-- Carl Jung
Spiritual emergence has been defined as "the movement of an individual to a more expanded way of being that involves enhanced emotional and psychosomatic health, greater freedom of personal choices, and a sense of deeper connection with other people, nature, and the cosmos. An important part of this development is an increasing awareness of the spiritual dimension in one's life and in the universal scheme of things." When spiritual emergence is very rapid and dramatic this natural process can become a crisis, and spiritual emergence becomes spiritual emergency. This has also been called transpersonal crisis, acute psychosis with a positive outcome, positive disintegration and an extreme state.
There is no sharp division between emergence and emergency. However distinguishing criteria include:
a) an 'emergency' generally has more depth and intensity
b) an 'emergence' is more fluid and less overwhelming and traumatic
c) during an 'emergency' it is very difficult to function in everyday life
A spiritual emergency could also be defined as a critical and experientially difficult stage of a profound psychological transformation that involves one's entire being. This is a crisis point within the transformational process of spiritual emergence. It may take the form of non-ordinary states of consciousness and may involve unusual thoughts, intense emotions, visions and other sensory changes, as well as various physical manifestations. These episodes can often revolve around spiritual themes.
The term spirituality should be reserved for situations that involve personal experiences of certain dimensions of reality that give one's life, and existence in general, a numinous quality. C.G. Jung used the word numinous to describe an experience that feels sacred, holy, or out of the ordinary. The terms spiritual emergence and spiritual emergency were coined by Dr Stanislav Grof (psychiatrist) and his wife Christina Grof who have worked for many years as therapists and researchers in the field of non-ordinary awareness and personal transformation. They have written many books about spiritual emergence containing much more information.
Source: Spiritual Emergence Network
See also:
Spiritual Emergence, Spiritual Emergency, Crisis, Transpersonal Crisis, Positive Disintegration, Schizophrenia, Psychosis, Non-ordinary States of Consciousness, PTSD, Spiritual Awakening, Ego Death, Carl Jung, Stanislav Grof, Christina Grof
