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You have been following a spiritual path for some time. Your perspectives have changed and life has taken on a new meaning for you.
But, instead of enjoying deep insights, you experience an existential crisis.
You feel alienated from everyone and everything around you and can barely get out of bed. Nothing seems to make sense anymore and you question your sanity.
Are you going crazy?
The answer could be a yes and a no.
But what you are experiencing is nothing uncommon. In fact, many people on a spiritual path eventually encounter what is called a spiritual emergency.
What is a Spiritual Emergency?
“Spiritual emergencies are moments of messy awakening, crises of ego dissolution and rebirth that are often misunderstood and unskillfully managed by materialist psychiatry. As more Westerners meditate and are drawn to psychedelics to foster their psycho-spiritual growth, mystical experiences are becoming more common, yet some of them will be disturbing and difficult. There is an urgent need in our culture to upgrade its understanding of what these experiences are like and what helps people through the turbulence.” – Jules Evans
The term “spiritual emergency” was coined by Czech psychiatrists Stanislav and Christina Grof and was expanded in the 1989 book Spiritual Emergency: When Personal Transformation Becomes a Crisis.
Since then, this concept has gained popularity. Yet it still remains relatively unknown in spiritual communities.
Spiritual emergencies are conditions that mainstream psychiatry would diagnose as pathological and treat with suppressive medication.
Stanislav and Christina Grof found, however, that these psychospiritual crises have great value for personal transformation:
“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.”
Successfully going through a spiritual emergency can result in emotional and psychosomatic healing, positive psychological changes, and consciousness evolution.
More so, the mystical literature of the world confirms their transformative and healing potential.
Episodes of this kind can be found in the life stories of saints, mystics, yogis, and shamans. Often these crises are described as important signposts of the spiritual path.
The term spiritual emergency is a play on words. It suggests a crisis but also the potential to “emerge” into a higher level of consciousness.
A spiritual emergency can occur when the spiritual awakening process speeds up and destabilizes the body and mind.
As much as such an experience can be frightening, being aware of the transformative potential can ease your anxiety about it.
The resolution depends on your willingness to integrate this experience and the kind of environment you are in. Hence, a supportive and understanding environment can be of great help
Triggers of Spiritual Emergency
Spiritual emergencies can happen to anyone at any point in life, even if you are not “spiritual.” A spiritual crisis is usually triggered by a shock and can last from a few days to years.
The triggers that precipitate a spiritual emergency can fall under three categories: physical, emotional, and spiritual.
Physical
Physical factors that can trigger a psychospiritual crisis include disease, accidents, operation, or prolonged lack of sleep.
In women, physical triggers can be childbirth, miscarriage, or abortion. And sometimes a powerful sexual experience can be the onset of a spiritual emergency.
Emotional
Often a spiritual emergency begins after a traumatic emotional experience.
This can be the loss of a relationship or loved one, such as death, a divorce, or the end of a love affair. Other triggers can be a series of failures, the loss of a job, or other material possessions (e.g., property or capital).
In some cases, experiences with psychedelics or experiential psychotherapy can be the “last straw.”
Spiritual
Finally, one of the most important triggers for spiritual emergencies is the involvement in spiritual practices, such as meditation.
Because any form of spiritual practice is designed to facilitate spiritual experiences, it’s no surprise that an ongoing practice can catalyze a psychospiritual crisis.
The variety of triggers suggests that your readiness for inner transformation is more important than the external stimuli.
Yet, there is a common denominator for the different triggers: A radical shift in the balance of unconscious and conscious processes.
Physical and emotional trauma can lower the psychological defenses which make it possible for unconscious and superconscious material to enter into consciousness.
This can then interfere with your everyday experience or even completely override it.
19 Signs You’re Having a Spiritual Emergency
“Cosmic love is absolutely ruthless and highly indifferent; it teaches its lessons whether you like/dislike them or not.” — John Lilly
Going through a spiritual emergency is probably one of the most painful, confusing, and scary experiences you can go through.
