Traditions:Forms of spiritual emergency

The notion of Spiritual Emergency refers to critical forms of spiritual emergence — they are also called "transformational crises". There is some overlap with the Categories of non-ordinary states of consciousness, however the spiritual emergencies are not reducible to these. Spiritual emergencies listed by the Grofs include:

• The Shamanic Crisis
• The Awakening of Kundalini
• Episodes of Unitive Consciousness ("peak experiences")
• Psychological Renewal through Return to the Center
• The Crisis of Psychic Opening
• Past-life Experiences Communications with Spirit Guides and "Channeling"
• Near-Death Experiences
• Experience of Close Encounters with UFOs
• Possession States

Resources

1. Bragdon, E. (1990). The call of spiritual emergency: from personal crisis to personal transformation (1st ed). Harper & Row.
2. Evans, J., & Read, T. (Eds.). (2020). Breaking open: finding a way through spiritual emergency. Aeon.
3. Goretzki, M. (2007). The Differentiation of Psychosis and Spiritual Emergency [Dissertation, The University of Adelaide]. https://digital.library.adelaide.edu.au/dspace/bitstream/2440/47986/8/02whole.pdf
4. Goretzki, M., & Thalbourne, M. A. (2013). Development Of A Spiritual Emergency Scale. Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 45(2), 105–117. atpweb.org/jtparchive/trps-45-13-02-105.pdf
5. Grof, C., & Grof, S. (1995). The stormy search for the self: understanding and living with spiritual emergency. Thorsons.
6. Grof, S., & Grof, C. (Eds.). (1989). Spiritual emergency: when personal transformation becomes a crisis (1st ed). Tarcher ; Distributed by St. Martin’s Press.
7. Harris, K. P., Rock, A. J., & Clark, G. I. (2015). Spiritual Emergency, Psychosis And Personality: A Quantitative Investigation. Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 47(2), 263–285. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/301731515_Spiritual_emergency_psychosis_and_personality_A_quantitative_investigation
8. Harris, K. P., Rock, A. J., & Clark, G. I. (2019). Religious Or Spiritual Problem? The Clinical Relevance Of Identifying And Measuring Spiritual Emergency. Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 51(1), 89–118. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/337782225_Religious_or_spiritual_problem_The_clinical_relevance_of_identifying_and_measuring_spiritual_emergency
9. Harris, K. P., Rock, A. J., & Clark, G. I. (2020). Defining Spiritual Emergency: A Content Validity Study. Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 52(1), 113–141. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/348647627_Defining_Spiritual_Emergency_A_Content_Validity_Study
10. Kaselionyte, J., & Gumley, A. (2019). Psychosis or spiritual emergency? A Foucauldian discourse analysis of case reports of extreme mental states in the context of meditation. Transcultural Psychiatry, 56(5), 1094–1115. https://doi.org/10.1177/1363461519861842
11. Kogo, Y. (2002). Aum Shinrikyo and Spiritual Emergency. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 42(4), 82–101. https://doi.org/10.1177/002216702237125
12. Lukoff, D., Lu, F., & Turner, R. (1998). From Spiritual Emergency to Spiritual Problem: the Transpersonal Roots of the New DSM-IV Category. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 38(2), 21–50. https://doi.org/10.1177/00221678980382003
13. Perry, J. W. (1999). Trials of the visionary mind: spiritual emergency and the renewal process. State University of New York Press.
14. Sedláková, H., & Řiháček, T. (2019). The Incorporation of a Spiritual Emergency Experience Into a Client’s Worldview: A Grounded Theory. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 59(6), 877–897. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022167816668114
15. St. Arnaud, K. O., & Cormier, D. C. (2017). Psychosis or Spiritual Emergency: The Potential of Developmental Psychopathology for Differential Diagnosis. International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 36(2), 44–59. https://doi.org/10.24972/ijts.2017.36.2.44
16. Storm, L., & Goretzki, M. (2016). A Defense Of The Spiritual Emergency Scale: Emergency Vs. Emergence. Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 48(2), 190–209. Journal of Transpersonal Psychiatry Archive.