Spiritual Psychosis

[SaraTherase]

Vibrations - I agree that fear portrayed by religion, horror movies and the like to be unhelpful and instil fear within. I admire your ability to exercise such self disapline. Thank you for your advice, balance is definitely key. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

Falling leaves - I'm so sorry that you feel society has been so unkind to you and I'm so sorry for all that you have been through. I understand and know it's so challenging. I experienced feelings of having abilities and being gifted during my experience and just before I had my breakdown was channelling and experiencing what felt what felt like the beginnings of an awakening. The problem is I became very ungrounded. I wasn't on alcohol or drugs myself. I tried to reach out to the local spiritual community but they wouldn't help me, so I was very much on my own. My family didn't understand what was happening to me as I'd had no previous mental health issues. I would personally recommend to anyone that they address their mental health and balance the body/mind first before persuing spiritual practices as it's so important that one is indeed grounded and balanced. Thank you so much for sharing your experiences.

Hemera - I too was meditating alot before my experience. I felt like I was very fragile and that my ego was indeed running the show in a sense. Thank you for sharing your thoughts.

Miss Hepburn - Spiritual psychosis is very difficult to diagnose and treat. The definition itself differs from that which you describe. Would that not be an awakening? As when one awakens one can gain access to their spiritual abilities, like the clair senses become awakened and one can often start to see, hear, feel and know things beyond the norm. Thank you for sharing your opinion.

Nikos1982 - I agree that one should not focus too much on it but then again when the experience is so life altering it's hard not too. Thanks for sharing.

JustBe - Im sorry that you had a similar experience to mine, I honestly wouldn't wish it on anyone and my thoughts are with you. Having that freedom taken away from you can be alot and I experienced that when I had to take medication and see a psychiatrist. The medication intially helped and I honestly don't know how I would of coped without it in the short term. The loss of freedom hurt though and I felt tarnished with a label in a sense. Thank you for sharing your views.

Unseeking Seeker - living life itself is undergoing therapy, I agree. Thank you for your insight and advice, it's funny how sometimes the most simplest of things can seem complicated. I feel like it has alot to do with reprogramming the mind and letting go of those old outdated thoughts, feelings and emotions.

Peteyzen - Thank you for sharing your thoughts, I wholeheartedly agree. Dangerous indeed! I did try to reach out to new agers to get help but sadly it's just wasn't there for me. Small town etc. I didn't have a teacher at the time either so without that guidance things became difficult to fully navigate.

[peteyzen]

Originally Posted by Molearner

Living in two different worlds is stressful….it takes its toll. Ego vs spiritual….spiritual vs material….feminine side vs masculine side. Over the years I have witnessed the effects of this stress on priests and ministers. There must be a great sense of isolation at times. Some sense of the 3 traditional vows of poverty, chastity and obedience must be a heavy burden. The old adage of “ignorance is bliss” must seem like an impossibility to such as these……

Absolutely, there is an old Buddhist saying which relates to those starting down the spiritual path. "Best not begin, if you begin, best to finish". It says this I think because the big bit in the middle (after you start and before you reach enlightenment) is full of turmoil.

[Miss Hepburn]

SaraT - You're so polite writing to all of us. Who does that? A very polite person. Hi, FallingLeaves :)

[Starman]

We label things and then we either attack or embrace the label which we have attached to those things. I worked in the mental health field and the language of psychopathology has evolved. What we used to call a “maniac” we now call “manic.” It was once thought that only females became hysterical, which was taken from the word “hystero,” and that word refers to the uterus. A females uterus was once blamed for women being hysterical.

Indeed women have long been view, by the medical and psychological communities as being overly emotional, or at least more emotional than men. Although we now know that this was due to social learning and not biology. My point is that psychology is an evolving field, and in my opinion what we have today is but a snapshot in time.

It is not so much whether a person is psychotic or not, the issue is can they function in society or/and are they a danger to themselves or others. These are the basic criteria for intervention. Just because a person has what may be called a “mental illness” does not mean that they are dangerous. In my opinion, absolutely everyone on this earth now and then gets a touch of psychosis. People come and go in and out of physical reality on a regular basis. Its’ a balancing act. Psychosis simply may be where a person has lost their balance or ability to focus.

[Redchic12]

Well said Starman. I totally agree with your comments.

Originally Posted by SaraTherase

Spiritual Psychosis

Psychosis is a condition that affects the mind and can cause a person to lose touch with reality. It can cause a person to experience hallucinations, delusions, and disordered thinkin.

That's a good topic to start discussion about mental wellness. Though it is a difficult topic to discuss, by getting views of others and sharing personal beliefs on this we could get more ways to think of them with different perspectives.

[vibrations]

Here’s a paper about psychosis and spirituality, I have links to more but there much longer, it is an interesting read looking at mental health from a spiritual point in psychiatry, though it is an old one.
https://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/docs/defau...rsn=23c8dab0_2

[Nikos1982]

Do you all disagree that we live in paranoic times ?

'above' the mind ?

[Starman]

There is a lot of fear out there today and people want to escape the suffering they see, or are experiencing, and they do this by watching a movie on T.V. or in a theater, they get lost in a video game, or something else that will distract them from the T.V. news and what is happening in this world.

Anyone who deals with physical reality head on all the time often end up using drugs, drinking alcohol, or having an emotional breakdown. Vacations are all about getting away from a persons’ real everyday physical life. Human beings practice escapism in many forms but most of those forms are not considered to be psychosis.

Living in inner peace, in my opinion, is not escapism. The Christian Bible states “while you are in this world know that you are not of this world.” This is said in other spiritual teachings also. I am not in this world, rather what I truly am, often called a “soul” does not exist in this physical world. My body exists in this physical world by my deeper being exists in a non-corporeal non-duality. Why should I deny giving constant attention to my deeper being?

[Starman]

It has been said that infatuation is a state of insanity, but infatuation can also be viewed as a psychosis. You meet someone that you are instantly and wildly attracted to, you may feel like you want to have a baby with that person who you just met. Sounds like psychosis to me, though it may be mild or severe, constant or intermittent.

Little kids often have imaginary friends but we do not say they are psychotic. They just have fun playing by themselves with what other people may consider imaginary fiends but to them those friends may be very real. Children have a sense of spiritual experience which most people lose as adults.

Here we are talking about “spiritual psychosis” but there are many mental and emotional states which can be categorized as “psychosis.” The clinical definition of psychosis is a lot different than the common usage by most lay people. There is a general usage and there is a professional clinical usage of the term psychosis. I feel in this discussion we are using it in a general sense.