Getting Through Psychosis:
Redeeming the Psyche through Chemical and
by Ann Palmer
Psychedelic Drug Trips Mimic Psychosis
“It has been said, quite accurately, that a psychotic
person is drowning in the very same thing that a mystic swims in.” ~ Pema
Chodron p. 76
“The mystic, endowed with native talents . . . and following . . . the instructions of a master, enters the
waters and finds he can swim; whereas the schizophrenic, unprepared, unguided,
and ungifted, has fallen or has intentionally plunged and is drowning.”
~Joseph Campbell, Myths to Live By
“Spirituality is like living water that springs up
from the very depths of your own personal experience of faith. To drink from your own well is to reflect on
your own unique encounter with the divine at the depth of your psyche.” ~ Saint
Bernard of Clairvaux
Each
of these quotations mentions water and implies mysticism and spirit.. These metaphors are intense. We resonate with them. We honestly want to save the drowning
person. We know where the places of myth
and mystery lie within us, and suspect where they are within the ones we love. For this article’s purposes, I describe this
“water” from the perspectives of psychosis and other hallucinatory experiences
(such as that caused by psychedelic drugs). Psychosis and hallucinogenic
experience have been linked before in references to spiritual awareness,
shamanic ritual, psychotherapy, creative imagination, and other inexplicable
phenomena. My belief is that we can learn to swim in this stuff.
This
is not simple. The waters run deep. It’s difficult to describe psychosis and to
comprehend unspeakable experiences, but if we want to grow, we must make
contact with unexplored barriers. The
waters run deep
What Psychosis Is Like
Psychosis,
caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain due to mental illness or drug
ingestion, is much like undergoing an inner death. Some experts literally call it ego death, an
inner catastrophe of enormous dimensions.
Researchers of persons experiencing hallucinations due to drug use
describe psychotic reactions to LSD, such as:
“an
abysmal sense of physical destruction, emotional catastrophe, intellectual
defeat, cultural/moral failure, and absolute damnation of transcendental
proportions.” Subjects face agony and
develop a conviction that they will explode and the entire world will be
destroyed . . . in this situation it is
extremely important that the sitters (individual guides) repeatedly emphasize
the safety of this experience” (Grof, 158)
The
experience of ego death is “the destruction of everything the subject is,
possesses, or is attached to.” There is an “expectation of a catastrophe of
enormous dimensions,” horrific panic, a fear of disintegration or, more
violently, implosion. The patient feels
the fate of the entire world depends on their ability to “hold on” (or
conversely, to commit suicide).
Researchers
say the psychotic person is hyper-aware, constantly thinking, deluded in
contemplating the processes of respiration [breathing], digestion [eating],
procreation [sex], elimination [urination, defecation], etc. Quite distressing are psychoses in the latter
category, labeled ‘scatological.’
Major
symptoms of psychosis are hallucinations (sensing things that most others do
not), ideas of reference, delusions of persecution, delusions of grandeur,
etc. Experiences of death, rebirth,
religious, spiritual and messianic delusions (special identification with Christ
and/or the Anti-Christ) are common. One
feels an annihilation of Biblical proportions is imminent. Elements of destruction (self-, world-,
universe, etc.), re-creation of the world, salvation and redemption all are
common psychotic phenomena.
Researcher
Grob says psychosis is caused by “the release of highly-emotionally charged
traumatic unconscious material . . . the unusual nature and power of the
material that emerges from the depths of the unconscious causes the person to
explode, having an episode of dramatic and often chaotic release of pent-up
energies . . . The psychotic activity
has been chemically externalized.”
Psychedelic Drug Effects
Mimic Psychosis
Lysergic
acid diethylamide (LSD) is one of the most well known psychedelic drugs. There are other hallucinatory
substances: psilocybin (“magic”
mushrooms, or ‘shrooms), mescaline, PCP
(angel dust, Phencyclidine), MDA, MDM,
STP, DMT, etc.
It
is said that LSD and other hallucination-inducing drugs help one experience a
change in personality, values, and view of the world. Psychotic/psychedelic
experiences include “every type of madness, every type of parapsychological
phenomenon, every type of mystical, ecstatic illumination, Jungian archetypes,
past lives, precognition, psychosis, satori-samadhi-atman, union with God . .
