21. Spiritual Awakening vs. Bipolar Disorder: (2/3)

[synchromorph]

Look into temporal lobe epilepsy.

The skeptic who has a spiritual emergency reminds me of the allegory of Saul who become Paul on the road to Damascus in the bible. ;)

[717nemesis]

i want to let you now that watch all of your videos your fixt my life im 17 teen i always was afraid to do anything with mood chages and being nevis about nothing i just it workt when i got in a bad mood i said fuck that i just its hleping alot it works. i just wnat to tell you thank you you did want no doctor can do thank you what you doing is awsome what your doing is great your helping people that you dont even know thanks

[bipolarorwakingup]

@717nemesis Thank you man!

[bipolarorwakingup]

@bipolarorwakingup Why not join Wake the Planet, my social network. I think it could help support you. See my channel, bipolarorwakingup , for details.

[aprilmalone1]

BRILLIANT!!!!!!

[Almondjoyinit]

I have to commend you on this work because if it were not for me searching "bipolar disorder" and "spirituality" in the subject line I would not have found this and I thank God that I found this and I thank you for creating this! It will be something I think my father will be very interested in watching with me (I currently have bipolar disorder and have experienced waves of spiritual expressions and emergencies where my higher cognitive faculties emerged and granted me extraordinary insight).

[Almondjoyinit]

@Almondjoyinit I did not know what it was but watching your videos things have been put into an amazing perspective and I thank you for researching this dual nature of existence.

[pratasvid]

a trauma conditioned soul is the GOAL of the rulers now and has been for ages... stressed ill paople are easy to rule

[rainbowkissed09]

This is really helpful. I was beginning to wonder! Lol. Mine is middle, but closer to the top end...all I notice is that I've been learning to shed fears and remove judgements...mine has been mixed...sort of? It's mostly good, but I describe it that God does most certainly help you relieve baggage, or at least tolerate the idea that I am not sin free. It's been creative! I definitely resonate with the intuition! :) I'm like OMG Signs!! Angels! True Love! Fear is stupid. Be rational. Be balanced!

[constance380]

i love you XD

[jaeou812]

you failed to recognize her as THE AUTHORITY on bipolar manic depression. I can't believe you passed her up. You probably don't want to admit you are wrong on points, & their are people who know more than you. Is it a synchronicity that the author of "Celestine Prophecy" is named James Redfield, a jumble of Kay's name? LMAO. To claim that you are more evolved than others is both egotistical and wrong!!! BTW, I never denied psychosis was a spiritual experience, so I must be @ the highest level 2.

[bipolarorwakingup]

@jaeou812 So, if she is The Authority and I disagree completlely with her ideas and her book, then what does that make me?

[jaeou812]

1/2: God gives us equal self worth...people like you give themselves degrees of self esteem. Schizophrenics, manic depressives and yourself are ALL worthy of respect. Just like you don't want to be labeled "mentally ill" don't say that people with schizophrenia have "a lower level of consciousness." Don't label people with bipolar disorder "confused." Further, is it a synchronicity that your book is titled "The Quiet Mind" And Dr. Kay Redfield Jamison's book, "An Unquiet Mind?" Why have

[marysnewton]

Sean - I love your videos! Especially your spectrum that runs from schizophrenia to bipolar to spiritual emergency. This is the revolutionary idea that some day might be admitted to the field of psychiatry, and in the process will transform it into something that might actually help people -- but looks like it's going to take a long long time. Meanwhile, bless you for putting your ideas on the Web and helping this day come. Keep up the good work! Best, Mary Newton

[bipolarorwakingup]

@marysnewton Thanks! I have high hopes for the model down the road. I can´t find anyone with valid criticism of it.

[JeffPloxy]

Your voice is soo relaxing. :D

[urbandenizen]

These videos and book recommendations are great, but the healing of the severely traumatised shouldn't be seen as hopeless. I know someone with dominantly fearful levels of the scale, who's suffered a lot of childhood trauma, and he lives medication free in the community with minimal mental health support. He reads the works of poets like Dante to help him through the hell side of the spiritual journey, and uses music as an artistic outlet. The deeper the wounds, the farther the journey perhaps.

[bipolarorwakingup]

@urbandenizen that's exactly it. To tell you the truth, if I was to re-edit this series, I think I would emphasized that point, 'the deeper the wounds, the farther the journey' stronger. I do touch on it at the end of part 3.

