Catherine G Lucas
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Books
    • Life Crisis Free Sample
    • Alcohol Recovery Free Sample
    • Articles
  • Free Mindfulness
  • Events
    • UK
    • Europe
    • United States
    • Previous
  • Support
    • What is Spiritual Crisis?
    • Mindfulness Mentoring
    • Spiritual Crisis Support
  • Interviews
    • Other Audios
  • My YouTube
  • Contact
    • Meet Catherine
    • Links
    • Privacy Policy

Heroes Needed: Apply Within

25/11/2012

0 Comments

 
Picture

Emma Bragdon, acclaimed author, reivews 'In Case of Spiritual Emergency' in the current issue of Caduceus.

It’s hard to cope with the news of the crises we are facing on every front--environmental, political, financial, and social.  Epidemic numbers of people are turning to psychiatric medications to stop feeling anxious and/or depressed.  We need more heroes, people of vision, who are not afraid to go into the wild and scary places, confront the powerful issues that are threatening us, and bring back the wisdom we need to rebuild our world on a foundation that sustains life.

Catherine G Lucas, author of “In Case of Spiritual Emergency,” (Findhorn Press, 2011) believes we are in a global spiritual emergency, similar to a dark night of the soul.  She says more individuals are being called to face inner demons, and align with the Higher Self in a different kind of life.   Those that complete the journey have a greater connection to their soul purpose, and greater ability to live a life motivated by compassionate action.

Lucas’ book describes her own and others spiritual crises, and how each first wondered if he/she was crazy and then came through it.  The bulk of the book revolves around the concept of “spiritual emergency,” an evolutionary crisis that can appear similar to symptoms of mental illness: with disorientation, dramatic mood swings, inability to concentrate, identification with perceptions that are not apparent to others.  However, in spiritual emergency, the individual is following the trail through the dark underworld that leads to the Higher Self.  They need encouragement and support.

Between 1994 and 2003 there was a 4000% increase in the diagnosis of bipolar disorder for people under age 21.  Are we perhaps using the diagnosis too loosely—maybe applying it to those who are trying to make the hero’s journey?  Are we putting them on a lifelong course of debilitating drug therapy that numbs feelings instead of providing more appropriate support?  Lucas reflects on such questions.

Since Dr. Stan and Christina Grof’s seminal work describing spiritual emergency in the 1970s, others have followed with further research that Lucas documents.  She also advises the experiencers how to care for themselves and whom to trust to give appropriate support. Lucas suggests learning and practicing mindfulness training and techniques for grounding, finding creative expression, and allowing caring people to create a safe environment, as needed.

It could be that ‘mental illness’ occurs when someone resists doing the inner work of facing his/her feelings,  inner demons and aligning with the Higher Self.   Lucas’ book is for those who are willing and able to do that work with some guidance.  The message of this book will not be of use to those unable to commit to increasing self-awareness.

If you give the book to someone who is lost in a ‘dark night’ and looking for reference points this read could make the difference between that person being “mentally ill” or completing the most significant journey of life, the hero’s journey. 

Fortunately, Lucas, based in the UK, has joined with others who are creating networks of support for those on the journey.  Her book offers up to date references for further reading, websites, DVDs and CDs –all tools that shed light on the path, including contact information for support people in every English-speaking country. 

Bio of reviewer: Emma Bragdon, PhD (psychology) is based in the USA.  She is the author of two previous books on Spiritual Emergency as well as 4 books that bridge spirituality and health, following models developed in Brazil.  www.EmmaBragdon.com


0 Comments

Frontier Beyond Fear Radio Interview

19/10/2012

0 Comments

 
Guest Blog Post by radio host Susan Larison Danz

Friday 11 AM Pacific on The Frontier Beyond Fear radio program, I am anticipating a very special conversation with mindfulness coach Catherine G Lucas, the courageous and inspiring author of In Case of Spiritual Emergency. Catherine will share important information to assist those experiencing dramatic spiritual emergencies/emergences.

