Is it Mania or Spiritual Awakening? This is a common question, and a complex one.
Is there a difference between a Manic episode and a “Spiritual Awakening”, “Spiritual Crisis” or “Spiritual Emergence”?
Rarely acknowledged by traditional psychiatry, the spiritual dimension of mania and what is most often labeled as “psychosis” may often times reflect a deeper spiritual emergence, a dissolution of ego, or higher state of consciousness. This is rarely a pure spiritually realized state, but rather a sudden, intense expansion of consciousness which is a blend of true spiritual insight, intuition, wisdom, and even psychic experiences — mixed with ego-level fear, anxiety and confusion. Professionals and crisis workers often fail to respect or recognize the spiritual truths that are part of this experience and instead focus on the “delusional” or psychotic process as pathological and meaningless. This is does a terrible disservice to the person in crisis.
Once the manic episode resolves, the person is often left feeling confused, depressed, frightened of their experience and alienated from others because the spiritual element of the experience is never validated and they cannot find meaning or value in the experience.
Written by Benjamin Schwarcz, LMFT, ACAP-EFT
