Is it Psychosis or a Spiritual Emergency?

Spiritual Emergency vis a vis Psychosis

A “spiritual emergency” is often confused with a psychotic episode. Both are intense.  Both can have dramatic ups and downs.  One minute a person feels elated and inspired.  The next minute they feel triggered and distressed.   It can be scary and disorienting.

Is it a Binary?

People think, “It’s got to be one or the other! Psychosis or spiritual emergency.  Which one is it?”  They look for someone to do an assessment to answer the question.  They likely   find out that few people know how to even recognize spiritual emergency.  So they certainly can’t tell the difference between that crisis and the more familiar symptoms of what we call “mental illness” .  The concept of Spiritual Emergency is rarely taught to MDs, nurses, and psychotherapists; so applying the category of spiritual emergency to a client is typically outside their conceptual framework.  Unfortunately, that means the stigma attached to mental illness may be given to a person in spiritual emergency.

Spiritual Emergency Definition

A spiritual emergency may happen when someone has one or more intense spiritual experiences, e.g. a near-death experience, and is struggling to make sense of them.  The spiritual experiences often carry whole new perceptions about the meaning of life and death.  The person in the experience may feel very disoriented.  Not only are their beliefs about themselves and their world profoundly challenged, but what they previously identified as “I” no longer fits.  Re-evaluation is needed regarding work, relationships, and most of the details of life.  One or more support people who are familiar with the territory can be extremely helpful.  One client I had threw her iphone out the window and began undressing to become naked in public.  She had experienced a state of oneness with all life.  She wanted to step out of her ego.  She had just been through a powerful plant medicine ritual and felt she could no longer identify with the persona she had formerly created. Fortunately, with the support of family, she was able to take some time out and re-evaluate what changes she wanted to make in her life in a more peaceful situation, surrounded and supported by her spiritual community.

With the current enthusiasm for exploring plant medicines and psychedelics–more people are having profound spiritual experiences that are disorienting.  Meditation and hatha yoga may be a catalyst as well.  Stress, such as caused by loss of an intimate relationship, or a home, or physical health may also push a person towards spiritual emergency.

An Emotional Rollercoaster

As a person expands in consciousness towards what is often described as the  “Light” they may become energized and feel very joyful for a time.   Sometimes they experience communion with angels or experience love in an overwhelming way—what most of us would call a “spiritual” experience.  But, these wonderful feelings can be followed by facing some darkness inside.  The light exposes the darkness.  And, that ride between the depths of darkness and the heights of light can happen very quickly.

If that darkness is filled with memories of past trauma or fears, then a person may have difficulty sleeping.  Their mind may jump from one topic to the next trying to make sense of the intense change from light to darkness.  Someone listening to them may think, “They are not making any sense…I can’t follow what they are saying.  They sound nuts.”

We can’t assume they are mentally ill.  They are trying to make sense of their experience while immersed in it; and that can be an intense, all-consuming experience that might not make sense to someone in an ordinary state of consciousness.

How much sense do you make when you have just been on the most intense ride at Disneyworld?  You might feel dizzy, ungrounded, overwhelmed.  You might just repeat the word, “Wow” over and over, ashamed to expose your terror.  You might be thinking, “I’ve never felt so exhilarated and so terrified all at the same time.”

Where to Find Helpful Resources

Assessments and finding support can be challenging because typically a spiritual emergency involves both psychological and spiritual processes.  It’s both/and;  not either/or.  To make things more opaque, the Diagnositic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) doesn’t have a category for spiritual emergency.   

There are now more than 100 “Spiritual Emergence Coaches®”with more now in training.  Some provide online support groups; some provide one on one coaching online or in-person.  IMHU provides an online course, How to Differentiate Spiritual Crisis and Pathology.  It offers a table to be used for assessments–helping a clinician to see how much of a client’s experience is purely spiritual process that needs support and how much does that same client need effective therapy to work through some psychological issues to gain whole health.

It can be immensely helpful to find someone who understands spiritual emergency who can do an accurate assessment.  Directories of these providers can be found online at the Spiritual Emergence Network and the Directory of Spiritual Emergence Coaches®. Periodic chaos in life happens to almost everyone. Handling each situation appropriately is of the utmost importance.  Hospitalization and  psychiatric medication are not right for everyone and can be damaging.

The Outcome of a Spiritual Emergency

If a person in spiritual emergency is labeled as just “psychotic”, aka nuts, then the outcome may be a diagnosis of mental illness, like bipolar disorder, or possibly schizophrenia.  That person may be advised to take medication for the rest of their life, by one or more well-meaning healthcare providers.  They may be warned to stay away from “spiritual” things.  They will feel limited, fearful, and possibly ashamed of what lies within them as a result.

If someone in spiritual emergency gets the right support from a person educated and trained to help in spiritual emergency they can emerge transformed.  The chaotic state they were in is resolved.  They feel content that they learned a lot from the experience.  They are more likely to be happy in their chosen work, more peaceful within themselves, and more connected with their friends and family.  They may feel excited to continue their spiritual growth within a spiritually-based community.  Most often, they will also become involved in volunteer work, to serve others who may need help.

After all, roller coaster rides can enrich us, even though they may initially be scary.

---

Author: Emma Bragdon, PhD,

In the late 1980s part of Bragdon’s PhD dissertation was published as “A Sourcebook for Helping People in Spiritual Emergency.” It is still used in some graduate school programs that train psychotherapists and counselors.   Her second book, “The Call of Spiritual Emergency,”  is full of stories about how this personal crisis unfolds and what the transformative, positive outcome can be–if a person is given appropriate support.  She now teaches online webinars on “How to Effectively Support Someone in Spiritual Emergency”.  She also trains and certifies Spiritual Emergence Coaches®.  She is the Executive Director of Integrative Mental Health University, IMHU.org.  She has a private consultation practice.

---

Would you like to learn more about spiritual emergency and awakening to more expanded consciousness?  

The course, “How to Differentiate Spiritual Crisis from Psychosis” is  available HERE. 

You can learn how to help in Spiritual Emergency via IMHU’s online course HERE.

IMHU’s full roster of courses and presentations is HERE.

.