Spiritual Emergency: When Personal Transformation Becomes a Crisis
(New Consciousness Readers)
(New Consciousness Readers)
Author: Stanislav Grof, Christina Grof
Publisher: Tarcher
Publication Date: September 1, 1989
Edition: 1st
ISBN (print): 0874775388
Size & Format: 138 MB / PDF
Pages: 276
Type: Scan
OCR: Yes
Searchable: Yes
Paginated: Yes
Bookmarked: Yes
Cover: Yes
Desc
From Spiritual Emergency to Healing and Rebirth
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.
Review(s):
Title: Essays on the transformative experience.
Stars: 5
In his book "Cosmic Consciousness," published in 1901, Richard Bucke writes of "certain men who...are either exalted, by the average self conscious individual, to the rank of gods, or, adopting the other extreme, are adjudged insane." This is the earliest mention I have found of the potential problem inherent in the spiritual growth process: bouts of madness, or at least extreme dysfunction. The Grofs have put together a collection of essays by themselves and various other authors which explore the psychic/psychological dynamics of what they call "spiritual emergency." That's their term for when the growth process puts a person into psychic overload. The essays describe different aspects of such overload, as well as ways to help someone (or oneself) through it.
A repeating theme throughout the book is that too often such people are pathologized and medicated by well-meaning but materialistic-minded health care workers. This not only terminates the process so that breakthrough cannot occur, it can also drive the patient into permanent madness. Some of the contributors to this book include Roberto Assagioli, John Weir Perry, Ram Dass, Lee Sannella, Holger Kalweit, and others. There is a fascinating piece by Keith Thompson entitled "The UFO Encounter Experience as a Crisis of Transformation," which is the most profound way of looking at UFO abduction phenomenon that I've ever read. I recommend this book to anyone interested in personal growth--it is interesting, well-edited, and filled with a lot of useful information.
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