The Call of Spiritual Emergency: From Personal Crisis to Personal Transformation. Emma Inc. Bragdon

we are in meditation, the world may disappear. Yet out of meditation we still need to be grounded in the world—to drive safely, to know how to teach moral values to our children, to get to work "on time," to be respectful of the values and mores of our culture.

      The Atman Level

      The Atman level is beyond the Causal but includes all dimensions below it—the material, Subtle, and Causal. Atman is a dimension of consciousness so completely immersed in the Highest Power that nothing else exists in awareness. Thus, this state brings perfect ecstasy—yet it is mysteriously beyond any emotion. Indications of the Atman level exist in mystical religious texts, but they are always referred to as being beyond description. It is the ultimate unity experience, where the witness to life and that which is witnessed are one and the same. Wilber writes, "[T]he entire World Process then arises, moment to moment, as one's own Being, outside of which, and prior to which, nothing exists.” ² The eternal Now is all that exists.

      Having an experience of any of the higher realms does not necessarily mean that people will be in a crisis. However, even when they have openness, trust, and flexibility, it is still a challenge to let go of their habitual ideas of the world and enter a world of psychic phenomena, timelessness, boundlessness, limitless energy, and inspiration. Approaching these realms, even though they offer ecstasy and love, is often disorienting and can cause profound fear.

      The way we ordinarily deal with short visits to higher realms of consciousness is to say to ourselves, "Something magic happened to me. I feel so lucky; what a miracle it was." We don't usually view these miracles as signposts guiding us to a whole new territory of our lives where we are capable of sustaining clairvoyance, clairsentience, communion with archetypes and angels, ecstatic bliss, and union with God. But that is indeed what can happen and what, I believe, is our true course in natural development.

      Who Needs Help?

      Increasing numbers of people are reporting their experiences of transpersonal levels due to spiritual practices, global changes, and resuscitation technology. Such people often feel isolated and confused. They need a conceptual understanding of their experiences and a sense of connection to others who are more familiar with this dimension of life and can offer some guidance and orientation.

      I have been unusually fortunate in my ongoing process of spiritual emergence. From the time of my introduction to meditation through the last twenty-five years, I have had highly developed teachers in meditation, shamanism, intuition training, body therapies, and analytic psychology. I have also had the benefit of a community of "spiritual friends," people with whom I share mutual interest and sympathy in the ups and downs of spiritual awakening. This has meant that both my own process of spiritual emergence and my learning to be a helper to others have been supported in an enlightened way. I have had excellent role models as my counselors, medical help attuned to spiritual values of reverence for life, an academic background strengthening my conceptual understanding of human development, and a home community centered around spiritual growth.

      I am very concerned for the people who have not been as lucky as myself. I have known of people who have killed themselves as a result of being isolated and overwhelmed with spiritual experiences. This happened to my mother. I have had clients who were intent on exploring their inner life whose families perceived them as crazy and wanted to put them on psychiatric medications to stop the spiritual experiences. These are stories that illustrate spiritual emergence processes of a critical nature, stories in which individuals are taken by storm with no one to guide them, no friends or family to support or encourage them, no community to contain them. Most of these individuals do not have the benefit of a conceptual framework to understand what they are experiencing. In the worst case, they have a framework that classifies their experiences only as evidence of mental disease. Their fears, their disorientation, are amplified to the degree that they become incapacitated, so flooded with the contents of their unconscious that they have no capacity to cope with these things. Often these people are hospitalized. These are stories of spiritual emergency. Some of these stories are told throughout this book.

      I, and others who work at the Spiritual Emergence Network, have heard hundreds of stories from people who have been hospitalized inappropriately. I continually see people in my practice who keep asking, "Am I crazy to be experiencing these things? Where do they fit into my life?"

      Questions about where transpersonal experiences fit into personal development can be answered reassuringly for those in spiritual emergency: "There are times when regressive behavior and severe disorientation are part of spiritual growth. Get the help you need, and go with the process." The friends, family, and helpers of people who are in spiritual emergency can also find relevant information, reassurance, and resources for locating professional help.

      Hopefully, all people will benefit by further familiarity with the vocabulary that covers spiritual experiences and transcends religious differences. The English language has not given us terms to conceptualize many of the refined aspects of spiritual emergence phenomena. Many of the words I introduce are taken from Sanskrit, the classical language of India, which is rich in terms describing states of consciousness. This vocabulary in itself could be standardized and thus contribute to improved communication between health care professionals, clergy, hospital administration, teachers, and the general public. A glossary of terms is included at the back of the book for easy reference.

      The following chapters may be helpful if you are looking for guidance and reassurance in understanding your spiritual experiences; if you are trying to understand a friend or family member who is undergoing strong spiritual experiences, if you are involved in a crisis of spiritual emergency, and need to find a helper who can support you in an appropriate way; or if you are looking for ways to make changes in a social service organization so as to accommodate spiritual emergence phenomena.

      The metaphor of the sword-bridge dramatically illustrates the difficulty of spiritual emergence: the confrontation with oneself and one's belief system, the letting go of known territory which is safe, the vulnerability and sense of aloneness, the acute need for spiritual allies, the uneasiness of facing the other side which is imagined as overwhelming. How this metaphor that described Lancelot's journey is realized in modern life will be explored throughout this book. In the following chapter, I tell the beginnings of my own story.

      Chapter 2

      Spiritual Emergence Is Not Crazy!

      One day when I was seven years old, I was swimming with my cousin Anna underneath a dock in a lake. We were playing between the boards that supported the metal drums on which the floor of the dock was built. One of us would hide from the other—swimming down, and then coming up unexpectedly in a new place, spouting water. At one point, I dived down deep, so Anna had no chance of seeing me. I looked up for a place to emerge. This time I saw a crisscross of boards; the floor of the dock seemed woven with the boards of the supporting structure. I saw no place to surface. Seconds passed. Out of air, I panicked . . . blacked out. Close to death, my consciousness dived deep within me—to a place where there was no more fear, to a place of absolute peace and acceptance. There, the feeling of fear was just a vague memory. In this way, I discovered the kingdom of Higher Power, a deep experience of sacred energy that I would never be able to forget, that I would always know as "home." I had begun to relax into it completely when I burst to the surface of the lake, right between two boards with barely enough space for my head to pass.

      Everything changed for me from the moment of that experience. Instead of fearing death, I now knew that death would be a passageway into the ultimate peace that I had felt when I nearly drowned. From that day onward, I distinctly led life in two dimensions—one life as a physical being who loves ice cream and close contact with others, and wants to survive to have the pleasures of this life; the other life as a spiritual being who is a part of that sacred energy that is complete peace and unconditional love that will live after my physical being dies.

      Ever since infancy, I had had intense experiences I now would call "spiritual." Looking at rays of sunlight coming through a window into my crib would take me into ecstasy. My favorite friends were nature spirits in the forest near