songs of experience

Spiritual Crisis and the Need for Devotion

“The symptomology of a spiritual crisis is almost identical to that of a psychological crisis. In fact, since a spiritual crisis naturally involves the psyche, a “beginning mystic” may be unaware that the crisis is spiritual in nature and may describe his or her dilemma as psychological. The symptoms of a spiritual crisis are distinct however, and threefold:

The crisis usually begins with an awareness of an absence of meaning and purpose that cannot be remedied merely by shuffling the external components of one’s life. One feels a much deeper longing, one that cannot be satisfied by the prospect of a raise or promotion, marriage or new relationship. Ordinary solutions hold no attraction. Of course, some people have never found meaning and purpose in life, but these people are probably wrongly expecting life to deliver “meaning” to their doorstep. Chronic complainers and people who lack ambition are not suffering from a spiritual crisis. Those who are in a spiritual crisis, however, have a feeling that something is trying to wake them up inside them. They just don’t know how to see it.

Strange new fears are the second symptom of a spiritual crisis. These fears are not ordinary, such as fewrs of abandonment and aging; rather, they make a person feel as if he or she is losing touch with a sense of self or identity. “I am no longer sure of who I am and what I want out of life” is a standard report froma person saturated with the energy of the seventh chakra [our spiritual connector].

The third symptom is the need to experience devotion to something greater than oneself. The many psychological texts available today that describe human needs rarely mention our fundamental need for devotion, yet we all biologically and energenitically need to be in contact with a source of power that transcends human limitations and turmoil. We need to be in touch with a source of miracles and hope. Devotion commits part of our conscious minds to our unconscious eternal self, which in turn connects us directly to a Divine presence. Even brief and fleeting encounters with this presence and its infinite power help our conscious mind release its fears of life, and human power ceases to command our attention.

The absence of meaning, the loss of self-identity, and the need for devotion are the three strongest symptoms indicating a person has entered into the “dark night.”

from, Caroline Myss’s Anatomy of the Spirit