It can be quite frustrating to be experiencing something unfamiliar that our medical system doesn’t have an answer for, such as treating spiritual emergencies. Unfortunately, I know from experience as documented here!
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This is very common with many “spiritual”, “mystical”, “energetic”, etc. experiences and their side effects, which are often referred to as emergent phenomena.
A few months ago I was delighted to discover the The Emergent Phenomenology Research Consortium. The EPRC is a group of 180+ researchers, scientists, medical, therapy, and spiritual professionals that are trying to tackle the hard problem of gathering data and research on the large catalogue of emergent phenomena experiences that humans may face and the efficacy of the different protocols for handling or treating spiritual emergency.
Daniel Ingram is one of the co-founders of the organization and also the author of one my favorite books on Buddhism: Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha.
The EPRC’s aim is to give health care systems, mental health providers, and those who are helping to teach and promote various practices the information they need in order to make better decisions about how to both promote the benefits of these practices and manage the various effects that they can produce. Here’s an awesome video overview:
In my opinion, accelerating the acknowledgment and effective treatment of these types of experiences in mainstream healthcare is imperative as wisdom practices like meditation and substances like psychedelics scale up in society.
We must develop an adequate support system or protocol for treating spiritual emergencies to help people as they go through their own evolutionary process and what we have right now in the healthcare system leaves a lot to be desired. I deeply hope this happens so people can navigate this more gracefully and avoid the confusing fact-finding mission I had to go on 4 years ago.
I found Daniel a joy to talk too and we touch upon lots of historical information about the effort of trying to make higher states of consciousness recognized by mainstream institutions.
It was a fascinating conversation that I hope enjoy!
Here are some links from the episode:
- The EPRC website
- EPRC White paper
- The Stormy Search for Self
- A Path With Heart
- Spiritual Emergency
- IMHU – Treatment Center for Spiritual Emergency