slow it down. It
should be emphasized that these are the second choice and should be
used only as a temporary measure. As soon as the situation allows it,
one should return to facilitating strategies, since expressive work ex-
pedites the process and facilitates its successful completion.
To slow down the process, one should temporarily discontinue
all meditation and other forms of spiritual practice. Changing diet is
usually very effective; shifting from a light vegetarian diet to heavier

meals, including meat and cheese, and drinking beverages containing
honey or sugar can have a very grounding influence. A warm bath
and simple manual work in the house or in the garden can also be
helpful. If one has identified situations that tend to activate the pro-
cess, they should be avoided at this time, if possible. For some peo-
ple, this could be complex social situations or crowded areas; for
others, loud music and the noisy atmosphere of large cities, or even a
specific type of vibration, such as the hum of the engines in a jet
plane. In especially demanding situations, the occasional use of minor
tranquilizers might be necessary.
At this point, a word of caution seems appropriate and neces-
sary. People in spiritual emergencies might find that regular use of
alcohol and sedatives can make the experiences more manageable by
slowing down the process and suppressing difficult physical and emo-
tional symptoms. However, those with an unidentified problem of
chemical dependency are subject to the great danger of addiction. For
this reason, one has to exercise utmost caution. The fact that some of
Assistance in Spiritual Emergency i )7
l
these drugs might be prescribed by a physician rather than self-

administered does not make them any safer.
The situation is much more complicated when the crisis becomes
extreme \\\<\ the individual develops self-destructive tendencies or
presents management problems by being agitated, noisy, or otherwise
difficult. Under these circumstances, psychotherapeutic work can be
continued onlv it supervision around the clock is available. Unfor-
tunately, there are very few facilities that offer support 24 hours a day
and do not routinely use suppressive medication.
There are many obstacles that currently stand in the way of the
establishment of such centers. Some of them are legal, political, and
economic in nature; others are related to the inflexibility of insurance
policies. Until such retreats are established and readily available, it
will be difficult to use new approaches with people in acute spiritual

emergencies. They will have the choice between hospitalization with
traditional suppressive therapies, and various ad hoc improvisations
and compromises. In spite of all the obstacles and difficulties, the
creation of such centers is an absolutely necessary condition for suc-
cessful treatment of acute psychospiritual crises.
Bruce Greyson and Barbara Harris
COUNSELING
THE NEAR-DEATH
EXPERIENCER
Here comes white light It didn't blind me. It was just

this
the whitest white and the total area was filled with
it .... It was just like you looked out into a total uni-
verse and there was nothing but a white light. The most
brilliant thing in the world, and it was not the kind of
white that hurt a person's eyes like looking at a light
bulb .... Then I said to myself as plainly as I'm saying
to you, "So Vm dying. I don't want but Vm not
to,
going to fight it. If this is death, Til accept it. " / had a
very, very pleasant feeling.
NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCE OF A MAN DURING

EMERGENCY SURGERY IN Recollections of Death
BY MICHAEL SABOM
199
Cosmologies of all the ancient and preindustrial cultures describe

biological death as a transition, rather than the irreversible end
of human existence. Funeral mythologies of all times and countries, as
well as the ancient books of the dead, contain elaborate accounts of
the adventures of the soul during the posthumous journey. Modern
Western science considered all these reports to be wishful fantasies of
primitive peoples until the 1970s, when careful investigation of near-
death experiences brought unexpected support for these claims.
It became clear that a large percentage of contemporary West-
erners, when suddenly confronted with death, experienced a colorful
visionary adventure resulting in a profound spiritual opening and per-
sonality transformation. Until recently, this often led to a profound
psychospiritual crisis, was not
since the reality of these experiences
accepted by professionals and our culture at large.
In recent years, much careful research was conducted by pioneers
in the field of thanatology, a young discipline concerned with death
and dying. The remarkable results of this research have been widely
publicized in professional journals as well as the mass media. This is
extremely important, since the number of people having near-death

experiences is rapidly increasing due to advances of medical resuscita-
tion techniques. This topic is represented in our collection by a paper
written specifically for this purpose by Bruce Greyson and Barbara
Harris, researchers in the field of thanatology.
Bruce Greyson, M.D., is a board-certified psychiatrist who has
done pioneering work area of death and dying. He received his
in the
medical degree from the State University of New York and completed
his psychiatric residency at the University of Virginia Medical Center
in Charlottesville, Virginia. He is currently associate professor of psy-
chiatry at the University of Connecticut Medical School in Farm-
ington, Connecticut, and director of the inpatient service at the John
Dempsey Hospital, also in Farmington.
Among Greyson's publications are many papers in professional
journals and books focusing on various problems in the fields of
( ounseling the Near-Death Experiencer 201
thanatology and emergency psychiatry, as well as the booh The Near-

Death Experience: Problems, Prospects, Perspectives, coauthored
wkh C. P. Flynn, He is also the recipient of the 1976 William James
rd from the University of Virginia and the 1976 William C. Men-
mnger Award, as well as associate editor of the Journal ol Near-
Death Studies.
Barbara Harris, R.T.T. y C.E., received her education at Oak-
land i 'nivcrsity in Rochester, Michigan, at the Respiratory Therapy
Institute in Miami, Florida, and at the Connecticut Center for Mas-
sage Therapy in Newington, Connecticut. She is currently associate
director of research at the International Association for Near-Death

Studies {IANDS) in Storrs, Connecticut. Harris has been involved for
many rears in research on near-death experiences; she has lectured on
this subject at various hospitals and has published articles in profes-
sional journals.
While paper focuses on ways in which professionals can help
this
those who have undergone near-death experiences, the general princi-

ples elucidated shed light on the nature of spiritual emergency and can
be of use to anyone in close contact with someone in transformational
crisis.
When some people come close to death, they go through a profound

experience that involves leaving their bodies and encountering some
other realm or dimension, and that permanently and dramatically
alters their attitudes, and values. These near-death experi-
beliefs,
ences, or NDEs, are often the seeds that either immediately or even-
tually flower into profound spiritual growth. Thanks to medical
technology, the NDE may become our most common doorway to
spiritual development. But it is perhaps unique among doorways in
that it opens to people regardless of whether or not they are seeking
enlightenment. And precisely because it often occurs to people who
are not looking or prepared for spiritual growth, it is particularly
likely to lead to a spiritual crisis.
The growing literature on the aftereffects of the NDE has
focused on the beneficial personal and spiritual transformations that
often follow. Despite the fact that, according to the 1980-1981 Gallup
Poll,about 8 million Americans have had NDEs, we know very little
about the emotional and social problems NDEers often face. Al-
though NDEers might naturally feel distress if the NDE conflicts
—
with their previously held beliefs and attitudes, the emphasis in the
popular press on the positive benefits of NDEs inhibits NDEers who
are having problems from seeking help.
Sometimes people who were totally unprepared to face a spir-
itual awakening, as in anNDE, may doubt their sanity; yet they are
often afraid of rejection or ridicule if they discuss this fear with
Too often, NDEers do receive negative reac-
friends or professionals.
tionsfrom professionals when they describe their experiences
which naturally discourages them even further from seeking help in
understanding the experience.
Many NDEers gradually adjust on their own, without any help,
to their experience and its effects. However, that adjustment often
requires them to adopt new values, attitudes, and interests. Family
and friends may then find it difficult to understand the NDEer's new
beliefs and behavior.On the one hand, family and friends may avoid
the NDEer, whom they feel has come under the influence of some
evil force. On the other hand, family and friends who have seen all
the popular publicity about the positive effects of NDEs may place
the NDEer on a pedestal and expect unrealistic changes. Sometimes,
friends expect superhuman patience and forgiveness from the NDEer,
or miraculous healing and prophetic powers. They may then become
bitter and reject the NDEer who does not live up to the new role as a
living saint.
Common emotional problems following NDEs include anger
and depression at having been returned, perhaps against one's will, to
this physical dimension. NDEers may find it difficult to accept that
return, and experience "reentry problems" much like those of an
astronaut returning to Earth. They often have problems fitting the
NDE into their traditional religious beliefs, or into their traditional
values and lifestyles. Because the experience seems so central to their
"core," and seems to set them apart from other people around them,
NDEers may identify too strongly with the experience and think of
themselves first and foremost as an NDEer. Since many of their new
attitudes and beliefs are so different from those around them,
NDEers can overcome the worry that they are somehow abnormal
only by redefining for themselves what is normal.
The NDEcan also bring about social problems. NDEers may
feel a who have not had
sense of distance or separation from people
and they may fear being ridiculed or rejected by
similar experiences;
others —
sometimes, of course, with good reason. It can be difficult
for the NDEer to reconcile the new attitudes and beliefs with the
Counseling the Near-Death Experiencer 203
expectations oi family and friends; as a result, it can be hard to

maintain the old roles and which no longer have the same
lifestyle,
meaning. NDEers may find it impossible to communicate to others
the meaning and impact ot the NDE on their lives. Frequently, hav-
ing experienced the unconditional love ot the NDE, the NDEer can-
not accept the conditions and limitations ot human relationships.
Above and beyond these problems, which all NDEers may face
to one degree or another, people who have had unpleasant or fright-
ening NDEs have additional concerns aboutwhy they had that kind
ot experience, and may be troubled by terrifying flashbacks of the
experience itself. Similarly, additional problems may follow NDEs
arising out of a suicide attempt or in young children.
The way a counselor or therapist —or a friend — responds to an
NDEer can have a tremendous influence on whether the NDE is
accepted and becomes a stimulus for further growth, or whether it is
hidden away — but not forgotten— as a bizarre experience that must

not be shared, for fear of being labeled mentally ill.
While many of the notions described in this paper apply

uniquely to helping the near-death experiencer, others reflect com-
mon sense or approaches that would be helpful in any spiritual crisis.
APPROACHES DURING OR IMMEDIATELY

