Spiritual Energy
The author of ten best-selling books, Charles Whitfield has worked for decades with people who have had spiritual awakenings and emergencies, using a comprehensive understanding of the psyche, the recovery process, and how they relate to our True Self, Higher Self, and ego. In this essay, Whitfield outlines this understanding of the many pitfalls or “traps” that those who experience a kundalini awakening may encounter and the stages of recovery they can expect to undergo. He also explores these questions: How can we overcome past traumas brought up by spiritual awakenings? How do we cope with post-traumatic stress or denial when kundalini energy causes these kinds of unconscious issues to resurface?
Have you had a spiritual awakening? Or do you wonder if you might have had one? A spiritual awakening is an experiential opening to a power greater than ourselves. As a result, we become more aware of and open to our self, others, and the God of our understanding.
Based on informal surveys I have done of people attending my workshops over the years, I estimate that at least one in three people have had a spiritual awakening of some sort. Perhaps 25 percent of these were triggered by near-death experiences. The remaining 75 percent are triggered by numerous other experiences, from meditation to childbirth to “hitting bottom” in a critical or desperate life situation. Some of these events have opened people to experiencing the painful yet often liberating Kundalini process.
Who or what is it that actually does the awakening? Is there a part of us that becomes more aware and opens to ourself, others, God? My sense is that it is a spiritual energy that starts to awaken us to our Real or True Self, and helps us learn about our ego or false self.
WHO AM I? A MAP OF THE MIND
Throughout the struggle of the human condition, many people have asked some important questions: Who am I? What am I doing here? Where am I going? How can I get any peace? While the answers to these questions remain a Divine Mystery, I have found it useful to construct a map of the mind or psyche. And while the map is not the territory, maps can be useful. (MAP OF THE PSYCHE)
MAP OF THE PSYCHE
Other names for, or dimensions of, the True Self—who I really am—include the real or existential self, the human heart, the soul, chakras four and five, and the Child Within. They are all the same because they are our True Identity. I also have within me a Divine Nature, sometimes called a guardian angel, Atman, Buddha Nature, Christ Consciousness, chakras six and seven, Higher Self, or simply Self. And both of these—my True Self and my Higher Self—are intimately connected to my Higher Power, God/Goddess/All That-Is, a part of which is also within me.
I see this relationship—True Self, Higher Self, and Higher Power—as being so important that I can also view it as being one person, which I call the Sacred Person. In a loving, supporting, and teaching way, pervading throughout the Sacred Person is the Holy Spirit (Kundalini, Chi, Ki, Ruach ha Kadosh, and Divine Energy).
As a part of the Mystery, my True Self makes or constructs an assistant to help me in limited ways as I live out this human experience. We can call this assistant or sidekick the ego, also known as the false self or codependent self. When this ego is helpful to us, such as in screening, sorting, and handling many aspects of our internal and external realities, we can call it positive ego. But when it brings us unnecessary emotional pain or tries to take over and run our life, it becomes negative ego.
This map of the psyche is more evolved than the maps of Freud, Jung, and their colleagues of up to a hundred years ago, when they used the term ego to mean both True Self and false self. Since the 1930s, the self-psychologists and the object-relations psychologists have begun to make this more precise differentiation between True Self and false self, and today we use ego synonymously with false self. (This understanding is in contrast with many writers who still lump the True Self and false self together and call it the “ego.”)
A contemporary holy book called A Course in Miracles says in its introduction:
What is real is God and God’s world, that of the Sacred Person. The ego and its world are not real, and therefore in the grand scheme of the Mystery, do not exist. Herein, when we make this differentiation, lies our peace and serenity.
But growing up in a dysfunctional family and a dysfunctional society, we may have become wounded. That wounding made our Child Within, or True Self, go into hiding, and the only one left to run the show of our life was our ego (false self). And since it is not competent to run our life successfully, we often end up feeling confused and hurt.
The way out is to begin to differentiate between identifying with my True Self and my false self, and to heal my wounds around all the past traumas that hurt and confused me. That is what I have described in my books.[2] While all of this information is useful to know on a cognitive level, it is ultimately healing only on an experiential level. To heal, I have to experience working through my pain, as well as living and enjoying my life. If we can identify with having a Kundalini arousal, its spiritual energy can assist us as we heal.
SPIRITUAL AWAKENINGS AND THE RECOVERY MOVEMENT
Over the decades of the 1980s and the l990s, and into the twenty-first Century, an increasing number of people have begun to awaken to many of their traumatic experiences and are starting to heal themselves. This phenomenon, called the recovery movement, with its free and effective Twelve-Step Fellowships, is part of a new paradigm, a new and expanded understanding and belief about the human condition and how to heal it. This approach is effective and has developed momentum for two reasons: it is grass roots—its energy comes from the recovering people themselves—and it employs the most accurate and healing of all the accumulated knowledge about the human condition. But what is different about this knowledge is that it is now simplified and demystified while at the same time spiritual.
