alexandra k: I was getting a little concerned that the suggestion was that people who experience themselves as having a spiritual crisis were now regarded as being mentally disordered!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Glad that isn't so :-)

Then again, do you think you would be capable of quantifying what kind of experience the following is...

</font><blockquote><div id="quote"><font class="small">Quote:</font>

... nothing around us seems solid or trustworthy. On all levels, our consciousness becomes attuned to endings and death. We notice the end of conversations, of music, of encounters, of days, of sensations in the body on a powerful cellular level. We sense the dissolution of life moment to moment.

As our outer and inner worlds dissolve, we lose our sense of reference. There arises a great sense of unease, leading into a realm of fear and terror. "Where is there any security? Wherever I look, things are dissolving."

We can experience this dissolution and dying within our own body. We may look down and see pieces of our own body seeming to melt away and decay, as if we were a corpse. As the realm of terror deepens, periods of paranoia may arise. In this stage, wherever we look, we become fearful of danger...


</div></font></blockquote><font class="post">

The above is an excerpt from the book A Path With Heart by Buddhist teacher, Jack Kornfield. He is describing a process known as ego death.

.