AFTER THE NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCE
Professional staff involved in resuscitating a patient should avoid in-
comments and actions. Patients who seem to be unconscious
sensitive
may be aware of what is going on around them, and may later re-
member offensive actions or statements. When during a resuscitation
you have to say or do things that can be misinterpreted, explain to
patients what you are doing, even though they appear unconscious; if
you do not, you may have to help them untangle frightening memo-
ries after they awaken. During and immediately after being uncon-
scious, physical touch is very helpful in orienting a patient. Talking

to unconscious patients while touching them, outlining their bodies
with your hands while you describe what you are doing, may help
them refocus their attention on their bodies after an NDE.
When talking with people immediately after a close brush with
had an NDE. People often
death, be alert for clues that they have
drop subtle hints to your openness to listen before they risk
test
sharing the experience with you. Do not push for the details of an
NDE, but wait for clues that the person wants to talk further.
NDEers may not want to share the details until they trust you. Let
them describe their experiences at their own pace, while watching for
those subtle hints — tests of how open you are — that they want to tell
you more.
Before approaching anNDEer, you should explore your own
attitudes toward the NDE. Be aware of your own prejudices, both
positive and negative, about what NDEs mean and about the people
who have such experiences. You should not press your own beliefs or
interpretation of the experience on the NDEer, but let your conversa-
tion be guided by the individual's own account and understanding of
the experience. Listen for clues as to how he or she makes sense of
the experience, and help the experiencer clarify that interpretation
using his or her own words. You each have to develop your own
personal ways of encouraging talk about the NDE.
Using your own
personal style of communicating, both verbally and nonverbally, is
the best way to get across your willingness to listen openly.
Whatever you think of the ultimate meaning or cause of the
NDE, you must respect it as an extremely powerful agent of trans-
formation. If you ignore the NDE's profound potential to bring
about both positive and negative changes in personality, beliefs, and
bodily activity, you ignore what is often the individual NDEer' s most
pressing concern. You must respect not only the experience but the
experiencer as well. All types of people have NDEs, and the
NDEer's rich personal and spiritual background should not be ig-
nored by focusing solely on that person's role as an NDEer.
Labeling the NDE, or giving the NDEer a clinical diagnosis
based on having had an NDE, is more likely to get in the way of
understanding and to push the NDEer away than it is to help. When
an individual NDEer does seem to have a mental or emotional dis-
ease, both you and the NDEer must be clear that that disease is not
related to the NDE itself. Trying to label the experience as a symp-
tom of illness is not accurate or helpful.
Honesty is critical in establishing an NDEer's trust. If it seems
appropriate, you can share your own reactions to the NDE, without
discrediting the NDEer's own perceptions and interpretation. You
must reassure the NDEer that you can treat what you are told con-
fidentially; the NDEer must be able to trust that you will not tell
others about the NDE without permission. People are often cautious
about sharing something as unusual and intimate as an NDE until
they are sure you will respect it, and they will have reasonable con-
corns about the respect or attitudes of other people with whom you
might share information about the NfDE.
The most helpful thing you can do after ,\n NDE is to listen
carefully to whatever the person wants to say. People who seem to be
upset by an experience usually feel pressure and urgency to under
stand They often become more frustrated if you tell them not to
it.
talk it, or if you sedate them into silence. Allowing NDEers to

about
talk lets them share and get rid of frightening feelings. Unlike halluci-
nating patients, who may become more upset by talking about their
fears and confusion, NDEers are usually relieved if you allow them
to struggle until they find the right words to describe their
experiences.
You should encourage the NDEer to express whatever emotions
were brought on by the experience. Most NDEs include very intense
emotions, and the NDEer might still have those unusually intense
feelings afterward. Mirror the person's feelings, but do not analyze
them. Feeding back to NDEers their own descriptions and emotions
will help them clarify what at firstmay seem like unexplain-
able feelings, while analyzing and interpreting those emotions pre-
maturely may only increase the NDEer's fears of being mis-
understood.
where people often come close to
In hospitals or other places
death, might be helpful to rotate listeners to prevent burn-out.
it
NDEers are often excited about their experiences and might need
fresh listeners who can take the time, and have the patience, to hear
them out.
One of the most helpful things you can provide an NDEer is
accurate information. Facts about NDEs and their aftereffects,

shared in a straightforward, nonjudgmental way, will greatly reduce
the experiences' immediate concerns about the implications and con-
sequences of the NDE.
Near-death experiencers are usually relieved
to learn how common NDEs are. On the other hand, no matter how
universal the experience is, it is unique for each individual, and you
must guard against using the NDE's commonness to trivialize any
individual's experience or its unique impact on his or her life.
When NDEers seem upset immediately following the experi-
ence, help them identify exactly what it is about the NDE that is
causing the problem. Explore the possible problems listed in the
opening section of this paper, using the individual NDEer's under-
standing of his or her own personality and situation. Once the spe-
cific problem is identified, tailor the solution to that specific person
and problem. No two NDEers have the same experience, the same
personality, or the same life situation to return to.
Finally, NDEers may need help immediately after the experience
in dealing with what brought them close to death. Focusing on the
NDE itself and its meaning, they may find it hard to arrange practical
medical and social For concerns centered on the experience

details.
itself, put them in touch with other NDEers or with local profes-
sionals who have worked with other NDEers. Many cities have
Friends of IANDS support groups, in which NDEers and their fam-
ilies and friends regularly discuss issues around the experience; you
can get the address of the nearest support group from the Inter-
national Association for Near-Death Studies (IANDS), Box 7767,
Philadelphia, PA 19101.
LONG-TERM APPROACHES AFTER THE

NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCE
If you expect to work with an NDEer past the initial contacts, you
must be prepared for the NDE to raise issues about life and its
purpose that may not come up in other clinical relationships. The
profound aftereffects of an NDE may affect your own psycho-
spiritual growth as much as the NDEer's. Decide whether you want
to accept that risk before starting to work with an NDEer on an
ongoing basis.
Once you have made that decision, you need what you
to clarify
expect from the work, and what the NDEer Make
sure you
expects.
understand what help the NDEer wants from you, and what the
NDEer hopes will come out of your work together; and make sure
the NDEer understands what you want from him or her, and what
you hope will come out of the relationship. Be especially careful of
jumping to conclusions about people you knew before their NDE,
particularly clients you may have helped prior to their NDE. Do not
assume that work you began before the NDE will continue on the
same course after the experience. Even though the person's under-
lying problems and personality may be the same, the NDE may
dramatically change his or her goals and priorities in life and in your
work together.
You may need to limit the areasyou will address in your work
together. Taking into account the NDEer's personality and situation
before the experience, clarify what problems are new as a result of the
NDE. You may find it impossible to help someone both with NDE-
rtlatedproblems and also with unrelated emotional or psychological
problems; the techniques and the goals oi one kind of counseling may
conflict with those ot the other. For example, helping your client
adapt to social norms may reduce his or her long-standing psycholog-
ical problem, while helping that same client to adapt to values that no
longer have meaning after the NDE might increase his or her prob-
lems dealing with the experience. you choose to work with some-
If
one around NDE-related problems, you may need to refer that

person's problems that are not related to the NDE to someone else.
You and the NDEer must continually work toward mutual trust.
Because the NDE is so different from daily reality, it may take longer
than usual for an NDEer to trust even the most sensitive helper with
some parts of the experience and its aftereffects. The otherworldly
reality of the NDE also makes it hard for even the most open-minded
helper to trust some of the NDEer's recollections and interpretations
oi the experience.
Do not be too concerned about traditional clinical roles; rigid
adherence to form and appearances may undermine your relationship
with the NDEer. Since many of our labels and definitions lose their
meaning NDE, you must rely more on your direct experi-
after an
ence with the NDEer and less on your formal training and knowledge
of clinical techniques. Labeling the NDEer's problems and separating
yourself from the NDEer for the sake of objectivity are more likely
to interfere with your understanding of his or her problems than they
are to help. In particular, be flexible with how long and how often
you see an NDEer you are helping. Since the NDE is so different
from other experiences and is very difficult to describe in words,
exploring it may take unusually long sessions, and may unleash over-
whelming emotions and thoughts that require frequent sessions.
Be prepared to stick with NDEers. They often feel frustrated in
trying to describe the NDE and its aftereffects, and may give up
trying if they see you as giving up. Particularly, those who feel they
were "sent back" to this life against their will may feel rejected and
undeserving of the NDE, and may be on the lookout for rejection
from you.
It is not helpful to think of the NDEer as a passive victim of the
experience. Helping the NDEer see his or her active role in creating
or unfolding the NDE will help in understanding and dealing with
problems arising from the experience.
Remember that parts of the ego that may have died in the NDE
need to be grieved for. Even though NDEers may be happy to be rid

of parts they transcended or were freed from, they still need to deal
with that loss.
The major features of an individual's NDE may give you clues as

to the sources of problems continuing after the experience. For exam-
ple, if the NDE was composed largely of a life review, or of precogni-
tive visions, or of certain strong feelings, exploring those particular
features with the NDEer may shed light on continuing problems.
Particularly explore details of the NDE that seem bizarre or unex-
plainable, as well as the NDEer's mental and emotional associations
to those details. You can interpret NDE imagery on many levels, just
as you can with dream imagery.
Any techniques that you use for inducing altered states of con-
sciousness may help the NDEer recall further details of the experi-
ence, and may help the NDEer learn to shift at will between different
states of consciousness. Any techniques you use for integrating the
left and right hemispheres in particular may help NDEers find practi-
cal ways to apply what they learned in the experience. Imagery,

and nonverbal expressions such as art, music,
projective techniques,
and dance may help uncover and express feelings that are hard to put
into words.
Explore the NDEer's sense of a specific purpose or mission after
surviving death. The "unfinished business" of that mission may be a
source of continuing problems. Those NDEers who chose to return
to this life may ongoing regret or mixed feelings about that
feel
decision. On the other hand, NDEers who chose not to return to

this life may feel ongoing guilt or anger at having been "sent back."
Some NDEers feel manipulated by a higher power in being sent
back, and that feeling may cause continuing problems.
Explore fully the NDEer's fears about unwanted aftereffects.
Whether or not fears about the consequences of an NDE are realistic,
they can cause continuing problems. It is important to distinguish the
NDE from its aftereffects. The NDEer must feel free to reject or
resist unwanted aftereffects without having to devalue the NDE it-
self. While the NDE is going to be a permanent part of the individ-
ual's life from now on, various aftereffects may come and go in a natural
course, or may be developed or eliminated through counseling.

