The imaginary line between “spiritual emergence” and “psychosis”

[GiaK]

The imaginary line between “spiritual emergence” and “psychosis” – Everything Matters: Beyond Meds https://beyondmeds.com/2019/01/06/the-imaginary-line-between-spiritual-emergence-and-psychosis/

 

That’s right the line between psychosis and spiritual emergence does not exist. There is no line, there is only spectrum of manifestation and none of it is better or worse. It simply is what is arising in that individual at the moment they are met and unfortunately diagnosed.  It can change any time too. These mental/spiritual states are not stagnant and often times they’re even responses to the ineptness of the so-called professional experts we find ourselves with. When we sense people are unsafe and we can’t easily get away trauma responses to feeling trapped can look pretty “crazy”  In any case, this belief in a line between the two concepts has been a standard meme of sorts in most of the spiritual emergence scene since its inception. The father of the movement, the much beloved and revered Stanislov Grof started it and it continues to be at the foundation of most of the philosophies/psychologies that employ the concept.
 

Continuing, seamlessly, in the footsteps of psychiatry, this belief in this magical line dividing the truly spiritual emergent from the truly psychotic is used to harm and retraumatize folks routinely.   There are people who are pathologically inclined and there are those who are not. There are those who are worthy of being respected and there are those who are not.
 

What it really means is that professionals have found that there are those we feel comfortable with and there are those we do not feel comfortable with. When we don’t feel comfortable with a client the most expedient, least personally painful thing to do is blame the patient. The client/patient is so sick that we must dismiss them. We must drug them and remove them from our sight, because if we do not we might actually have to take a look at our own lack of capacity, our own limits. We might have to look at our own trauma and our own shadows. We’d rather not do that so we will instead continue to traumatize you by telling you, “no you are not spiritual emergent, you are sick and always will be and you should go get drugged for the rest of your life.”  Yes, they are simply behaving as another arm of psychiatry at that point. Dirty little secret.

 

Yet another “micro-aggression.“ And micro-aggression is a somewhat unfortunate term because the sensitive does not experience these as slight offenses. Not in the least bit.
 

From the first time I encountered the idea of Spiritual Emergence in my early 20’s when I also made a phone call to the then local to me, Stanislov Grof.  I was hoping to get an appointment to see him.  I wrote the following paragraph in a post about the book Rethinking Madness by Paris Williams:

I … contacted Stan Grof as a young woman having recognized my issues were not mental illness and was engaged with interest until I told him I’d been labeled bipolar and hospitalized briefly. At that point he couldn’t wait to get off the phone. His energy and interest radically shifted away from me. It was devastating.  I was struck with the hypocrisy of that, him having married the wife he met as a patient in the psych ward. Her book, The Stormy Search for the Self, about her own spiritual emergence and crisis was at one time very helpful to me.

Since that time I’ve encountered many such people both professionally as colleagues and also as someone seeking help for my own healing process for which I sometimes utilized the spiritual emergence frame. It is one frame that can be helpful to some people some of the time. It  is by no means the only helpful frame to approach the experience that gets labeled psychotic and it’s also not always necessary. What is necessary is finding frames and people both that support our process, whatever it is, however we choose to interpret it.
 

The people I’ve encountered within the spiritual emergence world over the years have pretty much all had serious  limits when it comes to working with the folks I advocate for on this site.  These limits are manifested with the professional projecting their own lack of experience and understanding onto the person seeking help one way or another. As a “client” or “patient” I was retraumatized by such folks more than once. I did meet one lovely woman shortly after my phone call to Grof. She was one of his closest students at the time. Luckily she could hold a bigger vision than her teacher.  She and I did do some good work together and people like her help me trust that someday we can be the majority rather than the tiny minority in the professional world.
 

As a professional I’ve talked to dozens of these folks now. They are almost always dismissive of the folks I advocate for in one way or another. Sometimes in very explicit and non-apologetic ways. I generally only gently confront these folks if at all. I pick my battles and I’m not interested in arguing with people who cannot hear me. It’s wasted energy.  I will speak to anyone who really wants to know and learn what I’ve come to know and learn  about the psyche of those of us who get labeled and far too often tossed away. On occasion I meet people who clearly  want to learn but mostly people are rigidly inflexible around this issue and attached to their training. This is pretty human. I try to find compassion in my heart. I was a professional in such circles too and once thought a lot like them accepting my training without too much question.
 

