So-called 'Schizophrenia' as

Transformative Process

Much needless suffering results from ignorance of the multidimensional nature

of the human psyche, human personality or 'human nature'. Insights into the
workings of human nature are revealed by combining Western scientific research
with concepts provided by Eastern psychologies concerned with the dimension of
human nature beyond the persona, or ‘ego'. The transpersonal or ‘spiritual’
dimension is defined in terms of the understanding of the divinity of humanness
and universal moral values. Human values are the social values of social
intelligence.… ‘beauty’ as truth, ‘truth’as knowledge, 'knowledge' as
understanding, ‘understanding’ as love, ‘love’ as unconditional lovingkindness or
‘compassion’, ‘justice’ as morality, ‘morality’ as freedom of conscience or peace,
‘peace’as social responsibility, ‘wisdom’ as intelligence, ‘intelligence’ as
creativity and productivity or ‘creative intelligence’. Awareness of human values,
‘spiritual awareness’, results in spiritual insight and spiritual intelligence or
‘intuition’. Intuition allows for accurate evaluation of the complexities of
changing social conditions and is therefore necessary for effective adaptation to
the social environment or ‘social adaptability' and survival of the species.

The psychiatric profession has created one of the greatest myths of our time
by describing so-called 'schizophrenia' as a nonspecific disease or ‘mental
illness’. It was German psychiatrist Emil Kraepelin (1856-1926) who originally
believed that this supposedly devastating condition involved irreversible mental
deterioration so he coined the Latin name 'dementia praecox' meaning 'prematurely
out of one's mind'. Later it became clear that the term was a misnomer and a new
term was provided in 1910 by the kind and humane Swiss psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler
(1857-1939), teacher of Carl Jung and professor of psychiatry at the University of
Zürich where he headed the famous Burghölzli Clinic. Since the condition seemed to
involve a mental split between thought and emotion, Bleuler coined the term
'schizophrenia' for 'splitting of the mind'. The term is derived from German
'schizophrenie' from Greek 'skhizein' meaning 'to split' and 'phren' of unknown
origin meaning 'heart or mind' so that ‘schizophrenia’ actually means 'broken
soul' or 'broken heart’. Although there is still no universally accepted
definition of the term, it has been applied to various conditions including a set
of socially and culturally unacceptable thinking and behaviour patterns so that it
becomes a model of ‘unwanted conduct’.

In fact so-called ‘schizophrenia’ is not a disease nor is it a hopeless

condition but a
brilliant condition which is the concern of the psychology of the transpersonal or
spiritual dimension of human nature i.e. 'transpersonal psychology'. In the light
of transpersonal psychology schizophrenia is a personal 'story' of a natural and
temporary self-healing and self-organising process involving the dissolution and
removal of illusions and false beliefs which originate from social conditioning.
In this sense schizophrenia is a transformative process, a crisis of
transformation or ‘psychospiritual crisis’. Furthermore it can be understood as a
part of the human condition and as a process which reveals information about the
nature of the human psyche or ‘human nature’.
Human nature is a moral, spiritual or ‘social’ nature and the human organism
is a social organism with instincts for social cooperation and social harmony i.e.
‘social instincts’. Social instincts must be cultivated in a process of
development of moral consciousness or ‘conscience’. The function of the conscience
is to preserve the integrity or ‘wholeness’of the personality. Rational conscience
is the product of moral, spiritual and social development resulting in
transformation of the self and the knowledge of one’s human nature or ‘self-
knowledge’. Self-knowledge is prerequisite to social or spiritual intelligence
required for effective social adaptability. The process of moral or spiritual
development results in the understanding of the ultimate connectedness or
‘unity’of all things i.e. also known variously as 'individuation', 'self-
realisation', 'self-actualisation', 'spiritual renewal', 'spiritual awakening',
'spiritual rebirth’, 'enlightenment' or 'spiritual emergence'.

