The fact that sharing our stories of emerging through adversity transformed is a powerful aid in the integration process won’t come as a surprise to the Emerging Proud community. However, sometimes these embodied knowings need to be grounded in academic research in order to be acknowledged within our current scientific paradigm.
As you know, some of the Emerging Proud stories were part of the 5 year research conducted by the Research into Recovery Team at Nottingham University in partnership with the Institute of Mental Health.
The NEON study – Narrative Experiences Online Intervention – gathered more than 600 stories from all over the world, drawing on existing, published work and digital repositories. The team collected 50 more of their own along the way, including several from people who had heard about the study and wanted to lend their voices.
The dedication of the team to this longitudinal study has paid off – the results prove that:
“If people have hope, they can try new things to find better routes to a brighter future.” Dr Stefan Rennick-Egglestone, lead Researcher on the NEON study.
This study is promoting a broader shift towards harnessing the power of story, of shared experience, in health care. That means less invasive treatments and more human connection – Power to the Peer!
Click HERE to read more about the findings of the study, or SIGN UP to the mailing list.
Relationship inspirational quote – Communication is good, but understanding is everything. Message on white paper with two roses in purple and yellow colors on old rusty typewriter vintage background.
Woman stand in the middle of a foggy forest. There are big clocks scattered all around. Concept of time and chosing your right path.
ISPS are carrying out a study into the recovery journeys of people with lived experience of psychosis, and their perceptions of lost time in relation to psychosis and associated experiences. The study has received ethical approval from the University of Liverpool Research Ethics Committee.
Would you be willing to share your psychosis recovery story?
We are looking for volunteers to take part in research exploring the process of recovery from psychosis. The aim of this study is to better understand recovery journeys in people who have previous experience of psychosis in relation to how they might perceive of ‘lost time’. We hope that this will allow us to gain important insight into what may help to promote recovery from psychosis, and how this might better inform trauma-informed recovery pathways. If you choose to take part you will be asked to participate in a one-to-one (online or in person) interview of around 60 minutes in length.
You are eligible to take part if:
You have a past diagnosis of psychosis.
You have been recovered for at least 12 months. You MUST self-identify as currently being in a period of recovery, and have had no significant intervention or crisis intervention from mental health services for the 12-month period. This includes community treatment orders and any period of hospitalisation for mental health care. This does not include routine medical appointments, such as medication reviews, general health visitor appointments, psychotherapy sessions or clinics.
Have you experienced an NDE or psychedelic journey that has significantly impacted your views on death and dying? Would you like to share your views for research?
My colleague Agnieszka is conducting a research study titled:
“Exploring the Transformative Elements of Psychedelic and Near-Death Experiences: Impacts on Beliefs About Death Across the Adult Population,” in collaboration with ALEF TRUST and LIVERPOOL JOHN MOORES UNIVERSITY.
Her goal is to understand how NDEs and psychedelic experiences influence views on mortality, aiming to improve end-of-life care.
Participants are being sought who are:
over 18 year of age
have had significant experiences with NDEs or psychedelics that impacted their beliefs about death.
This study has received ethical approval from the Alef Trust Research Ethics Panel.
Do you fit the criteria? Your insights could greatly contribute to this interesting study.
If you’re interested or have any questions, please feel free to reach out to Agnieszka at A.E.Marek@2021.ljmu.ac.uk.
When we gathered as a community in 2017 to pool all of our resources to make (a very amateur!) film, none of us envisaged just how far and wide Emerging Proud would spread and how many people it would support.
We’re all aware of the shame, stigma, and sometimes debilitatingly disempowering treatment people who try to talk openly about extreme altered states can experience – at the hands of disbelieving friends, colleagues, family and the current westernised mental health system.
But these experiences are not culture-bound, they connect us beyond any categories of difference.
Thanks to support by the ISEN team, Jeong Lee and his team in South Korea are setting up a new Spiritual Emergence Network to support people going through a difficult awakening process. It’s only people who have experienced this challenge who are equipped to support others – this is why it’s a grassroots movement.
Jeong Lee extends his gratitude to all involved in the Emerging Proud film, which has been translated into Korean for their website:
One of the major challenges of anyone who is / has gone through a challenging awakening process is explaining it, because the experiences themselves are beyond words.