I stopped looking for people to work with as a client/patient many years ago now. It became obvious that everyone I had met were not in the least bit competent enough to bring me through what I’ve learned to do for myself in many, strictly speaking, non-therapeutic ways (simply learning to live well and integrity with ourselves is good therapy!). I utilize all manner of things in my environment and life and home that allow me to go deep and heal this stuff. I’ve discovered this process by surrendering to the life-force within me and it’s been a slow sometimes (very) excruciating and also astonishingly beautiful process. My allies and friends are involved for sure, but professionals, again, strictly speaking, generally are not. Of course some of my friends and allies happen to be professionals but our relationships are not conventional at all at this point.
 

I have however continued to network with professionals in general, as a professional and it’s been largely disappointing. (again, there are always delightful exceptions and that is what keeps me reaching out to professionals … even with this post I hope to recruit professionals! … always, because I too was a professional and I understand that it’s truly not easy to get the training you need to do this very important work even if you are interested in it)
 

In more recent years I’ve spoken to local professionals in this way and it’s those two most recent contacts that have led me to writing this post today.
 

One of them, with whom I collaborated with for a while, made a pass at me even while knowing I was married, and, more importantly, extremely vulnerable. He knew my brain injury status and knew that I could barely even leave my home much of the time and that my PTSD remained out of control at the time.  It’s still something that blows my mind that a therapist working with me pretty much as my boss at the time would do that. I trusted him and valued him very much as a friend. Again, one more devastation at the hands of someone trained by Grof.
 

The other person is someone I called when I found out he was doing this work in the area where I live. We talked on the phone and he was pretty run-of-the-mill dismissive. Nothing shocking, but yeah, I was bummed out. I always hope to find people I might be able to work with as colleagues.
 

I don’t do much one on one work online anymore with folks who are in need of intensive support because without an infrastructure of care and support from the “village” it’s just too much for me alone to meet all the despair of truly deserving people who reach out to me daily from having read my work. I apologize to all of you. I’m so sorry I cannot respond and hold space for hundreds of you. I am working on finding other ways to get support out there and right now one thing I’m trying to do is educate the professionals.
 

Anyway, this last guy I spoke to on the phone, is someone I happen to dance with. He doesn’t know who I am and probably doesn’t even remember our conversation. I see him though and we dance together in my local ecstatic dance scene. He’s not always there and mostly I just ignore him but I also can feel his presence when he is there. It’s actually been a great place for me to feel into the hurt, pain and anger of what he represents as one of the many 1000s of therapists who harm us every day. I dance that **** out…right there on the dance floor in his presence. It’s very powerful. Ecstatic dance is one of my most important modes of healing and it includes a lovely community. Whether we like it or not the Village includes everyone. Not just the people we like to hang out with. And so I practice that reality when I dance with this man. He is part of my community and here he crosses over into my safe space. Yeah, it’s a good practice.
 

Today as I was dancing in his presence this post started being written. Right there on the dance floor. I left half way through to come home and write. This is yet one more topic that has been brewing for years that I finally get to address.

 

There is no line between psychosis and spiritual emergence. 

 

first published: 

The imaginary line between “spiritual emergence” and “psychosis” – Everything Matters: Beyond Meds https://beyondmeds.com/2019/01/06/the-imaginary-line-between-spiritual-emergence-and-psychosis/

 

 

Edited January 6, 2019 by ChessieCat
source added/cc reduced font size

[TreeElf]

Thank you for sharing this information. I read Grof's book last year, I'm sad you had that experience. That must have been very disappointing. Having a pretty rough time so can't reply as fully as I'd like, but I do hope you inspire and attract more professionals who are open to new thinking about this. I'm still very much caught between believing I'm going through a spiritual crisis, have mental issues, or am simply a bad person. I can also relate to feeling afraid of opening up to any professional, because I've had so many disappointing or just painful experiences with them. There just doesn't seem to be the resources, experience, time or understanding to help those in crisis. Appreciate you posting, hope it reaches those who need it.

[kirby]

I'm very interested in the way that mental illness, or "psychosis", could be a natural phenomenon for a person undergoing change ("spiritual emergence"). After reading through the post my understanding is that mental issues could be less of a sign that there is something wrong with a person , but rather that they are exploring an aspect of themselves that they had ignored or abandoned. The bizarre ways people act sometimes when going through those changes may just be to attract assistance (love and care) from their communities so that they will be accepted after they change. In that way, many commonly negative things, such as bad habits, imaginary situations, or excessive emotions, could be best resolved with acceptance and understanding by the people they care about.

