DESCRIPTION
In visionary experiences, the archetypal psyche is activated and dominates consciousness. Anthony Wallace, PhD [1] an anthropologist, has documented several cases where individuals underwent what seemed to be psychotic episodes and subsequently developed an entirely new mythology for their social group. For example, in the late 1700s Handsome Lake created a mythological foundation for a new way of life among the Iroquois Indians on the basis of the visions he had while incapacitated for 6 months.

Visionary experiences have played a pivotal role in the evolution of cultures, particularly when rapid cultural change is occurring due to foreign interventions or indigenous changes. The cultural turmoil activates the psyches of many individuals and sometimes creative cultural innovations emerge from this process (See John Perry, Far Side of Madness).

Joseph Campbell in The Mythic Image has traced the process whereby new visions (often expressed in new myths) have guided human cultural evolution. First came early homo sapiens' fascination with fire, then the animal world, then the world of the planted seed, followed most recently by the planets and the stars. Campbell has argued that the pursuit of these realms in myth has directed human activity and enabled humans to surpass themselves.

Neither reason, nor environmental contingencies have determined our collective and individual destinies, but as the poet Robinson Jeffers called them, 'visions that fool him out of his limits' (Campbell Myths to Live by p. 249).

The psyche continues to generate myths that speak to present situations and issues. The psyche often speaks its myths through the voice of dreams, but another potent source of cultural and personal mythmaking is the psychotic mind.

In Perry's view, a visionary experience can be a renewal process in which "components of the psychotic individual's make-up are undergoing change" (p. 133). The psychosis can serve,

as the psyche's own way of dissolving old states of being, and of creatively bringing to birth its new starts-its own way of forming visions of a renewed self and of a new design of life with revivified meanings in one's world (John Perry, Far Side of Madness p. 11).

ASSOCIATED CLINICAL PROBLEMS
When the psyche is activated to such an intense degree during visionary experiences, the individual can appear quite psychotic. Beliefs that meet the DSM-IV criteria for delusions, particularly grandiose ones, as well as hallucinations are usually present. At Diabysis, where people in visionary states were allowed to go through the full cycle of their visionary state, most resolved in 6-8 weeks without medication. For many, the experience became a turning point in their life toward growth. Yet during the acute phase, when psychotic symptoms are usually present, the individual can be seriously disabled.

TREATMENT
Psychotic symptoms do indicate the need for special care. Judgment can be quite impaired and persons in the midst of visionary experiences can act recklessly and endanger themselves, in particular. Unlike kundalini awakening and some other forms of spiritual emergency in which people are usually able to function in consensus reality, persons having visionary experiences can require round the clock surveillance. One of the main treatment options that needs to be considered is residential treatment which provides a safe container for the person to go through the experience. Several residential programs are described in Lesson 6.

In Far Side of Madness, John Perry, MD described his treatment of a 19-year-old male who presented with a number of grandiose delusions including that he was an "ace airman" and a second George Washington leading the defense of the country against the Russian communists who were trying to capture the world. At other times, he was Emperor of the Germans, Prince Valiant, and Christ. Yet Perry viewed these grandiose delusions as part of a positive transformative process in which the psyche is engaged in a mythic process.

Even though a psychiatrist, Perry did not prescribe any antipsychotic medication to squelch the psychotic symptoms. Rather than suppress or ignore the expression of the patient's psychotic experiences, Perry encouraged it since

therapy should follow the psyche's own spontaneous movements. . .you work with what the psyche presents (p. 136).

While the patient was in residential treatment at Diabysis, he met with Perry three times a week. In an early session, Perry had this patient draw, and a number of images of death emerged including being cremated, and being buried and clawing his way out of the grave. The whole psychotic renewal process took about 6 weeks, although some additional time was spent at the residential treatment center integrating the episode.

CASE EXAMPLE
Expanded version of the "ace-airman" case described above

The Myths in Mental Illness case is an example of a visionary experience as well as a mystical experience.

Joshua Beil
Russell Shorto's account from GQ Magazine of the visionary experiences of Joshua Beil, a 23 year old college graduate now working at a high tech firm in California. He went through a spiritual emergency that resulted in hospitalization and many months in recovery before he was able to return to college. Also included are his own reflections on this experience and the many parallels he found to the experiences of mystics and spiritual adepts throughout the ages.

WWW Library
The WWW Library contains interviews with John Perry, MD and articles on visionary experiences.

REFERENCES
1 Wallace, A., Stress and rapid personality changes. International Record of Medicine, 1956. 169(12): p. 761-774.

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