The ‘3 minds model’ of Dr Anoop Kumar explains everything in such a tangible way. Dr Kumar experienced his awakening to universal consciousness as primary due to a near death experience, and he’s bringing back the information he received to his mission to create a de-colonised model for healthcare.
It’s time for a new paradigm, and you, proud emergees, are part of the sea change…. My eternal gratitude for everyone who has so bravely spoken out in order to create a safety for others to do the same. This is just the beginning…
Did you realise that, as Proud Emergees, we’re a group of hermeneutical Dissenters? Neither did I until I came across the incredible resource, Warp &Weft. Thank you to Lisa’s book, we as a community are now more deeply rooted in a theoretical framework.
As a group of non-conformists who suffered hermeneutical injustice (not having our interpretation of our experiences acknowledged) through epistemic injustice (having our ‘gnosis’ – embodied ‘knowing’ of our experiences, disregarded by those in power), we decided to step out of our spiritual closets, join forces, and proudly share our stories as part of creating a new hermeneutic (meaning /interpretation) for our ‘altered state’ experiences.
I (Katie) have been a little absent as I’ve immersed myself in research as a means to give credibility to our plight… I apologise for not ‘being so availably here’ (I am still here – 3 years in, another 4 to go!), please know this is for us all (and the many more to follow). We are the bridges between worlds and paradigms. Anyway, in case you haven’t come across it already….
Warp & Weft is an incredibly well-researched, comprehensive, astoundingly wise and compassionate resource on reframing human experiences that our culture has come to call ‘mental health’.
I’m going to quote the author, Lisa Fannen in describing Warp & Weft, as she does a much better job of it than I ever could:
Warp & Weft gathers together ideas, radical frameworks and reference points to explore consciousness, and ways of understanding experiences of distress as they occur within our social and systemic contexts.
It looks at what gets called ‘mental health’ and challenges the idea that our experiences of distress, struggle or variable consciousness are only ‘mental’. It challenges the way biomedicine splits mind from body and soul, and names that we are embodied beings, who are shaped by and unfold within the contexts we have inherited and live in.
It looks at some of the history of psychiatry and examines the ways it has been, and continues to be used as a colonial force. It reframes trauma; it looks at the effects of trauma in the bodymindsoul, acknowledges the intersection of personal and collective trauma, and explores ways we might move towards healing.
Warp & Weft considers how we are given cultural ‘scripts’ for experience, and how we might relanguage experience on our own, and non-medical terms. Terms which address root causes of distress and point towards holistic approaches, in order to foster liberatory personal and collective transformation.
Lisa Fannen
You can access the audio version of the book here for free:
However, if finances allow, please donate as Lisa’s dedication and woven genius needs to be rewarded. I personally think that she deserves an honorary doctorate for this work of art.
Offered with so much love, and solidarity as always, Katie ❤
Those Martha speaks of – the individuals who have had significant breakdowns leading to a palpable transformation in their everyday lives are worth learning from, is because they hold an embodied knowing, a felt sense in their bones, of what the collective is moving through right now – are the very ones I am learning from in my current research, because their wisdom is a vital part of our evolution, and their voices, so often silenced by pathologisation and medication, need to be heard.
What wisdom can we gather from transformative crises in individuals to assist humanity’s urgent transition out of late-stage capitalism?
“The capitalist system has imposed on us a logic of competition, progress and limitless growth. This regime of production and consumption seeks profit without limits, separating human beings from nature and imposing a logic of domination upon nature, transforming everything into commodities… Humanity confronts a great dilemma: to continue on the path of capitalism, depredation, and death, or to choose the path of harmony with nature and respect for life.” – People’s Agreement of Cochabamba
Imagining post-capitalist realities, ways of living and being that don’t reduce the earth and human life to what can be extracted from them is an essential step in moving towards a sustainable future. I believe this requires us to accept the breakdown of our current systems and seek a way of collectively alchemizing this time of collapse, into a ‘breakthrough’. Enacting a ‘breakdown to breakthrough’ transition for planet Earth will need to be informed by inner transformation, which then translates to wise, innovative outer action and social change. This is not a unique idea; the United Nation’s ‘Inner Development Goals’ harnesses the application of inner development and transformational skills to global challenges faced by humanity.
