Breaking Open: Finding a Way Through Spiritual Emergency

by Jules Evans (Editor), Tim Read (Editor)

Overview

Personal accounts exploring the shift from mental illness to spiritual awakening.

The first book in which people discuss their own spiritual emergencies and share what helped them through. Our authors are the experts of their own experience, and they share their wild journeys with courage, insight and poetry.

There are fascinating parallels in their experiences, suggesting minds in extremis go to similar places. These are beautiful postcards from the edge of human consciousness, testaments to the soul's natural resilience. Our authors have returned from their descent with valuable insights for our culture, as we go through a collective spiritual emergency, with old myths and structures breaking down, and new possibilities breaking open.

What is there beyond our present egocentric model of reality? What tools can help us navigate the emergence?

"This book is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the connection between spiritual awakening and what we normally term 'mental illness.' It is full of inspirational and moving stories that show that psychological disturbances often lead to significant personal growth, if supported properly. As a culture, we urgently need a new paradigm of mental illness and treatment, and this and this book makes an important contribution to that shift.' Steve Taylor PhD, author of The Leap and Spiritual Science

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781912807697
Publisher:	AEON BOOKS LTD
Publication date:	04/26/2020
Pages:	236
Sales rank:	431,291
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Jules Evans is an author, broadcaster and academic philosopher. He is a research fellow at the Centre for the History of the Emotions at Queen Mary, University of London, where he researches the history and philosophy of flourishing. He was a BBC New Generation Thinker and a Times book of the year author. He is the author of 'Philosophy for Life and Other Dangerous Situations' (2012) and 'The Art of Losing Control' (2017). He blogs at www.philosophyforlife.org

Table of Contents

Introduction Tim Read Jules Evans ix

Chapter 1 The ones who dream of tigers Deborah Martin 1

Chapter 2 The accidental guru John Ablett

Chapter 3 Chasing transcendence Anna Beckmann 25

Chapter 4 Dissolving on the motorway Louisa Tomlinson 33

Chapter 5 The in-between place Jules Evans 47

Chapter 6 The ball of light Cornelia Cacu 61

Chapter 7 Wrestling with angels Stephen Fitzpatrick 73

Chapter 8 The motherhood ear Amy Pollard 91

Chapter 9 The chaplain who thought he was Jesus Satyin Taylor 107

Chapter 10 The fire of becoming Angela Cotter 121

Chapter 11 The boy who stank to high heaven Rob Charles 133

Chapter 12 From fear towards love Dan Sherwen 145

Chapter 13 The master Mike Benthall 159

Chapter 14 The spiritual dimension of bipolar disorder Sean Blackwell 173

Concluding Comments Tim Read Jules Evans 187

Biographies and Further Resources 205

Index 211

Editorial Reviews

Personal accounts exploring the shift from mental illness to spiritual awakening

From the Publisher