The changes in values and attitudes following an NDE often lead
to subtle changes in family interactions that can cause continuing
problems. Meeting with the NDEer and the entire family together,
ideally in their home, may be the only way to understand how the
Counseling the Ne*r-Death Experiencer c
20 )
Family has changed, and to get the reactions ol family members to the
NDEer. It the family dynamics have been greatly changed, family
therapy may Help.
Avoid glorifying or idealizing the NDE
and its aftereffects. The
newness <\nd uniqueness ot the experience may lead both you and the
NDEer to see it — and sometimes the NDEer as well —
-in unreal-
isticallv romantic ways. Similarly, it is tempting to see the remarkable
aftereffects —
physical, emotional, and mental as more important —
than they are, simply because they are so dramatically different from
the wav the NDEer was before the experience. The NDEer must
learn to see the striking aftereffects in the greater context of the entire
NDE. Paranormal effects in particular may capture your interest and
the NDEer's simply because of their novelty, and blind you to other
important parts of the experience or other aftereffects that are more
important in fostering psychospiritual growth.
In the same way, the NDEer must learn to see the NDE in the
greater context of his or her entire life. Obviously, you cannot ignore
the experience its aftereffects, but neither should you allow the
and
NDEer on them to the exclusion of other parts of his or her
to focus
life. The overwhelming need to understand the meaning or message
of an NDE can lead the experiencer to overvalue its content or its
aftereffects. If the NDEer overidentifies with the experience, he or

she may not be able to deal with any issues not directly related to the
NDE. While talking with other NDEers is very helpful in normaliz-
ing the experience, identifying only with other NDEers can lead to
feeling alienated from people who have not had the experience, to
feeling that the physical realm is not meaningful or important, and to
ignoring basic problems of living in the physical world.
You may need to help those who become "addicted" to the
NDE or its aftereffects to withdraw from it gradually. It may help to
point out that problems often cannot be solved on the level that
created them. NDEers often say that physical-plane problems they
had for years were resolved only by what they learned in the NDE.
By the same token, problems created by the may be resolved NDE
only by working on the physical plane.
Some NDEers have to relearn how to handle daily respon-
sibilities that no longer seem relevant since the but are still NDE
necessary. The timeless quality of the NDE it hard for some
makes
NDEers to remain grounded in the present once they return. After a
profound life review, NDEers may remain focused on the past, while
after profound precognitive visions, they may fixate on the future.
You may need a very firm here-and-now focus to help the NDEer
function in the present.
On the other hand, you cannot expect NDEers to take up life as
usual after an NDE; their outside circumstances may have to be

changed to meet their internal changes. If the NDEer's new attitudes,
beliefs, and values do not fit with old roles and lifestyle, then he or
she needs to find a new role and lifestyle that will meet the new goals
and priorities. You may need to help the NDEer through major
changes in careers and relationships.
Finally, your ultimate usefulness to the NDEer may be in help-
ing to channel what he or she learned in the NDE into practical use.
The same new attitudes, beliefs, and goals that create problems in the
NDEer's surroundings can also be important in changing those sur-
roundings for the better. The best way for many NDEers to feel
comfortable with the experience and its aftereffects is to use what
they have learned to help others. Your work is finished when the
NDEer finds a way to bring into daily life the love that he or she
received in the NDE.
Paul Ribillot
THE HERO'S JOURNEY:

RITUALIZING
THE MYSTERY
A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into

a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there
encountered and a decisive victory
is won: the hero comes
back from this mysterious adventure with the power to

bestow boons on his fellow man.
JOSEPH CAMPBELL, The Hero with a Thousand Faces
211
Mythology is becoming increasingly relevant for our everyday life.
It is reaching large audiences through popular television pro-

grams and best-selling books, and its impact is particularly profound in
the area of modern depth psychology.
Since the discoveries of C. G.
Jung and a knowledge of mythology has become an
his followers,
indispensable tool for understanding the human psyche and for effec-
tive psychotherapy. The concept of the collective unconscious and its
universal organizing principles, or archetypes, have created an entirely
new basis for the understanding and treatment of mental disorders,
particularly psychoses.
However, in the past, practical work with mythological elements
was mostly indirect, as it is in the analysis of dreams. California
psychologist and actor Paul Rebillot has developed a unique ritual
form whereby the mythological psyche can be accessed and expressed
directly in a psychodramatic way. His approach can be used for self-
exploration, for training mental-health professionals, or as a therapeu-
tic tool.
y
We have chosen Rebillot s article for this anthology for several
reasons. His use of mythology in combination with music and drama
for healing purposes is particularly effective. It is a beautiful example
of how in the future, healing skills, ritual, art, and human support
might replace or at least complement the often unimaginative and dry
repressive routines of contemporary psychiatry. Furthermore, we have
included this essay because Rebillot has undergone a particularly dra-
matic emotional and spiritual crisis that he sees today as very transfor-
mative and healing. This episode provided the single most significant
work. Here is an extraordinary example of
inspiration for his current
how a gifted individual can use a very disturbing and upsetting expe-
rience in a way that is highly creative and that many other people can
benefit from.
Rebillotwas born in 1931 in Detroit, Michigan. He received his
B.A. in philosophy from the University of Detroit and his M.A. in
theater arts from the University of Michigan. For many years, he had
The Hero's Journey: Ritualizing the Mystery 213
been strongly Attracted to the dramatic arts —

directing, acting, and
designing — and bis academic Studies helped him to crystallize and
focus the theoretical and practical aspects of this passion.
His military service took him to Japan for a year, where he
rked at the army's Far East Radio Network. His exposure to an
estbetically refined culture with an ancient cultural tradition had a
profound impact on his personal as well as professional life. He was
particularly impressed by the Japanese Kabuki and No theater. After
his return to the United States, he incorporated various elements of
these Oriental dramatic arts into his own work.
Suddenly bis life took an unexpected turn. Rebillot experienced a
profound existential crisis followed by what we would call a spiritual
emergency. In the middle of a play in which he was performing the
leading role, he was struck by serious doubts and questions concerning
the meaning of bis life and of life in general and felt a strong need to
embark on a journey of self-discovery.
He left the dramatic arts and went where he prac-
into seclusion,
ticed intensive meditation. This period culminated in a two-month
episode during which he experienced profound nonor dinary states of
consciousness. He emerged with an entirely new understanding of the
potential of theater at its best —
its healing, ritual, magical, and spir-
itual power. His personal experiences gave him a new appreciation of

the roots of European theater in the Greek tragedy, with its cathartic
effect.
Rebillot felt compelled to explore the experiences that so pro-
foundly transformed his life and to give them some expression in his
work. His quest took him to the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, Califor-
nia. During his long stay there, he met Fritz founder of
Perls, the
Gestalt therapy, and became one of his closest and most dedicated
disciples. Gestalt practice is a unique experiential approach to psycho-
therapy that uses intense focus of awareness on the emotional and

physical processes occurring in the here and now to psychologically
complete various unfinished traumatic issues in one's life.
Another influential thinker and teacher whom Rebillot met at

Esalen was the late Joseph Campbell, generally considered the greatest
mythologist in the world. Campbell's book The Hero with a Thou-
sand Faces, describing the universal myth of the hero's journey, be-
came for him an extraordinary source of inspiration. Drawing on his
background in theater, his unusual musical talent, his personal experi-
ences of nonor dinar y states, Gestalt therapy, and Campbell's myth-
ological insights, he created an original form of therapeutic ritual
called The Hero's Journey, which was originally designed to give

mental-health professionals insight into the world of their psychotic
patients.
We have been fortunate enough to work with Rebillot several
times and have been very much impressed by the depth of experience
and self-exploration that participants reach in this amazing amalgam
of theater, ritual, music, song, mask making, therapy, and exquisite
entertainment. After exploring our attitudes and feelings about our-
selves, home, work, and the beloved, the Hero's Journey takes us into
our inner world to identify our heroic self and our demon. Under his
guidance, we experience a confrontation of these two aspects of our-
selves, a resolution, and an integration. Upon return to everyday
reality,we explore how this inner transformation has changed our
feelingsabout ourselves, our home, our work, and our beloved.
For many years, Rebillot has been offering workshops all over the
United States and Europe. He also uses a similar format for his semi-
nars Death and Rebirth, The Lovers' Journey, Owning the Shadow,
and others. Supported by a generous grant from Laurance Rockefeller,
he is working on a book entitled The Hero's Journey. It will be a
handbook for those interested in learning the techniques necessary to
guide others on this amazing inner adventure.
I created the process for The Hero's Journey several years ago after
experiencing my own spiritual emergency. Originally it was designed
as an opportunity for people in the helping professions to go through
an experience that resembles, in an organized way, an episode of
schizophrenia. My hope was that in their contact with people going
through the same kind of episode, they would then have an experien-
tial framework in addition to an academic one. I was working with
the psychiatric staff of a hospital, and I wanted to teach them how to

be with people in extraordinary spaces, how to be secure enough in
themselves to allow their patients to complete their process without
interfering out of fear.
The Buddhists say that one of the basic fears is the fear of
unusual states of mind. We fear these in ourselves, and we fear them
in others. A way to deal with that fundamental fear is to experience
an unusual state of mind in a safe situation, in order to discover how
to go into it and, most important, how to come out of it. Trance-
dancing, breath meditation, certain forms of yoga, and dervish twirl-
ing techniques are some oi the different ways to enter altered states
voluntarily.For me, the most interesting and familiar is ritual-drama.
The value oi such a form is that it allows people to realize that they
can both enter into and come out oi an extraordinary space with full
consciousness.
The Hero's Journey is a chance to play out a story of transforma-
tion in such a wav that it has the order and control of ritual. Ritual is
an event in which eternity and chronological time interpenetrate. By

taking an archetypal structure and acting it out in the here and now,
the daily life of the individual is illuminated by the eternal. This
between the two dimensions;
creates the possibility of an interchange
a doorwav opened through which the archetypal world can enter
is
the person's life, thus bringing new energy and form into the every-
day world. This interpenetration of the two worlds is the essential
nature of ritual-drama.
When I created the process, the first step was to discover a
pattern, might use to construct the ritual-drama. In
a plot that I
Joseph Campbell's The Hero with a Thousand Faces such a plot is

outlined. And Campbell, working with John Perry, discovered that
many of the elements that exist within the heroic mythology seem to
occur in episodes of schizophrenia as well perhaps not in the same —
proportion or order, but similar images do arise. By using the plot
line of the hero monomyth, I designed a process to guide a group of
people through the archetype of transformation so they can then

apply what they experienced to their own lives. Whether the change
be of home, partnership, job, or point of view, all seem to go through
a similar process. By experiencing the pattern of The Hero's Journey,
many people have found that they know the form of transformation,
so that, when change happens in their lives, it no longer threatens
them. They know it will have a certain sequence. They have the map.
THE STORY
The story of the hero's journey follows a basic pattern. The hero is
someone who hears the call to adventure and follows it. Generally
this person, man or woman, is reasonably well adapted to the socio-
cultural environment but has a yearning toward the extraordinary. At
some point, this inclination is intensified into an experience of a call.
This call may come from outside in the form of an invitation or a
suggestion from another, or it may come in the form of an inner
voice. In either case it says, "There could be more to life than that
which you are living." However it comes, the call sinks deeply into
the person's being and remains there until it is either acted upon by
the hero or killed by one who will not follow the striving of his or
her own heart.
The call sets up the first level of resistance: whatever in the
present life situation supports or depends upon the status quo, such
as one's job, one's home, one's responsibilities, or one's pattern of
relationships. These must be recognized and dealt with before the
hero can begin the journey.
Along the way, helpers appear, people who give encouragement,
guides, or friends who point out the dangerous places. A spirit guide
gives the hero an instrument of power to arm him for the battles at
the threshold and for the tests within the Mysterium. King Arthur is
given a sword, Excalibur, by Merlin; Athena gives Perseus her own

shield; Cinderella receives the ball gown and entourage from her fairy
godmother.
Thus armed, the hero proceeds to the point of no return, called
the threshold of adventure. It generally appears as a gate, a cave
mouth, the entrance to a forest — the passageway to another world.
When the hero arrives, he encounters a dragon, a castle guard, a
three-headed dog, some threshold guardian that refuses admittance.
This guardian is the second level of resistance, representing all the
self-sabotaging forces within the personality.
A confrontation takes place between the hero and this guardian,
which I call "the demon of resistance," until a resolution is reached.
The hero, sometimes accompanied by the demon, now transformed,
then proceeds into the mysterious inner world.
This is an extraordinary place, an enchanted forest of super-
natural wonders. The hero continues along his way, encountering the
new and the strange. But armed now with the knowledge of his
confrontation at the threshold, as well as with his instrument of
power, he feels ready to deal with any situation. Soon the hero
encounters his supreme ordeal, a monumental struggle with his basic
fear.
hero has earned the reward of the journey. It is the