Going through my own transformative crisis, and having worked with countless individuals with similar journeys, it is my firm belief that there is valuable wisdom to be harnessed from those emerging from their own personal ‘breakdown to breakthrough’ experience. This is not to say that people with this experience have healed everything- there is always a shadow, a wound, a behaviour that needs attention, in all of us, forever. The reason I think that individuals who have had significant breakdowns leading to a palpable transformation in their everyday lives are worth learning from though, is because they hold an embodied knowing, a felt sense in their bones, of what the collective is moving through right now.
Slow, steady transformation over time in individuals is incredibly needed too, and no less profoud, in fact let’s admit it- it’s a lot less messy, inconvenient and challenging too. However, despite the obvious difficulties of going through an acute crisis, there is something unique about the experience of emerging from a full blown crisis feeling more whole, more connected, more clear- especially when properly integrated with consistent spiritual practice and psychological therapy if needed. These are the ones who will have faced the void, their own death, their own delusions and their own divinity. They will have grappled with how to hold all of that, and what it means to be a human here at this time. They will have been humbled and brought to their knees a hundred times and found the strength to emerge from the rubble of their former lives, more loving and more aware.
“Maybe the journey isn’t so much about becoming anything. Maybe it’s about unbecoming everything that isn’t really you, so you can be who you were meant to be in the first place” Paul Coelho.
This is what humanity needs to do on a collective level, but instead of valuing these people, society tends to shame them because they have embodied what we are all too afraid to admit- they have embodied madness and delusion; destructive and often inappropriate behaviour. They have played the role in this cosmic drama that no one wants to play- a crystal-clear mirror to the human collective of its own deep insanity. In Western society, we consciously and unconsciously suppress the symptoms of crisis to avoid the discomfort and inconvenience of looking in this mirror. We do this to individuals through medication and incarceration, as well as on a societal level, through consuming, overworking, self-medicating and addiction to our devices.
Key Learnings from the edge of sanity
1) Acceptance of one’s own delusions, madness, and self-destructive behaviour
A prerequisite for returning from the edge of sanity is the acceptance that we did indeed, for a time, lose our mind. The facing square on of one’s delusions and the inappropriate or destructive behaviour that may have arisen from them is what is required for long-lasting transformation to take place after a breakdown. I would assert without hesitation that humanity is in the grip of madness. In today’s world, where we continue to actively destroy the ecosystem upon which the physical sustainability of all life, including our own species, depends, only the most determined (and financially powerful) stay in complete denial of this. Capitalism relies on and thrives on the denial of our collective insanity and self destructive behaviour. It takes huge courage to admit you have been mad; it goes against every survival instinct in our bones, to risk exile from ‘the tribe’. Yet it is this neo-liberal tribalism permeating western society, that we must have the courage to exile ourselves from.
2) Facing death/mortality
Many people who have experienced a spiritual crisis will have had an encounter with death or their own mortality. This is sometimes by mistakenly believing they have died, which impacts the body/mind profoundly despite not being true. In Dark Night of the Soul experiences, there is a deep descent into the death realms. Other times it might be through the physical risk of crisis bringing the experiencer close to actual death, including through suicide attempts. What good, if any, do these encounters with mortality and death do for the human being in today’s world?
An ongoing relationship with death is essential for embedding the human experience within the appropriate context of the earth’s ecosystem. The death process is essential in the cycles of regeneration and renewal that are inherent to life on this planet as well as to the mysterious alchemy of transformation (Ladha & Murphey, 2022) so urgently needed now. Reciprocity is central to these currents of life, death and transformation- knowing when and how to receive, and when and how to let go, in balance with the greater whole, requires deep acceptance of death. In today’s death-phobic, growth-centric society, contemplating dying and as such, leaving everything behind that capitalism needs us to grasp at, is a radical act of liberation desperately needed by humanity.
3) Mythic images
When a spiritual crisis includes manic states, there are certain images and ideas that arise which seem to be universal to those experiencing these non-ordinary states. John Weir Perry, a psychiatrist and student of Jung studied these patterns and drew remarkable parallels between the influx of images experienced in manic states, with the myths and rituals of antiquity at times of civilizational change. Common themes include stories of creation and destruction, cosmic combat, powers of light and dark, chaos and order, and a vision of oneness expressed in messianic ideation. Through extensive research, he began to see the arising of these rich mythic images as the natural effort of the psyche to move towards a greater state of wholeness, as well as articulate a vision for a more harmonious society. Films like ‘Crazywise’ point to the valued role non-ordinary states of consciousness and those prone to them, play in traditional societies.
