Hi all, I am having spiritual experiences again and don’t want to believe I am sick. Is it possible that they are really spiritual experiences? I want to believe they are because I believe in spirituality and they bring me closer to the divine.
Is spirituality still possible post-psychosis? Please help I’m feeling scared and confused.
If you want to believe they are spiritual experiences, it’s your call. I, for one, choose to believe in what’s concrete and plausible. It’s healthier for my mental state.
But chances are, if you’re here, and the reason why you come to us with this issue, is because you’re indeed sick.
Nobody says you can’t be spirtitual while having a mental illness, for many is a great recovery tool. But my spiritual experiences, at least the ones I had, are in fact from the illness and not spiritual at all.
I have been over my delusions and hallucinations and I can see I’ve been unwell (hence why I come here, your guidance and support is amazing and I really appreciate it). I guess what is happening is it is really difficult for me because I can’t separate it from my beliefs, and in my faith I am supposed to open myself up to a relationship with the divine which I am now having. I want it to be real but I’m scared it’s not.
Thanks for your thoughts Minnii. I wish it were easier for me to separate the two and live with just the concrete beliefs. I’ve tried and I can’t. I think this goes back to pre-psychosis beliefs for me.
I have met two people who have intense spiritual experiences.
The first is my mum who talks to god and receives messages, and the second is a new-age spiritual healer who sees fairies and angels.
Both display symptoms that would indicate schizophrenia, and yet both are relatively stable without meds. They both have loving accepting partners who do not question their beliefs or judge them. They both have unshakeable faith in the existence of powers much greater than themselves. They both are advocates of putting others before themselves.
I think without the submissive characteristics they would become grandiose, and without stable partnerships they would feel insecure and lose insight.
I can’t separate the two easily either.
I’ve had some experiences that would be considered spiritual and where probably what I needed at the time.
If they were real I’m not sure if my psychosis fed off them and made delusions on a similar line, which were spiritual but not divine.
I made this quote and personally it works for me
‘‘I am safe in the knowledge God knows the truth’’
it really kills all my anixetys and fears
The more spiritual experiences you have the more prone you are to encounter something spiritually evil. Which is something to be aware of. If it’s pleasing to hear, it’s probably not true but just some mental masturbation. Everyone now with the internet seeks out the truth and the light but it’s not all that easy once you get diagnosed you know that as well as I do.
You have to talk to a person of the cloth to describe your experience and maybe they’ll counsel you a bit on your faith alone and not these (spiritual experiences). They may just be a mechanism of the illness to entice you into psychosis.