Finally, the
Grail, the treasure, or the inner marriage for which this particular
hero has been searching. This is the gift of life that comes after the
long night of death, the healing with which the hero returns home.
The magical aspects of the Mysterium are left behind when the hero
once again departs beyond the threshold, but the awareness and the
—
Fullness ol the voyage remain to enhance or change the situation at
home. Thus the journey is complete.
THE PROCESS
The Hero's JoMrney is developed around the theme of the hero and his
counterpart, the demon of resistance. It consists of a series of cali-
brated challenges — risks that, if taken, release creative expression and
so develop a broader base for fuller self-realization. I have done the
process of The Hero's Journey in a month, in two weeks, and in as
short a time as a weekend. The preferred time is seven days, and the
process described here takes place over that period of time.
The become a tribe, a group of people who have
participants
agreed to work through this particular ritual together. The main func-
tion of the group is to support the evolution of each individual. As
each person works through the stages of his own process, the group
supports him in a variety of tribal ways —with music, with dancing,
with shouts and cheers of encouragement. This creates a powerful
feeling of ensemble which, in turn, creates the sense of a safe space,
essentialif a person is to look deeply into his or her own process.
Even though we are working on the hero story, the whole first part of
the journey is devoted to group-building and bonding.
Every journey begins with a point of departure: the place that
physically, psychologically, and spiritually feels like home. Thus,
"home ground" is the takeoff point. The people experience the
home-ground situation with their bodies, their hearts, and their
minds as fully as possible. Through a dance movement-meditation
they imagine themselves looking at four aspects of their lives: their
home, their lifework, their love, and themselves.
Then they are guided to a golden throne, "the throne of mira-
cles." They are told to let rise up from their deeper selves an image of
what would fulfill them, of what would heal or complete any of the
discrepancies and discomforts they have found in their lives. They let
this image emerge, without necessarily knowing what it means. It
becomes the vision that calls them to their journey.

After that, they select a spirit guide. This concept is very impor-
tant, for the spirit guide transcends both hero and demon. If the hero
and the demon are the thesis and the antithesis, the spirit guide is not
the synthesis but the overseer who
does not take one side or the
other, seeing the two aspects of the personality as being just that
two aspects rather than two enemies. For their spirit guide they
choose a tarot card that images some archetype they
feel drawn to,
some being that might be helpful to them in achieving their miracle.
They keep this inner guardian with them throughout the whole jour-
ney. Sometimes they even sleep with their chosen card to inspire their
dreams. Later, it is this spirit guide who gives them their instrument
of power.
Now they begin to build the hero by recalling images of child-
hood heroes, animals, movie stars, important figures in their lives,
images of adventurers and gods or goddesses. Through these ideals
they discover the qualities and powers they have envisioned. How-
ever, they also discover what they are lacking; they find the particular
quality that most needs support. At this point, the group becomes
helpers who offer encouragement to get in touch with that most
needed quality.
This support process most primitive and tribal of all the
is the
structures within the journey. A circle is formed. The person then
goes into the center and the rest of the group surrounds him, playing
various kinds ofrhythm instruments such as tambourines or drums.
The person describes what it is he wants to feel more of, such as
power or tenderness. The group then supports him with the rhythms
and feelings appropriate to that quality, creating a song from the
phrase "You are powerful" or "You are tender." He, in the center,
expresses his resistance to this message until it is exhausted.
Gradually, then, he is able to allow the rhythmic impulse of the
group into his body and into his whole being, adding the words "I
am powerful" or "I am tender" and sharing them with the others.
The next step is meeting the hero. In a guided fantasy, the people
imagine going to the house somewhere in a forest where their own
heroic presence might live. They have been acting out images of
heroic qualities. Now, as they open the door of the house of the hero,
they experience how the psyche takes all of these qualities and unites
them into one figure who becomes their own personal and unique
heroic presence. They spend time with this figure, feeling the connec-
tion. They discover the hero's secret name and mission. Finally, as
they embrace the hero to say good-bye, they imagine their bodies
melding and merging. They have become their own heroic selves.
At this point, they put on costumes and makeup and hold a
grand banquet in which everyone proclaims himself to be the hero of
his or her own journey. This is a very special event; the images in
their minds, the feelings in their hearts, and the movements ol then
bodies come together dramatize existentially their heroic selves.
to
The celebration of the hero combines several elements of medieval
ritual. Frequently, before a knight went on a quest, he spent the night
meditating in a chapel. In the morning, the priest came and said the
Hist Mass, during which the knight was consecrated and anointed to
awaken in him a sense of the spiritual aspect of his mission, thus
connecting his individual task with the species task of the human
race. It a knight came to court and asked its members to join him on
agreement was expressed by the queen's cere-
his quest, the court's
monious presentation of a glass of wine. This symbolized the seal of
good friendship between the court and the knight. So, after the hero
has been anointed, someone is selected to bring him or her the cere-
monial cup. These two rituals, with many people getting up and
speaking in front of an audience for the first time, make this celebra-
tion a grand, frightening, and very touching event.
The next stage is the discovery of the instrument of power. Here,
however, the necessities of the ritual-drama deviate from the line of
the story. It is necessary now to evoke the character of the demon,
the saboteur who stands at the threshold of the Mysterium and con-
fronts the hero with his own resistances. To find this, the people
become aware of all the tensions and holding they experience as they
meditate on their call:
"You're not good enough!"
"You shouldn't do that!"
"You're too fat."
"You're too thin."
"You're too old."
"You're too young."
—
The demon exists on all levels physical, emotional, and intel-
lectual. It is "No!" This is the inner limitation we
the archetypal
always confront whenever a new situation presents itself, a situation
that we want to experience and that we know will not physically or
emotionally harm us, and yet one that still frightens us in short, a —
situation of potential growth.
The demon evolves out of the physical and emotional blocks to
self-expression as they are manifested in thebody armor. By examin-
ing thebone structure of the body, finding where it is balanced and
mobile and where it is restricted, we discover a pattern of resistance.
"What muscles do you have to tighten in order to maintain that
immobility in the chest, and how does that connect to the angle of
the head and the retraction of the pelvis ?" Soon enough a full picture
emerges that, as each tension is exaggerated, creates in the body a
paralysis of intensified body armor. People begin to see how it is that
they both keep themselves in and keep the rest of the world out.
Safe techniques are taught to allow for discharge of any violent
emotions that may be triggered. This discharge is encouraged and
provided for, but the primary focus is on the completion of the
archetype. The expression of pent-up negative emotions in a safe
situation gives people a chance to learn various ways of dealing
with their own hostilities and fears. The development of the
demon teaches how to change these feelings into assertiveness and
excitement.
Through a series of theater games, the demons have a chance to
play out all the thwarted malevolence of childhood with both the
humor and the full emotional investment of a child playing monster.
Now that participants have developed and experienced, emo-
tionally and psychologically, both the heroic and the demonic aspects
of themselves, they must prepare for the confrontation. However,
after the group has come in contact with the more primordial aspect
of themselves, the identification frequently shifts from hero to de-
mon. Consequently, it is necessary to bring the identification back to
the hero so that the confrontation will be equally balanced; thus the
power at this stage of the journey.
return to the instrument of
The instrument of power is some physical object that the group
members endow with an otherworldly power. For the heroes, who
are about to cross over from the ordinary world to the world of the
miraculous, it is important that they have something with which they
can encounter the forces they might meet there. They discover this by
imagining that their spirit guides lead them through the outer en-
vironment and present them with some object that they find on their
path. Thus, from the intense inner experience of resistance and the
physical-body experience of the demon, they now go out into the
open air. When they find the object, they sit in front of it and do an
active meditation in which they call up the image of the spirit guide
and ask the name of the instrument of power and the magic of which
it is capable. In this way, they attain an understanding of how this
instrument can be used when they reenter the fantasy of the con-
frontation between the hero and the demon. They then bring the
object back to the group room, and in a ritual they dedicate their
instruments ol power to the accomplishment of their missions, to the

illumination ot their lives, and to the great work of the human
species.
Following this, in a guided fantasy, each hero imagines himself
rinding the threshold, on the other side of which he can accomplish
his mission or realize the miracle he wished for on the golden throne.
But the hero also knows that before entering into this magical place,
he must confront the demon of resistance. So he calls out and de-
mands that the demon appear. Thus the confrontation can take place.
At this point, the person becomes an initiate, because the confronta-
tion at the threshold is performed by both aspects, or many aspects,
oi the psyche, and the entrance into the Mysterium is really the initial
step into the new dimension of self. Therefore, the person is no
longer referred to as hero or demon, but as initiate.
The confrontation is done in the Gestalt mode, with the initiate
playing out all the roles in his or her own drama. Small subtribes of
four or five people are formed, who work together. The initiate puts
on a blindfold and imagines the scene in which the hero and the
demon stand confronting each other. The other members of the tribe
play guides, substitutes, and protectors. Their purpose in the drama
is to heighten the sense of inner theater. When the initiate plays the
hero, one of the members of the subgroup plays the demon. The
guide suggests when to change roles and reminds the initiate of his or
her resources. The protector makes certain that the environment is
safe. The use of the blindfold intensifies the experience and allows the
initiate to plunge more deeply into the inner dimension. The hero and
demon confront each other until a resolution is reached that is satis-

factory to both.
Earlier, the form of the drama is "outer theater." It is presenta-
tional, requiring participants to risk manifesting both the heroic and
the demonic aspects of themselves to an audience. As the journey
progresses toward the Mysterium, the focus shifts to "inner theater/'
where the drama is enacted not for an audience but for the deepest
self. Here, the challenge is to surrender to and trust one's own inter-
nal process of healing and evolution.