[kirby]

I thought about it some more, and a better way to say it is that things are tough when: 1. their environment tells a person they need improvement 2. they feel unhappy because of the way others react 3. they are concerned with the happiness of other people. These things build onto each other until it is a tower of unhappy. The reality is that it is an illusion because the person thinks they have to manage and live in the unhappy tower to keep up with everything's demands, when in fact its healthier to walk away and build a new mind tower, and find out the things they care about are automatically included in the new tower, because what is significant is inside of them all along. This is impossible manually (like in the subconscious) and will happen overtime naturally with confidence, experience, and brain growth, and all that's required outside is positive words, lots of care, and the feeling of safety. Edit: The process of realizing, feeling sad, and walking away from the old tower is the part that makes people seem worrying to others on the outside, but it can be walked through with care and sympathy.

 

I know it might be too analytical because still in school mode, and it might be totally wrong, but thought it sounded sound to myself so might be to someone else.

 

Edited February 2, 2019 by kirby
word changes and added sentence for elaboration

[India]

@GiaK Thank you for all your work. It has been invaluable to me during very dark times. Also, thankful to Alostrata for providing this forum. I can't write more at the moment due to symptoms . 

[cpuusage]

i'm unsure on it all. 

 

i think that some things are more mental illness, some things more spiritual crisis / emergence & some things more differential. 

 

i do however agree with seeing things from an integral / holistic perspective (crossing individual biological, psychogenic, sociological & soul / spiritual / transpersonal variables). 

 

"Sometimes, a person can have a combination of symptoms that require treatment for medical or psychiatric conditions -- and also need support for a spiritual emergence that may be taking place. Boisen is an example of someone who had a psychiatric condition that became the impetus for spiritual growth.

Swedenborg wrote a lot on the process of "regeneration" -- or spiritual growth -- where there can be many stages and types of experiences. He might say today that some things considered "psychosis" or illness are actually ways in which one is experiencing regeneration. But, then, Swedenborg preferred "both/and" to "either/or." So he would probably say that many experiences could be BOTH part of a spiritual awakening AND a psychiatric or medical condition"

Regeneration or psychosis, Swedenborgian Community

i have now largely dropped more formally exploring all the alternative healing areas, after exploring it all for the past 17 years. i am content to focus now on my own path & understandings with it all & a my own spiritual practises, mainly focused on non duality, with an acceptance of the diagnosis / condition & medication. 

 

A lot i think is also dependent on the responses to & treatment of the individual by the wider society / system. There are so many variables. 

 

i am in favour of a genuine reform of psychiatry / the mental health system, to something a lot more advanced, humane & effective, rather than it's abolishment. i can see a certain validity to all the different opinions & perspectives on all these areas. & i still don't think that we know enough about the brain / consciousness & all these experiences to categorically know what is going on with it all. We are Not yet more advanced with it all as a society / culture / civilisation. So much is still mysterious. 

[cpuusage]

GiaK - what do you think on this - which is a project that i have been working on.

What would an integral / holistic / comprehensive approach look like? 

 

Body, Mind, Spirit & Environment.

1) Physiological, Biologic, Brain Developmental, Epigenetic, Brain Plasticity. Would include drug use/medications, diet & other impactors on physiology/biology. (biomedical Models)

2) Psychological, Emotional, & the bodies energetic systems. (Psychological Models)

3) Social, Environmental, Inter-Personal/Relational, Familial, Life Experiences. Stress/Trauma - 'What has happened to you?' (Social Models)

4) Spiritual/Trans-Personal, Past life/Karmic. Life Lessons, Soul Plan. Spirit Attachment. (Spiritual/Transpersonal Models)

All areas are interrelated - Bio/Psycho/Social/Spirit Model. Covering the 4 main areas of Life. 

 

Differential Frameworks – multi-factored, comprehensive, person centred & individualised approach to understanding of non-ordinary experiences/mental health experiences/mental & emotional confusion & distress/psychic disturbance.

Overlaps exist within each field.

Life – Essence & Being – Beyond the Mind/Thought/Thinking/Language/Ideas/Concepts/Theories.


Body
Pathology

Physiology.
Brain Developmental.
Brain Structural.
Neurological Pathways/Patterning.
Early brain development 0-3/5 years.
Epigenetic & genetic mutation at conception.
Brain Plasticity.
Deep Brain States.
Limbic System.
Temporal Lobes.
Brain Shift.
Pathogens in utero.
Pre/perinatal experiences/conditions.
Nutritional issues.
Stress & trauma.
Organic Processes.
Drug/Alcohol use/Medications/Psychiatric Drugs.
Other Diseases Pathogens.
Biomedical & Alternative/Holistic.
Brain Circuits.
Scientific.
Materialism VS Energetic Living Systems.
Biomorphic Resonance.
CNS (Central Nervous System) & Mind/Brain/Body Integration.

