Psychotic Mysticism
Psychotic Mysticism is a syncretic term for Nadir Experience used by Ben Scharfstein[1] The terms refers to a Connection Experience with Egoic Collapse that shades into classic psychosis and Schizophrenia.
Syncretic Terms
Egoic Collapse > Nadir Experience, Psychotic Mysticism, Schizophrenia
Nadir Experience > Dark Night of the Soul, Death, Flooding, Psychotic Mysticism, Spiritual Emergency
Notes
Psychotic mysticism occurs as a consequence of psychological and emotional damage to the Bodily Ego. Stress may trigger, and Old Energy Archetypes may contribute to the onset and exacerbate the experience.
Scharfstein carries on an interesting discussion of "psychotic mysticism" where he suggests that a mystical psychosis involves "the sense of drastic separation from everything....the loss of oneself in fusion with other people and things...and...fear and guilt that acquire a hallucinatory presence.[2] He cites the case of one Daniel Paul Schreber[3] who describe a nervous illness in which he had "nerve contact" with God, and that there were nerve-filaments that connected all other souls in the universe to each other, and that his filaments were poisoned and that "diseased nervous system." Essentially, Schreber is describing a diseased connection.
Further Reading
Sharp, Michael (2013). Ego Explosion. http://www.michaelsharp.org/ego-explosion/
Footnotes
- ↑ Scharfstein, Ben-Ami. Mystical Experience. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1973
- ↑ Scharfstein, Ben-Ami. Mystical Experience. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1973. p. 133
- ↑ Schreber, Daniel Paul. Memoirs of My Nervous Illness. NYRB Classics, 2000. https://amzn.to/2U8Se6Q.