Spiritual emergencies are frequently misinterpreted and misdiagnosed, yet have unique spiritual components, often triggered by dramatic events. It was Catherine's own emergence experiences that led her to research the true nature of these unique crisis situations.

As a mindfulness coach, Catherine has developed concrete tools to keep mystical experiences from spiraling out of control, circumventing dangerous mazes of dysfunction and misdiagnosis. Catherine has also partnered with the mental health establishment in England, as more and more people involved with crisis intervention are learning to recognize the unique nature of spiritual events.

This is going to be quite a special, heartfelt conversation because of my own personal experience with dramatic spiritual emergence many years ago. Like others who have successfully navigated through the challenges of such life-altering experiences, Catherine and I are both aware of the tremendous gifts such experiences can carry despite literally traveling through the rapids in the process. The chat room will be open for questions, and callers with questions are not only welcome, but encouraged. The call-in line for the show is (310) 807-5104. http://www.blogtalkradio.com/susan-larison-danz/2012/10/19/catherine-lucas
0 Comments

Spiritual Emergency: a Rebirth

6/9/2012

2 Comments

 
Something is afoot. Something is stirring and shifting. It shouldn’t be a surprise, yet somehow it is. Spiritual emergency, which is all about rebirth, is going through a rebirth of its own. A term first coined back in the 1980s, interest in the phenomenon had waned; awareness and understanding of this transpersonal approach to psychospiritual crisis had fallen away.

Now, as we hurtle towards the 2012 Winter Solstice, people are waking up and realising that we need this understanding, this information, more than ever.

What am I going by? What are the signs? First, there’s the recently launched work of The Wakeup: New Earth Alliance for Addiction Recovery. The team approaches addiction from the perspective of spiritual emergency, which makes so much sense. You can find out more about their wonderful work at http://www.the-wakeup.com/. You can join their Ning community at http://thewakeup.ning.com/

Then there’s the initiative to launch a new Spiritual Crisis Network in Holland. I’ll be speaking at the conference to mark this exciting new development at the University of Leiden on 15 & 16 September. www.parapsy.nl May there be many more such national networks to join the existing ones!
Picture
Emma Bragdon, who wrote a classic spiritual emergency text back in the 1980s, has two new books out: Resources for Extraordinary Healing: Schizophrenia, Bipolar and Other Serious Mental Illnesses (Lightening Up Press) and Spiritism and Mental Health: Practices from Spiritist Centers and Spiritist Psychiatric Hospitals (Singing Dragon, a Jessica Kingsley Publishers imprint). Her work today is still very much about helping to shift to the new paradigm of mental health.

To cap it all, George Noory on the American radio show Coast to Coast discussed this very subject recently with his guests Dr Seth Farber, dissident psychologist and co-founder of the Network Against Coercive Psychiatry and Paul Levy. Farber’s point is that many forms of ‘mental illness’ are actually spiritual and supernatural experiences. Check out Paul Levy’s website: http://www.awakeninthedream.com/wordpress/

Finally, the Beyond Meds blog is covering many angles of spiritual emergency these days: http://beyondmeds.com/

All I can say about these initiatives is ‘thank goodness’! Thank you to all these dedicated people for what they are bringing to the collective consciousness right now. When I heard recently of yet another tragedy caused by mental health staff dismissing the spiritual dimension, I was reminded of how desperately needed this awareness and understanding is. But then I never really forget.


2 Comments

Think Globally, Act Locally - Listen to my interview on Stroud FM from anywhere in the world!

21/12/2011

0 Comments

 
Originally published Sunday 12 June 2011

TUESDAY 14 JUNE 4pm GMT, repeated SUNDAY 19 JUNE 3pm GMT
Visit http://www.stroudfm.co.uk/ and click Listen Live!

For someone like myself, whose idea of heaven on earth is a desert island, the recent radio interview I did was more than a lot of fun! I got to chose five tracks of my favourite music to play in classic 'Desert Island Disc' style.