Mind
Psychopathology

Psychology
Depth Psychology
Symbolic
Metaphor
Mythology
Pre, Personal, Collective, & Universal Unconscious.
Realms of the Psyche.
Shadow.
Personality Types.
Ego
Supra Conscious.
Projection.
Electro-magnetic.
Psychological Formulation.
Psychological & Emotional States.
States of Being.
Individuation.
Non-Ordinary States.
Altered States.
Normal range.
Psychosynthesis.
Axis 1 & 2 Disorders.
Existential Crisis.
Healing & resolution.
Transformation.

Soul
Trans-personal

Wholeness/Integration.
Supra Conscious.
Holographic Mind/Universe.
Beyond Mind/Zen no Mind.
Past Life.
Karmic.
Trans-Personal.
Inter Life Areas (Soul Group/Partner(s), Guide(s), council of Elders).
Life Lessons.
Soul Plan/Path.
Free Will & Choices.
Spirit Possession.
Psychic Gifts/Phenomena.
Kundalini.
Shamanic Opening/Crisis.
Spiritual Emergence/Emergency/Crisis.
Psychic Opening.
Ego Death/Loss.
Energies.
Universal/Fundamental Consciousness.
Heart Brain Consciousness.
Energy Bodies.
Higher Self.
Self Actualisation, Realisation, Individualisation.
Enlightenment.
NDE & OBE Experiences.
Lucid dreaming.
States of Suspension. Transformations of Consciousness. Presence Awareness.
Energy & Layered Frequency Bands.
Projections.
Parallel Processing.
Total Abstraction.
Memory Fields & Morphic Resonance.
Vibrational Integrity.
Zero Point Fields & Other Field Interactions.
Stabilisation & Control Issues. Combined Literal & Symbolic/Objective & Subjective States.
Gateways.
Other World Journeys.
Phases of Integration.
Breakthroughs.
Hyper/Super Sensitivity.
Continuity Establishment. Archetypal/Individuation Issues. Entanglement.
Initiations.
Mass Mind.
Many Worlds.
Simultaneous & Matrix Awareness. Future Orientations.
Webs of Interconnectedness
Broader Range of Frequencies. Resonance Patterns
Internal Flow States.
Super Fluidity/Fluid Dynamics. Wave Patterns & Breaking Containment Thresholds. Embodiment Issues

Circumstances
Environmental

Social Conditioning.
Education.
Parenting.
Familial & Wider Social Dynamics.
Conflicts.
Human Being/Existential.
Inter-Personal.
Relational.
Experiences.
Economic.
Stress & Trauma.
Political.
Beliefs.
Media/Mass Media.
Cultural Beliefs/Traditions.
Religion(s).
Historical.
Racial.
Pollution.
Natural World.
Quantum.
Introjection & Projection.
Memes.
Psychiatry.
What has happened to you?
Formulation.
Meta-Paradigm.
Paradigms.
Global Issues.
Ecology/Environmentalism.

[GiaK]

Hello. I'm pretty much where you're at in terms of doing my own thing. I share stuff to prompt people to think about all of this but I don't have any answers and never pretend that I really do. Personally I am all for just completely emancipating oneself from systems and finding our own well being by creating community in the world around us and this is a project that takes a lifetime but I see young people doing it much earlier and much more organically --there's a lot of awake young people running around. Certainly there seems to be a lot more young clued-in people than when I was young.

 

I am also very non dually oriented I don't talk explicitly about it all that often but I certainly have at times. I'm essentially doing my own thing at this point and my history certainly informs what I'm doing but I don't have the same relationship to the work anymore.

I appreciate your questions and I'm going to bed now but I'll try to get back to this. I have articles written about how I see things could possibly work but I looked and I couldn't find anything that seemed to really respond to you right now. Take care.

 

[cpuusage]

10 hours ago, GiaK said:

Hello. I'm pretty much where you're at in terms of doing my own thing. I share stuff to prompt people to think about all of this but I don't have any answers and never pretend that I really do. Personally I am all for just completely emancipating oneself from systems and finding our own well being by creating community in the world around us and this is a project that takes a lifetime but I see young people doing it much earlier and much more organically --there's a lot of awake young people running around. Certainly there seems to be a lot more young clued-in people than when I was young.

 

I am also very non dually oriented I don't talk explicitly about it all that often but I certainly have at times. I'm essentially doing my own thing at this point and my history certainly informs what I'm doing but I don't have the same relationship to the work anymore.

