Schizophrenia or Spiritual Awakening?

[Nightwing]

There is a great deal of reserch to support mental illness patients as having a spiritual experience. I don't want to imply mental illness is not real, I suffer from it myself. Instead I think we should be open to treatment plans that include spiritual training along with regular treatments. This is a radical idea to most of the psychology community but it is catching on.

A great deal of people who have psycotic episodes or schizophrenia say they experience a complete oneness with the world. They are so intune with every living thing in a spiritual dimention that they seem out of their mind to others. Similar to an LSD trip. This would help to explain some of the stories we here throughout history of people seeing things others can't, or hearing messages from a spiritual dimention. The reserch shows this is more of a coorolation especialy with schizophrenia.

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While schizophrenia has been described as a disease by the psychiatric profession and can be a seriously disabling condition for individuals that are experiencing it there are a number of conditions that manifest in individuals that are similar to some of the 'symptoms' of schizophrenia but are considered a desirable attribute to possess. Clairvoyance, where the individual 'sees' things that others do not see, and clairaudience, where the individual 'hears' voices that others do not hear are examples of these attributes and are seen by many individuals as a desirable faculty to possess.

The DSM-IV has included a new category called Religious or Spiritual Problem (Code V62.89). This code was included to detail a spiritual condition as a process that mimics a psychiatric disorder. Basically, this code allows for the possibility that not all psychiatric crisis is a mental disorder or evidence that something is wrong. Spiritual emergence is a transformative and growing personal experience, with characteristics of other DSM-IV types of behavior present.

According to Dr. John W. Perry in Trials of the Visionary Mind: Spiritual Emergency and the Renewal Process.; stress may cause highly activated mythic images to erupt from the psyche's deepest levels in the form of turbulent visionary experience. Depending on whether the interactions between the individual and the immediate surroundings lean toward affirmation or invalidation, comprehension of these visions can turn the visionary experience into a step in growth or into a disorder, as an acute psychosis. Dr. Perry has found and formulated a mental syndrome which, though customarily regarded as acute psychosis, is in actuality a more natural effort of the psyche to mend its imbalances. According to him, if the upset is received in the spirit of empathy and understanding, and allowed to run its course, an acute episode can be found to reveal a self-organizing process that has self-healing potential.

Dr. Clancy D. McKenzie in his book Delayed Post Traumatic Stress Disorders From Infancy: The Two Trauma Mechanism. states that common unsuspected events overwhelm the infant/toddler and set the stage for later development of serious mental/emotional disorders. The events in the first two years of life, which correlate with the later development of Schizophrenia, are the identical events that in the next year of life correlate with the later development of non psychotic Major Depression. This has been tested on data from nearly 10,000 patients by leading researchers, and is presently being tested on thousands more. The findings do not disagree with biological or genetic findings, but clearly demonstrate why biological change is the result of the desease process and not the cause.

Dr McKenzie states that he "cannot recall a single patient in the last 15 years - with the exception of severely regressed state hospital type patients - who required rehospitalisation after gaining correct understanding and maintaining an absolute total and permanent" (p 156) adherence to the prerequisites that he sets down for recovery.

It seems that the majority of biomedical professionals are unaware of there being alternatives in diagnosis to those that have traditionally been expounded by the psychiatric profession as symptoms of 'mental illness' in individuals that are experiencing alternative realities. It is hoped that these pages may stimulate a re-examination of 'taken for granted' paradigms in psychiatry as well as serving as a convenient cross-paradigmatic reference for mental health professionals, for individuals suffering symptoms that have been diagnosed by mental health professionals as schizophrenia or schizophrenia related illnesses and for individuals that are experiencing signs of spiritual emergence.

Experience that can be loosely categorized as spiritual emergence and some that come under the heading of 'kundalini' are definitions of various phenomenon which are seen by many as a sign of spiritual or psychic opening. It is not uncommon that individuals that are experiencing these cases of emergence and that come under the attention of psychiatric professionals are diagnosed as suffering from schizophrenia or as suffering from schizophrenia related disorders. The question is whether these crisis periods are a sign of 'mental illness' or whether they are a process of psychic 'opening' and a part of the human condition.

These different perceptions of what counts for spiritual emergence on one hand and mental illness, and specifically schizophrenia, on the other hand highlight a clashing of ideologies and a possibility that some instances of the condition called schizophrenia are uncontrolled spiritual emergence, or what counts for spiritual emergence might be cases of schizophrenia or schizophrenia related disorders. I leave you, dear reader, to work through those issues for yourself.

