Authors: Stanislav Grof, Christina Grof
ISBN-13: 9780874775389, ISBN-10: 0874775388
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)
Date Published: September 1989
Edition: 1st ed
Increasing numbers of people involved in personal transformation are experiencing spiritual emergencies - crises when the process of growth and change becomes chaotic and overwhelming. Individuals experiencing such episodes may feel that their sense 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 episodes from mental illness. As a result, transformational crises are often suppressed 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 relationship between spirituality, "madness," and healing? What forms does spiritual 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.
Introduction | ix | |
Part 1 | Divine Madness: Psychology, Spirituality, and Psychosis | |
Spiritual Emergency: Understanding Evolutionary Crisis | 1 | |
Self-Realization and Psychological Disturbances | 27 | |
Transcendental Experience in Relation to Religion and Psychosis | 49 | |
Part 2 | Varieties of Spiritual Emergency | |
Spiritual Emergence and Renewal | 63 | |
When Insanity is a Blessing: The Message of Shamanism | 77 | |
Kundalini: Classical and Clinical | 99 | |
The Challenges of Psychic Opening: A Personal Story | 109 | |
The Ufo Encounter Experience as a Crisis of Transformation | 121 | |
Part 3 | The Stormy Search for the Self: Problems of the Spiritual Seeker | |
Obstacles and Vicissitudes in Spiritual Practice | 137 | |
Promises and Pitfalls of the Spiritual Path | 171 | |
Part 4 | Help for People in Spiritual Emergency | |
Assistance in Spiritual Emergency | 191 | |
Counseling the Near-Death Experiencer | 199 | |
The Hero's Journey: Ritualizing the Mystery | 211 | |
The Spiritual Emergence Network (Sen) | 225 | |
Epilogue: Spiritual Emergence and the Global Crisis | 233 | |
Appendix | Further Reading | 236 |
Notes and References | 241 | |
Bibliography | 245 |