Spiritual emergency: transpersonal, personal, and political dimensions

Abstract

According to a transpersonal perspective a spiritual/transcendent reality exists beyond the ego, which includes experiences that transcend a person's temporal and spatial boundaries. From this ‘trans’ perspective human beings are viewed in a wider context of life. However, it is recognized that people can experience a transformational crisis through engaging in psycho-spiritual development, otherwise termed ‘spiritual emergency’. Spiritual emergency can cause a de-adaptation, affecting a person's ability to function in daily life, which could result in a person being misdiagnosed and treated for a mental health condition. The dichotomy of such experiences being indicative of either a spiritual problem or a mental health problem continues to be a contentious issue. However, from a transpersonal point of view spiritual emergency presents a person with opportunities to engage in a process of ‘self-renewal’. This article discusses spiritual emergency as a numinous event, highlighting the need for more social-political-spiritual awareness of transformations in consciousness. An autobiographical account of a spiritual emergency is provided to illustrate a long-term trajectory of a spiritual emergency, outlining four propositions for engaging conscious experience through and beyond a transformational crisis. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.