. It was all there, in the scientific
record. (Stevens, Prologue, p. XIV).
Unguided
psychedelic trips caused some LSD users to have psychotic experiences:
“Fooled
by the immediate psychic transformations of LSD, they thought enlightenment
could be quickly achieved. Instead,
tripping without shamanic support, and for kicks, some of them induced in
themselves what the Mazatecs called “mind shadows” – negative spiritual energy
. . . like destructive demons compelled them into dark phantasmal realms.”
(Pinchbeck, p. 186)
One
researcher documented a list of psychotic states achieved by the use of
mescaline. They include catatonia, paranoia, delusions of persecution,
delusions of grandeur, hallucinations, religious ecstasy, homicidal impulses,
suicidal impulses, apathy, and mania . . .
“To use Freud’s vocabulary, drugs like mescaline seemed to shatter the
unity of the ego. It opened the Pandora’s
box of the unconscious.” (Stevens, p.
11)
After
taking mescaline, one writer wrote that the language of people with
schizophrenia was not merely cast in similes and metaphors. He speaks up for the psychotic
experience: “There was no as if
involved in the mad state. They were
talking about reality and it was scientific arrogance to dismiss it as
delusion.” (Steven, p. 27)
Cracking Open the Mind
Studying
people taking these drugs for their effect on mental states began in the late
50's and early 60's. In the beginning,
it seemed only scholars, professors, and researchers had access to LSD. Early
proponents of the use of these drugs for psychoanalytic benefit advocated their
new field. Originally spelled psychodelics,
it looked and sounded too stigmatic like psycho so it was spelled
psychedelics. The reference is to the
psyche, the inner workings of the mind.
In
the early 1960's, many believed the psychedelic movement was only quickening a
change that had already begun. Every
person had a right to experience alternative states of I, a/k/a the
collective consciousness, psychic opening, Jung’s shadow side, the darker
realms of imagination, dreamscapes and mythic imagery. Increased levels of sensitivity (sixth-sense,
intuition, group-mind experiences, etc.) was believed to be an inevitable
evolution of the human race and facilitated by the [guided use of]
psychedelics. The low road implies
sensitivity experienced in a state of fear, anxiety, panic attacks, delusions
of persecution, paranoia, etc.
More
important than the experience was the scholarly “mapping of states of
consciousness.” “Researchers and
psychologists . . . recognized the potentially revolutionary and
paradigm-shifting nature of their work, and realized they had to go slowly or
face expulsion from the mainstream.”
(Pinchbeck, p. 183). [Does that last part sound familiar? Stigma around mental illness, too, comes from
this exclusion.]
No
discussion of psychedelics would be complete without a mention of the cultural
anthropological works of Carlos Castaneda.
His use of peyote with the shaman Don Juan was a sacred rite of
passage. He reports his psychedelic
experiences were deep, personal explorations of inner reality and the
transcendental realms. Inner space. Guided by the shaman, the wise man, he
experienced liberation from conflict, the everyday world, and the burden of
hypocrisy (Grof, p. 270).
The
use of psychedelic drugs in therapeutic settings teaches us that the
hallucinatory experience, running its course, “exposes new feelings of rebirth,
redemption, appreciation of the simple way of life, humanitarian and charitable
tendencies, liberation, salvation, love and forgiveness” (Stevens, p. 83). The individual finds motivation to live in
accordance with these values “as genuine and integral parts of the universal
order.” It is expected that one can
release the old, limiting concept and restricting view of the universe and
individual existence.
What We Can Learn
The
university-based therapeutic psychedelic research experiments are long
over. Research had to stop in 1966 due
to political and governmental pressure. Using LSD, it had been pronounced, was
too risky.
Yet,
this research has some things to teach us.
At the outset, college professors and researchers had the only access to
LSD. They took the drug, had ‘acid
trips’ and recorded their experiences. Even the negative trips, with their
visions of apocalypse, were good in a therapeutic sense since it was believed
they were finally “confronting their neuroses and repressions”-- getting to the
root of the matter. [The unconscious
mind operated while you essentially sleep-walked through life with unexamined
patterns of behavior.] To evolve, researchers say, requires transformation,
necessary losses, ego death, and reestablishment of a workable foundation.