[kundalinikrew]

Fantastic to appreciate such insight.

[tanist2]

I essentially agree with incognito509b. The one point I wish to mention is that at this junction of ‘history’, IMHO there are a growing number of people who are interested in making sense of their own personal spirituality. Philosophy like Taoism or neo-Platonism (and others) may not have been widely available to people in their historical context; yet do provide insight into the issues your video’s address. Igognito509b’s comments are worthy to be addressed, rather than rejected.

[bipolarorwakingup]

@tanist2 Take a look at the culture in it´s entirely. Socrates was ahead of his time. For that, he was murdered. So was Jesus, so was Galileo (is that how you spell it?)

One of the limitations of post-modern thinking is that it projects its own values onto ancient cultures. For example, calling a "polytheistic culture" "pluralistic." This is what Wilber referred to as the pre/trans fallacy, where pre-personal levels of consciousness are confused with transpersonal levels.

[tanist2]

@bipolarorwakingup I agree; there is thinking, and there is thinking within constructs such as ‘post-modern’ that colour the thoughts and perceptions viewing cultures over time or place. However, I interpreted ‘pluralism’ to refer to a perspective that recognizes ‘qualities’, which arise that transcend time and place. Doesn’t the transpersonal level engender an ability to critically recognize similarities independent of time or place, while trying not to make the pre/trans fallacy error?

[bipolarorwakingup]

@tanist2 Well, both post-modern (green) and Intergral (or Power of Now) yellow are transpersonal levels. Post modern usually does not critically asses anything as, coming out of the modern "rational" level, they tend to view assesment as judgement. "Who can judge another?" is a strong idea here. At the Integral level, there is the ability to see that, while nobody holds the entire truth, some hold more truth than others. Thus they can make objective assessments.

[bipolarorwakingup]

@tanist2 One more example. The Greeks, as do AL "Feudal" and "Traditional" level cultures, had slaves. Women were not treated as citizens and, from what I recall, were not allowed to leave the house unless granted permission from their husband.

Boys were educated in exchange for sex with adult males. Does this sound like a pluralistic culture to you? Yes, all culture had their shining stars, but to say the whole culture was so is simply projecting your own wishes.

[tanist2]

@bipolarorwakingup However, Sean, to look at any culture in its entirety, particularly our own, one will be able to find many faults, and I don’t think the argument is of the culture as a whole. Nevertheless, perhaps the argument boils down to whether one believes ‘There is nothing new under the Sun’; and whether that nothing new is something external to them, or themselves. Or, that this is a time of ‘Something new under the Sun’; and if so....?

...Brazil just beat North Korea! 

[bipolarorwakingup]

@tanist2 That's a great point, because all levels of consciousness up to the "Power of Now", or Integral level take that attitude. They all feel that they have the final answer, including post-modern people, where, the final answer is that there is NO answer! It's an anti-theory, theory. Integral sees the evolution of it all, and recognizes that we are still limited and will continue to evolve. "We know we don't know everything, but we know a lot more than we did before!"

[incognito509b]

but, keep seaching your own way! ;)

It is possible that I misunderstood. - my english is poor.

kudos! :)

[incognito509b]

sorry but it seems very arrogant to me. for example: greek philosophy evolved becouse they listen to each other - their attitude was very pluralistic (like postmodern pepole) but also very spiritual. And -as I said - it is very arrogant to think that we are trying to achive the deepest level of conciousness ONLY in our times

Your hypothesis that there is a simple isomorphism between history and human conciousness is not true

[bipolarorwakingup]

@incognito509b Ancient Greece, the most advanced civilization on the planet at the time, had 1. A polytheistic religion, 2. Performed animal sacrifices to the Gods and sexually molested their children as part of the culture. These are all signs of a "Feudal level" Culture, similar to other early civilizations like the Egyptian empire, The Early Roman Empire, and Mayan civilization. This all comes from the work of Ken Wilber. Feel free to look into it.

[incognito509b]

IMHO You are wrong :) you should read more western philosophy (for example: greek philosphy); you trying to grasp history through concept of evolving conciousness but there was many philosphpejres [ Heraclitus, Socrares, Plato, Plotinus, in middle ages: st. Augustin, Eckhart, Anzelm, St. Thomas, Duns Skotus, modern: Descartes Leibnitz etc] who understood things more deeply than most of us - and some of them lived 2500 years ago - in your 'schisophremic age'... ;)

[bipolarorwakingup]

@incognito509b I agree with your point about certain visionary thinkers being far ahead of their time, but they do not reflect the stage of development their culture was at. The murder of Socrates and Jesus Christ or two great examples. All of the people you mentioned were far, far ahead of their time.

