#EmergingProud is a Grassroots Social Movement, aimed at: Re- framing ‘Madness’ as a catalyst for positive transformation 

#Emerging Proud is ultimately a campaign about providing hope; that breaking down does not mean we are broken; it means that we can be amidst a difficult journey to ‘breakthrough’.  #Emerging Proud aims to add to the voices aiming to create a society in which it feels safer to speak out about our extreme experiences without fear of being told there is something wrong with us, or that we are “crazy”.

#Emerging Proud provides a platform to give those people who feel they have not had a voice, the chance to speak out and tell the world how they found a way out of their own darkness; a celebration of the positive transformation potential of these experiences, whilst at the same time acknowledging how challenging they can be, and what support is helpful during the process. What is unhelpful, is having your rights taken away during these experiences…

Your voice matters! 

The concept of the campaign is built on that of the Pride gay rights movement, because being gay was considered a mental illness before the public uprising in the late 60’s, when the voices of those feeling oppressed and discriminated against spoke out to initiate change. Homosexuality is no longer a category in the DSM as a result. Voices create change; let’s not stay silent. #Emerging Proud aims to achieve the same ‘normalisation’, but for mental distress and extreme human experiences.

International #Emerging Proud day launched on Friday 12th May 2017, aiming to expand the public perception of ‘normal’ all over the world.

Normalising extreme human experiences is fundamentally a Human Rights issue.

Article 9 of the Human Rights Act states a right to Freedom of thought, belief and Religion. And yet certain beliefs and experiences are still being pathologised as mental illness.

Millions of people around the world are waking up to an expanded level of consciousness and thus experiencing spiritual phenomena. For many of these people the journey of awakening is a turbulent roller-coaster ride into the abyss of a misunderstood Universe, and as such, it can also be a fast admission ticket into the world of psychiatry. If the world is to evolve, our Western cultural perception of spiritual phenomena has to evolve too.

Let’s make it a Human Right for experiences of expanded consciousness not to be pathologised as mental illness…the more of us who dare to speak out, the more this becomes a possibility.

In solidarity for the emergence of a new paradigm ❤