How to Avoid Psychosis

[goldisheavy]

I notice this board has a lot of frightened individuals whose hearts are the size of a peanut due to fear. I order to allay their fear as well as to allay all the fear they like to generate around themselves, I will say a few things about psychosis.

 

All people who do serious spiritual practice can encounter strange phenomena. Therefore it is important to understand the causes behind psychosis, how to prevent it, and how to deal with it if it arises.

 

Psychosis is caused by a discrepancy within intent. How does this work? Intent is conditioned by our ideas. For example, if I intend to eat an ice cream, I have an idea of an ice cream and I have an idea of what eating entails and so forth. These ideas give shape to intent, and therefore condition it. So what happens if the ideas are contradictory and our intent stands equally strongly behind contradictory ideas? Trouble! That's what. Or rather, an experience of trouble.

 

So a typical scenario will run as follows:

 

We have all kinds of deeply established beliefs about reality. For example many people, even many highly spiritual people, strongly believe in a physicalist worldview. In simple language this means such people expect laws of physics to work. For example, gravity is real, matter impedes other matter (as in, you cannot go through walls), and so on. There is also a hidden attachment to normality. We don't realize we care about normality until it's gone. So for example, feeling nothing special inside the body, that's normal. We take it for granted and don't think much of it, until it's gone. Because we often underestimate our thirst for normality, we are often eager to give it up, only to regret it later.

 

But "normal" "physical" life is not good enough for a lot of people. This kind of life feels suffocating and constrained. We feel robotic and trapped and our hearts yearn for more creativity and more freedom. So we want to experience something strange. We want to experience something novel. We want at least a touch of magic and the miraculous in our lives. We want to experience some sign of infinite possibility of manifestation. Let's say this is a second factor.

 

Third factor is all the stories we've heard in the past. Oh, we might think we don't believe them, and we might think we are rational beings, and think we are above such things as superstition, but deep in the mind stories still can have some power. So for example, if you've heard a story about kundalini causing heat, even if you doubt it, there is a possibility that such story can later manifest. This is especially true if you keep hearing some story repeatedly over and over. This doesn't mean the story is real or true! That's simply the power of the mind. It's how the mind works. And even if you have a skeptical and critical mindset, you may not be completely immune to the effects of the stories, at least, not right away, and not without some effort put into draining some obstructing stories of their natural creative energy.

 

So what happens, when intent behind the creative, spiritual (as opposed to say, mundane) aspect of life gets mature, it manifests! Intent always manifests once it reaches a certain level of honesty and perceived truth deep within our being. However, what happens is that likely the person has done no work to soften up their conceptions of how the world should be and what reality is truly like. At the same time, there is an overabundant eagerness for the new. So there is an immense conflict. For example, you might see light inside your body, and on one hand, you're elated, because it shows how creative and wonderful your mind and heart is, it shows how mind can summon such light into being, but at the same time, such experience conflicts with everything you understand about physicality and normality, and it is scary. You might wonder if you've detached yourself from the physical world. You might even think you've died. You might think you are losing your sanity. All this can create an intense fear and panic, because on one hand we would like to feel miracles, magic and creativity but just as strongly and at the same time, we don't want to feel those very same things.

 

So, roughly speaking, this is the process that causes the perception of danger. If you wholeheartedly allow yourself to let go of your previous worldview and allow yourself to fully go with the newly arising phenomena, you will not have any fear. Even heat will not be painful. Heat is painful to us because we believe our bodies can burn up and feeling heat is a sign that the body is in danger. And since we base our identity on the body, this is truly scary, especially if the sensation of heat is not mild. So in order to tolerate phenomena like that, either you have to be ready and willing to die, or you have to stop identifying yourself with the body or bodies (and there can be many kinds of bodies, physical being just one of them).

 

So how to avoid this mess?

 

It's easy! If you understand what's going on, and if you understand the power of mind, you naturally know what to do. But let's spell it out. There are two approaches.

 

First approach is to go slow and gentle with the creative intent. Allow the creative spiritual freedom of perception to seep in ever so slowly and ever so gradually. Simply thinking to yourself that you're not in any hurry to get enlightened and that you're not in any hurry to manifest any kind of powers will do the trick. In this case, the change will be slow, and every time you feel a subtle change in your appreciation for life and in your daily experience, you will have time to adjust and time to get used to it. This incremental approach makes sure that each manifested creative experiential change is small and subtle and because of that, each change is feels safe, good, and fun.

 

Second approach is a moral radical one. You have to address the clinging, the entrenched, the dogmatic aspect of mind. Namely this has to do with our unwavering belief in physicality, and our belief in the physical body being "me", and a desperate expectation of normalcy and so forth. These beliefs should first be softened, and eventually completely melted away (like an ice cube melting in water), as they represent an obstacle. You can soften these beliefs by steadily questioning them in a very sincere and sustained manner. So you question all these beliefs that you take for granted every day. You ask yourself over and over whether these beliefs make solid sense, and without any pretense and without any wishful thinking, but rather, by relying on cold hard logic you can eventually see that those beliefs have no merit. This is also a slow but very powerful process. In this approach, phenomenally you experience lots of routine and mundane life because your intent is not busy conjuring creative manifestations little by little as it would be in the first approach. So you have a stretch of seemingly boring life where you do nothing but contemplate the validity of your core beliefs. But then one day you wake up and realize with great immovable certainty that you no longer believe all those things about reality that you used to believe. And then very very quickly from this point forward all kinds of amazing and creative phenomena can arise completely without fear, since at this time you will be full-hearted in your intent.