Listen out for the Gayatri Mantra, one of the most ancient and most powerful chants, also Kathy Zavada, the unforgettable Argentinian Mercedes Sosa, Eva Cassidy and the Kenyan Ayub Ogada.

In between tracks we talked about my new book 'In Case of Spiritual Emergency', the Spiritual Crisis Network, the local Stroud group of the SCN and so much more... Swithin Fry, the presenter of 'The Art Lot Slot' kept me on my toes!

I have to say, Stroud FM's studio was surprisingly far more spacious (almost palatial in comparison!) than the tiny, but very smart studio in London where my interview with Mark Tully for BBC Radio 4 was recorded.

Stay tuned for more details of upcoming interviews I'm doing...

Happy Listening!
0 Comments

'The Red Book' – Carl Jung’s Journey Through Spiritual Emergence(y)

21/12/2011

0 Comments

 
Originally published Tuesday 31 May
 
Have you ever come across a book that weighs more than a new born baby? At nearly 10 pounds, Carl Jung’s Red Book can only be described as a weighty tome, in every sense of the word.

At a recent NHS conference on Spiritual Care and Mental Health (see post 16 May 2011) the speaker I was most impressed by was Rev. Stephen Bushell, Head of Spiritual and Pastoral Care for Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust. A Jungian psychotherapist, we chatted briefly about Jung’s extraordinary Red Book, which was actually only published a couple of years ago. Our conversation reminded me of my quest to access a copy of it and of my first impressions.

Part II of my book ‘In Case of Spiritual Emergency’ looks at spiritual crisis through the ages, exploring the spiritual emergencies of various figures, from mystics to creatives, to well known people alive today. I felt Jung was an obvious choice to include, as I see him as something of a creative genius and he left us the most amazing record of his spiritual emergence(y): his Red Book.
 
I first tried to get hold of Jung’s Red Book at the British Library, only to be told that it was not available, as it was in high demand. The suggestion was that I re-apply in 54 weeks time (over a year). I then started tracking down copies in other libraries. The Bodleian in Oxford had a copy, but it was ‘in processing’, which I certainly felt I could relate to.

To my delighted astonishment I discovered that the Wellcome Library in London had not one copy, but four, in the Student Collection. I immediately made enquiries about how to join the library, and set off a few days later in eager anticipation.

As someone who has been through spiritual crisis, I was fascinated at the thought of being able to read Jung’s detailed account of his experience of spiritual emergence and emergency . He, of all people, seemed to have managed and integrated it and gone on to live his life from that experience, basing all his subsequent work and theories on that time. The fact that this psychological and spiritual treasure has only recently become available, released by the family and allowed to be published in 2009, somehow made my whole trip to London seem even more thrilling.

I got to the Wellcome Library, went through the very straightforward joining procedure and headed straight for the shelves of the Student Collection. In my excitement I couldn’t immediately make sense of the library’s home grown version of the Dewey cataloguing system. And then I saw it. Absolutely, unmistakably, that was it! Four huge, and I mean HUGE, bright red tomes on the shelf, stacked on their sides, because even though they were the ‘oversize’ shelves, they weren’t big enough to house the copies upright.
 
I heaved a copy off the shelf. As I put it down on the desk it fell open at a page of the most beautiful fountain pen calligraphy, with decorated capital letters, like medieval illuminated manuscripts. It looked like a sacred book and I guess to Jung it was. It recorded a sacred process and in making The Red Book so beautiful he was giving his spiritual emergency the due honour and respect it deserved.

No sooner had the page fallen open than my heart sank. All that beautiful calligraphy was in German. I wasn’t going to be able to understand a word of it! My sense of anticipation and exhilaration were such that I wasn’t really thinking logically, because, of course, I only had to open the volume at a place further on to see that the English translation followed the original text.

The very next page at which The Red Book fell open left me mesmerized. It was a painting of a sacred geometrical design known as a ‘mandala’. Jung had painted it in such a way that it had a 3D effect, a look of movement. As I gazed at it and watched the shapes moving in and out I immediately felt a shift in my energy, a raising of my vibration. It took me into a slightly altered state. This was sacred art communicating an aspect of the Divine to me. I was in awe. Jung went up in my estimation, that he had produced something so powerfully beautiful, so powerfully transcendent, with such a potent quality of the numinous.