[ThePhilosopherKings]

Great stuff. The only problem is that "integral, yellow, or 2nd tear" is not related to "the power of now". (which is more green/ post modern) It seems like you get the basic gist of the idea (understanding an experience based on your worldview) but I don't know if you really fully understand integral theory.

Look up a video called "A Choice for Eternity (Andrew Cohen and Ken Wilber)"

Then look up "Being and Becoming" by Andrew Cohen

[bipolarorwakingup]

@ThePhilosopherKings I sent you a reply, but also for viewers here, I have 7 other videos just on Wilber's theory, with a few modifications to simplify things. Here I have mostly blended the seven (eight actually!) levels into 3 broader levels, pre-personal, personal and transpersonal. The other videos #9-11 and 13-16 provide much more detail.

[ThePhilosopherKings]

@bipolarorwakingup

Didn't think it actually posted for some reason. we can talk more about it in the e-mail if you like.

[seeklight1212]

AWESOME!

[Trumanime]

vary interesting

[bipolarorwakingup]

@oromogrl a few smarts and some dumb luck I suppose. I´ve got nothing better to do!

[kathrynrain]

very smart analysis. thanks.

if this helps, my spirit guide told me that it is true that as bipolars we go through all these episodes (all 3 of them), but we learn to "tap" into whichever one we want. it is very similar if you think about it to your decision on good vs. evil, ecept bipolars feel and experience MORE and STRONGER than average. but eventually we can choose to slowly tap more and more into the positive of the spectrum.

[perrydise2u]

I would truly like to communite with someone anyone who has come through a spiritual emergency.Youhave defined EXACTY WHAT I WENT THROUGH. I have had no one til now that i could communicate this too til you .

[bipolarorwakingup]

@perrydise2u if you are interested, I sometimes provide online Skype support on a by-donation basis. Good Luck!

[theotherlaney]

DUDE!!!! You totally ROCK!!!! I love it that this is all here!!!! I am one of these and spent 14 days in Annex#9 in PHX... been off the medication for two years and am so excited to see this helpline... Get paypal on your donate site...

[suavesosa]

so i can sleep in peace i will share this with you guys

"Life is but a wave YOU need to Learn how to ride, and eventually you'll Find your Beach." -- Carlos Sosa < hehe thats me

[suavesosa]

everything cannot be created by nothing so we know that something started it all. thats where the duality of religion and science come in play. so i think the answer to this all is that we just need to make decisions with our hearts more so than with our brains. and for your fear and love you need to learn how to embrace them both. in order to reach love you need to go through fear. but following the patterns of live you will live in a wave of eternity.

[suavesosa]

All you have to do is find your roots no matter good or evil and find your path to your mindstream so you can flow onto your being. The solution to your bi polar and spiritual awakening is to find the duality of the physical and spiritual. just like you said we are still evolving and spiraling out. without this equal push and pull nature we will not exist.

[suavesosa]

well steve i think i may have put it down a lil bit scientifically in my memory book. almost everthing i felt like writing down i put in that comp book. so i can trace back on what is what.

[diamondsat50]

Would like to have you as a friend at my channel soon!! I am a born again blood bought christain in THE Lord Jesus Christ,was diagnosed with bypolar at age 17 in 1978 now 50 yrs old.i understand you have done the research for this,an your thoughts are interesting.Hope to see you at my chan. soon. In HIM 4 all eternity, ( we are all diamonds in the rough in this thing called life on earth there is so much more to all of it! c-u soon hopefully!! diamond

[SteveSlaughter1]

Living only in the NOW sounds like a great accomplishment, but you should not ignore your past experiences or fail to think ahead, into the future. People who live only in the NOW usually expect instant gratification and are known as impulsive. If you ignore your past experiences (refuse to reflect on the past), you'll probably repeat mistakes. Also, if you fail to consider future possibilities, you may encounter upleasant consequences for your actions. COMMON SENSE

[bipolarorwakingup]

@SteveSlaughter1 Impulsive living is Feudal level. I'm talking about bringing your higher self into the Now, not your animal desires. I think you could learn a lot from Tolle's book.

