Spiritual Emergencies

Has anyone here experienced a “spiritual emergency”?
Grof’s website (SpiritualEmergence.info) defines it as:
“the normal life-enhancing aspect of human development which seeks meaning and connection beyond our personal identity. This leads to a greater capacity for wisdom, compassion, and respect for all life as well as a deeper sense of personal security and inner peace. This growth can be challenging, even tumultuous, at times turning into a crisis known as spiritual emergency.”
I’ve read that spiritual emergencies can be mis-diagnosed (and treated/medicated) by the medical community as bipolar disorder.
Does anyone here have comments or experience with this topic?

I’ve gone through periods of time where I was really ecstatic about everything and times where I was depressed about everything.
I’ve never heard of spiritual emergency…is it like where you start going crazy because life starts seeming weird and you get overwhelmed with spiritual stuff?

the concept of “spiritual emergency” seems strangely, if not decidedly enigmatic to me and I guess the closest thing I could call a spiritual emergency was me attempting suicide at age 12 and looking back to realize that my problems at that time, while considerable, were puny in comparison to everything else and that I am (was) not living my life for only myself which was my springboard into spirituality

whoa Brandon, thats some thought revolution you had at age 12!

This seems to have some relevance to this thread.
http://www.highexistence.com/discussions/topic/our-spiraling-evolution/
Here’s the article from the thread: http://www.eman8.net/blog/?p=489
Based off this article it seems as if these “spiritual emergencies” are occurring due to the leap from the 6th, to the 7th, and to the 8th stage.

It’s nothing but cognitive dissonance, fear, resistance. You see, your ego is fighting your true self/spirit, you’re pinching off the flow of life, you’re preventing yourself from getting what/where you want and need.
And this is the way we’re all made to live in society. And of course that requires to suppress and ignore this problem. When you become aware of this issue, your emotion starts going crazy and your life becomes chaotic. This is basically all of that suppressed shit leaving your mind. Don’t worry, it’s a good thing, the only way out is through.
The world is changing and this stuff is becoming more and more common. Think about ADHD for example, what is it really? It’s obviously not a disease or genetic error at all, it’s just a reaction to how wrong everything is. These people are not suppressing it as much as they’re expected to, and so they get labeled with diseases and genetic errors, and are given drugs to make them unaware again.
There is no emergency, nothing real is ever threatened, this is just what happens when you “uncork the bottle,” when you open your mind. It’s a good thing, embrace it, the only way out is through. Once you’re through this shit, life will be amazing, the way it’s supposed to be.
Peace

Jack, to answer your question, I’ve been through spiritual emergency and went on to set up the UK Spiritual Crisis Network to support others going through these phenomenally intense and overwhelming experiences. My new book ‘In Case of Spirtual Emergency’ has recently been published by Findhorn Press. And yes, spiritual emergence and emergency does sometimes get labelled as bipolar disorder by mainstream mental health services. Here is a quote by someone called Kate from my book:
‘I’ve had many years to reflect on my process. In doing so, I’ve become aware that my experiences mirror Bipolar Disorder II in certain ways and that certain professionals would diagnose me as such. Along with many others, I disagree with the imposition of biomedical illness models upon such profound and life-changing psycho-spiritual experiences and believe that extreme mood shifts are an intrinsic part of the cleansing process.’
I’ve just started a two-month book tour of the USA when I’ll be talking about and explaining the phenomenon. You can find many resources on my website: http://www.catherine-g-lucas.com as well as the full itinerary for my tour and read my blog. I do hope that helps.

I like manimal’s response, I hope you’re right!
I occassionally have very erratic days, and twice I have been walking to class and I’ll spontaneously feel like my spirit is coming out of my body. Its like my field of vision suddenly shifts away from where my eyes really are, and the “feeling” in my body becomes de-localized. Its happened only twice, but both times I was extremely tired, so that might have had something to do with it. Also, I get these odd moments of “despair” about how I live my life and how depressing and pointless it all is. I try my best to fight them off, but sometimes they get the best of me. I’ve been in a rut this whole week :/
As far as ADHD and ADD, that crap I don’t believe for a second. My school counselor (along with my bitchy kindergarten teacher) told my mother that I should be put on meds because of my lack of focus, and I’m doing fine without them. So fuck ADD meds, depression meds, etc. Despite my shortcomings, I’ll keep going without all that mass-medication BS. :)

I’m in full agreement with some of the above responses.
Emotional fluctuations, mood swings, depression, even at times a nihilistic/existentialist attitude towards life are what I believe to be a spiritual calling. Oftentimes these phenomenons apparently happen for no reason at all. One minute you might be up, the next you are at a low. Your Heart is calling you, only you don’t know it, and it’ll do whatever it takes to make it heard, when you are ready to start your (conscious) spiritual journey.
It gives me a lot of comfort to know that there are many out there going through similar spiritual emergencies as I am. I have noticed a lot of my friends going through similar experiences, such as feeling ‘lost’ and ‘trapped, seemingly for no reason, but I have no doubt that spiritual emergencies are real as long as you’re mature enough to realize it.