What a privilege to be researching such amazing people and such amazing texts as The Red Book. Have you seen Jung’s Red Book? How did the mandalas impact on you? Share your experience!
0 Comments

Co-creating in Momentous Times

21/12/2011

0 Comments

 
Originally published Tuesday 19 April 2011

I recently attended an inspiring week-end put on by the Wrekin Trust at the wonderful Hawkwood College. Why did I feel drawn to Co-creating in Momentous Times? Because I see powerful parallels between individual spiritual emergence and global spiritual emergence. The awakening of consciousness can at times speed up and tip over into crisis. The emergence becomes an emergency. Having been through such a process, I know how terrifying it can be. As we move into global spiritual emergency, we are being offered a wonderful opportunity for transformation. As we move to a whole new level of consciousness, we need to trust the process, to surrender to it and not be overcome by fear. Here are a few reflections following the week-end, with thanks to Janice Dolley, of the Wrekin Trust, Jude Currivan, whose material I draw on in places, and the whole team.

Fire, Water

We worked with the elements of fire and water. An Egyptian fruit seller, supporting a family of eight, is told by the authorities that he can no longer sell in the street. He pours petrol all over his body and sets light to himself. Fire. The element of fire sparked the Egyptian revolution and the whole domino effect of uprisings across North Africa.            
       In Japan, a tsunami leaves 13,500 dead, nearly 17,000 missing, half a million homeless. Water. A society that has become homogenized, a society where a million young men, known as ‘hikikomori’, have simply withdrawn, retired to their rooms, refusing to engage with society on its terms, is engulfed by water. A poignant, moving email from a survivor in Sendai does the rounds and warms hearts the globe over. She writes:

Things here in Sendai have been rather surreal. But I am very blessed to have wonderful friends who are helping me a lot. Since my shack is even more worthy of that name, I am now staying at a friend’s home. We share supplies like water, food and a kerosene heater. We sleep lined up in one room, eat by candlelight, share stories. It is warm, friendly, and beautiful. ... If someone has water running in their home, they put out a sign so people can come to fill up their jugs and buckets. ... I come back to my shack to check on it each day, now to send this e-mail since the electricity is on, and I find food and water left in my entranceway. I have no idea from whom, but it is there. Old men in green hats go from door to door checking to see if everyone is OK. People talk to complete strangers asking if they need help. ...            
       Somehow at this time I realize from direct experience that there is indeed an enormous Cosmic evolutionary step that is occurring all over the world right at this moment. And somehow as I experience the events happening now in Japan, I can feel my heart opening very wide. My brother asked me if I felt so small because of all that is happening. I don’t. Rather, I feel as part of something happening that much larger than myself. This wave of birthing (worldwide) is hard, and yet magnificent.


They share water, they share fire. That night I dream of both. I dream of a people living by the sea, from the sea, their simple canoes are their fishing vessels, their transport; a people gradually becoming extinct. I’m shown the scene fast-forwarding and I see their numbers dwindling to the last handful. In another dream there is a fire. At first it’s only very small and no-one pays attention. Then it spreads, huge flames engulfing the second and third floors of a building. In the bar opposite, still nobody pays any attention. When I ask the bar tender if he has called the fire brigade he looks at me blankly. The people in the bar seem to be a metaphor for the ways in which we numb ourselves, distract ourselves, are lulled by sensory pleasure and craving, a metaphor for those not ready, not willing, not able to wake up. I urge, repeatedly, ‘What can we do? We must do something!’ Yet ultimately, not having the equipment to tackle the fire, and as there is no sense of anyone in danger in the building, all we can do is edge carefully past to safety. There is a sense of not being able to reach, of not being able to alert those in the bar, the vast numbed mass of humanity. Fire.
       The phoenix rising from the ashes is often used as a symbol for spiritual emergency. Whether at the individual level or the global level, spiritual emergency is a death and a rebirth, a rising out of the ashes. As our friend in Japan says, ‘this wave of birthing... is hard, and yet magnificent’. The state of global emergency we have entered brings dangers and it brings blessings, opportunities.