[suavesosa]

@bipolarorwakingup or Buddah by Deepak Chopra :)

[ashnod111]

@SteveSlaughter1 I agree. Past reflections and future considerations and important, and the key is to be thinking in the past of future but know you will always be in the present. To remember, thoughts are just thoughts.

[SteveSlaughter1]

How would you know if the scientific evidence of chemical and structural abnormalities in the brain is flawed? You claim that you're not operating at the modern, logical, factual level of consciousness, so how would your mind be able to understand the data? Do you have any scientific, critical thinking training? Have you ever read any trust peer-reviewed research findings of this evidence?

[bipolarorwakingup]

Damn Steve, sounds like I'm losing you. In short, each level 'transcends and includes' the one below. Of course I can think rationally and always consider the 'facts' of a situation in any decision. The limitations of the moden level of consciousness is that they deny inner experiences, feelings, because these are facts that cannot be measured. All true spiritual experiences fit into this category - they happen to the person, but are unmeasurable. As a result, they are denied.

[SteveSlaughter1]

People at the modern level do not deny their inner experiences; we just keep them private because inner experiences can often be interpreted the wrong way by those who have not experienced them. Also, these inner experiences can not be fully described from the outside- they are best understood when experienced inside.

[bipolarorwakingup]

Do I have scientific, critical thinking training? Well, for this sort of work, yes, I do. All of the material I present in my videos is gathered using a sociological method, and I have a degree in sociology. I also have 10 years of experience analysing and conducting quantitative and qualitative research in my old advertising career.

[bipolarorwakingup]

Have I even read any peer-reviewed research findings of this evidence? Well, of course I've done the research that convinces me of what I present here, however truly pioneering work rarely gets attention in peer-reviewed journals. The work I rely on most heavily, by visionaries like Grof, Wilber, Perry, Julian Jaynes, etc....is mostly ignored by science, as they choose to turn a blind eye to what their limited view of reality cannot understand.

[SteveSlaughter1]

The reason why the ideas you discuss in your videos never occur in peer-reviewed, scientific journals is because they are not scientific.

[bipolarorwakingup]

@SteveSlaughter1 Good Luck on your path, Steve. It was nice knowing you.

[bipolarorwakingup]

@SteveSlaughter1 Just to clarify again, it's the people at the levels lower than the modern level that cannot understand logical, factual thinking. The levels above modern always take the facts into consideration. They may just choose to do the intuitive thing, rather than the logical thing. People at the lower irrational levels, don't have the ability to make that choice.

[SteveSlaughter1]

people that spend years in a psychiatric institution aren't any "lower" than anyone else. They're just people who have a health problem. I know individuals who have spent YEARS in state hospitals, and today they live normal lives in the community. You should change the lower/higher orientation to your theoretical framework because it's just adding to the stigma of mental health.

[Chii4Cheesecake]

I have suffered from schizophenic tendancies. I was labeled with DID, bipolar with schizophrenic tendancies, and bipolar. And this seems almost right on to me, though I must say, putting them so much over eachother makes it hard to get the real point across. Medication isn't always bad, if you ARE at the lower levels like hes explaining, taking a few pills can be helpful

[Chii4Cheesecake]

DID, Bipolar with schizophrenic tendancies, and schizotypal**

[Chii4Cheesecake]

but once you get to a certain stage, as when I ascended into the post-modern level... it may not be a bad idea to stop completely. I did. I feel so much better too

[bipolarorwakingup]

I wish I could, but it is what it is. All things being equal, some people will have a harder time healing that others and this model explains why. Maybe the people you know are not in these lower levels I'm talking about. Maybe their shrinks labeled them schizo when, in truth they were having more of a mixed episode or a spiritual emergency type of psychosis.

[SteveSlaughter1]

You have an interesting perspective on mental health that should integrated into the mainstream, but don't expect everyone to stop taking their medication because that could be dangerous. Just because you had one brief psychotic episode and recovered doesn't mean everyone has the same experience. I haven't been following all of your media lately, so I'm not sure if you have taken a different position on medication yet. If you have, then I apologize.

[SteveSlaughter1]

dude, if you made your spectrum horizontal, you would not appear to be such an egomaniac. With this current illustration and level system, you will appear to main stream mental health experts as grandiose. Just take the political spectrum into consideration before you choose where to place opposing states of consciousness.

[SteveSlaughter1]

Sean, it's very convenient how your experience places you at the top of your level system! Seems like you're well on your way towards starting your own cult!