Cues for Navigating the
Waters
There
are ways to assist in positive psychedelic experiences, time-tested
methods of providing guidance to persons undergoing a psychedelic experience.
·
In taking LSD,
the greatest importance is on set and setting. The ‘subjects’ of research studies were given
individual instruction and helpful techniques as they went through their
psychedelic experience. “Sitters” gave
individual attention to those undergoing this LSD experience. These trained professionals were responsible
for the creation of a simple, safe and
supportive physical environment (a/k/a set and setting). They are called on to “establish trust,
freedom from anxiety, an ability to remain centered, deep empathy, and an
intimate knowledge of the dynamics of psychedelic states.” (Grof, p. 316) They
may offer comforting psychical contact.
·
When providing
care to those undergoing the psychotic experience, emphasize safety and
care. Researcher Grof asserts that facing one’s [or another’s] madness,
destructive and aggressive energy SHOULD NOT BE treated as a pharmacological
state to aggressively confront and resolve” (Grof, p. 313)
[Mental health centers have an always had such an
inhibiting effect. Time on the
psychiatric ward represents serious social stigma - which is immediately
internalized in order for survival. Any
psychiatric facility has an atmosphere of danger and urgency, so psychotic
experiences in this environment in particular can cause a lifetime of trauma
for patients and staff alike. Caregivers
appear as the enemy. Anyone on a
psychedelic and/or psychotic trip, Grof says, “may physically fight with the
sitters (in this case, hospital staff, family, or friends), seeing them as the
oppressive element. They may “be driven
to violent, self-destructive actions, mistaking them for the liberating ego
death.”]
Hospital treatment is usually swift and strong
[restraints, injections of tranquilizers (contraindicated when the use of
psychedelics is suspected), seclusion].
These “drastic measures often reflect the helpers’ own feelings of
threat and insecurity in relation to their own unconscious . . . Exposure to another person’s deep emotional
materials tends to shatter psychological defenses . . . The prevailing tendency
to put all such experience into the category of schizophrenia and to suppress
them in every way reflects not only a lack of understanding, but also a
convenient self-defense against the helper’s own unconscious materials” (Grof,
p. 314) Caretakers must reflect a
psychotic’s experience as therapeutic opportunities, not clinical problems (and
still take care of their own needs).
·
People in
psychosis have deep feelings of doom, without hope of escape, feeling one is
crazy, in hell, and it will last forever.
It is important to integrate, emphasize and clarify the distinction
between psychological time and clock time.
Try to connect the patient’s intellectual knowledge with the
actual experience.
·
Use
non-verbals. Consensual reality aside, your body may intuit what
another is going through. Follow good
instincts.
·
Emphasize that
the person experiencing psychosis is not facing real biological death. One
can feel the conceptual frameworks break down.
Cultural and cognitive barriers dissolve. One
must surrender, accept, and go through it.
The psychotic material can be seen and synthesized in a totally new way
that was not possible within the old systems of thinking (Grof, p. 270).
“LSD
can mediate access to vast repositories of concrete and valid information in
the collective unconscious and make them available to the experient.” (Grof,
p.267) So, similarly, persons undergoing
psychotic experiences are synthesizing and integrating data in new ways,
“resulting in unconventional problem solving.”
·
Respect the
person undergoing this experience. If psychosis was treated akin to a rite of passage, in
caring, empathic ways, we might emerge less destroyed from the waters
scientists study and quantify.
·
If you’re in
psychosis (again), trust. Helpers in this effort, be they friends, family,
shamanic initiators, guides -- each
offers their help for individual recovery of the essential self.
·
Hold the
beliefs that relief and recovery are possible. There is a place in recovery for non-conventional modes of
healing. Patients, families, friends,
helping professionals, and policy makers must realize the helpfulness and
utility of these old studies, despite psychiatry’s reliance on neurochemical
theories. “Today, most psychiatrists
assume that mental illness almost always has a biological or genetic basis
rather than a social or psychological or even spiritual origin”(Pinchbeck, p.
178). We must invite a psychiatry that
includes spiritual or mystical experiences without pathologizing them. The challenge is in expanding the biological
model. It won’t be easy.
“The
psychiatric community argues endlessly over verbal definitions within the
general framework of insanity. The
framework itself is rarely challenged.
