Resources

DIFFICULTY ESTABLISHING TYPES
The reliable recognition of different types of spiritual emergencies is in its infancy. The number of types of spiritual emergency has grown from the original 8 that Stan and Christina described in the early 1980s to some 30 types described in the literature today. Obviously there is considerable overlap in terminology.

Despite the human desire for order, nature does not usually divide phenomena into neat categories. I have seen people in spiritual emergencies whose episode combined elements from more than one of the types described in this course. One case I wrote about in Myths in Mental Illness had elements of both mystical experience and a visionary experience. My own spiritual emergency, described in the preface, had elements from both shamanic crisis and mystical experience.

Yet there is sufficient regularity in these self-reports to establish phenomenoligcally-based types based on how people in spiritual emergencies have described their experiences. There is no claim that the experiences are "objectively true."

Immediately below is the list of spiritual emergencies covered in this course with links to additional information on each type. Below this list is the list of types developed by Stan and Christina Grof and the one used by the Spiritual Emergency Network.

TYPES USED IN THIS COURSE

• Loss, questioning, or change of spiritual values
• Mystical experience
• Psychic opening
• Kundalini awakening
• Possession experience
• Shamanic crisis
• UFO abduction
• Near-death experience
• Visionary experience

TYPES DEVELOPED BY THE GROFS
In Spiritual Emergency: When Personal Transformation Becomes a Crisis, Stanislav and Christina Grof describe the following spiritual emergencies:

• Shamanic crises
• Kundalini awakening
• Peak experiences
• Renewal through return to the center
• Psychic opening
• Past life experiences
• Channeling
• Near-death experiences
• Encounters with UFOs
• Possession states
  

TYPES USED BY SEN
SEN has been working with individuals in spiritual emergencies for over 20 years. The SEN List:

• Loss or change of faith
• Existential and/ or spiritual crisis
• Experience of unitive consciousness or altered states
• Psychic Openings
• Possession
• Near-Death Experience
• Kundalini
• Shamanic journey
• Difficulties with a meditation practice