I often wonder this myself, as many of my intense spiritual experiences have fit within Western medicine's definition of mania. This is the double-edged sword of Western medicine. On one hand, the treatments and interventions can help us in our day to day functioning. On the other hand, the same "treatments" can actually strip away our experiences as beings of spirit and hinder those intense connections. You could take two people experiencing the same intense, energized spiritual phenomena: put one in a modern civilization, the other in a more primitive setting. The one in the modern and allegedly "advanced" setting would be treated as mentally ill and people would work toward relieving them of their experience, while the one in the primitive setting would be sheltered and protected, ultimately being revered as a shaman or visionary and looked to for guidance. Their experience would not only be validated, but celebrated. Some days I wish we weren't quite so "advanced" and I could allow myself to reach that ecstatic connection and awareness again without being considered "noncompliant".

There are a couple of sites that talk more about this:

http://www.alternativedepressionther...awakening.html

and

http://www.reocities.com/HotSprings/1925/