In life, we are faced with many emergencies. But what about spiritual emergencies?
So, what is a spiritual emergency? A spiritual emergency is a crisis that affects one’s understanding of the self and view of the world, leading to personal transformation.
The term ‘spiritual emergency’ was coined by Stanislav Grof, an American psychiatrist who developed transpersonal psychology. Transpersonal psychology is an inquiry into the spiritual dimensions of human experiences.
Most psychiatrists or psychologists are not schooled in transpersonal psychology or do not subscribe to it. Hence, if we were to go to a psychiatrist or psychologist to discuss our spiritual emergencies, they are pathologized as mental illnesses, so we are prescribed medications. Admittedly, sometimes we do need medical interventions.
• However, do we need medication when our identity or ego system crashes?
• Do we really need antidepressants or anti-psychotic medications when our current reality crumbles, when our worldviews are fragmented?
• Or, when our values and belief systems shatter, do we need pills to repair our ego systems?
According to Collins (2008a), triggers or untamed bushfires that might bring about a spiritual emergency are:
• Altered state of consciousness
• God experience
• Terminal illness
• Sexual relations
• Childbirth
• Near-death experiences
• Transitional moments in a person’s life: birth of a child, marriage, parenting, adulthood, or leaving home
• Spiritual practices
It is possible that most of us are not aware that these untamed bushfires or triggers are spiritual emergencies. I wish to offer you a few examples.
• I recall a young mother of twenty-four diagnosed with terminal cancer having only just delivered her firstborn. She had a spiritual emergency.
• The young man who married his childhood sweetheart was heartbroken and institutionalized because she left him after their honeymoon. He went through a spiritual emergency.
• Or Natalie [pseudonym], who lost both her parents in a fatal accident, questioned her faith in God. Hers was a spiritual emergency.
Have you ever thought of these untamed bushfires as being spiritual emergencies? Or, as catalysts for personal transformation?
I remember meeting a German doctor in Africa who had a spiritual emergency. World War II had broken out. One day when he was ten years old, he waited on the platform for a train to visit his grandmother in another part of Germany. A train pulled into the station. It was carrying Jews to the concentration camps. He said to me, “I was only a kid but my faith in people and God was shattered, and I grew up to become an atheist.” He went on to tell me that he made a promise to himself that he would become a doctor when he grew up and do good. When I met him, he had worked for over 32 years with people with leprosy in Africa. A few years before I met the German doctor, he was passing by a Church in Africa. The doctor was drawn to the singing in the Church which had a healing effect on him. So, the doctor entered the Church and, after listening to the pastor’s sermon, experienced a transformation.
Remember, spiritual emergencies are not just for the over fifties. We all undergo spiritual emergencies, and it is okay to reach out for help and explore them.