that moment of nearly drowning, I have always been in touch with what I recognize as the deep, steady stream of Higher Power within me; my ordinary mind is like a bubbling brook animating only the surface of my consciousness. These experiences continued as I grew. Psychic phenomena, mental telepathy, ESP, clairvoyance, clairsentience, became a normal part of my life. I used to think that this was unusual—in fact, I used to think that people would treat me like a crazy person if I revealed the kinds of things that I was experiencing. Now, I know that most people have had at least one of these kinds of experiences. Still, we struggle to find words to describe them, and most of us have some fear of talking about them.
However, it was not until I completed my research for my doctoral dissertation in psychology that I realized the extent to which spiritual experiences are "normal." As I interviewed person after person in my study for writing A Sourcebook for Helping People in Spiritual Emergency (Lightening Up Press, 1988), I saw that these experiences not only are common but also have a place in natural human development. In my work as a psychotherapist, I became convinced of the value of spiritual experiences in enhancing mental health. I continually saw these experiences serve as stepping-stones to higher levels of functioning in the form of higher creativity, a sense of equanimity and peace, a desire to serve others, and the development of psychic abilities—even the capacity to do hands-on healing work.
People in our culture are afraid of speaking openly about their spiritual experiences, because psychic phenomena—such as experiencing past-life sequences, receiving clairvoyant, clairsentient, or clairaudient impressions, or speaking with disembodied spirits —have been considered symptomatic of psychosis. Most psychiatrists, psychologists, and even clergy have believed that most spiritual experiences are indicative of either retarded development or emotional disease. This opinion has diffused into our texts on mental health, and thus also informed other health care workers—nurses, counselors, hospital administrators, etc.
One client of mine, a research biochemist, had had an intense spiritual experience during the birth of her first child. She was in labor on a gurney in the hallway of the hospital, waiting to be wheeled into the birthing room. She was not under any medication. Her husband and a nurse were attending her. Suddenly, her body began to shake all over. She felt streams of light throughout her system. This continued for over an hour. No one in the hospital understood what was happening to her. They gave her medication to suppress the symptoms, and treated her as if there were something wrong about her. Believing them, she maintained that sense of herself for years, dreading another "occurrence," not realizing that the brilliant light and powerful energy rushes vibrating through her body had been a legitimate spiritual experience having to do with the awakening of kundalini—a form of spiritual awakening described below. In the course of our work together she came to realize her experience as one of union with Higher Power.
Are We Becoming a Nation of Mystics?
Despite the discounting and repression of experiences such as the one my client had in childbirth, people are in fact beginning to acknowledge their spiritual experiences publicly. Andrew Greeley and pollsters at the University of Chicago reported the results of their most recent findings in 1987.1 In the United States, 42 percent of the adult population revealed that they had "had contact with the dead"; 67 percent of widows have had "contact with the dead"; 73 percent believed in life after death; 74 percent believe that after death they will be "reunited with dead loved ones." In terms of psychic phenomena, 67 percent reported that they had experienced extrasensory perception; 67 percent had experienced déjà vu; 31 percent had experienced clairvoyance.
These figures have been echoed in national surveys by the Gallup Organization.2 From 1980 to 1985 their surveys indicated that 15 percent of Americans have had a near-death experience; 43 percent have had an unusual spiritual experience; 71 percent believe in life after death; 95 percent believe in a universal spirit or God. In 1986, 67 percent of teenagers reported that they believed in angels. Studies in the 1970s by Greeley and his associates showed 15 percent to 30 percent less activity in terms of spiritual experiences—with only 27 percent of adults reporting contact with the dead; 59 percent reporting déjà vu; 58 percent reporting ESP; and 24 percent reporting clairvoyance.
Either the numbers of people having spiritual experiences are increasing, or people are more courageous about admitting that they are having these kinds of experiences. Is this an indication that more of us are crazy? Are we a nation of psychotics? Or are we a nation of people now opening to share with each other a level of spiritual life we have not yet spoken about?
The Positive Results of Spiritual Experience
I believe the numbers indicate that it is natural to have spiritual experiences as part of human development. Clearly, a byproduct of these experiences is that they enhance creativity and compassion, the ability to relax and be at peace with oneself, and the desire to be of service to others. These qualities are all useful in maintaining and improving the quality of individual and collective life on this planet. Thus, the development of these qualities may be indicative of our evolutionary pattern.
Evidence of these positive results is described in research on people who have for a time been clinically dead and then come back to life—a near-death experience, people who have awakened spiritual energetic forces, kundalini, in their own body, cross-cultural studies of shamans, and highly creative individuals.3 Dr. Kenneth Ring recognized a pattern of change in behavior in the majority of people who had had near-death experiences. These resembled the results people also achieved from intense kundalini awakenings brought on spontaneously or by spiritual practices like meditation. He found that people usually have no increased fear of death, believe in the existence of higher force(s) that are unconditionally loving and compassionate, perceive the universality of all religions, become more spiritual and less identified with any specific religion, often acquire the ability to heal and other psychic abilities, and out of increased compassion seek to improve the quality of life of other people.
The creativity born of spiritual experiences is documented in the biographies of our inventors, musicians, writers, and artists. Puccini described the inspiration for his Madama Butterfly in the following way:
The music of this opera was dictated to me by God; I was merely instrumental in putting it on paper and communicating it to the public.4
Brahms described it this way:
When I feel the urge I begin by appealing directly to my Maker. . . . I immediately feel vibrations which thrill my whole being. . . . In this exalted state I see clearly what is obscure in my ordinary moods; then I feel capable of drawing inspiration from above as Beethoven did. . . . Those vibrations assume the form of distinct mental images.5
George Sand speaks of her writing thus:
The Wind plays my old harp as it lists. . . . It is the other who sings as he likes, well or ill, and when I try to think about it, I am afraid and tell myself that I am nothing, nothing at all.6
Inventors often speak of getting their inspiration from dreams or the hypnagogic state, a state of consciousness between dreaming and waking. Thus, the source of their inspiration comes from the resources of the higher unconscious. Albert Einstein received valuable information through a waking vision. When he was resting on top of a hill one day he imagined himself traveling to the sun and returning. The experience "felt" to him as if he had traveled in a curved line. This insight led to his developing his famous equation, "Energy is equal to mass times the speed of light squared." Sir Frederick Grant Banting found his laboratory procedure for the mass production of insulin in a dream state.
How is it, then, that we have for such a long time thought spiritual experiences to be indicators of madness, and messages from the unconscious to be primarily workings of repressed emotion? How could our psychologists and doctors have been so misinformed? The issue is not misinformation, but rather, whether individuals have the capacity to integrate the experiences into their daily lives. If an individual does not have the wherewithal within himself or the guidance he needs to accommodate intense spiritual experiences, such an experience may accelerate a disintegration of his mental health, just as any intense physical or emotional