I appreciate your questions and I'm going to bed now but I'll try to get back to this. I have articles written about how I see things could possibly work but I looked and I couldn't find anything that seemed to really respond to you right now. Take care.

 

Here was one of your articles - 

As holistic beings medical & psychological/spiritual issues are almost always intertwined.

It is crucial to recognize what is associated with a particular name. If you, for example, assume that I am schizophrenic, then you will likely interpret my current behavior in the context of schizophrenia, or at least in the context of what you’ve been taught or heard about schizophrenia. If you, on the other hand, see the identical behavior, but assume that I’m having a shamanic breakthrough or am in the midst of a spiritual emergency, then you will likely interpret what I’m doing in that context.

The first of these interpretations, based on an illness model, has its obvious dangers, as alluded to in my previous post — but so too does the second. If you, for example, take my hallucinatory activity and paranoia as simply being signs of some sort of spiritual breakthrough and nothing else, you may then easily overlook my possibly very real need for actual medical help (or, worse, even frame my resorting to such help as a failure!). — Robert Augustus Masters
 

https://beyondmeds.com/2014/01/19/holistic-beings/

 

i went right off Robert Augustus Masters when i found out more about him, as is often the case with these 'Guru's'. 

 

i have more hope with the younger generations as well. 

 

[cpuusage]

Logically - What can be considered to come under -

Spiritual / Soul / Transpersonal / Religion - Effects Biology, Psychology & Sociology.
Biology - Effects Psychology / Emotions, Sociology & what can be interpreted as spiritual / transpersonal experience.
Psychology - Effects Biology, Sociology & Spirituality.
Sociology - Effects Biology, Psychology & Spirituality.

This has been fully known for over 400 years within the Western Scientific / Medical areas & always been known by all other cultures / civilisations & people.

The logical truth of all these areas is that everything is part of one reality & best understood as integrated; integral holistic, & our systems / society should reflect this fact - which it doesn't.

Of course there are different individual weightings between biological, psychogenic (psychological / emotional / inner World of thoughts, feelings, emotions & experience), sociology / relational / environmental & what comes under the soul / spiritual / transpersonal. & there are ranges that logically cover areas of what is more mental illness, spiritual crisis / emergence / emergency & what is differential (mental illness & spiritual crisis).

But the point is that the human Being has an immense capacity to heal & make progress. There are myriad avenues of healing & spiritual practise available to us.

Of course severity of an underlying condition, & overall difficulty of circumstances does impact things - But there is Nothing to stop anyone following a discipled & dedicated spiritual / healing path & practise if that is what they choose to follow. We have free will & free choice.

 

Plenty of talk within the medical community / establishment about changes to psychiatry & the mental health system / treatment - 

Mental Illness Isn’t All in Your Head

A “formulation” gathers the biological, psychological and social factors that lead to a mental illness — and offers clues to the way out of suffering.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/15/opinion/preventing-mental-illness.html

 

Formulation - 

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/318734743_Psychological_Formulation_as_an_Alternative_to_Psychiatric_Diagnosis

 

http://dxsummit.org/archives/1306

 

David Pilgrim i feel speaks a lot of sense -

 

The Failure of Diagnostic Psychiatry and Some Prospects of Scientific Progress Offered by Critical Realism

 

http://dxsummit.org/archives/1186

 

Critical realism (philosophy of the social sciences)

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_realism_(philosophy_of_the_social_sciences)

 

Philosophers Challenge Psychiatry and its Search for Mechanisms of Disorder

Attempting to locate the mechanisms of psychiatric disorder is a step in the wrong direction and fails to challenge potentially unjust social practices.

 

"Dr. Hartner and Dr. Theurer, researchers in philosophy and the social sciences, published a new paper that conscientiously articulates the philosophical problems and taken-for-granted assumptions in psychiatry. They call into question psychiatry’s ongoing attempt to identify the mechanisms that underlie psychiatric “disorders,” for example, by searching for biomarkers of “depression.”

 

Central to their analysis, Hartner and Theurer examine the question that has surfaced time and time again in the field: “What kind of thing is a psychiatric disorder?” They review the meaning behind the question itself and the different positions taken in response. Ultimately, their philosophical assessment leads them to conclude that psychiatry should not continue to seek biomarkers or other mechanisms believed to be the origin of “disorders.”

“Psychiatry should not attempt to map its categories to underlying multilevel mechanisms, no matter how complicated, because psychiatry is uniquely and precariously situated at the border of empirical facts and social values, and no mechanism can coherently purport to account for both,” they write.

