Madness or Mysticism: negotiating the threshold

1. Madness or Mysticism: negotiating the threshold Isabel Clarke and John Wetherell

2. Some Questions How do you know that an experience is spiritual? How do you recognize it? How do you know that an experience is psychotic ? How do you recognize it?

3. 2 WAYS OF KNOWING THE OTHER ONE!

4. The doorsill where the two worlds touch The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you Don’t go back to sleep You must ask for what you really want Don’t go back to sleep People are going back and forth across the doorsill where the two worlds touch The door is round and open Don’t go back to sleep Where is the door? There are no walls around me I won’t go back to sleep. Rumi 1207 - 1273

6. Experience across the Threshold Meaningful But what does it mean? “Where is the door? There are no walls around me” – things merge. Dissolution of boundaries

8. Everything is connected – synchronicities Metaphor comes to life Cosmic significance – terrible or wonderful Confusion about the self

10. Threat (cosmic) Link with trauma. Link with transition times.

12. Travel into the strange places of the mind Not mind safely locked inside the skull; No!: mind that envelopes us; Mind that is sea we swim in Where inner and outer are one Travel across the threshold – but never to let go of Ariadne’s thread!

13. What might be going on here • As human beings, we have 2 distinct ways of experiencing – this is because our brains have two distinct wiring circuits. • Mostly they work together. We are in consensual reality and feel in control • ‘Shared reality’. On this side of ‘the threshold’

14. Different Circuits in the Brain (Adapted from DBT) EMOTION MIND REASONABLE MIND WISE MIND Reasonable Mind Memory Emotion Mind Memory IN THE PRESENT IN CONTROL

15. When do the states of mind drift apart? • They are less connected at states of high and low arousal • They loosen when we meditate; when we are in a truly creative state; • If we take substances, lack sleep, food, • In extreme isolation • Grounding and mindful activity in the present will bring them back together.

16. The Everyday Across the threshold Ordinary Clear limits Access to full memory and learning Precise meanings available Separation between people Clear sense of self Emotions moderated and grounded A logic of ‘Either/Or Supernatural Unbounded Access to ordinary knowledge/memory is patchy Suffused with meaning or meaningless Boundary between self and others dissolves Self: lost in the whole or supremely important Emotions: swing between extremes or absent A logic of ‘Both/And’

17. A Challenging Model of the Mind The human being is a balancing act as the two organising systems pass control back and forth: there is no boss. The mind is both individual, and reaches beyond the individual, when the Emotion Mind is dominant. This constant switch between logic and emotion explains why we are so prone to breakdown The self sufficient, billiard ball, mind is an illusion In our emotional/relational mode we are a part of the whole.

18. Web of Relationships In Rel. with earth: non humans etc. In Rel. with wider group etc. primary care-giver Self as experienced in relationship with primary caregiver Sense of value comes from rel. with the spiritual

19. JOHN’S JOURNEY

21. The Hero’s Journey is a way of making sense of madness. By drawing out the parallels & resonances betwen one’s own personal journey and the archetypal Hero’s Journey found in folk tales and legends. (And in Hollywood scripts.)

22. Typically the hero has to: • SEPARATE from his familiar surroundings • Go on a QUEST into the unknown • Face multiple TESTS and TRIALS and BATTLES • RETURN home at the end, bringing back something of value — whether a literal treasure or the gift of wisdom and humility

24. 2016 1970’s 2001 1980’s 1990’s

25. How do you cross the threshold? In a small way, in ‘spiritual’ etc. moments. Seriously across the threshold: • Times of transition • Trauma loosens the boundary, softens the walls • Illness and loss • Physical privation – lack of food, sleep, isolation • Mind altering substances All apply equally to spiritual practice, the saints, and vulnerability to psychosis!

26. Looking at transitions Sharing in pairs • Think about times of transition in your life (if it is very traumatic – now is not the time to revisit it). • What helped you to get through the transition? • Did the experience change you? • What hindered? • Any transliminal experiences

27. A new way of looking at Psychosis

28. Psychosis – Potential for Transformation Traditions such as Psychosynthesis and Spiritual Emergence/Emergency recognize the transformational potential of the transliminal. They tend to distinguish between ‘psychosis’ and transformational crises More and more this is seen as a false dichotomy – Spiritual Crisis Network (.uk) Mike Jackson’s Problem Solving – Paradigm Shifting model, encompassing potential and dangers, to follow . Role of stigma in trapping people.

29. Taking Experience Seriously in Psychosis • Psychosis: when Emotion Mind does not mesh properly with Reasonable Mind • This leads to a different quality of experience – fine in the short term – a problem when stuck • All people can have these sorts of experiences - not just ‘an illness’. Get away from stigma. • Sensitivity and openness to anomalous experience – on a continuum • The emotion is real and should be validated • A way of respecting culturally specific ways of making sense of the experience

30. Helping People to Manage the threshold Awareness of vulnerability – of openness to transliminal experience Grounding when the experience is overwhelming. Grounding activity. Grounding food. Mindfulness to manage the threshold Challenge of facing unshared reality mindfully – both pleasant and unpleasant Transliminal state of mind = most accessible at high and low arousal Managing arousal – breathing control to reduce arousal; mindful activity in the present to prevent it slipping.

31. Session 2. The role of Arousalshaded area = anomalous experience/symptoms are more accessible. High Arousal - stress

33. Using this approach to help someone. ‘I’m not ill. I haven’t got schizophrenia’. • What might you say to this person? • What would feel acceptable if you have been in that sort of place. • ‘I know you don’t believe me – nobody does, but this (experience or belief) is real!’ • What might you say to this person where the experience or belief is causing real problems? • What would feel acceptable if you have been in that sort of place.

34. The Spiritual Crisis Network • 2005 Founded at the second of the Revisioning Mental Health conferences organized by Catherine Lucas. • Legal framework set up: Company limited by guarantee • Website and email response system – with training. • We need you.........fundraisers, responders, spreaders of the word!!

35. Evidence Schizotypy – a dimension of experience: Gordon Claridge. Research by Mike, Emmanuelle Peters, Caroline Brett, Heriot-Maitland and others show: How you (and others) make sense of anomalous experiences makes the difference between whether they result in diagnosable mental health difficulties whether the crisis is short lived or persists and recurs. Cross-cultural perspectives; anthropology. Richard Warner: Recovery from Schizophrenia.

36. Contact details, References and Web addresses • isabel@scispirit.com • Clarke, I. (Ed.) (2010) Psychosis and Spirituality: consolidating the new paradigm. Chichester: Wiley • Clarke, I. ( 2008) Madness, Mystery and the Survival of God. Winchester:'O'Books. • Clarke, I. (2015) Spirituality: a new way into understanding psychosis.in  E.M.J. Morris, L.C.Johns & J.E.Oliver Eds. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Mindfulness for Psychosis. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.P.160-171. • Clarke, I. (2016) How to deal with anger. A 5-step, CBT-based plan for managing anger and overcoming frustration. John Murray Learning. • www.isabelclarke.org • www.SpiritualCrisisNetwork.org.uk