But the good news is that it does end and is worth going through.
Here are 19 signs that indicate a spiritual emergency:
- You can’t cope with everyday tasks anymore (like showering, shopping, cooking, working, etc.)
- Your inner and outer world merge confusingly.
- You experience strange and intense hallucinations and visions.
- You have past life experiences.
- You experience insomnia and have night terrors.
- You experience a rollercoaster of emotion without any obvious reason.
- You feel like the center of important cosmic events.
- You feel intense physical sensations (e.g., heat, shivering, spasms, vibrations, twisting movements).
- You experience more synchronicity or meaningful coincidences that link your inner with your outer world.
- You may believe you are the incarnation of an enlightened figure (e.g., Jesus, Buddha, Krisha, etc.)
- You have a deeper connection to the spirit realm (e.g., communication with spirit guides and “channeling”).
- You experience an increase in intuitive and psychic abilities.
- You’ve developed a medically unexplainable illness.
- You feel dissociated from your environment.
- You feel like being sucked into another dimension.
- You believe you have been abducted by aliens.
- You feel possessed by another consciousness.
- You feel like you are going crazy.
- You experience a state of unity and wholeness (not all symptoms have to be negative).
It’s important to note that while a spiritual emergency often begins with a lot of pain and suffering, the resolution usually is quite positive where you might feel like being reborn.
Are You Experiencing a Spiritual Emergency or Mental Illness?
“Our greatest blessings come to us by way of madness, provided that madness is given us by divine gift.” — Socrates
You might be wondering what the difference between a spiritual emergency and a mental illness is.
This is a tough question to answer as both types of conditions can have similarities. So there is no “black” and “white,” often the lines between spiritual emergencies and mental illnesses blur.
In his book Psychology of the Future, Stanislav Grof comes from both directions:
“While mainstream psychiatrists generally tend to pathologize mystical state, there also exists the opposite error of romanticizing and glorifying psychotic states or, even worse, overlooking a serious medical problem.”
Nonetheless, many people who are experiencing a spiritual emergency are often committed to a mental health ward – either forcibly or voluntarily. And for someone going through a psychospiritual crisis, this might not be the best place to be.
The process of being tossed through the medical system can be traumatizing and inhibit the natural cycle of the spiritual emergency – instead of reaping the rewards of this crisis, it’s being suppressed.
As author Catherine G. Lucas, founder of the UK Spiritual Crisis Network writes in her book:
Overall, perhaps the greatest danger of ending up in a hospital, and certainly the saddest aspect, is that the opportunity for healing and growth, for living a fuller, richer, more awakened life, can be irretrievably lost. The natural process of renewal, as the psychiatrist John Weir Perry called it, can be totally thwarted. Both the trauma of hospitalisation and the over-use of medication can have this effect. And once the process has been stopped in its tracks it can be difficult, if not impossible, to retrieve.
The problem is that mainstream psychiatry, because of its narrow conceptual framework, can’t see the difference between spiritual emergencies and mental illnesses.
In fact, “functional psychosis” has no clear medical definition. This means they offer no clinical findings that would support the diagnosis.
The diagnosis of such states is purely based on observation of unusual behaviors and experiences for which mainstream psychiatry lacks an adequate explanation.
For this reason, making an accurate diagnosis is impossible.
Having said that, Grof suggests that there are some criteria that indicate a spiritual emergency:
- A good medical examination that eliminates organic conditions requiring biological treatment
- A combination of biographical, perinatal (relating to the time before and after birth), and transpersonal experiences as described earlier.
- The person recognizes that what is happening is an inner process and is open to experiential work.
- The person describes the experiences coherently, however strange it may be.
Thankfully, there are professionals in the medical field (e.g. transpersonal, depth, or Jungian therapists) who understand the spiritual significance of symptoms that would otherwise be dismissed as “ramblings of a crazy person.”
Yet before working with a professional make sure they are familiar with spiritual emergencies. If you want to find someone close to you, visit the spiritual emergence network.