After the conflict between the hero and the demon has been
resolved, the initiates enter the land of miracles. Lying down blind-
folded, they imagine crossing the threshold and then following the
path on which they find themselves. A partner sits with each initiate
and records his story, asking him to elaborate on or to communicate
with any images that occur as he explores the magical place. A musi-
cal environment is provided to stimulate the imagination as they all
follow their paths down into the depths of themselves.
After they have wandered about in the Mysterium for about an
hour, they are asked to let go of words and just follow their images in
silence. Gradually the idea of the supreme ordeal is introduced. They
are asked to imagine that they come upon a cave on their path. Over
the cave they see written, "The supreme ordeal of breath." They
enter the cave and discover a black velvet couch in the darkness. They
lie down on the couch, and then, step by step, they are guided with
music into an intensive breath meditation. Whenever a period of time
is spent meditating intensely on breath, it is likely that birth, death,
or near-death experiences will be recalled, since these are the mo-

ments at which breath is most crucial. Therefore this process can call
upon the initiates to confront their basic fears and, by doing so and
passing through them, perhaps achieve a transpersonal dimension.
The last phase of the journey is the discovery of the reward. The
reward is the symbolic gift that their psyches present to them as a
statement of the resolution of their journey. In a movement medita-
tion, they this gift from their spirit guides, who
imagine receiving
explain meaning and its use for their lives. They express this
its
reward in song and dance, and bring it back to the place of the
beginning. They explore how the images of home, lifework, love, and
self change with the addition of the reward. They contract with
themselves to take simple concrete steps to bring this reward into
manifestation after they leave. This is a way of grounding the mate-
rial, because the initiate knows that he or she is the only one who can
manifest the reward in life; it is going to come not from outside, but
from the self. So, if love is the gift, a concrete step is designed to aid
in that manifestation. The step out of the mythic world into the
everyday world is the step of taking responsibility for manifesting the
reward.
As the last part of the meditation, participants imagine that the
gift they have received becomes a tiny light that they place in the
center of their hearts, a light they can carry with them, symbolizing
their new self-awareness. It is very important that they leave the
magical powers behind in the land of the other world. To bring the
magical powers across the threshold is to attempt to impose on other
people the initiate's relationship to the archetypal world by failing to
recognize the unique relationship that each person has to that world.
It is also to deny the reality of and the difference between the two
The Hero's Journey: Ritualizing the Mystery
worlds. The metaphor or symbol belongs to the archetypal world and

expresses the individual's relationship to that world. Those who at-
tempt to bring the magic back risk either being looked at as cra/v or
being dealt with as saints.
In either ease, they eannot be in compassionate contact with
other human beings. So, to protect themselves against personal ego
inflation, they leave the magical powers behind in their land of mira-
cles And come back with the awareness of what they have lived. Their
hero's journey is finished. Their new journey is about to begin.
INSIGHTS FROM THE HERO'S JOURNEY

What have I learned from The Hero's Journey now that I have been
guiding people through it That it is possible to find
for fifteen years?
terror within the human psyche: monsters, ghouls, "things that go
bump But
have also learned that looking long enough
in the night.'* I
and deeply enough into the eyes of the most frightening inner mon-
ster can transmute it into treasure. Frequently I suggest to people, as
thev are about to enter into the confrontation between their heroic
and their demonic selves, that they look deeply into the demon's
eyes, because if they can look deeply enough, the demonic mask may
fall away and they can then discover what is behind it. There is
always something behind the resistance. If the hero asks, as Parsifal

did, "What is troubling you?" he can, perhaps, experience the heal-
ing thatcomes with the awakening of compassion. And compassion
toward others begins with the loving acceptance of the maligned or
wounded inner self. Often one discovers that what one experienced as
the apocalyptic war to end all wars is really nothing more than a
lovers' quarrel.
I have also learned that we can approach the experience of chaos
with more security if there is a form around it. And all change
requires passage through chaos. The Hero's Journey gives structure to
what is essentially a destructuring experience an experience in —
which old forms and points of view are being destroyed in order for
new ones to emerge. So it is a fragmenting experience, and this can be
very frightening. The structure of ritual can provide the security of
orderly unfoldment. Knowing that after this there is something else
enables people to confront even the most frightening of images; they
know this is not the end. Since change isthe one thing we can be sure
of in the world and in our lives, it is important to be able to move
through the chaos toward our future selves. For as Fritz Perls said,
"The only way out is through."
THEATER OR THERAPY?
Many people have asked me if this is theater or therapy. I am not sure
if there is a clear-cut difference. After all, the roots of our theater are
in the ritual-drama of ancient Greece. Aeons ago, people traveled
miles in donkey carts or on foot what I imagine was a
to share in
kind of tribal exorcism. They did not go to find out what happens to
Electra or Medea; they already knew the myths that today form the
basis of much psychological speculation. Something beyond suspense
brought those people. It was called enthusiasm, en tbeos, the God
within. The intense identification with the hero at his or her moment
of catharsis must have been similar to the release felt during the
discharge of a primal scream. I think, however, that more than
therapy, there was a kind of transcendence an awakening of the—
God within. The chaos of creative energies was released in the form
and structure of art. And that is what I believe The Hero's Journey to
be: a chance for people to create a work of art out of the basic
materials of their own lives.
Jcncmic Prcvatt and Russ Park
THE SPIRITUAL
EMERGENCE
NETWORK (SEN)
/ shot to a place beyond words, beyond symbols, beyond

imagery —a place of nothingness, but a nothingness in
which all the knowledge of what is and what can be and
what will be lay, a nothingness in which I was light
waiting to shine, sound pulsating to be born.
. As I passed through the levels of reality between
. .
the material world and pure energy, I saw my body en-

capsulated in words, defined, restricted, limited by words.
And in going where I went I burst out of these word
bonds into an infinity of wordlessness and timelessness, an
infinity of love, of ecstasy, of bliss, of "the peace that
passeth all understanding. " I was —and am—one with the
universe; I am the universe; God and I are one.
DEANE BROWNE,
Psychosis as a Transformational Experience
225
The clarification of the concept of spiritual emergency and the

development of new strategies of treatment are the first impor-
tant efforts in the approach to evolutionary crises. The next and more
difficult step is the creation of a broad supportive framework to imple-
ment these new
strategies. Although such a network was started in
1980, moving out of its infancy, and an enormous amount of
it is still
work remains to he done before it can meet the urgent need. In this
essay Jeneane Prevatt and Russ Park, both intimately involved with
the Spiritual Emergence Network in Menlo Park, California, discuss
its history and functioning.
Jeneane Prevatt, M.A., the coordinator of the Spiritual Emer-
gence Network, is a counselor with a transpersonal and Jungian per-
spective, specializing in work with children, adolescents, and adults

experiencing psychospiritual crises. She is an educator, adviser, adminis-
trator, and developer of programs that encourage the empowerment of
the individual. For the last thirteen years, she has been involved in psy-
chological and psychiatric services for the abused and neglected. After a
three-year stay in Zurich, Switzerland, studying at the Jung Institute, she
began her most recent work with the Spiritual Emergence Network.
Russ Park, M.A., is currently a doctoral student and intern at the
Institute of Transpersonal Psychology in Menlo Park, which hosts the
SEN. He uses an integrative approach to psychology, combining body-
work, process-oriented psychotherapy, dreams, and Jungian and
transpersonal perspectives. His interests include the relationship as a
spiritual path,drug addiction, personal empowerment, spiritual emer-
gence, the role of spirituality in everyday life, and research in trans-
personal methods. His background lies in clinical laboratory medicine,
alternative healing, computers, and environmental issues.
The Spiritual Emergence Network (SEN) was founded in 1980 as a

grass-roots response to an increasing need for recognition, informa-
tion, and support for those undergoing spiritual emergencies. Indi-
viduals experiencing such nonordinary states of consciousness had, in
the past, often been labeled as psychotic, drugged, and locked up in
The Spiritual Emergence Network (SIN )
hospital mental wards. As an alternative to the traditional mental-

health system, SEN
was formed by Christina Grol at the Esalen
Institute, in Big Sur, California. SEN volunteers began gathering a
list of people, SEN "helpers," who were exploring the frontiers of
human consciousness and spiritual experiences. Some of these people

had themselves been through transformational crises.
It is SEN's goal to provide a network tor individuals in spiritual
emergencies, or psychospiritual crises, through which the proper in-

tormation and support can be found. SEN "helpers" are friends,
psychotherapists, medical doctors, bodyworkers, spiritual leaders,
and community members who are willing to help others through this
inner crisis in a supportive, nurturing manner. It is through this
information and support that individuals can begin to integrate their
experiences and resume normal, often healthier lives.
Currently located at the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology,

in Menlo Park, California, SEN is a nonprofit international organiza-
tion operating a free information-and-referral service. SEN works to
inform the lay and professional communities about the forms, inci-
dence, and treatment of spiritual emergencies.
After nine years, SEN is alive and responding to an ever-
increasing populace. SEN has grown into an international organiza-
tion with a mailing list over 10,000 strong. Currently, SEN handles
150 callers a month, of which 46 percent are in need of "helper"

referrals. Our
last analysis of 501 calls and 117 letters, from Novem-
ber 1986 through July 1987, revealed that a "typical caller" was a
forty-year-old female (69 percent) experiencing some form of Kun-
dalini awakening (24 percent).
SEN "helpers" consist of over 1,100 people, from professionals
to laypeople, who have volunteered to assist those in psychospiritual
crises. Besides providing referral services, SEN offers current the-
oretical information, bibliographies, trainings,and monthly seminar
programs that address the concept and experience of spiritual emer-
gency. SEN serves as a supporting network among many psychologi-
cal, human-potential, and spiritual/religious organizations through-
out the United States and the world.
HOW SEN WORKS

One of the main services that SEN offers is listening to and validating
the experiences of people who reach us by telephone. Based upon the
belief system expressed by a caller, SEN's volunteers or staff will

attempt to select at least three "helpers" located in the caller's geo-
graphical region who have expertise in the type of crisis at hand.
SEN's approach to assisting those who contact us is eclectic, since
its staff and helpers have many different spiritual and psychological
orientations.
We encourage SEN callers to communicate with the suggested
helpers and to determine for themselves whether a particular helper is
appropriate. This encourages those who need help to strengthen their

own autonomy and participate in the healing process. If these refer-
rals prove dissatisfying to the caller for one reason or another, we
encourage him or her to back for additional names. In some
call
cases, the person contacting us may need more than one type of
referral. The caller then has a pool of resources to draw upon that can
facilitate his or her individual process. We might also offer the name
of SEN's regional coordinator in the person's area. SEN's forty-three
regional coordinators provide additional resources and helpers in
their regions and personalize the assistance given from our office.
In addition to the information-and-referral service, SEN also
offers an education-and-training program to professionals and
lay people who are actively assisting others in spiritual emergencies.
The educational component of SEN provides an ongoing speakers'
program dedicated to presenting varied ways of understanding mental
and spiritual crises. We offer these programs out of respect for the
richness and variety of the human experience, in the hope of further-
ing appropriate and compassionate treatment.
To educate, we must define. Therefore, in addition to our
speakers' program, we offer trainings, which address some of the
following questions:
1. What is a spiritual emergency? What does it look like, and

how does one respond to it?
2. What is the difference between psychosis and mystical
states? How do we diagnose and treat them?
3. How can the community best respond to and support such
happenings, both for the individual undergoing the crisis
and for his or her family?
4. How can therapists support one another in such cases?
What modalities can be developed to best contain and sup-
port the process?
.
The Spiritual Emergence Network (SEN) 229
Training in the held enhances our ongoing program by allowing