TRAPS IN SPIRITUAL AWAKENINGS
There are some traps in spiritual awakenings. After we have had our particular spiritual experience and possible Kundalini arousal, one trap is being misled by other people who may try to steer us off our personal spiritual path. They may be therapists, counselors, clergy, gurus, family, or friends, who may not understand and may even have distorted boundaries. And so they may label our awakening and subsequent signs and symptoms as being psychotic, the “work of the devil,” hallucinations, or flaky, or they may try to invalidate our experience in some other way. This can lead to the second trap: they may try to prescribe or even force us to take toxic psychiatric drugs, from sedatives to antidepressants to major tranquilizers to “mood stabilizers.” In the most extreme cases, they might lock us up in a psychiatric unit or a jail, or shame and guilt us in other ways. But the fact remains that we have had a spiritual awakening, and something has been aroused in us; we are looking for validation and support based on what is actually happening, now and on the rest of our journey.
When we allow our kundalini process to evolve naturally, the result is usually psychological and spiritual growth over time. A problem is that many of the associated symptoms and experiences mimic what psychiatry and psychology call “mental disorders” or “mental illness.” Today, most psychiatrists and some psychologists, social workers, and counselors are unable to recognize Kundalini and instead prescribe or recommend one or more psychiatric drugs in an attempt to lessen the patient’s symptoms. In Kundalini awakenings we become progressively more connected with self, others, and God, but these psychiatric drugs are toxic to the brain and body and tend to shut down or aggravate the normal flow of the kundalini process. The drugs slam shut the door to our psychospiritual growth.[3]
Psychiatrist Peter Breggin writes, “It is difficult, if not impossible, to determine accurately the psychological condition of a person who is taking psychiatric drugs. There are too many complicating factors, including the drug’s brain-disabling effect, the brain’s compensatory reactions and the patient’s psychological responses to taking the drug. I have evaluated many cases in which patients have deteriorated under the onslaught of multiple psychiatric drugs without the prescribing physicians attributing the patient’s decline to drug toxicity, including drug withdrawal. Instead, physicians typically attribute their patients’ worsening condition to ‘mental illness’ when in reality the patient is suffering from adverse drug reactions.”[4]
Breggins’s work has reflected the sometimes missing conscience of psychiatry. If you accept help in the form of psychiatric drugs, realize that you are entering an area that you may regret or be unable to stop. Each drug has toxic effects that turn out to be at least as bad as the original complaint, and such drugs often lead to more drugs to counter these toxic effects, which include drug withdrawal. Breggin spells this out in his comprehensive textbook.[4]
In his groundbreaking book Kundalini: Psychosis or Transcendence? Lee Sannella, MD, writes, “There are many undergoing this process who at times feel quite insane. When they behave well and keep silent they may avoid being called schizophrenic, or being hospitalized, or sedated. Nevertheless their isolation and sense of separation from others may cause them such suffering. We must reach such people, their families, and society, with information to help them recognize their condition as a blessing, not a curse. Certainly we must no longer subject people, who might be in the midst of this rebirth process, to drugs or shock therapies, approaches which are at opposite poles to creative self-development.”[5]
A third trap is the frustration that usually comes with trying to do what is called a spiritual bypass. A spiritual bypass happens when we try to avoid working through the pain of our prior traumas and instead try to jump from an early stage of healing directly into the most advanced stage. Because this concept is crucial to making sense of and handling spiritual awakenings and the movement of spiritual energy (also called Kundalini, Ki, Chi, and the like), I will briefly describe the generic stages of the healing or recovery process.
STAGES OF RECOVERY
A spiritual awakening and movement of spiritual energy may happen during any of the following stages of recovery.
Stage Zero
Stage Zero is manifested by the presence of an active illness or disorder such as an addiction, compulsion, or physical illness. This active illness may be acute, recurring, or chronic. Without recovery, it may continue indefinitely. At Stage Zero, recovery has not yet started. It may be at this stage that the spiritual awakening happens: stimulated by a near-death experience, bottoming out from an illness, or the like.
The actual trigger for the awakening could cause what we call “retraumatization.” First we carry traumas from our past, commonly from our childhood, that may not have been “metabolized,” and now we are traumatized by the trigger for the spiritual awakening. This retraumatization brings back the past experiences we may have suppressed or repressed. If these traumas and their effects are validated immediately, we can avoid a more painful acute stress disorder. If they are not validated, we may eventually experience acute and/or posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This trauma and its effects commonly underlie Stages Zero through Three wounding and recovery work. (Table 10.1)
| Table 10.1 |
Stage One
At Stage One, recovery begins. It involves participating in a full recovery program to assist in healing the Stage Zero condition(s). People who have a spiritual awakening while in Stage Zero may try to bypass doing Stage One recovery work.
