IN CONCLUSION
Entering the Marketplace
A Path through life is what we take and we are prone to all that can befall us as we traverse it. While a great deal of what be falls us is not in our control, there is a great deal that is. The central thrust of the Buddha’s teachings are that we determine, by our conscious choice or failure to make a choice, how we condition the mind to perceive, interpret and respond to our inner life and our environment, thus conditioning our feelings of joy, contentment and suffering. It also conditions the type of behaviour we manifest and thus, how others see us and treat us. Over the course of writing this book, I have had numerous people suggest that I include my own experiences of mystic states. But I have chosen not to do so because I am not the point of this work. Whatever I may have experienced, it would be too easily misconstrued were I to attempt to encapsulate it in language. I have tried to share something of the journey I took and what to me, were useful things to know while wandering the path simply by acknowledging that the time honored tradition of the spiritual quest still continues to bring people a sense of peace and fulfilment in an ever more baffling world. The grandeur of this pursuit lies partly in the inability to express just what is experienced; a view of the world’s spiritual traditions from the inside. The realms of the shamans, the ecstatic states, meditative absorptions, psychic phenomena, possession states, can all be intertwined in the unfolding of your inner life. Magic and miracles occur in ways never dreamed of and whether “real” or “imagined,” constitute an immense reservoir of inner riches that can be used to sustain one through life’s joys and vicissitudes. In my life, I divide my experiences of altered states of consciousness into two basic divisions. Some of the experiences are prominent in religious traditions and some are more closely associated with the psychological literature on mood disorders or other conditions. Spiritual traditions did not seek to classify mental “conditions” the way Western psychology has done so it is not surprising that many types of mental phenomena are not considered important as markers on the quest. But, all these experiences have positively aided me in my personal unfolding of life and the “myth” I use to guide it. I divide these experiences simply as subjectively positive and negative, or pleasant and unpleasant in the feeling of their perception. This is not to imply that there is any difference between them in terms of the causes that have elicited them or in regard to their overall worth for gaining greater personal insight and for developing a first-hand understanding of the phenomena of religious experiences. Coming from the West, with its particular cultural paradigms, possibly makes it inevitable to experience some degree of conflict and discomfort when the realities intuited through unusual states are so drastically at odds with the dominate cultural views and thus with personal conditioning. It is unfortunate that there does not appear to be the same acceptance of unusual states of consciousness as in many other cultures. Those seriously endeavoring to realize a spiritual quest that includes accessing the full range of cognitive states need to prepare for those states by accepting from the outset that they may not be well received by oneself, their family and friends, and authorities of various kinds that may view any aberration of consciousness as indicative of mental illness.
Mystical experiences may occur with either positive or negative psychological consequences. The term “mystical experience” refers to a large variety of states of consciousness that have a wide range of acceptance and interpretation amongst various peoples. Throughout the history of Western philosophy and religion, there have been a number of different levels of acceptance or persecution towards people claiming mystical experiences. With the advent of the early psychological theories, virtually all unusual types of consciousness were deemed pathological. This paradigm of mystic states as mental illness is not universal, nor is it recognized by all members of Western medical and religious establishments. There are problems of differential diagnosis in Western psychology where a person may be diagnosed as having had a psychotic experience with mystical features or a mystical experience with psychotic features. Mystical experiences also contain the potential for psychological consequences largely dependent on the subject’s religious or philosophical world-view and prior knowledge of mystical phenomena or lack thereof.
The shifting views of mystical states of consciousness in various cultures and throughout history, their perceived place and value for the individual and society shows a clear pattern of social acceptance creating a condition that assists the individual to productively assimilate the experiences into positive psychological transformations. In an accepting culture, mystical experiences are seen as coming from God, part of the process of maturing, a gift or call from the spirits, connection to mystical forces or a quality of enlightenment and are seen as being worthy of pursuit. These experiences occurring in an intolerant culture can be viewed as the work of the Devil, ghosts, evil spirits, a type of heresy or as mental illness. In such cultures, people having these experiences show a higher incidence of anxiety, depression and suicide derived from social stigma and/ or the personal belief that they have a mental illness. They are also liable to many kinds of physical, mental and emotional persecution; a fact well documented in mystic literature where many of the great Christian and Muslim mystics were killed by their contemporaries. Social acceptance is an extremely important psychological factor for a healthy life perceived as productive and fulfilling. To achieve personal fulfillment and have one’s experience denounced as heresy or illness has adverse effects on the unfortunate individuals having natural healing experiences in cultures ignorant of the personal and social benefits gained by allowing them to occur.
The reality is that there can be different interpretations of phenomena that occur with both spiritual and pathological mental experience. In any case, no matter what achievements we might accomplish in terms of spiritual practice, we remain subject to the body/mind’s nature and the social realities of our environment. Subject to life, illness, aging and death, we always face the potential to experience the opposites of the states we typically seek. The distinction I make between states is based only on the nature of the states and their correlation to spiritual and psychological literature. Emotionally positive states have taught me the beauty of life’s potential and the wonder of states of mind I could never have imagined. Emotionally negative states have aided in healing from past trauma, resolved inner conflicts and have shown me the pervasive reality of suffering and the value and place of compassion. People often equate positive experiences with spirituality and see negative states as a problem or sign of illness. Both positive and negative states