Integral/Holistic view & approach to schizophrenia
 

Hi all.

i've had a 30 year history of mental health difficulties (also some strange experiences in childhood) & a diagnosis of severe paranoid schizophrenia.

i have been exploring & more focused on an alternative healing path with it all for the past 13 years.

i personally take an integral/holistic view of my condition/experiences - bio/psycho/social/spiritual - that things are mediated across spirit - soul/psyche - physical body/brain - social/environmental. i don't see any either/or with it all, but rather that everything is interrelated & interdependent.
imo Carl Jung spoke a lot of sense on all these matters, as have others.

Current mainstream psychiatry primarily focuses on the physical - the physical body/brain. Psychological & social elements often seem secondary to that, & the areas of the soul & spirit are usually excluded.

Obviously it is impossible to argue a case for the spiritual with a materialist, as many now appear to be. Many people also seem fixed on the idea that 'functional' (no known/identifiable biological aetiology [cause]) mental health disorders are brain conditions - i don't think they primarily are - Not to exclude the physiological (biologic) aspects of them - although imo primarily in the vast majority of cases i think the primary aetiology is psychogenic (cause in the mind/psyche).

i've spent the past 10 years on-line trying to raise awareness of & explore the spiritual in mental health, to little avail. Am interested in other people thoughts on the matter. Thanks.

Is it OK to post a short poem?

Are not my eyes reflected in yours?
And don’t all things press
On your head and heart,
And weave, in eternal mystery,
Visibly: invisibly, around you?
Fill your heart from it: it is so vast,
And when you are blessed by the deepest feeling,
Call it then what you wish,
Joy! Heart! Love! God!
I have no name
For it! Feeling is all:
Names are sound and smoke,
Veiling Heaven’s bright glow.

Goethe's Faust

There are a lot of very interesting fringe areas within the subject of mental health.

Try searching - mystical psychosis, spiritual emergency, shamanism & schizophrenia, as some examples.

i don't deny that people are unwell/ill in various ways & to various degrees - But i also feel there are spiritual/transpersonal elements to peoples conditions/experiences. i don't see any either/or.

i do think that people could be being far better helped in most cases - i think the 'mentally ill' are being terribly & tragically failed by our current society & mental health systems.

You may be interested possibly in the Spiritual Crisis Network which is a support group etc for people with an interest in the relationship between spirituality and mental health.

http://http://spiritualcrisisnetwork.uk/

Thanks. Yes, have been a member of their e-mail discussion group for years.

Interesting to note the root meanings -

Etymology The word psyche comes from the ancient Greek for soul or butterfly. The fluttering insect appears in the coat of arms of Britain’s Royal College of Psychiatrists.

The term “psychiatry” was first coined by the German physician Johann Christian Reil in 1808 and literally means the ‘medical treatment of the soul’ (psych- “soul” from Ancient Greek psykhē “soul”; -iatry “medical treatment” from Gk. iātrikos “medical” from iāsthai “to heal”).

You might be better off looking into Spirit-Release therapy, because if it isn't caused by an actual physical deformity, it's usually (fron an occult standpoint) a spirit attachment. These attachments can follow us from other lives too - so can be there from birth.
This is not just promoted by psychics, but by some reputable psychiatrists/psychologists as well. The books below are worth reading:

Spirit Release: A Practical Handbook by Sue Allen.




Soul-Centered Healing: A Psychologist's Extraordinary Journey Into the Realms of Sub-Personalities, Spirits, and Past Lives.

Thanks. i've read soul centred healing. Some other good books are -

The unquiet dead - By Edith Fiore

Schizophrenia or Spirit Possession
by Mr Mike Williamson

Ghosts And Earthbound Spirits: Recognise and release the spirits trapped in this world
by Linda Williamson

Spirit Releasement Therapy: A Technique Manual
by William J. Baldwin, Edith Fiore

Healing Lost Souls: Releasing Unwanted Spirits from Your Body
by William J. Baldwin

Many others. Lets also not forget Shamanism.

Step away from the orthodox/mainstream, dig a bit below the surface, & there are vast areas to these experiences. i've done a lot of reading & research into a lot of different areas - spirit release, depth & transpersonal psychology, philosophy, comparative religion, consciousness studies (NDE & OBE), Esoteric & Occult areas, all sorts.

These areas can also cover -

1. Shamanic crisis
2. Awakening of Kundalini
3. Episodes of unitive consciousness (Maslow's "peak experiences")
4. Psychological renewal through return to the center (John Perry)
5. Crisis of psychic opening
6. Past-life experiences
7. Communication with spirit guides and "channeling"
8. Near-death experiences (NDEs)
9. Close encounters with UFOs and alien abduction experiences
10. Possession states
11. Alcoholism and drug addiction

i've also worked with some highly competent spiritual healers over the past 13 years.

This is one of the more interesting documents i've come across as to what is happening in psychosis/schizophrenia from a more metaphysical perspective (links on left) -

http://www.alchemyrealm.com/schizophrenia.htm

It is still hard to come to any categorical answers/conclusions. Personally i accept the diagnosis & take the pills. i have made a lot of progress, but i also feel that there are still certain difficulties.

i don't think anyone has a categorical answer to these experiences/conditions. Best i can come up with is an integral/holistic approach & understanding - that there are the realms of the spiritual, psyche & physical. That we are mind, body & soul within environment & effected by all levels. i take a bio/psycho/social/spiritual model - i don't see things as 'either/or'. There are variables (interrelated/interdependent) on physiological/biologic, psychological/emotional, social/environmental & spiritual/transpersonal levels.

How i see it all anyway.

A good book that acknowledges the psychiatric & spiritual, by an expert in both is - 'Healing the split' by John Nelson.

i think the first episode of psychosis was linked to a possession state - long story with it all. But there has been a lot going on i feel.

Lots of things make sense in relation to my experiences/condition.

i feel a lot too is karmic, life lessons, soul/life plan - coming into this life with a full 'in tray'.

Also a psyche-sensitivity - being highly sensitive & empathic.

Published on 26 Sep 2014

http://crazywisefilm.com | Official extended trailer for CRAZYWISE, a feature documentary challenging the current mental health system in crisis. A 20-year fascination with shamanism leads photographer and filmmaker Phil Borges to question how Western cultures define and treat severe mental disorders.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKfQd0bk214