that used a similar philosophy in their work as John of God uses in his work. Fortunately for me, I was also able to develop a close relationship with John of God who came to entrust me with responsibilities of leadership at his sanctuary.
What an eye opener it was to become more intimate with Spiritism! It turns out that Brazilian Spiritists are far ahead of the USA in their understanding and treatment of spiritual emergency. They understand that repression of one’s own psychic abilities can lead to personal crisis that can appear as mental illness. They understand that these gifted people need training to harness their psychic abilities to assist others as an essential part of their healing. They also understand that as people develop personally they need maps to understand the journey of spiritual evolution. The Spiritists have developed discussion and training groups—all free—to give this knowledge and training so that people do not have to be disoriented by spiritual phenomena or repress psychic abilities.
I believe those counselors in the Spiritual Emergency Crisis centers would benefit by this level of expertise, as it would provide more options in caring for those in spiritual emergency. Toward that end, in the eleven years I spent focused on Brazil I also wrote four books and co-produced two films to transmit what I was learning about Spiritism and the impact of spirituality on health. My most recent books are “Resources for Extraordinary Healing: Schizophrenia, Bipolar and Other Serious Mental Illnesses” and “Spiritism and Mental Health.” Details are on my website: www.EmmaBragdon.com
I came to believe that the Spiritist Centers and hospitals also have much to teach our own ailing health care system, especially in the area of understanding and maintaining mental health and nurturing spiritual evolution. Thus, I am sponsoring trips for health professionals to visit Brazil with me and learn from leaders who maintain the Spiritist Psychiatric Hospitals, clinics and community centers. If you are interested, there are details on my website. An armchair look at the history, philosophy and practical application of Spiritism can be found in “Spiritism and Mental Health”, an anthology including chapters from many Brazilian psychiatrists, psychologists and spiritual healers.
I have been very fortunate to experience the keen understanding and support of some excellent spiritual teachers, healers, and psychotherapists. In the near future my plan is to work within a healing center in the USA, to bring what I have learned into practice and make it available to more people.
The Broader Canopy of SEY
When we consider the concept of “Spiritual Emergency” at this point: the area the canopy covers is much broader than it was at its inception in 1980. It not only covers growth into what can be identified as experiencing more psychic perceptions, shamanic visions, and other phenomena associated with spiritual awakening; it covers the phenomena of addiction and mental disturbances as well. Why? Because many people undergoing these challenges are also going through spiritual crises that may be at the very root of the addiction or disturbance. Some say that confronting and recovering from addictions and emotional disturbance is a spiritual emergence process in itself.
It might be of great value to hold all of these inner experiences in the light of a spiritual emergence process that symbolizes growing into the light of more wisdom and compassion, becoming more aligned with Higher Power aka one’s Higher Self, and having a lifestyle that supports this connection. This broader perspective makes use of new kinds of treatments and support groups including spiritual practices, and moves away from terminology related to medicine or an illness related to a “broken brain”.
Increasing numbers strain in dislike of the stigma of ‘mental illness’. They see the negative effects of these diagnoses on their medical and insurance records (especially with medical records now being digital and easily accessible). Thus, individuals look for a less demeaning word to describe their condition that won’t scare away prospective employers or new friends.
We would do our veterans a favor if we looked at their challenges in re-entering the world after wartime as a “spiritual emergency” rather than simply a medical diagnosis like “profound depression”, “anxiety disorder”, “post-traumatic stress syndrome”, “mental illness” or a ‘broken brain’ needing drugs. Giving veterans help for getting through the trauma of war efforts should not burden them with the stigma of mental illness, but simply acknowledge they have experienced severe trauma, eg. being forced to kill others when that act goes against the Golden Rule of their religious beliefs. Like anyone who has experienced trauma, our veterans need compassionate care, empathy, time and new skills to return to our cultural norms.
Even as a word, the concept of “spiritual emergency” offers a kind of protection to people, e.g., explaining an upset as a “spiritual emergency” is far less scary—and possibly more truthful—than calling it a “nervous breakdown”. More so, receiving the kind of care for spiritual emergency is less stressful and may be more effective than the typical medical treatment for a nervous breakdown.
New Treatments
Treatment for SEY involves only cautious use of psychotropic medication and more empathic listening and a calm, less stimulating environment with fewer demands than the more typical medical environment. More medically oriented wards and clinics lean heavily on the use of psychiatric medications and are usually composed of rooms and halls with unnecessarily bright lighting, blaring televisions, and too much talk.
Don’t for a moment think that those trained to care for people in SEY refuse to recommend the use of psychiatric drugs if that is the most compassionate care needed. Certainly, giving a person medication to help him sleep if he has not slept for days is a hallmark of compassionate care. Similarly, short-term use of some other psychiatric medications is also used, as needed. But, prescribing these drugs long-term is avoided, if it can be avoided without harming the patient.
The knowledge and practical skills—and new vocabulary-- available to us today to help people work through and recover from any crisis including addiction and mental illness are much broader than they were in 1990. For example, yoga and meditation (or “mindfulness training”) are used more frequently to help people manage and sometimes overcome trauma, anxiety and depression. There are new, relatively quick techniques, like the “Emotional Freedom Technique” and “WHEE”, to help people overcome the effects of past trauma. Evidence-based research has shown that a comfortable place to meet and empathic listening is a significant part of the success of any therapeutic intervention and highly effective therapy can be done through peers as opposed to health professionals. The effects of eating gluten (in wheat, barley and rye) on the gut can bring on psychotic-like symptoms in some people, and avoiding eating gluten can have a very positive effect on mental health. Books like “Rethinking Madness” (2012) by Paris Williams, PhD cited above, or “Resources for Extraordinary Healing” (2012) give a thorough analysis of what we have missed in our medical model of mental illness and how recovery can be gained by engaging a different model of diagnosis and care. These new branches offer more stability and nurture the idea that emotional disturbance is not simply and always a medical disease to be treated with psychotropic drugs but often a marker of reaching for spiritual growth.
Particular treatments must be gauged to each person’s particular needs. If we return to our metaphorical tree and consider each branch to be a person: One branch may need a medication for a fungus or infestation of bugs; one branch may need pruning dead wood to give more energy to newer, vital growth. Applying that to the human level: particular people may need medication or surgery, 12-step programs, family systems therapy, or a sleep medication. But, ideally, there is always the overarching notion that it is all happening in the wider context