US to gather personal stories and new case material. This allows SEN
DO keep current, reviewing people's needs in order to facilitate a more
responsive dialogue with the public. And finally, such programs
provide a growth-oriented base for training interns referred to us by
local colleges and universities.
We attempt to encourage the inclusion of a transpersonal inter-
vention strategy in mainstream psychology, rather than excluding or
antagonizing the already established field. The exploration and de-
scription of psychospiritual crises and their differentiation from other

mental states have only just begun. Fundamental psychological and
spiritual questions remain to be formulated, even prior to beginning
the quest for answers. It is with this in mind that we have begun a
research program.
Below are some of the questions that arise as we begin to explore
the picture that emerges from our callers' individual experiences:
1 Are spiritual emergencies states or experiences that are mea-

surable using current psychological testing techniques?
2. What patterns are collectively emerging? For example, one-
fourth of our callers are experiencing manifestations of
Kundalini awakening. Does this hold true in other parts of
the world? If so, what does this imply? Why on a given day
do we receive calls from a number of people in the same city
who independently report experiencing the same type of
phenomena? What is the correlation between the phe-
nomena being experienced and the place in which they hap-
pen? Are there collective triggers? If so, what are they?
3. Are these psychospiritual crises a result of normal individ-
ual human development, or do they represent a collective
evolutionary event?
4. Are there other categories of spiritual emergency yet to be
characterized?
5. Does the description of spiritual emergencies as manifested
through the contemporary Western psyche conform to clas-
sical religious descriptions?
6. Does the contemporary Western experience of these psy-
chospiritual crises, as seen through the "window" offered
by the SpiritualEmergence Network, add any new dimen-
sions to the classical understanding of these phenomena?
7. With what efficacy can conventional treatment modalities

address these experiences, and what new therapeutic tech-
niques are needed in order to understand and integrate these
experiences into everyday life?
SEN's growing data base can be of great help to researchers as

they begin to explore some of these questions. Currently, SEN col-
lects information regarding each client's demographic profile, services
provided, phenomena experienced, therapeutic and spiritual orienta-
tion, and referrals given. This information is collected via a computer
system and added to a data base. From this resource, SEN maintains
its helper and resource files, from which referrals are given. SEN also
maintains its mailing list from this data base, using it to disseminate
important information and funding requests.
SEN's data base and information are raw and, in some cases,
incomplete. A more in-depth research program is currently being
implemented to better support investigators in their quests.
WHERE IS SEN GOING?

As the number of people needing support in spiritual emergency
grows, we explore new avenues of service. We get many calls request-
ing a referral for residential care, for a place where people can allow
their process to unfold completely, unimpaired by the demands of
daily living. We have only a few referral sources that can meet such a
need. like to see SEN become a vehicle for the develop-
We would
ment of 24-hour residential centers.
Too often, the traditional mental-health system requires an indi-
vidual to conform to existing treatment modalities rather than allow-
ing the treatment to arise from his or her own process. It is our belief
that each person holds an existing map to his or her own healing. If
we can provide a container that allows creative intervention, as well as
safety and nurturing care, the outcome for the clients can be
invaluable.
In addition, SEN proposes
to develop training for teams that can
administer care in people's homes. Such home care facilitates the
family's understanding and its involvement in the individual's care
and recovery, so that family members can become part of the healing
process. This encourages them to participate rather than assume the
role of helpless victims of an uninvited event.
The Spiritual Emergence Network (SEN) 231
In order to make the continuum more complete,

ol available care
SEN would support groups through our training pro
like to foster
gram. These would provide an arena for individuals to both talk

about theii experiences mu\ come to some understanding of their
'deep dive" into the unconscious. Support groups can be developed
that not only nurture and validate the individual going through the
process but also allow for healing within the family and in daily life.
In addition, psychotherapists treating psychospiritual crises may also
rind value in forming support groups with other therapists. This
allows not only a forum for creative exploration and exchange of ideas
but also a place for integrating their own personal issues arising out
of deep psychological work with their clients.
Another need that will have to be addressed relates to the adoles-
cent. Our Western culture fails to acknowledge the rite of passage of
the adolescent into adulthood. By ignoring this process, we invalidate
the visionary experiences that many of our young people go through
during this transition. Some of these states are induced by drugs,
while others are spontaneous. SEN is beginning to receive many calls
regarding people in this age group, and we have very few appropriate
referral sources. Therefore, in the near future, SEN hopes to promote
services by teens for teens.
Finally, we at SEN are beginning to realize how spiritual emer-
gence experiences seem to seek expression through the arts. Often,
thesymbolism inherent in dance, painting, music, and the written
word allows us to learn and speak the language of the soul. In begin-
ning to gather material related to creative expression, a living archive
could be established that would reflect what the transition during a
transformative crisis has meant to the individual. SEN also hopes to
establish a working library of videotapes, audio recordings, pertinent
literature,and any mythological material relevant to transitional and
nonordinary states of consciousness.
SEN is in a unique position to observe various forms and man-
ifestations of spiritual and psychological phenomena occurring
around the world. As such, SEN serves as a "window" to these
unique and often intense psychospiritual experiences. Through this
window, we can begin to gain some insight into the individual, social,
and even global patterns and significance of spiritual emergence.
Stmiislav Grofand Christina Grof
EPILOGUE: SPIRITUAL
EMERGENCE AND
THE GLOBAL CRISIS
One morning I woke up and decided to look out the

window, to see where we were. We were flying over
America and suddenly I saw snow, the first snow we ever
saw from orbit. Light and powdery, it blended with the
contours of the land, with the veins of the rivers. I
— —
thought autumn, snow people are getting ready for win-
ter. A few minutes later, we were flying over the Atlantic,
then Europe, and then Russia. I have never visited Amer-
ica, but I imagined that the arrival of autumn and winter
is the same there as in other places, and the process of
getting ready for them is the same. And then it struck me

that we are all children of our Earth. It does not matter
what country you look at. We are all Earth's children,
and we should treat her as our Mother.
SOVIET COSMONAUT ALEKSANDR ALEKSANDROV IN

The Home Planet
233
Modern science has all the knowledge necessary to eliminate

most diseases, combat poverty and starvation, and generate an
abundance of safe and renewable energy. We have sufficient resources
and manpower to realize the wildest dreams humanity has ever had.
However, in spite of all this progress, we are further than ever
from a happy, sorrow-free future. The greatest technological tri-
umphs —atomic energy, cybernetics, space-age rocketry, laser tech-
nology, electronics, computers, chemistry, and bacteriology —have
been turned toward the purposes of warfare, unleashing unimagina-
ble destructive power. Hundreds of millions of people are dying of
starvation and disease, both of which could be remedied by the bil-
lions of dollars wasted annually on the insanity of the arms race.
Furthermore, several plausible doomsday scenarios, from gradual en-
vironmental destruction of various kinds to sudden and immediate
devastation by nuclear holocaust, leave us with the dubious privilege
of being the first species in the history of the planet that has de-
veloped the potential to commit collective suicide and, what is worse,
destroy all other forms of life by this act.
In view of this dangerous situation, it is vital that we recognize
the roots of the global crisis and develop effective remedies to relieve
it. Most of the existing approaches of governments and other institu-
tions focus on and economic
military, political, administrative, legal,
measures that reflect the same and attitudes that created the
strategies
crisis, address symptoms rather than causes, and therefore yield, at
best, limited results.
When we have the means and technological know-how for feed-
ing the population of the planet, guaranteeing a reasonable standard
of living for all, combating most diseases, reorienting industries to
inexhaustible sources of energy, and preventing pollution, what pre-
vents us from taking these positive steps?
The answer lies in the fact that all of the critical developments
mentioned above are symptoms of one fundamental crisis. In the last
analysis, the problems we are facing are not merely economic, politi-
cal, or technological in nature. They are all reflections of the emo-
tional, moral, and spiritual state of contemporary humanity. Among
Epilogue: Spiritual Emergence and the ( rlobal ( 'risis 2 U
the most destructive aspects ol the human psyche arc malignant a^

pession and insatiable acquisitiveness. These are the forces that ate
responsible tor the unimaginable waste oi modern warfare. They also
present a more appropriate division ol resources among individuals,
classes, and nations, as well as a reorientation toward ecological pri-
orities essential tor the continuation ot life on this planet. These
destructive and self-destructive elements in the present human condi-
tion directly reflect the alienation of modern humanity from itself
and from spiritual life and values.

In view of these facts, one of the few hopeful and encouraging
developments in the world today is the renaissance of interest in
who have
ancient spiritual traditions and the mystical quest. People
had powerful transformative experiences and have succeeded in ap-
plving them to their everyday lives show very distinct changes in
their values. This development holds great promise for the future of
the world, since it represents a movement away from destructive and
self-destructive personality characteristics and an emergence of those
that foster individual and collective survival.
People who are involved in the process of spiritual emergence
tend to develop a new appreciation and reverence for all forms of life
and a new understanding of the unity of all things, which often
results in strong ecological concerns and greater tolerance toward
other human
beings. Consideration of all humanity, compassion for
all of and thinking in terms of the entire planet take priority over
life,
the narrow interests of individuals, families, political parties, classes,

nations, and creeds. That which connects us all and that which we
have in common become more important than our differences, which
are seen as enhancing rather than threatening. In the attitudes charac-
teristic of spiritual emergence, we can see the counterpoint to the
intolerance, irreverence toward life, and moral bankruptcy that are

the root causes of the global crisis. Thus we hope that the growing
interest in spirituality and the high incidence of spontaneous mystical
experiences herald a shift in the consciousness of humanity that will
help to reverse our current self-destructive course.
We have seen repeatedly that people experiencing spiritual emer-
gencies benefit greatly from approaches that support the transforma-
tive potential of these states. The new strategies can also have very
beneficial effects immediate human environment family,
on their —
friends, and acquaintances. It is exciting to consider that such activity
might, in addition, have relevance for human society as a whole, in
helping to alleviate the crisis faced by all of us.
APPENDIX
FURTHER READING
ALTERNATIVE UNDERSTANDING
OF PSYCHOSES
One of the major obstacles to acceptance of the idea of spiritual
emergency is the indiscriminate use of the concept of disease for all
nonordinary states of consciousness. Among the most articulate
critics of the way the medical model is applied to psychiatry is
Thomas Szasz, particularly in his most famous book, The Myth of

