The Misdiagnosis of Psychosis That May in Fact be Spiritual Awakening

I am not a licensed psychologist, or medical professional and the views and ideas mentioned in this Blog do not replace the advice of trained medical professionals.  This is my opinion based on lived experience.

In this blog I am going to highlight the similarities between psychosis and spiritual awakening and why I believe that it is time for the ancient wisdom teachings to return and to be used as soulful tools to help ease human suffering and to help us evolve towards peace and purpose.

"Psychosis is defined as “a state where a person temporarily loses touch with reality. It can involve seeing, hearing, or believing things that others don’t, and it often comes with confusion, disorganized thinking, or difficulty understanding what’s real. It’s a health condition — not a personal failing — and it usually needs grounding support and professional care." Chat GPT

Let's unpack this definition:

“A state where a person temporarily loses touch with reality, it can involve seeing, hearing or believing in things that others don’t”. 

When you have a spiritual awakening your third eye chakra opens allowing you to actually see and hear things that others don’t.  Not because they are not there but because you are tuned in to more of reality than you were before and more than other people can access.  Your consciousness has expanded.

“It often comes with confusion”.

This is a really important and true point.  The only way I can explain this properly is by using myself and my own experience.  When I had my weeklong kundalini awakening, I had previously spent a year in a mystery school learning all about the ancient wisdom teachings, Hermeticism, Zen Buddhism, Rosicrucianism, Kabbalah and had also taken my Kundalini Yoga teacher training.

I am not a scholar by any means, but I had prepped myself with a very primary understanding about both the theoretical knowledge of consciousness, as well as the physical structure in which consciousness expresses itself, i.e. the chakra system and kundalini awakening. 

When I was going through my spiritual awakening, I had a multitude of reference points to anchor my experience into.  And even though the experience itself was extremely overwhelming, there was no confusion.  I knew exactly what was happening to me and why it was happening to me.  And most importantly I knew that I was not alone.

The next point I want to unpack is the idea that there is “difficulty understanding what’s real”. 

I believe, in a situation where a psychosis is actually an awakening, this is where knowledge of ancient wisdom would serve tremendously.  Had I not known about the mechanism of awakening prior to my awakening experience, everything would have mixed together.  I would have had no reference point.  I would have been trying to merge what I was currently experiencing as my reality not as a process I was going through. 

I feel that because I had the knowledge of what a spiritual awakening was, I was able to discern that my experience was subjective and that the entire world had not turned topsy turvy.  It was confined to my perception. 

This is a key point because this is how people end up in the psyche ward. I believe that they are so sure that their reality must be what everyone else is experiencing and as they try to defend this really real experience that is happening to them, it is not received well, and quite frankly why would it be. 

We have not been given the proper resources or knowledge as a modern society to understand this.  For whatever reason this has become occulted or hidden knowledge.

And so instead we turn to the medical professionals who use psychotropic drugs as tools to help alleviate some of the symptoms of this experience, namely seeing and hearing and sensing and knowing things that other people cannot understand, mania, and honestly downright weird behavior.

For example, I felt like I could not properly exist in time.  I could not for the life of me make a grocery list or plan a meal but could go into my fridge and immediately find whatever was in there and make an incredible meal – it was mind boggling and completely out of the ordinary for me.  But I made an amazing mushroom sandwich with pan melted cheese that I still make to this day.

I am not a medical professional, please take this as opinion only.  If I would have sought out medical professional help when I was going through my awakening and if they would have put me on drugs it would have been like telling someone who is in child labor and their body wants to deliver, not to. 

To stop and interrupt a natural process of the human experience.

During my awakening as my consciousness became more expansive, my ideas about what to put in my body were also incredibly clear, what would hurt me and what would support me.  I honestly believe that had I put psychotropic drugs into my system I may have never recovered.  My system may have never been able to naturally stabilize.  I may have become drug dependent for the rest of my life. 

Luckily for me, it was nothing like that.  Nothing like that at all.

This leads me to my final point and what I believe really is the true indication as to whether what someone is experiencing is psychosis or a spiritual awakening. 

What’s the outcome of the experience?

My awakening lasted an entire week.  The energy rose, peaked and receded.  And afterwards, when I felt back to normal it was as if the volume on the experience of my entire life had been turned up about 3 settings.  Everything was brighter, more clear, more obvious.  I felt grounded and rooted into this reality more than any other time in my life expect after giving birth to my son.

I got my house in order.  I began to make the changes that really make all the difference.  Being conscious of what I put in my body and make better choices.  I began to see my relationships differently and honor them from a place of deep respect.  I got really clear on my finances and my mindset.  I felt more committed to my reason for being on earth at this time and my purpose.

My spiritual awakening gave me a new lust on life, and I will not waste one single moment of it.

This process has been happening for centuries; I am not special nor am I alone.  The knowledge and practices that have supported people still exist and continue to be practiced in many places throughout the world.  It is my hope that by sharing my experience I will make this knowledge less taboo and provide people a way to open their minds and their hearts in a way that feels safe to them.

I write this blog to bring awareness to the idea of spiritual awakening, not as a weird hippy trippy far out concept, but as a natural supportive part of the human experience. 

If you are curious about spiritual awakening, please reach out alecia@intentions-yoga.ca