During Stages Zero and One, clinicians who don’t understand or are not educated about Kundalini arousal may want to prescribe psychoactive drugs (antidepressants, antipsychotics, “mood stabilizers,” or sedatives). This will usually have a detrimental effect that has the potential to abort the transformational process. These drugs may give some relief for a short time but will soon numb the person out and “dumb them down,” like a chemical straitjacket.[6] Even worse, they can cause anxiety, depression, or psychotic symptoms for those who are in a delicate phase of their process.
The label of depression creates a frozen diagnosis: there is no movement. But we can reframe depression as unresolved grief, and when we allow our grief from past traumas to surface in Stage One or Stage Two, we may experience a bittersweet emotional release and even sense the movement of energy.
Once the Stage Zero condition is resolved in a Stage One program, Stage Two therapy groups are safe, productive places in which to identify and release grief coming from our past.
Stage Two
Stage Two is one that many people may also try to bypass. It involves healing the effects of past traumas, sometimes called adult child or codependence issues. Once a person has a stable and solid Stage One recovery—one that has lasted for at least a year or longer—it may be time to consider looking into these issues. Adult child is a term that has been used to refer to anyone who grew up in an unhealthy, troubled, or dysfunctional family. Many adult children may still be in a similarly unhealthy environment, whether at home, in one or more relationships, or at work. Because a Kundalini arousal often brings up our unconscious material, working a Stage Two recovery will likely help us heal, and authentic humility assists us with this and in our spiritual growth. Humility is facilitated by having the courage to make the choice, moment by moment, to let go of ego-centered thinking and behaving.[7]
Spiritual practices and awakenings can revive and exacerbate unresolved conflicts. This is not necessarily bad, however, since the process can bring to the surface issues and difficulties requiring attention and can result in considerable healing and personality integration.[8] If treating therapists can respect these spiritual awakenings as possible Kundalini arousal, they will be able to support trusting relationships in which their patients feel cared for and safe. This will create a positive attitude so patients expect that the process will prove valuable and healing. Thus, opening to and talking about the experience can be helpful and can be facilitated by psychotherapy.[9]
Stage Three
Stage Three recovery is the stage into which we may be compelled prematurely by having a spiritual awakening. It includes the experience of spirituality and its incorporation into our daily life. It is an ongoing process. In this stage we make meaning of our past. We are now more aware of being free of old beliefs and can work through conflicts faster as we create more stability in our lives. We make use of several spiritual practices, including meditation and prayer, as we access the powers of gratitude and humility.[10]
CONCLUSION
If we try to go around or bypass the darkness to get to the Light, that is, if we try to ignore the lower to get to the higher levels of our consciousness, some dynamic or force—we can call it our shadow (Jung) or repetition compulsion (Freud)—will usually pull us back until we work through our particular unfinished business. Trying to avoid this work of Stages One and Two recovery can also be called premature transcendence or high-level denial. This experience is seen in any number of situations, such as being prematurely born again, having a spiritual awakening and focusing only on the Light, or becoming attached to a religion or way that is the “only” way. As previously discussed in Barbara Harris Whitfield’s essay “Mental and Emotional Health in the Kundalini Process,” the consequences of taking a spiritual bypass are often active codependence: denial of the richness of our inner life; trying to control ourselves or others; all-or-nothing thinking and behaving; feelings of fear, shame, and confusion; high tolerance for inappropriate behavior; frustration, addiction, compulsion, relapse, and unnecessary pain and suffering.
A way out of this trap is to develop humility (i.e., openness to learning more about self, others, and God) and work through the pain of wherever we may be, or just enjoy the joyous feelings.[11] Those who are actively addicted or disordered can work through a Stage One full recovery program. Those who are adult children of troubled or dysfunctional families can also soon work through Stage Two recovery. We need to stay mindful of these truths: We cannot let go of something if we do not know experientially what it is that we are letting go. We cannot usually transcend the unhealed, and we cannot connect experientially to the God of our understanding until we know our True Self, our human Heart.
When we have progressed in our Kundalini process, we can consider joining a Stage Two therapy group or a Twelve-Step fellowship program to help support ourselves in our new experience of co-creating our life with our Higher Power. Our new expansive and creative abilities may not fit into our prior life relationships. Being in such a weekly recovery or therapy group gives us a place to talk about and work through our emotional pain and other life issues.
If we can expand our beliefs and bring our higher nature into our everyday life, we can experience true humility. Kundalini energy invites us to stretch beyond the limits of who we thought we were and become all that we are. This process allows us to experience a healing unity with ourselves, others, and our Higher Power.