It should be! Like personality
definitions, insanity labels unjustly evoke self-fulfilling prophecies . .
. Psychiatric
diagnoses, unlike diagnoses in other medical specialities, define, and in so
doing, create, pathological conditions.
The diagnosis or definition becomes part of the illness and creates a
series of self-fulfilling prophecies .
Once an institutionalized diagnosis is made, a reality is invented in
which even normal behavior appears disturbed.
After the diagnosis, perceptions that reinforce the diagnosis are
manufactured. The process quickly moves
beyond the control of patients, diagnosing physicians, family, staff and
hospital administrations. All
participate in the construction of a reality that supports the diagnosis.”
Wilson
Brian Key, The Age of Manipulation
Despite
the horrors of hallucinations and psychotic activity, Grof says they can be
opportunities for therapeutic change.
Researchers emphasize there IS something better on the other side. “Talent . . . its expression was blocked by
strong pathological emotions” (Grof, p. 266)
Successful psychedelic therapy allowed for full “affective
liberation.” That means freedom of
mood. Further, one develops deep insight
and empathetic understanding. We must
learn to accept, work through and integrate these experiences. As the Chinese icon for crisis is devised of
the separate icons for opportunity and danger, we survivors of psychotic
experience must dare to give an answer to the questions “What was going through
your head? What happened to you?”
“A
psychotic episode may contain within it the beginnings of a spiritual
breakthrough. The spiritual qualities of
extreme mental states are real and powerful, and they are part and parcel of
the pain, confusion, and dangerous quality of madness. To devalue or negate these spiritual aspects
is to devalue or negate the person who experiences them, for these qualities
are inseparable from the person. That is
the true definition of stigma -- a devaluation or negation that marks as
shameful those qualities that are in a person’s heart.”
Sally
Clay, “Stigma,” Journal of Contemplative Psychotherapy, 4 (1987)
We
each are called to release the pain and the shame. While delusion and self-deception demonstrate
that not every vision of God is real, we must honor all that we are, while
learning to harmonize our psyches. I’ll
end this long, arduous journey of research, discovery and writing with the
following quote from Jack Kornfield. It
presents a challenge for me and the ones I love, and maybe, a way through:
“We
must find in ourselves a willingness to go into the dark, to feel the holes and
deficiencies, the weakness, rage, or insecurity that we have walled off in
ourselves. We must bring deep attention
to the stories we tell about these shadows to see what is the underlying
truth. Then, as we willingly enter each
place of fear, each place of deficiency and insecurity in ourselves, we will
discover that its walls are made of untruths, of old images of ourselves, of
ancient fears, of false ideas of what is pure and what is not. We will see that each is made from a lack of
trust in ourselves, our hearts, and the world.
As we see through them, our world expands. As the light of awareness illuminates these
stories and ideas, and the pain, fear, or emptiness that underlies them, a
deeper truth can show itself. By
accepting and feeling each of these areas, a genuine wholeness, sense of
well-being and strength can be discovered.”
Notes:
Castaneda, Carlos.
The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge. University of California Press, 1968.
Grof, Stanislav, M.D.
Beyond the Brain: Birth, Death and Transcendence in Psychotherapy.
State University of New York, 1986.
Grof, Stanislav, M.D.
LSD Psychotherapy: Exploring the Frontiers of the Hidden Mind. Hunter House, 1994.
Jung, Carl. The Archetypes and the Collective
Unconscious, Princeton Press, 1980.
Key, Wilson Brian.
The Age of Manipulation: The Con in
Confidence, the Sin in Sincere. Henry
Holt & Co., 1989.
Kornfield, Jack.
A Path With Heart: A Guide Through the Perils and Promises of Spiritual
Life. Bantam Books, 1992, p. 194.
McKenna Terence.
Food of the Gods: The Search for the Original Tree of Knowledge. HarperCollins, 1991.
Pinchbeck, Daniel.
Breaking Open the Head: A Psychedelic Journey into the Heart of
Contemporary Shamanism. Broadway
Books, 2002.
Stahlman, Sandra.
The Relationship Between Schizophrenia & Mysticism: A
Bibliographic Essay. Internet
version. 1992.
Stevens, Jay. Storming Heaven: LSD and the American
Dream. Grove Press, 1987.