 

In addition to the fallacies that they argue are embedded in the notion that mechanisms of disorders can be identified, Hartner and Theurer express concerns that uncritically promoting this endeavor is misleading and provides circular support for a flawed diagnostic system. They write:

 

“Moreover, the instability of our existing psychiatric taxonomy gives us reason to worry that a search for mechanisms of disorder, which presumably always has to work backward from diagnostic and classificatory procedures to the biological considerations that justify them, will lend the appearance of scientific validity and empirical respectability to a procedure that is bound to be rife with nonempirical social and value judgments.”"

 

https://www.madinamerica.com/2019/01/philosophers-challenge-psychiatry-search-mechanisms-disorder/

 

What is Contributory Injustice in Psychiatry?

An article on contributory injustice describes the clinical and ethical imperative that clinicians listen to service users experiences.

 

By Peter Simons January 8, 2019

 

"An article on contributory injustice, published in the Journal of Medical Ethics, describes the clinical and ethical imperative that clinicians listen in an open-minded way when service users describe their experiences of hearing voices.

 

Alex James Miller Tate, at the University of Birmingham, UK argues in a new paper that harm is being done to service users when clinicians dismiss their experiences using biomedical language. The term “contributory injustice” refers to this type of refusing to listen to marginalized people."

 

https://www.madinamerica.com/2019/01/contributory-injustice-psychiatry/

 

Miller Tate, A. J. (2018). Contributory injustice in psychiatry. J Med Ethics. Epub ahead of print. doi:10.1136/ medethics-2018-104761

 

https://jme.bmj.com/content/early/2018/10/18/medethics-2018-104761

 

International Research Team Proposes a New Taxonomy of Mental Disorders

New data interpreted to suggest a hierarchical, dimensional system of mental disorders will aid future research efforts and improve mental health care.

 

https://www.madinamerica.com/2019/04/international-research-team-proposes-new-taxonomy-mental-disorders/

 

Conway, C. C., Forbes, M. K., Forbush, K. T., Fried, E. I., Hallquist, M. N., Kotov, R., … Eaton, N. R. (2019). A Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology Can Transform Mental Health Research. Perspectives on Psychological Science.

 

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1745691618810696

 

Abstract

 

"For more than a century, research on psychopathology has focused on categorical diagnoses. Although this work has produced major discoveries, growing evidence points to the superiority of a dimensional approach to the science of mental illness. Here we outline one such dimensional system—the Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology (HiTOP)—that is based on empirical patterns of co-occurrence among psychological symptoms. We highlight key ways in which this framework can advance mental-health research, and we provide some heuristics for using HiTOP to test theories of psychopathology. We then review emerging evidence that supports the value of a hierarchical, dimensional model of mental illness across diverse research areas in psychological science. These new data suggest that the HiTOP system has the potential to accelerate and improve research on mental-health problems as well as efforts to more effectively assess, prevent, and treat mental illness."

 

CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST REVEALS CONTROVERSY BEHIND MENTAL HEALTH DIAGNOSIS SYSTEM
December 5, 2018

 

https://www.thriveprogramme.org/controversy-mental-health-diagnosis/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[GiaK]

my most foundational practice is not attaching to any belief and going totally fluid...24/7 in the now. 

[GiaK]

here you go...this is a very nondual post! 

 

https://beyondmeds.com/2019/04/09/reflections-on-learning-to-fly/

[cpuusage]

15 hours ago, GiaK said:

here you go...this is a very nondual post! 

 

https://beyondmeds.com/2019/04/09/reflections-on-learning-to-fly/

 

Thank you for the replies & the link. Yes that seems to be the way to go, to drop the mind / dis-identify from mind / allowance of what is, & to dwell in the pure awareness that the mind / ego exists within. Hard to put into words. 

 

i feel passionate about there being a transformation of this society / system around the understandings & treatments of what comes under mental illness. 

 

i wonder what can be done on a practical basis towards that end? As to how it can all be achieved. 

 

i don't really know what all my experiences have been & are? There is i feel a great mystery to psychosis / non ordinary states. But i have also been in some very terrifying states & highly distressed, & what i have been through has greatly effected my life & overall functioning. On a practical basis i do accept my schizophrenia diagnosis & a medication that i take. 

 

With regards to my own case i can see 'levels' of biological, psychogenic, sociological & spiritual areas to it all. i do see everything within integral / holistic terms. 

 

  

 

 

[GiaK]

I call my site everything matters for a reason...because it does...it's ludicrous to tease out one thread and name the whole phenomena based on the qualities of that single thread.

