A feast of revealing narratives expose the amazing story of how people deal with critical points in personal transformation, also known as spiritual emergency. With the increase of interest in yoga, meditation, mental health recovery, and recovery from addiction there is renewed interest in care that is not based on medication as much as empathy and compassionate companionship. This book helps anyone who doesn't have a language to understand intense inner experiences and confuses them with mental illness. If you have felt disoriented by intense spiritual experiences this book will help you understand where you are and where you may be heading. It is a map of the journey of spiritual awakening written by a psychologist who knows the territory well. Reading it may make the difference between heading off to the hospital to get drugs to stop the symptoms or staying home and knowing you are OK. Just because you have had a conversation with your spirit guide, or talked to the spirit of someone who has passed away doesn't mean you are having a breakdown. It could mean you are having a breakthrough to a higher level of functioning. The author is a psychologist and knows the territory.

Personal stories of spiritual crises are presented alongside practical and effective guidance in this exploration of a fascinating phenomenon. When spiritual emergencies, such as mystical psychosis and dark nights of the soul, are understood, managed, and integrated, they can offer enormous potential for growth and fulfillment, and this book offers three key phases for successful navigation. Encouraging, supportive, and life-saving, this resource is essential for avoiding the mental, emotional, or spiritual paralysis or exhaustion that can result from underestimating the current age of increased individual and global emergencies.

The American comedienne Lily Tomlin once observed with surprise that we call it 'praying' when we talk to God and 'schizophrenia' when God talks back to us. In this book people speak about inner experiences in which they perceived themselves and the world so differently that they thought they were going mad. Experiences of existential voids, heights and depths, freezing wastes and silences, of pure energy, love and fear, oneness and chaos. They found no explanation in science or religion; traditional standards of normality and morality brought them no further than 'madness' and 'heresy'. From sheer necessity they learned to steer by a sort of inner compass, and began to tap unconventional resources. This gave their experience on balance the depth and dynamism of a spiritual transformation which they would not have wanted to miss. Since 1994 such spiritual crises have acquired an official place in psychiatric diagnostics, namely as non-pathological episodes. Knowledge and insight fall substantially short, however, both in professional circles and among the public at large. In this book the author shows how transpersonal psychology interprets such crises as the growing pains of human consciousness. This wider perspective transcends the traditional, individual frameworks of the life sciences, parallel to the earlier shift of classical mechanics to quantum physics. At a time that resounds with demands for meaningfulness, and which seems engrossed in a holistic model of reality, this book sets about giving a place within this perspective to the phenomenon of the spiritual crisis.

Increasing numbers of professionals in the fields of psychology and therapy are seeking to incorporate elements of spirituality into their therapeutic oeuvre, addressing not only mental and emotional issues, but also the soul. This book discloses how indigenous traditions can be adapted to offer practitioners a highly effective repertoire of insights, psycho-spiritual approaches and therapeutic tools. The underlying concepts and world-views of indigenous and contemporary shamanism are explained and tied in with current developments in psychology and science. After clarifying altered states of perception, concepts of integrative wholeness of mind, body, soul and spirit and transformative shamanic 'healing' approaches, the book goes on to outline concrete contemporary tools and techniques that can be applied directly to work with clients. It presents research, examples and case studies throughout. This will be enlightening and compelling reading for psychologists, therapists, counsellors and coaches looking for profound insights and innovative methods of practice that cater for the whole human psyche, reaching beyond contemporary Western mind and body approaches.

How Peak Spiritual Experiences Transform Lives Today Dr. Yvonne Kason’s life was touched by five Near-Death experiences (NDEs), the most recent in 2003. Her dramatic Near-Death Experience in a 1979 plane crash propelled her as a young medical doctor to research and counsel people with diverse types of peak spiritual experiences. In 1994, she coined the now widely used phrase “Spiritually Transformative Experiences” (STEs). These include Near-Death Experiences, mystical experiences, spiritual energy or kundalini awakenings, diverse psychic experiences, and inspired creativity. Touched by the Light is a synthesis of forty years of Dr. Kason's research on STEs and their profound after-effects on body, mind, and spirit. Filled with fascinating case studies, Touched By the Light is inspiring to all, as well as a practical guide for those experiencing STEs and their counsellors.

