It's well known that on a spiritual journey, whether physical or metaphorical, that a pilgrim may encounter 'perils and pitfalls'.
In Jerusalem they have coined the phrase 'The Jerusalem Effect' to describe the malaise experienced by some of their pilgrim visitors and the Glastonbury community has noticed its own version of this, calling it 'The Glastonbury Experience'.
Some of the symptoms reported are:
- Experiencing a roller-coaster of feelings from profound experiences of oneness, bliss and love to intense painful feelings of alienation, separation and sometimes deep hatred, paranoia or fear.
- Physical symptoms such as rushes of energy, heat, spontaneous movements, feeling 'spaced out', forgetting to eat, insomnia.
- Perceptual changes - seeing visions, ghosts, angels, u.f.o's, auras etc.
- Hearing voices, receiving 'guidance', becoming extremely sensitive to noise, finding other voices speaking through you, speaking 'in tongues' etc.
Although these are not necessarily symptoms of a spiritual 'crisis', they can be disturbing and frightening if you haven't experienced them before or if they become very intense.You might feel like you are going crazy and it may be very hard to 'trust the process'. You can also start to feel that the experiences are out of control, invasive or frightening.
It has been said that these experiences can be triggered by:
- Intense spiritual practice such as a retreat and/or chanting/meditating for long periods
- Participating in intensive work-shops/group-work
- A psychic opening
- A personal life crisis such as bereavement or heartbreak - 'the dark night of the soul'
- Being in a place with powerful earth energies, such as Glastonbury
- Combining drug use with spiritual practice
- Sexual experience
Why do some of us experience 'spiritual crisis' and others don't?
Here are some possible reasons and some preventative measures.
Early childhood trauma or indeed shock and trauma of any kind. If we think of the body as a house that needs to have solid foundations in order to support the upper floors, we can see how cracks in those foundations will have an effect. Spiritual practice can be problematic when used to 'by-pass' or 'rise above' our wounding. Being in psychotherapy, or working with the body in some way, e.g craniosacral therapy may be helpful.
Lack of context ... Most spiritual paths encourage people to practise within a community of like minded people or to have a guide, spiritual teacher, guru or mentor. In these modern days, many of us will try a mix of practices without seeing them in the context of lineage or community. Even if you find groups difficult and don't accept that you need a guide, see if you can find some way of connecting to a sense of all the people who have trod the path before you - the roots - and all the people who are currently on the journey with you.
Lack of grounding... There is a Sufi saying: 'Trust in God but tie up your camel'. Most spiritual paths have their version of stories that extol the virtues of 'doing ordinary'. (See Jack Cornfields book, 'After The Ecstasy, The Laundry'). Cooking, eating warming grounding foods, gardening, walking barefoot on the earth, being in nature, even paying the bills or cleaning the house - these are all examples of simple practices that can help us stay grounded on the spiritual path. It may also be helpful to temporarily stop any spiritual practice such as meditation, chanting, etc.