The fact that these visionary states are now pathologized, medicated and dismissed as useless and invalid by western medicine could correspond with the ‘crisis of meaning’ that being lost in the depths of late-stage capitalism has created. Thought leaders exploring the complexity of the current meta-crises facing humanity recognise the timeless role of myth in ushering in civilisational change. Two of these thought leaders, Ladha and Murphey (2022) put it like this: “As we expand the mytho-poetic landscape and the corresponding creation of embodied knowledge and cultures, we may avail ourselves to the direct wisdom of the Gaian entelechy and the quiet whispers of that which is beyond our perception” p.202.
4) Increased sense of interconnectedness and connection to the divine within.
A consequence of going through a spiritual crisis can be that during as well as after the non-ordinary states occur, there is an increased sense of interconnectedness with the rest of life, including Source, Oneness etc. In normal consciousness, without spiritual practices, psychedelics or spontaneous awakenings and crises, we usually feel most connected to our own body, mind and emotions, as well as the people, activities and issues that affect our daily lives. There might be an abstract belief that we are more than this, such as a soul, but this is quite different to having a tangible felt sense and unmistakable knowing of the interconnectedness of all life and the divinity within every Being. Spiritual emergencies often include these elevated states, where the former boundary of ‘me’ and ‘mine’ becomes expanded to include the mountains, the birds, the river, the person walking their dog- everything. This can lead to a number of behaviours (not all of them wise or helpful) but most of the time there is an overwhelming sense of compassion for all of life and an urgent sincere calling to usher in a more evolved, peaceful and enlightened consciousness on planet earth. Even when the interconnectedness is experienced as paranoia, there can be profound learnings as distilled by Ricky Derisz in this illuminating piece.
The lessons we can take from the subjectively positive states of interconnectedness that tend to go hand in hand with mania and spiritual crises, is not to encourage ‘ego death’, losing our identity or our personal boundaries. The most useful learning is around how we can feel ourselves to be both ‘the ocean and the wave’- connected to All that is, to the Divine, to the more-than-human world, to our communities and to people we formally saw as ‘Other’. And at the same time, honour ourselves as the wave, having a valid experience of individuality, and all the complexity and forgetfulness that comes with that. The emotionally numbed state of denial in which capitalism holds the majority of Western society requires a rigid and limited sense of self- an anxious, deeply paranoid wave, fearful and envious of the ocean it doesn’t know it is a part of. Fear is an exceedingly useful emotion to capitalism; it underlies much of humanity’s most destructive behaviour, including our grasping for ‘more’ which then over time becomes a perceived entitlement for more.
Final Thoughts
This piece is an exploration of how crisis in individuals relates to the meta-crisis of our times, driven predominantly by late stage capitalism. It takes an unfinished look at the way personal, inner experiences of breakdown might inform a collective breakthrough into postcapitalist realities. Through working with people emerging from spiritual crises, the themes i’ve addressed above have an archetypal nature to them, ocurring again and again in the journeys of individuals. What does this mean? And how can these archetypes serve our journey as a species towards sanity and healing? These are the questions myself and many others are contemplating at this time.
A final point I need to address is the attempt in transpersonal psychology to differentiate a ‘spiritual’ crisis from plain old madness, which in my view is missing the point- for it is not in how a crisis manifests, but in how it transforms the person over time, that makes it a spiritually regenerative experience. Of course, the capacity to transform through crisis is dependent on a variety of socio-economic factors, exacerbated by late-stage capitalism, inequality and trauma.
This is why it is important to highlight the way the capitalist system stunts the psychic process of renewal in individuals through actively increasing inequality and poverty which research has shown make incarceration and over-medication of a spiritual crisis more likely.
It seems all the more poignant then, that the wisdom gathered through the very states of consciousness that capitalism most vigorously seeks to oppress, point to its remedy and demise.
Support
If you or somebody you know is emerging from non-ordinary states of consciousness and needing a spiriutally aware, psychologically safe container to integrate the experience, feel free to reach out for a 1:1 session with me HERE.
Have you had a life-changing experience that prompts you to say “after that, nothing was the same”?
If you have had a significant and transformative shift in your life, please consider this invitation to contribute your authentic experience in adjusting to profound change.
Did you know that there is very little scientific research available to spiritual and mental health professionals about how to support the integration of spiritual emergence and personal transformation?