 

psychiatry is at best grossly reductionistic. If people find it helpful that's fine but I do not. And I really am okay with letting people decide what they need...within the context of their own lives ... it's really none of my business how they want to interpret what they're dealing with. I put out info for those who want it...not for those who don't. I get along fine with lots of folks who take different stances than I do for their own well-being...it's not hard to do that when everyone is doing it mutually. 

[cpuusage]

10 hours ago, GiaK said:

I call my site everything matters for a reason...because it does...it's ludicrous to tease out one thread and name the whole phenomena based on the qualities of that single thread.

 

psychiatry is at best grossly reductionistic. If people find it helpful that's fine but I do not. And I really am okay with letting people decide what they need...within the context of their own lives ... it's really none of my business how they want to interpret what they're dealing with. I put out info for those who want it...not for those who don't. I get along fine with lots of folks who take different stances than I do for their own well-being...it's not hard to do that when everyone is doing it mutually. 

 

Yes, you have built a very good site, & do good work. 

i'm Not negating the serious harms & wrongs of psychiatry, but i am more reformist & can see positives in it all as well. 

 

i have heard statements from international psychiatry & the RCP that they are now taking an integral model (biology / psychology / sociology / spirituality). 

 

The RCP has the psychiatry & spirituality special interest group & has released a number of books & publications within that area. 

https://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/members/special-interest-groups/spirituality

 

It concerns me what practical care & social help & support people receive. Some people are very severely unwell & need help. 

 

i personally see the exploration of the biological aspects of these conditions as being just as important as the psychogenic, sociological & spiritual - i think that it all needs taking into account. 
 

Inflammation linked to chemical imbalance in schizophrenia
by Macquarie University

 

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2019-04-inflammation-linked-chemical-imbalance-schizophrenia.html

 

Study of 6 Million People With Mental Disorders Reveals a New Health Risk

They found there was a core cluster of similar genetic variations that showed up in all patients.

 

https://www.inverse.com/article/54355-mental-health-disorders-study-health-risk-of-getting-another

 

 

 

 

 

 

[cpuusage]

11 hours ago, GiaK said:

I get along fine with lots of folks who take different stances than I do for their own well-being...it's not hard to do that when everyone is doing it mutually. 

 

i wrote this piece for the mental health forum -

 

Schizophrenia – A Personal View

https://www.mentalhealthforum.net/personal-stories/schizophrenia-a-personal-view/

[GiaK]

Thank you for sharing that I'm familiar with your work on that forum -- you used to link to my work a lot. thank you for sharin. I was always happy to see what your thoughts were 

[GiaK]

Oh, for the record: none of those beliefs that you list strike me as particularly strange. Anyone who has access to the collective consciousness of humanity without the aid of validation and interpretation will experience the phenomenon as extremely frightening. I have swum in those Waters for many years and met many people outside of the mental health world who hold those beliefs and work functionally in the world using the information and data they get from that Realm. Anyway that's just how I view it at this point I understand that whatever flavor of emotion runs through us when we access that stuff needs to be worked with honestly and with Integrity it's real while it's in our body.

[GiaK]

Also as far as beliefs go about those experiences I don't actually believe my experiences that I have in those Realms. Not in a literal sense. they inform my reality here in this world and some ways and otherwise I let them go none of them has to be clung to as though they were real outside of being metaphoric and archetypal.  And I would argue that there is something real about myth etc. As well. For me working through some of the psycho-spiritual content required pretty extreme detox which I generally just don't even recommend because we don't have the supports to do it well. I was forced to do it I've had no choice giving what my body's presented me.

[cpuusage]

1 hour ago, GiaK said:

Thank you for sharing that I'm familiar with your work on that forum -- you used to link to my work a lot. thank you for sharin. I was always happy to see what your thoughts were 

 

Thank you. i ended up lifetime banned & have been from a lot of mainstream mental health forums. i set up my own page (link in signature), & so i can now post what i like. 

i have been unable to more fully work through the themes of the major psychotic episode that i had age 17 (am now 45), & i find 'evidence' for it all over the place.

 

i stopped all medication 5 times, but kept ending up back in very severe illness, & it has seemed like the lesser of evils to simply take a lowish dose of anti-psychotic medication, which i have now maintained again for the past 15 years. i have also been very impacted by social issues; housing & social security / benefit payment issues, & i have to survive in this society as best as possible the same as anyone else. 

 

Yes some people seem better able to let it all go & see it all more in myth & archetype etc. i continue to work on it all. 

Good to finally be able to have a bit of a chat with you. i have wanted to for years. 

 

 

 

 

[GiaK]

hey...we're all working on it...all of us. no one has this trip figured out. I'm glad to meet you too...

[cpuusage]

11 hours ago, GiaK said:

hey...we're all working on it...all of us. no one has this trip figured out. I'm glad to meet you too...