 

Examining the causes of fear of death, fear of disease, fear of change, and fear of unknown relate very strongly to the second approach. The first approach is more hands on. Energy work falls into the first approach, and playful gentle magical manifestation also falls into the first approach. The second approach is more contemplative.

 

You can combine a little bit of both approaches. You can play with subtle and small creative manifestations while you contemplate the validity of your current beliefs.

 

Generally there are two sides to this conflict. There is a thrust for newness and a thrust for maintaining the status quo. So either your thrust for newness has to be gentle, or you have to dissipate the energy behind the thrust for status quo, and this is done by undermining the inner doctrine that holds the status quo locked in place within our hearts.

 

Now, should the panic happen anyway, you simply need to be patient and to remind yourself that the phenomena you experience are visionary, like seeing fur on a tortoise or like seeing a horn on a rabbit. Be patient, relax, and the phenomena will pass.

 

Finally keep in mind that allowing intent to operate on this or that detail of the manifestation is always more dangerous than having a general abstract high order intent. Example: let's say you feel tired. If you then try to send energy into kidneys, that's much more dangerous than visualizing an overall gentle field of refreshment bathing you from head to toe. Why? Because it is likely you don't know what kidneys do in the grand scheme of things. So for this reason, using detail-oriented intent is always more dangerous. That's why it's more dangerous to play with particular chakras or with particular nadis or particular body organs. It's much safer to use your intent in an overall, holistic, broad manner without micromanaging.

 

If you follow this advice, you will be safe in your solitary practice.

[Gerard]

What is the purpose of opening a second thread when there is already one open? This forum never stops amazing me.

[Capital]

Thanks for that.

 

Even if you're just some random dude on an internet forum, I really needed someone to write what you just wrote; I've been thinking along exactly the same lines recently, but when I did, I always thought that I was being naive.

 

I agree intrinsically with everything you said, and the last part most of all.

 

Edit: I think your thread was considered included in the 'fear mongering' list...

Edited November 5, 2009 by Capital

[goldisheavy]

What is the purpose of opening a second thread when there is already one open? This forum never stops amazing me.

 

It's a primary topic in this thread, while in all the other threads I've seen this come up, it was always a secondary topic. Furthermore, there is one other thread where it's the primary topic, but I strongly don't like the tone of it and decided to start this one, because a reply is not as powerful as a statement sometimes (but sometimes it is more powerful). In this case I needed to make a general statement.

[Marblehead]

Hi Gold,

 

I just finished reading your post and I want to respond before I read any of the follow-up posts.

 

You are pretty much aware of my basic philosophy so what I am going to say is very honest.

 

Excellent post!!!!!

 

I think that your words apply very well to people like myself as well as to those who are searching for very deep spiritual experiences.

 

Job well done, my friend!

 

Peace & Love!

[witch]

I think two threads might be good, because I'm reluctant to post my thoughts in a thread where I am obviously the ignorant neophyte. I respect authority and experience and knowledge.

 

In this thread I am more casual. My two cents--I'm a witch, and old school witches don't believe in the five elements, they believe in four: earth, fire, air and water. Kundalini things are a combination of air and water. Too much of any one thing leads to a life out of balance, and the sort of witch I am is all about balance, about reaching equilibrium. Someone with a lot of earth and fire in their chart might benefit from limiting food and spending a lot of time in meditation, but typically it's the people who already have a lot of water in their charts who are drawn to pay for a two-week retreat or whatever. So they take their already out of balance life and throw it more out of balance.

 

To balance out kundalini practice (i.e., air and water) I think it's important to engage in earthy and fiery activities--earthy being focusing on the body and the world of the senses, Nature and material things, and fiery being engaging in physical activity, moving the body.

 

I also believe gurus are good for some people and bad for others. They are bad for me; it is all too easy for me to give myself over to someone else completely. It is best for me to find my own way, carefully. I do try to stay informed and ask advice, but ultimately I must find my own way. I am also helped by being very earthy by nature--this keeps me grounded.

[C T]

I think two threads might be good, because I'm reluctant to post my thoughts in a thread where I am obviously the ignorant neophyte. I respect authority and experience and knowledge.

 

In this thread I am more casual. My two cents--I'm a witch, and old school witches don't believe in the five elements, they believe in four: earth, fire, air and water. Kundalini things are a combination of air and water. Too much of any one thing leads to a life out of balance, and the sort of witch I am is all about balance, about reaching equilibrium. Someone with a lot of earth and fire in their chart might benefit from limiting food and spending a lot of time in meditation, but typically it's the people who already have a lot of water in their charts who are drawn to pay for a two-week retreat or whatever. So they take their already out of balance life and throw it more out of balance.

 

To balance out kundalini practice (i.e., air and water) I think it's important to engage in earthy and fiery activities--earthy being focusing on the body and the world of the senses, Nature and material things, and fiery being engaging in physical activity, moving the body.

 

I also believe gurus are good for some people and bad for others. They are bad for me; it is all too easy for me to give myself over to someone else completely. It is best for me to find my own way, carefully. I do try to stay informed and ask advice, but ultimately I must find my own way. I am also helped by being very earthy by nature--this keeps me grounded.

Yes, being grounded is crucial in the avoidance of *spiritual* psychosis.

 

Tree-huggers for example, have very kind hearts by nature, lovely individuals most of them. If they were more grounded, it would be better for the trees, i think. On the other hand, people who spend too much time in front of their Macs ought to go hug more trees!! So off i go... to balance!

 

Thanks for the post, Witch. Tis nice to meet you