"In the most general terms, spiritual emergence can be defined as 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. Spiritual development is an innate
evolutionary capacity of all human beings. It is a movement towards wholeness or
'holotropic state', the discovery of one's true potential." (Stanislav Grof)

Spiritual emergence is a gradual dynamic, fluid, naturally ordered and

integrated on-going process of personal development into greater maturity and
spiritual awareness. The process involves personal evolution from the limited
sense of self or 'ego' and its egocentric perspective to the expanded sense of
self beyond ego, the ‘higher self’, the ‘authentic self’ or 'Self' and its
transpersonal perspective. Transcendance of the ego or ‘ego-transcendance’ allows
for expansion of consciousness and heightened awareness resulting in an inner
sense of emotional liberation. Intuition is purified and sharpened thus allowing
for a clearer more accurate perception of reality and the discovery of ideas and
behaviours which are effective for social adaptability. Spiritual emergence is
the source of personal power because it allows for the attainment of knowledge of
one's true nature (‘self-knowledge’) as the source of motivation for personal
productiveness and creativity or ‘work’ (‘self-empowerment’).

Complete spiritual development takes place over a period of years and depends
on conditions of freedom and education which allows for the complete development
of the person as a whole i.e. 'holistic education'. Holistic education is based on
respect for the biologically based motives for human behaviour or ‘human needs’.
Human needs include both 'lower' psychological needs for security and self-esteem
- the 'ego needs' - and 'higher' psychological needs for moral development, the
instinctive yearnings for human values, the spiritual needs or ‘metaneeds’.
Motivation by the metaneeds ('metamotivation') allows for the discovery of one’s
true potential. Each person is at a different stage of spiritual emergence
depending on the level of their moral or spiritual development.

If in highly sensitive individuals the processs of spiritual emergence is

blocked for any reason then they might undergo a period of crisis or ‘emergency’
involving the rapid formation of essential adjustments for effective adaptation.
The transformation process of spiritual emergence can be so dramatic as to become
uncontrollable ‘spiritual emergency’, also known by many names: transpersonal
experience, transpersonal crisis, psycho-spiritual transformation, psychospiritual
crisis, spiritual journey, hero's journey, dark night of the soul, spiritual
opening, psychic opening, psychic awakening, spiritual awakening, enlightenment,
kundalini awakening, kundalini process, kundalini crisis, shamanic initiation,
shamanic crisis, psychotic-visionary episode, ego death, ego loss, alchemical
process, positive disintegration, post traumatic stress disorder with psychotic
features, night sea journey, psychosis, shamanism, mysticism, gnosis, inner
apocalypse, and so on. Spiritual emergency is characterised by spontaneous
alternative consciousness states or ‘realities' in which the person experiences
unbearably distressing psychic overload involving chaotic and overwhelming sensory
experiences which in fact offer invaluable opportunities for personal growth and
positive transformation.

Spiritual emergency is a process of healing and renewal which involves the

dissolution and removal of illusions and false beliefs originating in the
programming of social conditioning. The conditioning leads to the formulation of
aberrant thought complexes and these prevent the person from making accurate
evaluations of their social environment. Inaccurate evaluations lead to
inappropriate decision-making and non-adaptive behaviour patterns. In a period of
crisis, the person instinctively surrenders to the organismic process which
involves the temporary separation of thought and emotion (‘ego-loss’) which is
necessary for the reassessment of their thoughts without having to deal with the
emotional implications. The apparently bizarre speech and behaviour patterns
reveal the passage from lower to higher consciousness states in which the person
experiences a series of varying stages or ‘episodes’. These can be frightening and
confusing to onlookers because they appear to be out of context with everyday
reality and as a result they are often misunderstood. They are mistakenly believed
and discredited to represent ‘symptoms’ of disease or ‘mental illness'. Perceived
as pathological they are considered to be medically ‘treatable’. In fact the
apparent 'symptoms' are manifestations of a spontaneous healing effort by the
organism as a whole. The person eventually learns to grow beyond fear based ego-
consciousness, beyond cultural conditioning and the ‘conditioned self’, beyond the
expectations of others and towards the new transpersonal, moral or ‘spiritual’
dimension of awareness which allows for development of personal potential and
effective social adaptability. The successful outcome of spiritual emergency
depends on the appropriate understanding, respect, encouragement and support which
allow it to reach full completion.