You’ve gone through a tremendous spiritual awakening. Your life perspective has changed drastically. You’re no longer the same person you once were a few years ago.

But something has gone horribly wrong.

While others on the spiritual path are reveling in their deep insights, you feel suffocated under the weight of an existential crisis. 

While others are busy reconnecting with their meaning of life, you can barely function in a job or even get out of bed to shower.

While others feel a deeper sense of peace and alignment, you feel like you’re on the verge of going crazy or being sucked into the black hole of depression forever.

What on earth has happened?

Is it something you did wrong? Is it because you’re not worthy? Is it because you’re not strong enough?

Answer: NO, not at all. What you are experiencing has nothing to do with your strengths or capabilities.

What you’re experiencing is something called a spiritual emergency. And as we’ll see throughout the rest of this article, it’s a normal process that many people experience during their spiritual paths, and it’s not your fault.

 

The spiritual emergency is a severe crisis an individual may experience after going through a spiritual awakening. Essentially, a spiritual emergency occurs when the spiritual awakening process speeds up so much that it becomes terrifying and destabilizing to the body and mind. 

“Spiritual emergency” as a word was first coined Czech psychiatrists Stanislav and Christina Grof and was expanded in the 1989 book Spiritual Emergency: When Personal Transformation Becomes a Crisis. Since then it has increased in popularity, although is still relatively unheard of within mainstream spiritual communities. (I want to change that.)

Spiritual emergencies can happen to anyone at any point in life. Those who are not particularly ‘spiritual’ can experience it just as often as those who are actively engaged on the spiritual path. The common uniting factor is usually that a person undergoes a shock (in the form of illness, family death, major life change, etc.) that triggers the spiritual crisis.

 

The spiritual emergency can last anywhere from a few days to a number of years. The process is very much dependant on what kind of environment you live in and how supportive vs. unsupportive it is.

15 Signs You’re Experiencing a Spiritual Emergency 

 

''Cosmic love is absolutely ruthless and highly indifferent; it teaches its lessons whether you like/dislike them or not''.

– John Lilly

If you’re going through a spiritual emergency, you have my love and support. This is probably one of the most painful, disorienting, and scary experiences you will ever go through – but please know that it does end, and it is worth going through. (I’ll explore why later.)

Below, you’ll find fifteen signs commonly experienced during spiritual emergencies:

1.    You find it impossible to cope with everyday tasks (like going shopping, showering, cooking, keeping up with the bills, etc.)

2.    You can’t hold down a job due to your intense sensitivity 

3.    It feels like your whole world is crumbling around you

4.    You struggle to sleep properly and may experience night terrors

5.    Your inner and outer world blur confusingly

6.    You experience a rollercoaster of emotions

7.    You may experience strange hallucinations (e.g., images, sounds, physical impressions)

8.    Your grasp on the real and logical is weak (resulting in psychotic-like symptoms)

9.    You may believe, at some point, that you’re the reincarnation of enlightened figures like Jesus, Buddha, Mary, etc. (this is called ego-inflation and is a result of Universal Consciousness overlapping with your own personal consciousness)

10. You may experience vivid past-life flashbacks

11. You feel strange sensations in your body (e.g., vibrations, shivers, heat, burning)

12. You’ve developed a medically unexplainable illness

13. You experience more synchronicity or meaningful coincidences

14. You feel like you’re being sucked into a different dimension or black hole

15. You feel like you’re going crazy

Of course, this list is not exhaustive. I’m sure there are many other symptoms out there I’ve forgotten to include, so please share below if you think I’ve missed any (article derived from Lonerwolf.com).