Now is it a spiritual emergency or a psychosis?
Sometimes you may be experiencing both, a spiritual emergency and some form of psychosis. Though it’s best to not see them as distinct. And as Lucas suggests a distinction might even be unnecessary:
“… I am not interested in trying to distinguish between so-called psychosis and spiritual emergency. I take the view that it is all the psyche’s attempt to heal and move towards wholeness, that each experience is potentially spiritually transformative.”
Just know that whatever you are going through is a valid experience.
Spiritual emergencies and mental illnesses both have healing potential. So having someone who helps you see the positive aspects and the deeper meaning is crucial.
12 Types of Spiritual Emergencies
There is a wide variety of spiritual emergencies and it can help to know about them so that you don’t feel like you are alone in this.
That’s why it also helps to have a trained guide to assist you through this experience and to differentiate between a pathological state and a psychospiritual crisis.
Generally, there are two main types of spiritual emergency. They can be classified as:
- Mystical Psychosis (hallucinations, mania, etc.)
- Dark Nights of the Soul (depression)
The difference between both seems to be the direction in which the energy flows.
During a mystical psychosis, the energy flow is upward and beyond into higher realms of consciousness. Examples are the awakening of Kundalini and communication with spirit guides.
During a dark night of the soul, the energy flow is inward and down into subconscious and unconscious realms. A dark night of the soul can come in many forms, a drug addiction/withdrawal can fall into that category.
Sometimes a spiritual emergency can be a combination of both.
This may be the case in a shamanic crisis. The shaman first ventures into the depths of the unconscious to then be alleviated to the heights of the superconscious.
Following is a list of 12 types of spiritual emergencies:
- Shamanic crisis
- Awakening of Kundalini
- Episodes of unitive consciousness (peak experiences)
- Psychological Renewal
- Crisis of psychic opening
- Past-life experiences
- Communications with spirit guides and “channeling”
- Near-death experiences (NDEs)
- UFO encounters and alien abduction experiences
- Possession states
- Drug addictions
- Dark Night of The Soul
While spiritual emergencies can differ in their intensity, they all have great potential for personal transformation and improved psychological functioning. Also, the boundaries between different spiritual emergencies are not clear, so there are some overlaps.
How to Cope with Spiritual Emergency
Unfortunately, there is no clear formula to deal with a spiritual emergency, as these experiences can differ greatly between individuals.
First of all, it’s important to remind yourself that your suffering serves a purpose and that by going through this experience you’ll emerge as a more integrated human being.
Nonetheless, there are a few ways to help you deal with a crisis like this.
Although the following advice might not be suitable for every type of spiritual emergency it can be your navigation toolbox.
Surrender to the Experience
Surrendering to your experience is spiritual advice 101 and effective in any life situation.
For some, this might seem counterintuitive, especially when you are experiencing a spiritual crisis and feel like you might lose yourself if you surrender.
But by surrendering to your experience, you’re accepting it. And through acceptance, you are draining the crisis of its power.
Resistance is not the solution because resistance reinforces the negative experience and increases your suffering. In contrast, when you surrender to the process, you’re letting the crisis unfold and resolve itself on its own.
Seek Support
Seeking support should be an early consideration. Especially if the spiritual emergency gets overwhelming and you feel like you can’t handle it on your own.
Here, you should seek someone out who has experience handling psychospiritual crises and knows to support you.
It can be tempting to ask a friend or family member for support. Yet, this might not be the best choice if they have no experience with spiritual emergencies and, hence, don’t know how to help you.
Another option is to go to a psychiatrist or psychotherapist. This can be a double-edged sword though.
If the psychiatrist is traditionally trained and has no deep insight into spiritual matters, they might diagnose you with a mental disease and recommends medication without offering real guidance for your crisis.
The best option is someone who is not only a psychotherapist but also a spiritual counselor. You may want to look for a transpersonal, depth, or Jungian therapist (but before you decide, ask them if they know about spiritual emergencies).