For individuals that are interested in going a step further in understanding of issues relating to spiritual emergence in psychosis and psychotic episodes I recommend the website Internet Guided Learning - Online CE Courses on Mental Health and Spirituality. It is run by David Lukoff, Ph.D. who is a licensed psychologist in California and Professor of Psychology at Saybrook Graduate School in San Francisco. He is an author of 50 articles and chapters on spiritual issues and mental health, one of which won the Exemplary Paper award from the Templeton Foundation. He is co-author of the DSM-IV category Religious or Spiritual Problem and lectures internationally on spirituality in mental health and mental illness. He trained in psychology and anthropology at the University of Chicago, Harvard, and Loyola University of Chicago, and has been a member of the faculties of Harvard, UCLA, Oxnard College, California Institute of Integral Studies, and the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology.

[Yorick]

Mental illnesses like schitzophrenia were regarded or referred to as "demonic possession" in times of old. Some would still refer to them as such.

That would certainly make it a "spiritual experience".

Good quote you've posted. Thanks. I'll read in in more depth again.

[ 09-01-2004, 01:50 PM: Message edited by: Yorick ]

[Jonas Strider]

I like this one:
"Dr McKenzie states that he "cannot recall a single patient in the last 15 years - with the exception of severely regressed state hospital type patients - who required rehospitalisation after gaining correct understanding and maintaining an absolute total and permanent" (p 156) adherence to the prerequisites that he sets down for recovery."

Thru understanding, it may not necessarily be a dis-ease. Instead thru work it could be a tool for personal development of the spirit.

[Nightwing]

I agree Jonas, however there are still very few Psychologist who recognize this as a viable treatment program. It's unfortunate that the very people who are helping patients to understand their mind are the ones closing up their own.

Again this isn't 100% but the reserch shows it should be part of any tretment program.

I'm reminded of Native Americans who describe out of body spiritual experiences and how they get in touch with the spirit world. I'm curious Yorick, is there the same mystisism with the Aborigial (sp?) tribes?

[Yorick]

There is a mystic tradition. The Aboriginal Activist I heard speak about it was Burnham Burnham (the same man who in 1988 planted the Aboriginie Flag at Plymouth, declared Britain "Terra Nullus" and claimed England for the Australian Aboriginie.)

However, he was a Christian and insisted Aboriginal myths were simply deviations and distortions of biblical truth.

In truth I haven't researched Aboriginal mysticism, outside reading the various "Dreamtime" myths.

[Stratos]

The problem here is that Psychology is a science, and as such have to abide to scientific rules and processes. Many mainstream scientists are sceptic against things like these, and with good reason; while it's unlikely that the patients are lying on purpose, there is no real evidence yet that it's actually some spiritual experience.

To complicate things further, psychological phenomena tend to be abstract in nature, and a persons attitude can greatly affect them. The placebo effect comes to mind.

As an end note, to actually proove scientifically that there is a spritual side to life, the universe and everything would have a tremendous effect on the world, much more than most people realizes. It would be a discovery greater than finding life on other planets.

[Yorick]

Ah, but such a discovery would make faith irrelevent. Faith only exists where doubt is possible.

[Jonas Strider]

Faith irrelevant? This would make religious institutions worry. Then I'm all for schizophrenic and paranormal experiences! [img]tongue.gif[/img] Sorry, I'm not making fun of people with any mental diseases. I probably have one too since I have conscious psychic experiences once in a while. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[chimaera]

Originally posted by Nightwing: These different perceptions of what counts for spiritual emergence on one hand and mental illness, and specifically schizophrenia, on the other hand

These different perceptions might result from the difference between psychiatry and psychology.

[Yorick]

Originally posted by Jonas Strider: Faith irrelevant? This would make religious institutions worry. Then I'm all for schizophrenic and paranormal experiences! [img]tongue.gif[/img] Sorry, I'm not making fun of people with any mental diseases. I probably have one too since I have conscious psychic experiences once in a while. [img]smile.gif[/img]

No no. You've misunderstood. Proof of the spiritual world would prove certain religious worldviews, making having faith in such worldviews irrelevent. You only have faith where doubt is possible. Think about it. It's like trust. You only trust someone in an area if they can let you down.

That's kind of the pointless thing about arguing proofs in faith. If you prove it beyond question, it's no longer faith. Although, it could be said, from a hypothetical proof, you could expand your faith into new areas resultant from that.