 

Thanks. X

[cpuusage]

13 hours ago, GiaK said:

hey...we're all working on it...all of us. no one has this trip figured out. I'm glad to meet you too...

 

Here are some of the themes that have been reoccurring. 

Power, Threat, Meaning Framework (BPS)

 

Differential diagnosis (Both / &, Not either / or)

 

Severe mental illness; paranoid schizophrenia (psychological / social disability) & aspects of psychological / spiritual crisis.

 

I don't know what is / isn't categorically true about all the following areas. I don't deny that there has been a very severe & ongoing schizophrenic psychotic / delusional illness.

 

Themes –

 

An Age Old battle between Light & Dark Forces (also discussed within comparative religion).

Under a 6 to 70 thousand year rule by Draco / Orion / Sirian Reptilian's / Alien forces, their Grey alien / clone lackeys, with their breeding & abduction program & a Cabal.

World run by & for psychopaths.

A Global control system, with the agendas of a system of the total control of humanity.

Secret space program from the 1930's, possibly going back to the mid to late 1800's. 

Suppressed technologies; free / zero point energy, anti-gravity, electromagnetic healing & other technologies.

Suppression of deeper / traditional spirituality – Gnostic's, Mystics, Shamanic. Witchcraft, esoteric &  occult areas, etc.

Suppression of some forms of psychosis as being potentially transformative psychological / spiritual Crisis, if treated in the right way.
Suppression of Jungian / Depth / Transpersonal psychology, NDE / OBE / psychedelic / Entheogen experience / ESP / Psychic / Empath / HSP (Highly Sensitive Person) areas.
Suppression of global systemic alternatives & comprehensive alternative approaches to mental health & people suffering mental illness, such as Diabasis / Soteria / i-Ward / Windhorse / Open Dialogue etc, (Comprehensive psychological / social / Integral / Holitsic  alternatives).

 

Agenda of Atheist scientism materialism. Denial of Source / Great Spirit / spiritual realms & realities / Soul / Psyche / primacy of awareness / consciousness.

An Alliance; Light Side Alien Resistance. Enlightened Beings. 3 waves of volunteers & the new Earth, Children of the 5th World, A Divine Plan for the Earth & Humanity. Transition into The Age of Aquarius, the Golden Age.

[cpuusage]

16 hours ago, GiaK said:

hey...we're all working on it...all of us. no one has this trip figured out. I'm glad to meet you too...

 

It makes sense to me to see things in differential terms within my own case. 
 

Differential diagnosis between spiritual experiences and mental disorders of religious content

 

http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?pid=S0101-60832009000200006&script=sci_arttext&tlng=en

 

Differential Diagnosis of Spiritual Crisis & Psychotic Disorders

 

http://www.spiritualcompetency.com/dsm4/lesson5_1.asp

 

"Sometimes, a person can have a combination of symptoms that require treatment for medical or psychiatric conditions -- and also need support for a spiritual emergence that may be taking place. Boisen is an example of someone who had a psychiatric condition that became the impetus for spiritual growth.

Swedenborg wrote a lot on the process of "regeneration" -- or spiritual growth -- where there can be many stages and types of experiences. He might say today that some things considered "psychosis" or illness are actually ways in which one is experiencing regeneration. But, then, Swedenborg preferred "both/and" to "either/or." So he would probably say that many experiences could be BOTH part of a spiritual awakening AND a psychiatric or medical condition"

Regeneration or psychosis, Swedenborgian Community

 

The differentiation of psychosis & spiritual emergency - 

 

https://digital.library.adelaide.edu.au/dspace/bitstream/2440/47986/8/02whole.pdf

 

Biological Medicinal Psychiatric Worldview versus Spiritual Reality

16. FEBRUARY 2019

 

From a medicinal biological psychiatric perspective, love, hate, sadness or any other intense feeling, perception or thought is too much or not enough of any hormones or neurotransmitters, especially altered states of consciousness, thus an imbalance and thus a psychotic illness! Because you can suffer from all the above mentioned somehow! 

But if you look at it from a spiritual reality point of view, they are just human experiences of altered states of consciousness, that a lot of people already went through and are realized somehow, and that need to be explored, analyzed and compared to already known and explored altered states of consciousness, such as shamans, witches, healers, yogis, sadhus, gurus, sacred scriptures viewpoints etc. altered states of consciousness, and then implemented in a wholesome positive way into your reality.

 

https://cosmicpurple.blog/2019/02/16/biological-medicinal-psychiatric-worldview-versus-spiritual-reality/