Broader Canopy of SEY
When we consider the concept of “Spiritual Emergency” at this point: the area the canopy covers is much broader than it was at its inception in 1980. It not only covers growth into what can be identified as experiencing more psychic perceptions, shamanic visions, and other phenomena associated with spiritual awakening; it covers the phenomena of addiction and mental disturbances as well. Why? Because many people undergoing these challenges are also going through spiritual crises that may be at the very root of the addiction or disturbance. Some say that confronting and recovering from addictions and emotional disturbance is a spiritual emergence process in itself.
It might be of great value to hold all of these inner experiences in the light of a spiritual emergence process that symbolizes growing into the light of more wisdom and compassion, becoming more aligned with Higher Power aka one’s Higher Self, and having a lifestyle that supports this connection. This broader perspective makes use of new kinds of treatments and support groups including spiritual practices, and moves away from terminology related to medicine or an illness related to a “broken brain”.
Increasing numbers strain in dislike of the stigma of ‘mental illness’. They see the negative effects of these diagnoses on their medical and insurance records (especially with medical records now being digital and easily accessible). Thus, individuals look for a less demeaning word to describe their condition that won’t scare away prospective employers or new friends.
We would do our veterans a favor if we looked at their challenges in re-entering the world after wartime as a “spiritual emergency” rather than simply a medical diagnosis like “profound depression”, “anxiety disorder”, “post-traumatic stress syndrome”, “mental illness” or a ‘broken brain’ needing drugs. Giving veterans help for getting through the trauma of war efforts should not burden them with the stigma of mental illness, but simply acknowledge they have experienced severe trauma, eg. being forced to kill others when that act goes against the Golden Rule of their religious beliefs. Like anyone who has experienced trauma, our veterans need compassionate care, empathy, time and new skills to return to our cultural norms.
Even as a word, the concept of “spiritual emergency” offers a kind of protection to people, e.g., explaining an upset as a “spiritual emergency” is far less scary—and possibly more truthful—than calling it a “nervous breakdown”. More so, receiving the kind of care for spiritual emergency is less stressful and may be more effective than the typical medical treatment for a nervous breakdown.
New Treatments
Treatment for SEY involves only cautious use of psychotropic medication and more empathic listening and a calm, less stimulating environment with fewer demands than the more typical medical environment. More medically oriented wards and clinics lean heavily on the use of psychiatric medications and are usually composed of rooms and halls with unnecessarily bright lighting, blaring televisions, and too much talk.
Don’t for a moment think that those trained to care for people in SEY refuse to recommend the use of psychiatric drugs if that is the most compassionate care needed. Certainly, giving a person medication to help him sleep if he has not slept for days is a hallmark of compassionate care. Similarly, short-term use of some other psychiatric medications is also used, as needed. But, prescribing these drugs long-term is avoided, if it can be avoided without harming the patient.
The knowledge and practical skills—and new vocabulary-- available to us today to help people work through and recover from any crisis including addiction and mental illness are much broader than they were in 1990. For example, yoga and meditation (or “mindfulness training”) are used more frequently to help people manage and sometimes overcome trauma, anxiety and depression. There are new, relatively quick techniques, like the “Emotional Freedom Technique” and “WHEE”, to help people overcome the effects of past trauma. Evidence-based research has shown that a comfortable place to meet and empathic listening is a significant part of the success of any therapeutic intervention and highly effective therapy can be done through peers as opposed to health professionals. The effects of eating gluten (in wheat, barley and rye) on the gut can bring on psychotic-like symptoms in some people, and avoiding eating gluten can have a very positive effect on mental health. Books like “Rethinking Madness” (2012) by Paris Williams, PhD cited above, or “Resources for Extraordinary Healing” (2012) give a thorough analysis of what we have missed in our medical model of mental illness and how recovery can be gained by engaging a different model of diagnosis and care. These new branches offer more stability and nurture the idea that emotional disturbance is not simply and always a medical disease to be treated with psychotropic drugs but often a marker of reaching for spiritual growth.
Particular treatments must be gauged to each person’s particular needs. If we return to our metaphorical tree and consider each branch to be a person: One branch may need a medication for a fungus or infestation of bugs; one branch may need pruning dead wood to give more energy to newer, vital growth. Applying that to the human level: particular people may need medication or surgery, 12-step programs, family systems therapy, or a sleep medication. But, ideally, there is always the overarching notion that it is all happening in the wider context of a spiritual emergence process.
Jon Vogel’s Story
Jon Vogel, a 39-year-old man from Manhattan, was hospitalized in May 2010 for 5 days, and again 10 days later he admitted himself to the psych ward for 10 days. Jon thought he was dying: he was seeing blue lights, having heart palpitations, and was bleeding quite extensively from his nose and ears, amongst other frightening problems, like hearing voices. He told me, “Some days I would wake up and my pillow was red with blood.” His medical advisors wanted to convince him that these symptoms—especially the bleeding-- were occurring as a result of more than five years of serious addiction to cocaine and marijuana on top of the stresses of a gambling addiction. Jon told me, “I didn’t want to recognize what was going on; I didn’t even want to think about it.” As he couldn’t understand the unusual voices he was hearing and lights he was seeing, he just thought “I must be dying.”
Finally, his symptoms became so bad that he couldn’t ignore them any longer. He told me, “I knew within myself: it was going to be death or learning what I came here to do. In the grip of the intensity, I said to the beings I knew were behind the voices that I was hearing: You show me what I need to know and to tell others.” What he heard back from them was this: “It’s all about helping people understand what spiritual emergency is really about.” Although Jon heard this—he was being effectively given a vision of his future.
It took Jon 7-8 months to understand what was going on within him. He later came to believe it was a transformative process facilitating his movement into a higher level of consciousness as well as social action. He came to intuitively feel that the bleeding he had had was also part of his letting go of an old way of being in the world. But, there was much he needed to understand and he recognized from promptings deep within his soul that he had to work on himself and make the changes within himself. This direction did not come from a 12-step program or any personal sponsor or authority figure pressuring him to “do his work…no one is going to do it for you”. Instead, Jon followed his own intuition. He was intuitively led to read certain books and websites to integrate the experiences he was having.
The result? As of September 2012 he no longer has any of his prior addictions. It has been 6 months since he has had any marijuana and two years since he used cocaine or gambled. He used psychiatric medications for one month, years ago, and since that time stopped them altogether. He told me, “I hold myself in self-acceptance and self-love. I also feel a strong connection to Archangel Michael who sends me messages through my intuition that are positive for me and have been helpful for others.”
Jon is an example of a visionary who went through an evolutionary crisis perceived as mental illness by medical professionals. Seth Farber, Ph.D. gives many more examples of this in his book “The Spiritual Gift of Madness” (2012), in which he opines that many patients caught in the mental health system today are being over-medicated, and thus our society loses their gifts as visionaries