<center><img src=http://spiritblogpics.homestead.com/beautifulpictureTheBeautyofaDesert.jpg></center>
There were two labels given to my experience by those who witnessed it: the first was "enlightened" the second was "schizophrenic". I didn't know what those labels meant for I had never encountered anyone in my life that I considered to be either of those things.
As far as the human condition goes my experience is not a common one although neither is it radically uncommon. It occurs in roughly 1 in 100 people, which is enough for the majority of people to sidestep it entirely, yet still know someone who's gone through this kind of experience. Typically, when it does happen, you go to the hospital yourself or someone takes you -- willingly or unwillingly. It's at the hospital that you learn to speak the language of the medical model. That's where my own experience differs from so many others because
<a href=http://thefifthbody.homestead.com/index.html>I didn't go to the hospital</a> and I didn't learn the language. Instead, I came into this room I am sitting in right now, I locked the door behind me, and I committed myself to the experience. I recognized something beneficial within the process I had fallen into.
I've since discovered there are many names for my experience and they vary by culture and setting. Some of the names for my experience in
<u>this</u> culture and setting are:
; <a href=http://members.shaw.ca/positivedisintegration/>positive disintegration;
ego collapse;
; <a href=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychosis>an acute psychotic episode;
; and, <a href=http://www.ahpweb.org/rowan_bibliography/chapter14.html>transpersonal crisis.
Some of the names for my experience in
<u>other</u> cultures and settings are:
; <a href=http://swamij.com/kundalini-awakening.htm>kundalini awakening;
; <a href=http://www.gnosis.org/library.html>gnosis;
shamanistic initiation;
; <a href=http://www.godrealized.com/>self-realization;
; <a href=http://spiritualemergency.blogspot.com/2006/01/inner-apocalypse.html>the inner apocalypse;
; <a href=http://www.annebaring.com/anbar08_seminarl1.htm>the alchemical process;
spiritual emergency.
.