A dramatic near-death experience change Yvonne Kason's live forever and prompted her study of the mystical experiences that fall beyond the everyday. In this newly revised edition of the bestselling A Farther Shore, Dr. Kason explores a wide range of spiritually transformative experiences - near-death experiences, mystical experiences, spiritual energy/kundalini episodes, psychic awakenings and spontaneous inspired creativity - by sharing fascinating real-life stories. Farther Shores is an inspiring book for those who have experiences the extraordinary and for the health care professionals whom they turn for help. Dr. Kason offers sound advice on how to use these occurrences for spiritual growth and personal healing. "...an exceptional book...[that] takes the reader into a world where mystical happenings bring direction and healing to our everyday lives." - Jyoti (Jeneane Prevatt, Ph.D.) Former Director of the Spiritual Emergence Network Author of An Angel. Called My Name "... a major contribution to our understanding of a wide range of spiritually transformative expe4ricences...Kason is a wise and knowledgeable guide in these realms, and I can recommend her book with the greatest enthusiasm." - Kennith Ring, Ph.D. Professor Emeritus of Psychology, University of Connecticut Author of Healing Toward Omega and Lessons from the Light "...builds a bridge between the scientific and the spiritual, a bridge physicians will feel comfortable crossing." - Family Practice

Magical, paradigm-shifting, terrifying, and awe-inspiring, the spiritual awakening process is at the core of every human’s quest for freedom, love, and happiness. In this groundbreaking book, spiritual counselors Luna and Sol detail the many stages, paths, and pitfalls connected with this sacred evolutionary process. By reconnecting with your Soul, you will discover how to experience the joy, liberation, and peace that you have been searching for all along. In these pages, you will discover: 1. What is happening to you 2. Why you’re experiencing a spiritual awakening 3. The many spiritual awakening symptoms and stages 4. The three inner worlds of the spiritual journey 5. What to do when your awakening becomes a spiritual emergency 6. Signs you’re experiencing Soul loss 7. How to retrieve and integrate any fragmented pieces of your psyche through self-love, inner child work, and shadow work 8. What spiritual “traps” you need to be mindful of 9. How to communicate with your Soul Through the inner work practices of Inner Child Work, Self-Love, and Shadow Work, this book gives you the tools to initiate your own deep psychological healing. By removing the blocks and walls that surround your Soul, you will be able to access deep levels of joy, creativity, energy, courage, peace, fulfillment, freedom, and love. The Spiritual Awakening Process is a psychospiritual manual that is composed of various articles that we have published on lonerwolf.com in the past. We have also added extra content to help illuminate your path and guide you through this sacred time of life.

Metamorphosis, the theme of this book, derives from the Ancient Greek language and refers to a transformative process that often includes disintegration and reintegration, on the route to conscious living with self, community and the world. This collection proposes that engagement with the sacred is what makes research and practice transpersonal, the sacred ‘other’ that lives both within and beyond us as individuals and unique cultures. The transpersonal approach is distinctive in that it regards the potential metamorphosis of all those involved in research and professional practice a core value. This volume engages the audience in professional, practical, as well as inquiry-related topics that reflect the diverse nature of the transpersonal studies field, and extend an experience of metamorphosis to the reader. The book moves scholarship forward in an innovative and creative way with relevant themes that not only honour the sacred, but lend a transpersonal paradigm to scientific and professional methods and models.

The last few years have brought increased writings from activists, artists, scholars, and concerned clinicians that cast a critical and constructive eye on psychiatry, mental health care, and the cultural relations of mental difference. With particular focus on accounts of lived experience and readings that cover issues of epistemic and social injustice in mental health discourse, the Mad Studies Reader brings together voices that advance anti-sanist approaches to scholarship, practice, art, and activism in this realm. Beyond offering a theoretical and historical overview of mad studies, this Reader draws on the perspectives, voices, and experiences of artists, mad pride activists, humanities and social science scholars, and critical clinicians to explore the complexity of mental life and mental difference. Voices from these groups confront and challenge standard approaches to mental difference. They advance new structures of meaning and practice that are inclusive of those who have been systematically subjugated and promote anti-sanist approaches to counter inequalities, prejudices, and discrimination. Confronting modes of psychological oppression and the power of a few to interpret and define difference for so many, the Mad Studies Reader asks the critical question of how these approaches may be reconsidered, resisted, and reclaimed. This collection will be of interest to mental health clinicians; students and scholars of the arts, humanities and social sciences; and anyone who has been affected by mental difference, directly or indirectly, who is curious to explore new perspectives.

This key text presents an accessible and diverse exploration of spirituality in mental health practice, broadening the definition of spirituality to comprise a variety of transcendent experiences. Chapters include a brief history of the tensions of spirituality in mental health practice and consider a range of emerging topics, from spirituality among the elderly and energy work (Reiki), to spirituality in addiction recovery, incarceration, and hospice work. The book offers a close examination of the limits of the medical model of care, making a case for a more spiritually sensitive practice. Rich case examples are woven throughout, and the book is paired with podcasts that can be applied across chapters, illuminating the narrative stories and building active listening and teaching skills. Suitable for students of social work and counseling at master's level, as well as practicing clinicians, Spirituality in Mental Health Practice is an essential text for widening our understanding of how spiritual frameworks can enrich mental health practice.