Spiritual Emergence

Stanislav Grof

“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)

Grof distinguishes between two modes of consciousness: the hylotropic and the holotropic. The hylotropic refers to “the normal, everyday experience of consensus reality. The holotropic refers to states which aim towards wholeness and the totality of existence. The holotropic is charactistic of non-ordinary states of conscousness such as meditative, mystical, or psychedelic experiences. According to Grof, these non-ordinary states are often categorized by contemporary psychiatry as psychotic. Grof connects the hylotropic to the Hindu conception of namarupa (“name and form”), the separate, individual, illusory self. He connects the holotropic to the Hindu conception of Atman-Brahman, the divine, true nature of the self. Grof believes that the holotropic mode has been uniquely de-emphasized in the modern West:

All the cultures in human history except the Western industrial civilization have held holotropic states of consciousness in great esteem. They induced them whenever they wanted to connect to their deities, other dimensions of reality, and with the forces of nature. They also used them for diagnosing and healing, cultivation of extrasensory perception, and artistic inspiration. They spent much time and energy to develop safe and effective ways of inducing them.

Grof connects modern man’s inability to fully and honestly grapple with his psychic conflicts to the contemporary ecological crisis:

In the last few decades, it has become increasingly clear that humanity is facing a crisis of unprecedented proportions. Modern science has developed effective measures that could solve most of the urgent problems in today’s world–combat the majority of diseases, eliminate hunger and poverty, reduce the amount of industrial waste, and replace destructive fossil fuels by renewable sources of clean energy. The problems that stand in the way are not of economical or technological nature. The deepest sources of the global crisis lie inside the human personality and reflect the level of consciousness evolution of our species.

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN SPIRITUAL EMERGENCEAND SPIRITUAL EMERGENCY

To: Mr Mike

Setting aside for the moment I consider PTSD to be a counterfeit concept. Wow! good on ya. It seems to me that a flashback is just the right mind making a correlation to a past event with relevance and rebelling at the insanity. Why is that a disease? It is a righteous anger. You have responded in a sane manner to an insane situation in a forbidden manner. It is a spiritual emergence. Anger is what impels us to action to right wrongs. The suppression of anger is what society is all about. It creates a pressure cooker which eventually “pops”. The suppression of our connectedness with the world is how hyper males control society. Your normal sheepdog instincts have become dominant, as they are supposed to be. You are sane, society is psychotic.

Rejoice, you have been freed. allow your right mind to revel, but remember, it ain’t too bright. Make sure your left mind determines if action is appropriate. But let it impel you to tilt at windmills. You are now a 3d pop-up in a 2d world.

Spiritual Emergence Network Spiritual Emergency