The first phase of my colleague Beth’s university-approved dissertation research is gathering information on practices that support the accommodation of change, and she would value your expertise in rating these practices. By participating in this online survey you will have the opportunity to learn about more than eighty recommended practices – some of which may be immediately helpful to you – and you will be able to rate the effectiveness of each one.
Your participation is important and valued because this information is important in ongoing efforts to connect transpersonal experience with the scientific rigors of mainstream psychology. Your contribution will support expanded understanding and support for people who are navigating spiritual emergence, and the people who support them.
This online survey takes about 25 minutes to complete – which certainly is a contribution of your time – but the potential benefits are significant. While it may be directly helpful to you to learn what practices others have used, your authentic experience will help to identify to the mental health community the most important practices for integrating profound personal change. Your participation will contribute to appropriate guidance and support for many others in the future.
Who can take part?
This study is open to those who:
are fluent in reading and writing in English
are more than 18 years old
have had a transformative life experience as defined above at any time in the past
are willing to answer questionnaires related to their experience of significant life changes
This study is not suitable for you if you are:
currently feeling overwhelmed or distressed by a life-changing experience
currently experiencing acute mental health challenges
Have you ever had an extreme experience which had led to you being officially diagnosed with ‘psychosis’ by a medical professional?
You may be interested in taking part in research which seeks to explore Transformative Meaning in our ‘Madness’ – are experiences diagnosed as psychosis meaningful rather than just pathological?
The purpose of this study is to explore how some people find and harness transformative meaning in their experiences conceptualised as psychosis by clinical psychiatry in order to better understand and support them.
If you would like to share your feelings and experiences for this research study and are chosen to take part, you would be interviewed for approximately one hour via zoom.
To take part in this study, you need to fit the following criteria:
Have previously received an official label of psychosis by a medical professional
Found this label unhelpful and sought alternative ways to understand your experience.
Not experienced an extreme episode for at least 2 years, are currently emotionally stable / are not suffering from any serious or ongoing psychological difficulties
Between 25 – 75 yrs. of age
Fluent English speaker
Able to talk about a transformative aspect of your experience and the meaning gleaned from that
Have access to a solid, current support network, and are able to develop a personal support plan in case this is needed during the process
Be willing and able to give feedback on transcripts and interpretation of your data
There will be a formal information sheet which will explain in more detail. However, it is important to say that there is a risk the interview may trigger difficult feelings as the research is exploring such an emotive topic. To support your process, you will be given resources and signposted to services before and after the interview.
If you feel that you fit the inclusion criteria above and are happy to go ahead, you can complete this Pre-Screening Questionnairewhich will be used to assess your eligibility to take part. It should only take around 10 mins to answer the questions. Please note, completing this questionnaire does not mean that you will be contacted to take part in the study.
Your responses will be kept confidential and will be used solely for research purposes.
Your participation is entirely voluntary, and you may withdraw at any time. If you are invited and choose to participate, your time and effort will be greatly appreciated and will contribute to the success of this project.
If you would like any further information regarding this study, or have any questions or concerns, you can contact the primary researcher at: K.Mottram@2021.ljmu.ac.uk or the project Supervisor: Dr Ellis Linders at ellis.linders@aleftrust.org
Would you like to take part in an important research study exploring how women living with a diagnosis of ADHD/Autism and ADHD experience nature connection as well as their self-understanding in relation to society and to nature? 🌞 🌊 🌸
Are you a woman living with ADHD/AuDHD who loves nature? Were diagnosed with ADHD or AuDHD at 22 years of age or older? Do you experience a deep-felt connection with nature? Do you engage with nature on a semi-regular basis about once a week or more? Do you have a support network and tools to manage challenges? Are you able to express complex experiences using English?
If you answered “yes” to the above questions and are willing to share your experiences relating to ADHD/AuDHD and nature connection during a 60-minute online interview, please email the Researcher: Lindsay Blotzer at ALTLBLOT@LJMU.AC.UK for more information.
All data will be anonymized to protect your privacy.
This study is in partnership with Liverpool John Moores University and Alef Trust in partial fulfillment of an MSc in Consciousness, Spirituality, and Transpersonal Psychology.
With this research, Lindsay hopes to contribute toward a greater understanding of the experiences of neurodivergent women and nature connection.
Reframing Mental distress as a potential catalyst for positive change 