What is Spiritual Emergence?

What is Spiritual Emergence?

* Have you experienced a profound transformational crisis, symptoms of Kundalini awakening or a Shamanic journey of death and rebirth?

* Are you in a process that involves transpersonal experiences, extreme or altered states of consciousness?

* Are you interested in understanding how these types of experiences can bring about healing and an expansion of consciousness?

* The Spiritual Emergence Network was formed to investigate and promote this understanding. We recognise these experiences as meaningful and valuable opportunities for personal growth.

Spiritual Emergence has been defined as

"the movement of an individual to a more expanded way of being that involves enhanced emotional and psychosomatic health, greater freedom of personal choices, and a sense of deeper connection with other people, nature, and the cosmos. An important part of this development is an increasing awareness of the spiritual dimension in one's life and in the universal scheme of things." (Grof & Grof, 1990)

When Spiritual Emergence is very rapid and dramatic this natural process can become a crisis, and Spiritual Emergence becomes Spiritual Emergency. This has also been called transpersonal crisis, acute psychosis with a positive outcome, positive disintegration and extreme states. There is no sharp division between Emergence and Emergency, however distinguishing criteria include:-

a) an 'Emergency' generally has more depth and intensity
b) an 'Emergence' is more fluid and less overwhelming/traumatic
c) during an 'Emergency' it is very difficult to function in everyday life

Christina and Stanislav Grof have a more detailed table showing the differences between Spiritual Emergence and Spiritual Emergency, from their book, (The Stormy Search for the Self) (see table below)

Spiritual Emergencies could also be defined as critical and experientially difficult stages of a profound psychological transformation that involves one's entire being. These are crisis points within the transformational process of Emergence. They take the form of non-ordinary states of consciousness and involve intense emotions, visions and other sensory changes, and unusual thoughts, as well as various physical manifestations. These episodes will often revolve around spiritual themes.

The term Spirituality should be reserved for situations that involve personal experiences of certain dimensions of reality that give one's life and existence in general a numinous quality. C.G. Jung used the word numinous to describe an experience that feels sacred, holy, or out of the ordinary (Grof & Grof, 1991).

The terms Spiritual Emergence and Spiritual Emergency were coined by Dr Stanislav Grof (psychiatrist) and his wife Christina Grof who have worked for many years as therapists and researchers in the field of non-ordinary awareness and personal transformation. They have written many (books) about Spiritual Emergence containing much more information.

Before making a diagnosis of spiritual emergence, and deciding whether to use strategies of transpersonal psychotherapy, a good medical examinatination is highly recommended. It is important not to miss or neglect conditions that can be diagnosed by today's clinical and laboratory techniques and require medical attention, such as infections, tumours, or circulatory diseases of the brain.


DIFFERENCES BETWEEN SPIRITUAL EMERGENCE
AND SPIRITUAL EMERGENCY

From: The Stormy Search for the Self
By Christina and Stanislav Grof
Emergence

Emergency

Inner experiences are fluid, mild, easy to integrate.


Inner experiences are dynamic, jarring, difficult to integrate.

New spiritual insights are welcome, desirable, expansive.


New spiritual insights may be philosophically challenging and threatening.

Gradual infusion of ideas and insights into life.


Overwhelming influx of experiences and insights.

Experiences of energy that are contained and are easily manageable.


Experiences of jolting tremors, shaking, energy disruptive to daily life.

Easy differentiation between internal and external experiences and transition from one to other.


Sometimes difficult to distinguish between internal and external experiences, or simultaneous occurrence of both.

Ease in incorporating non-ordinary states of consciousness into daily life.


Inner experiences interrupt and disturb daily life.

Slow gradual change in awareness of self and world.


Abrupt, rapid shift in perception of self and world.

Excitement about inner experiences as they arise, willingness and ability to cooperate with them.


Ambivalence toward inner experiences, but willingness and ability to cooperate with them using guidance.

Accepting attitude toward change.


Resistance to change.

Ease in giving up control.


Need to be in control.

Trust in the process.


Dislike, mistrust of process.

Difficult experiences treated as opportunities for change.


Difficult experiences are overwhelming, often unwelcome.

Positive experiences accepted as gifts.


Positive experiences are difficult to accept, seem undeserved, can be painful.
Infrequent need to discuss experiences. Frequent need to discuss experiences.
Discriminating when communicating about process (when, how, with whom).