Mental Illness. Additional important representatives of this critical
trend are the controversial psychiatrist R. D. Laing, author of The
Politics of Experience, and Kazimierz Dabrowski, who in his book
Positive Disintegration emphasized the healing potential of many

states traditionally mistaken for mental diseases.
PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACHES
TO PSYCHOSES
There is rich psychoanalytical literature attempting to explain various
psychotic states through psychological mechanisms and treat them by
psychotherapy rather than biological therapies. Significant contribu-
found in the works of Sigmund Freud,
tions to these efforts can be
Karl Abraham, Viktor Tausk, Melanie Klein, Harry Stack Sullivan,
and many others. Here belong also the studies of family structures
236
Appendix: Further Reading
and interactions conducive to psychoses chat can be Found in the

writings oi Theodore Lidz, Gregory Bateson, and others. Efforts to
conduct psychotherapy with psychotic patients culminated in the
work of Frieda Fromm-Reichmann. A great limitation of all such
attempts is the narrow conceptual framework, which lacks genuine
understanding ot the transpersonal dimension and reduces spirituality
to unresolved problems from early childhood.
TRANSPERSONAL UNDERSTANDING OF
NONORDINARY STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS
A rare exception to the dismissal of spirituality in the field of depth
psychology is the work of C. G. Jung; he expanded the model of
human personality far beyond biography and introduced the trans-
personal dimension into psychiatry. His work revolutionized the
theory of nonordinary states of consciousness; his concepts of the
collective unconscious, archetypal dynamics, the ego and the self,
synchronicity, and many others are the cornerstones of the modern

understanding of psychoses. Passages that are very relevant from the
point of view of spiritual emergency can be found throughout Jung's
books and the work of his followers. Jung has also written studies
specifically focusing on this problem area, such as The Psychogenesis
of Mental Disease. An excellent, easily readable synopsis of the prin-
ciples of Jungian theory and practice is contained in June Singer's
book Boundaries of the Soul.
The person who has most creatively developed Jung's ideas on
psychosis is John Weir Perry, the author of The Far Side of Madness ,
Roots of Renewal in Myth and Madness, and many other writings on

the subject. His books based on intense psychotherapeutic work with
clients in acute episodes are a rich source of information on the role
of archetypal dynamics in transpersonal crises. They also describe the
therapeutic approach that he developed in his private practice and at
Diabasis, an innovative treatment center he founded in San Francisco.
Jungian psychology demonstrated the paramount significance of
the study of mythology for the understanding of the human psyche
in general, and psychoses in particular. The best resources in this
respect are the books of the late mythologist Joseph Campbell, such
as The Mythic Image and The Masks of God. He quite specifically
addressed the problem of the relevance of mythological understand-
ing for spirituality and psychoses in his books The Hero with a
Thousand Faces and Myths to Live By. A unique source of Camp-
The Power of Myth, a series of his discussions with Bill

bell's ideas is
Moyers, available on commercial videotapes. Many of his brilliant
insights are directly applicable to the crises encountered during the
transformation process.
Roberto Assagioli, the late Italian psychiatrist and founder of the
psychological system called psychosynthesis, originated many valu-
able ideas related to the psychological importance of spirituality and
to the concept of spiritual emergency. They are summarized in his
book Psychosynthesis.
The four classics of spiritual literature, Cosmic Consciousness by
Richard Bucke, Ecstasy by Marghanita Laski, Varieties of Religious
Experience by William James, and Mysticism by Evelyn Underhill, are
rich sources of information directly applicable to the problems of
transpersonal crises. We should also mention in this context Anton
Boisen's book The Exploration of the Inner World and Wilson van
Dusen's The Natural Depth in Man and The Presence of Other
Worlds, the latter inspired by the philosophical writings of Emanuel
Swedenborg.
Among the important sources of transpersonal psychology that
new understanding
have led to a of spirituality is the research of
Abraham Maslow, the author of the books Religions, Values, and
Peak Experiences, Toward a Psychology of Being, and others. He
demonstrated beyond any doubt that mystical experiences, or "peak
experiences, " as he called them, should not be confused with mental
illness.
Clinical research of nonordinary states of consciousness induced

by psychedelics and nondrug techniques has many implications for an
alternative understanding of psychotic states. Much of this informa-
tion is summarized in Stanislav Grof 's books Beyond the Brain, The
Adventure of Self-Discovery, and Beyond Death, the last coauthored
by Christina Grof.
Among recent contributions to the problem of spirituality and
psychosis is the work of Ken Wilber. In a series of articulate and
comprehensive books, particularly The Spectrum of Consciousness
and The Atman Project, he outlined the principles of his encompass-
ing theory of human personality, which he calls spectrum psychol-
ogy. Of particular interest for the subject of spiritual emergency is
the book Transformations of Consciousness, coauthored by Wilber,
Jack Engler, and Daniel Brown; it applies the concepts of spectrum
psychology to the understanding of psychopathology, including
various spiritual crises.
Appendix: Further Reading 139
Weshould also mention two studies specifically focusing on

the problem of spiritual emergency: Emma Bragdon's practical
guidebook Helping People in Spiritual Emergent} and Bonnie Lee
Hood's doctoral dissertation "Transpersonal Crisis: Understanding
Spiritual Emergencies." Interesting personal aceounts of spiritual cri-
sis are Mora Courtois' An Experience of Enlightenment, Irene
Tweedie's Daughter of Fire, Naomi Steinfeld's article "Surviving the
Chaos of Something Extraordinary," and Christina Grof's chapter
from our forthcoming book on spiritual emergencies, The Stormy
Search for the Self.
INFORMATION ON VARIOUS
SPECIFIC
FORMS OF SPIRITUAL EMERGENCY
For the type of spiritual emergency that shows a great similarity to
shamanic crisis, the best sources of basic information are Mircea
book Shamanism: The Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy
Eliade's classic
and Joseph Campbell's book The Way of the Animal Powers. Michael
Harner's excellent book The Way of the Shaman, drawing on
shamanic wisdom from many different cultures, offers practical
guidelines for working with shamanic techniques and experiences.
Additional sources of information are Stephen Larsen's The Sha-
man's Doorway, Joan Halifax's Shaman: The Wounded Healer and
Shamanic Voices, Holger Kalweit's Dreamtime and the Inner Space:
The World of the Shaman, Gary Doore's Shaman's Path, Roger
Walsh's forthcoming Cosmic Travelers: A Psychological View of
Shamanism, and Julian Silverman's article "Shamans and Acute
Schizophrenia." The best-selling books by Carlos Castaneda, in spite
of their poetic license, are a gold mine of information about
shamanism.
The form of transpersonal crisis that has the characteristics of
Kundalini awakening has been thoroughly described in ancient In-
dian Tantric literature. Among the best modern sources are Swami
Muktananda's Kundalini: The Secret of Life and Play of Conscious-
ness, Ajit Mookerjee's Kundalini: The Arousal of the Inner Energy,
the books by pandit Gopi Krishna, particularly Kundalini: The Evo-
lutionary Energy in Man and Kundalini for the New Age, Lee San-
nella's The Kundalini Experience: Psychosis or Transcendence, and
John White's compendium Kundalini: Evolution and Enlightenment.

A detailed scholarly discussion of the subject can be found in Sir
John Woodruffe's The Serpent Power.
Abraham Maslow's books on "peak experiences" and John

Perry's writings on the crises involving renewal by return to the
center have already been mentioned. The original literature on rein-
carnation and past-life experiences is vast and of varying quality. The
corresponding passages in the Buddhist psychological text The Path
of Purification will provide a good classical introduction to the sub-
ject.Among modern treatises, Ian Stevenson's Twenty Cases Sugges-
tiveof Reincarnation and Roger Woolger's Other Lives, Other Selves
might be of interest.
Where nonordinary states of consciousness have a significant
component of psychic phenomena, such as out-of-body experiences,
mediumistic states, precognition, telepathy, and remote viewing,
modern parapsychological literature can be very useful. The realm of
out-of-body experiences has been described in Robert Monroe's
autobiographical book Journeys Out of the Body and objectively stud-
ied by Charles Tart. Among the books that offer important informa-
tion on various aspects of psychic phenomena are Tart's PS I:
Scientific Studies of the Psychic Realm, Stanley Krippner's The Song
of the Siren: A Parapsychological Odyssey and Human Possibilities,
Russell Targ and Harold Puthoff's Mind Reach: Scientists Look at
Psychic Ability, and Russell Targ and Keith Harary's The Mind Race.
Those who want to know more about channeling should read Jon
Klimo's excellent book Channeling: Investigations on Receiving In-
formation from Paranormal Sources. More data about synchronicity
can be found in C. G. Jung's original study, entitled Synchronicity:
An Acausal Connecting Principle, and David Peat's Synchronicity:
The Bridge between Matter and Mind.
More information on near-death experiences can be found in
Raymond Moody's Life after Life, Ken Ring's Life at Death and
Heading toward Omega, and Michael Sabom's Recollections of
Death. In the vast literature on the UFO phenomenon, the best
general information can be found in Jacque Vallee's UFOs in Space.
In addition, C. G. Jung's study Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth of
Things Seen in the Skies offers fascinating psychological insights into
the subject.
The most interesting source of information relevant to the prob-
lem of possession states is the modern literature on the closely related
subject of multiple personalities, which has recently been receiving
great attention. A good introduction would be R. Allison's book
Minds in Many Pieces.
NOTES AND
REFERENCES
Assagioli: "Self- Realization and Psychological Disturbances"

1. One of Assagioli's major interests, and an important theme
in his unpublished writings, was the social correspondences
to the patterns of the individual's journey. Looking at so-
ciety as if itwere a person (see Donald Keys, "The Syn-
thesis of Nations," Synthesis 2, p. 8), the symptoms of the
individual crisis described in the last paragraphs are fa-
miliar: indeed, they characterize much of the behavior and
collective states of mind of present-day society Taken to-
gether, these social symptoms can be seen as the manifesta-
tion of an existential crisis in society itself. This crisis points
to a spiritual awakening of society as a whole an awaken- —
ing observed by an increasing number of people. Viewed
from this perspective, it may be of value to consider the
many social difficulties with which we are all so familiar in
the light of the patterns and suggestions that Assagioli out-
lines for the individual in this article.
2. This is why a certain amount of psychosynthesis — the inte-
gration of the personality around the center of identity, or
"I" — needs to be undertaken before or concurrently with
241
:
spiritual psychosynthesis —
the fusion of the personality
with the superconscious energies, and of the "I" with the
Transpersonal Self.
3. This distinction between the "I" and the "Self" and the
relationship between them is discussed in Betsie Carter-
Haar's article "Identity and Personal Freedom," Synthesis
2, pp. 89-90, 1977.
4. Additional information on the concept of levels of organiza-
tion can be found in "Drive in Living Matter to Perfect
Itself" by Albert Szent-Gyoergyi, Synthesis 1, p. 14, 1977.
5. This process of evoking an ideal model is often used inten-
tionally by spiritual teachers to foster the growth of those
whom they are guiding. See also Synthesis 2, p. 40, 1977.
6. See Assagioli, Psychosynthesis, A Manual of Principles and
Techniques, Viking Press, New York, 1971, pp. 267—277.
7. Often the situation is complicated by the fact that there is
an admixture of "regressive" and "progressive" factors. In
such cases, individuals may reach a high level of develop-
ment with some parts of their personality and yet be domi-
nated by unconscious conflicts or handicapped by certain
infantile fixations.
8. The entire process is necessarily complex and lengthy, and
I have dealt with it in more ample detail in my other
writings.
Perry: "Spiritual Emergence and Renewal"
Grof, S. Realms of the Human Unconscious: Observations from
LSD Research. New York: Dutton, 1976.