Temporarily Stop Your Spiritual Practice
Because your spiritual practice may be the cause of the psychospiritual crisis, it is advisable to temporarily stop it.
Continuing your spiritual practice despite clear signs of a spiritual emergency can further intensify the symptoms beyond what is necessary.
A spiritual practice can dissociate and detach you from the earthly realm. But when you are in a spiritual crisis it is the opposite of what you want.
Saying that, if you want to have some form of spiritual nourishment, try earth-centered approaches, like spending time in nature.
Connect with Nature
What can help you cope with a spiritual emergency is to ground yourself firmly on the earth. This means getting in touch with nature.
Go on walks into nature and connect with the elements.
Walking barefoot, touching and feeling the earth, bathing in a lake or any other water (even your bathtub can be a companion in this), and sitting in sunlight are great ways to increase your connection with nature and feeling more grounded.
Eat Healthy and Nourishing Food
In the midst of a spiritual emergency, you might be indifferent to eating and perhaps even forget to eat.
Fasting can induce hypoglycemia which weakens psychological barriers. As a result, this can bring up more material from the subconscious which can further intensify the symptoms.
Here, tea with honey, bananas, or other food containing glucose can help in grounding the process.
Apart from that, eating healthy, nutritious, hearty food is important. Root vegetables, like sweet potato and beetroot, are a great choice as they can further help you to feel more grounded.
If you follow a specific diet, it can also help to include foods you usually don’t eat. If you are vegan or vegetarian, temporarily including meat in your diet may also be helpful.
Get Enough Sleep
A spiritual emergency can be so demanding that some people experience sleep deprivation and insomnia.
Sleep deprivation, like fasting, can weaken psychological defenses and hence intensify the symptoms you experience.
In this context, sleep medication may be used as an assisting tool, not as a therapeutic intervention (this should only be done under the supervision of a professional).
This ensures that you’re getting enough rest so that you have the energy to follow the uncovering process of the crisis.
Move Your Body Regularly
You don’t have to run a marathon, but you should move your body at least once a day.
Listen to your bodily needs. Some days a short high interval training might be the right choice, other days a walk through the forest could be what your body needs.
Exercise is vital for mental and physical health.
And moving your body connects you to your body and assists in letting energies flow more freely through your body, which is important during a spiritual emergency.
Reduce Stress and Responsibilities
If you are usually a busy person and have a lot on your plate, you should consider dropping most of it.
Stress exacerbates a spiritual emergency and many responsibilities exacerbate stress. A spiritual crisis demands your energy and attention, so it’s best to simplify your life as much as possible.
Give yourself space to breathe.
This can also show you what is truly important in your life and where you have lost yourself in workaholism.
Find the Meaning in Your Suffering
Whatever the spiritual emergency is you are going through, understand that this is not without meaning.
It can be of great help to remind you that what you are going through leads to personal and spiritual growth.
You can ask yourself why you are experiencing this spiritual emergency.
Then, tune in with your heart and listen to what it says. When you don’t get a clear or satisfactory answer you may also pray to whatever higher power you believe in and ask for an answer.
If all else fails, drop the need the find an answer. Completely let go of it and the answer might just show itself right before you.
Helpful Organizations
If you want further information or guidance, check out the following resources:
There you’ll find people who are trained to help and guide you through a spiritual emergency.
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When all is said and done, a spiritual emergency is terrifying, yet fascinating and life-altering. It’s a process of shedding the old and welcoming the new.
While many people won’t understand you and the medical system may pathologize you, you are not crazy. You are going through a sacred process and you are not alone in this.
What you are going through has profound spiritual meaning. I salute your courage and bravery for walking this path. So be gentle with yourself; you are on the right track.
Luka
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This is a very well written article. I recently experienced a spiritual emergency and wound up in the mental health care system. I feel that being medicated definitely hindered my process. I only wish I had known more about this topic before experiencing it.