[bipolarorwakingup]

I know, I know....for the record...2 things: First, I had my psychosis 3 years into being completely post-modern. Then the psychosis sort of jump started me toward the PON level. Second, I mentioned it in video #9, there is at least one higher level in the model, and according to the theory, more levels are expected, we just don´t know what they will look like. So, in the big picture, yes, I´m near the top of the scale for our society , but I´m still a lot closer to chimp than I am to GOD!

[SteveSlaughter1]

are you trying to become God? Dude, maybe that's what everyone is doing, so don't worry I ain't mad at ya ;-)

[TragedyHoax]

To be honest, i've had many experiences with "psychosys" being in a group of people that had personalities and experiences like mine. It seemed to me that something was definately bothering me on another level of conciousness and the things i saw and heard during each experience was something of spiritual awareness...the last major episode removed my fear of the unknown, and so i do not experience fear...and the longer i stay awake the more of my reality i affected.

[biporio]

For the part about the chemical imbalance is a modern vision: I think(know?) it's actually just a blatant lie. They say "it is" without proving it, and call it science.

I was to a clinic with pain in the lower side of my abdomen years ago. I was examined and the doctor said it could be appendicitis, then I passed through many kinds of exams to realize it wasn't, but a major infection by food.

If it was psychiatry it would be probably more like "HOLY SHIT IT'S APPENDICITIS CUT HIM!!!"

[favandyke]

Sean, thank you SO much for your insights, clear outlay, study etc. about Spir. Emercency and Bi-polar perspective. Since my profound psychosis 11 years ago, my more or less spir. and philosop. study is head on with your posts and explaining. So glad with people like you that can give such a important perspective on what seems a ''disorder'' but is not in my view...

[bipolarorwakingup]

@favandyke, its great to hear that so many people feel that their experience somehow fits with what I´ve laid out here. More confirmation! Imagine. For the first time ever, insanity makes sense!

[israeli0music0rulez]

You are such a wise man sean .. i would like to write my short Personel experince to you how can i do that :D ?

[bipolarorwakingup]

Sure man, send me a message!

[Tressco]

I love your train of thought and this whole journey!

[bipolarorwakingup]

Thank you...believe me, the train took a few wrong turns before it found the right track!

[Tressco]

Hope, you could enjoy the scenery along the way...I did... :)

[AlterEgoTrip]

I like the details in which you have gone through these ideas, I suppose if you add the different things and overlap them with the difference of social experiences going on, for example in a more "elevated" state, someone who has gone through a schizophrenic episode is going to feel a little MORE at ease because the people around them will be more open to their experience, I mean in theory. I have known several people who had very difficult schizophrenic experiences, and understand their reality

[AlterEgoTrip]

(continued) these were people who were in and out of hospitals over passages of years, years and years. When they were deep in an "episode" I recall my ex boyfriend's brother (who I actually met many years before in a chemistry course during his lucid phase) had some very frightening things he was saying, but that he could talk to me about it because I could see he was in this place, it was like not being able to wake up from a dream and sometimes that dream was scary for him.

[AlterEgoTrip]

I think what was my skill in this was the fact I could rationalize him out of the fear and out of the paranoia, because he was thinly there in this place where he KNEW some things were not "real" by his experience but there was great confusion about that, and he needed a sounding board and also some moral support for his living nightmare. (I am experienced in helping people dealing with their nightmares rationally by asking the nightmare questions)

[bipolarorwakingup]

Environmental support is huge! that's part three.

[ozjthomas]

I feel like this is way too simplified and because so will make many people angry. There are many subtypes of schizophrenia and even bipolar. I am even convinced that there are some cases that are mostly biological caused(be it hormonal, chemical toxicity, food allergy, etc)

[bipolarorwakingup]

My point with the spectrum analogy is to trash all of these subtypes once and for all. IMO, all of these labels just confuse things. One one level, all acute psychoses are part of the same phenomenon. That's my point here.

[ozjthomas]

But not all types of schizophrenia have the same kind of problems- so some types are very happy schizophrenics just very disorganized thoughts, very different from the paranoid type usually thought of. I guess is my tendency to want to complicate issues, I do see where you're coming from, because some types of schizophrenia and manic psychoses are very close of course.

[ozjthomas]

And yes I was up at 5 something this morning on the computer because I couldn't sleep. =(