Grof, S. Beyond the Brain: Birth, Death, and Transcendence in
Pyschotherapy. Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 1985.

Perry, J. W. The Self in Psychotic Process. Berkeley: University
of California Press, 1953.
Perry, J. W. Lord of the Four Quarters: Myths of the Royal
Father. New York: Braziller, 1966.
Perry, J. W. The Far Side of Madness. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.
Prentice-Hall, 1974.
Perry, J. W. Roots of Renewal in Myth and Madness. San Fran-
cisco: Jossey-Bass, 1976.
Notes iUid References 243
Kalweit: "When Insanity Is a Blessing: The Message

of Shamanism"
1. Dioszegi, V. Tracing Shamans in Siberia. Oosterhaut, 1968,

p. 58.
2. Ibid., p. 57.
3. Ibid., p. 279.
4. Dioszegi, V. "Der Wcrdcgang zum Schamanen bei den
nordocstlichen Sojoten." Acta Ethnographica, no. 8, 1959,
pp. 269-291.
5. Dioszegi, V. "Zum Problem der ethnischen Homogenitaet
des tofischen (karagassischen) Schamanismus." Glauhens-
welt unci Folklore der sibirischen Voelker. Budapest, 1963,
p. 267.
6. Boas, F. The Religion of the Kwakiutl Indians (part 2). New
York: AMS Press, 1930, p. 41.
7. Ibid., p. 46.
8. Loeb, E. M. "Shaman and Seer." American Anthropologist,
no. 31, 1929, p. 66.
9. Callaway, C. H. The Religious System of the Amazula,
no. 15. London: Publications of the Folk-Lore Society,
1884, p. 259.
10. Good, C. M., et al. "Gukunura mundu: The Initiation of
a Kikuyu Medicine Man." Anthropos 75, no. 1-2, 1980,
pp. 87-116.
11. Harvey, Y. K. "Possession Sickness and Women Shamans in
Korea." Unspoken Worlds: Women's Religious Lives in
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Gross. San Francisco: Wadsworth Publishing, 1980.
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i
ABOUT THE EDITORS
Christina Grot was raised in Honolulu, Hawaii, and graduated from
Sarah I awrence College ill New York. Her original career as a
teacher ol art was interrupted when a powerful spiritual experience
during childbirth launched her into many years of emotional turmoil,
manifestations ol Kamdalini awakening. She taught
later identified as
Hatha-Yoga and was deeply influenced by Swami Muktananda Para

mahansa, head ot the Siddha-Yoga lineage; she was his student until
his death in 1982.
Her own unusualexperiences generated in her deep interest in

nonordinary states of consciousness and transpersonal psychology.
Together with her husband, Stanislav Grof, she has developed
Holotropic Breathwork, an experiential technique of psychotherapy
that combines controlled breathing, evocative music, and bodywork.
She and her husband have also organized international transpersonal
conferences in Boston, Melbourne, Bombay, and Santa Rosa, Cali-
fornia.
Christina's particular area of interest is the relationship between
mysticism and psychosis. In 1980 she founded the Spiritual Emer-
gence Network, an international organization providing support for
individuals undergoing transformative crises. More recently, her in-
terest has extended into the area of the spiritual aspects of alcoholism
and addiction. In the decade she has conducted lectures and
last
workshops in North and South America, Europe, Australia, and
Asia. She is also coauthor of the book Beyond Death.
Stanislav Grof, M.D., is a psychiatrist with more than thirty years

of research experience in nonordinary states of consciousness. He
was born and educated in Prague, Czechoslovakia, and received an
M.D. from Prague's Charles University School of Medicine, where
he specialized in psychiatry. He was the principle investigator for a
program at the Psychiatric Research Institute in Prague that explored
the potential of psychedelic therapy. For his dissertation on this sub-
ject, he was awarded a Ph.D. (doctorate of philosophy in medicine)
by the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences.

In 1967 he was invited to Johns Hopkins University as a clinical
and research fellow and to the research unit of Spring Grove State
Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, where he continued his psychedelic
research. In 1969 he was offered the position of chief of psychiatric
research at the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center and of assistant
professor of psychiatry at Henry Phipps Clinic. The research team he
headed systematically explored the value of psychedelic therapy in
neurotics, alcoholics, drug addicts, and terminal cancer patients.
Stanislav continued these functions until 1973, when he moved to
California and became scholar in residence at the Esalen Institute in
Big Sur. Since that time, he has focused on exploring the potential of
experiential psychotherapy without drugs, in addition to writingand
conducting seminars worldwide. Heone of the founders and chief
theoreticians of transpersonal psychology and the founding president
of the International Transpersonal Association. He has published
more than ninety papers and is the author
in professional journals
of Realms of the Human Unconscious, The Human Encounter with
Death, LSD Psychotherapy, Beyond the Brain, and The Adventure
of Self-Discovery. He was also editor of the volumes Ancient Wis-
dom and Modern Science and Human Survival and Consciousness
Evolution.
PSYCHOLOGY/ SPIRITUALITY >*1E.T5
4 NEW CONSCIOUSNESS READER
From Spiritual Emergency

to Healing and Rebirth
Increasing numbers of people involved in personal transformation are experi-

encing spiritual emergencies — crises when the process of growth and change
becomes chaotic and overwhelming. Individuals experiencing such episodes may
feel that theirsense of identity is breaking down, that their old values no longer
hold true, and that the very ground beneath their personal realities is radically
shifting. In many cases, new realms of mystical and spiritual experience enter
their lives suddenly and dramatically, resulting in fear and confusion. They may
feel tremendous anxiety, have difficulty coping with their daily lives, jobs, and
relationships, and may even fear for their own sanity.

Unfortunately, much of modern psychiatry has failed to distinguish these epi-
sodes from mental illness. As a result, transformational crises are often sup-
pressed by routine psychiatric care, medication, and even institutionalization.
However, there is a new perspective developing among many mental health
professionals and those studying spiritual development that views such crises as
transformative breakthroughs that can hold tremendous potential for physical
and emotional healing. When understood and treated in a supportive manner,
spiritual emergencies can become gateways to higher levels of functioning and new
ways of being.
In this book, foremost psychologists, psychiatrists, and spiritual teachers
address the following questions: What is spiritual emergency? What is the rela-
tionship between spirituality, "madness," and healing? What forms does spirit-
ual emergency take? What are the pitfalls — and promises — of spiritual practice?
How can people in spiritual emergency be assisted by family, friends, and
professionals?
This groundbreaking work reveals that within the crisis of spiritual emergency
lies the promise of spiritual emergence and renewal.
For biographical information about the editors, see the final page of the book.
5 1 295
Cover design: Tanya Maiboroda

Published by Jeremy P. Tarcher, Inc. 9 780874"775389 l
Distributed by St. Martins Press

ISBN D-fl7M77-53fl-fi

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1

John ^feir Perry / Ram Dass

Anne Armstrong / Keith Thompson

STANISLAV GROF, M.D.,

This New Consciousness Reader is part of a series of

Other books in this series include:

Healers on Healing, edited by Richard Carlson, Ph.D.,

Also by Christina and Stanislav Grof

Also by Stanislav Grof:

Realms of the Human Unconscious

"Self-Realization and Psychological Disturbances" is reprinted from Re-Vision journal,

"Transcendental Experience in Relation to Religion and Psychosis" is reprinted by

"Kundalini: Classical and Clinical" is reprinted from Kundalini, Evolution and

"The Challenges of Psychic Opening: A Personal Story" is reprinted from Re-Vision

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Spiritual emergency: when personal transformation becomes a crisis/

Copyright © 1989 by Stanislav Grof and Christina Grof on Introduction, Epilogue,

All rights reserved.No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted

Jeremy P. Tarcher, Inc.

Manufactured in the United States of America

PART ONE: DIVINE MADNESS:

PART TWO: VARIETIES OF SPIRITUAL EMERGENCY

WHEN INSANITY IS A BLESSING:

THE CHALLENGES OF PSYCHIC

THE UFO ENCOUNTER EXPERIENCE

PART THREE: THE STORMY SEARCH

PROMISES AND PITFALLS OF

PART FOUR: HELP FOR PEOPLE IN

COUNSELING THE NEAR-DEATH

THE HERO'S JOURNEY:

THE SPIRITUAL EMERGENCE

EPILOGUE: SPIRITUAL EMERGENCE AND

APPENDIX FURTHER READING

NOTES AND REFERENCES 241

To your tired eyes I bring a vision

which you must share

The theme explored

itualemergency, which is a play on words, suggesting both a crisis

women, to revelations of the founders of the great religions,

ber of a religious community had a powerful spiritual experience

More and more people seem to be realizing that true spirituality

Our interest in this area is very personal and is intimately con-

than three decades of research on and observations of the nonordi-

Roberto Assagioli, an Italian psychiatrist and the founder of an

Here he complements the traditional point of view with a medical

relevance to the problem ol spiritual emergency. Drawing inspiration

modern ritual where a symbolic healing crisis is experimentally

1980 by Christina to support individuals undergoing crises of spiritual

this book. Also included is an extensive bibliography on spiritual

information for those undergoing psychospiritual crisis and seeking

The mystic, endowed with native talents . . . and fol-

and finds he can swim; whereas the schizophrenic, un-

JOSEPH CAMPBELL, Myths to Live By

Feelings of oneness with the entire universe. Visions and images

Although there are many individual exceptions, mainstream psy-

Thus the concepts and practices found in the Buddhist, Hindu,

Hess, or "spiritual emergencies," comparable to the states described

any notion of spirituality. In a universe where only the tangible,

efforts of generations of researchers from various fields. In spite of

not be accounted tor by the psychological method oi finding the

them involve certain extreme emotions and physical sensations that

trist C. G. Jung. Jung vastly expanded the biographical model by in-

troducing the concept of the collective unconscious. Through careful