The Call
If you have felt things intensifying, in your own life, or in the news, if you have felt things speeding up, if you have felt things polarising into them and us, good versus evil, then you have felt the vibes of the global spiritual emergence and emergency. If you have been clearing out clutter like never before, if you have started growing your own food for the first time ever, you are responding to the call. The call to prepare, the call to be ready; what for, we do not know. The call seems to be to simplify our lives, to get back to basics, to open our hearts. And, for me, to take responsibility for raising my energy vibration as much as I possibly can each and every day. The birthing of spiritual emergence and emergency is ‘hard, and yet magnificent’. It offers healing, awakening, a whole new level of consciousness. It requires great trust and even greater surrender. How can we know that we’ll be OK? How can we know that we’ll get through whatever the shift entails, whatever these momentous times bring? We can take our lead from those who’ve been through spiritual emergency personally. From those who have, through the bliss and the nightmare, come to know at a visceral level, in Julian of Norwich’s words, that ‘all will be well, all will be well and all manner of things will be well’.

Fear? What Fear?

What this global transition calls for, above all, is to let go of fear. Those living in the harsh regimes of North Africa have bravely chosen to let go of fear, to rise up against oppression. In spiritual crisis, at the personal, individual level, the greatest and most frequent fear is of dying. We feel as if we won’t survive. And on one level that’s true. We don’t. The old me, the old you, the old ways, do not survive. At the global level too, the single greatest fear we need to let go of is that of dying. Is dying OK? Not wishing to sound flippant, ask anybody who’s been through a near-death experience and they will tell you. Most are bitterly disappointed to have to come back to earth. We are so attached to our physical bodies, to our thoughts, our emotions, our personalities and personas. Are we ready to stop seeing death from a limited, egoic perspective? Spiritual emergence and emergency does involve loss, it does involve great pain, and global spiritual emergency does involve death. ‘This wave of birthing... is hard, and yet magnificent.’

One Whole
Where before we’ve worked at an individual level, healing our wounds, now we’re being called to work at the collective level, healing our collective wounds. In Japan a whole society is being given the opportunity to heal its wounds, to open its heart, the Universal Heart. As we make the shift from the personal, so we realize that our individual wound is mirrored in the collective wound. The micro is also the macro. So, for instance, in Ireland, as the rapid economic growth of the late 1990s allowed greedy developers and bankers to cash in, so a nation strove to compensate for the starvation of the potato famine. Truly, we can understand a whole generation’s need never to go hungry again. For the first time ever, thanks largely to the technology of the worldwide web, we are experiencing ourselves as one whole, as deeply inter-connected. In the run up to the momentous cosmic alignment of 21 December 2012, the whole world will be watching London, attention fixed on the Olympics. If ‘all the world’s a stage’, London, at this pivotal juncture in time, will be the stage of all the world. Let us welcome the world with open arms and open hearts.

© Catherine G Lucas 2011
0 Comments

New Developments!!!

13/12/2011

0 Comments

 
_Mindfulness-based Approach to Spiritual Emergency (MBSE)
I’m developing my work. As a Mindfulness Trainer and Founder of the UK Spiritual Crisis Network, I’m now bringing together my professional training expertise and my experience of using Mindfulness to cope with my own spiritual emergency. I'm offering the first Mindfulness-based Approach to Spiritual Emergency course in Bristol starting 30 July 2011, with more to come in London and the USA in 2012.

For more details visit: http://www.academywisdom.co.uk/

See you there!

Warm wishes,
Picture
0 Comments

    Author

    Author of four books on the holistic, spiritual approach to mental health, Mindfulness Trainer, Founder, UK Spiritual Crisis Network.

    Follow this blog here:

    RSS Feed

    Archives

    July 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    April 2016
    December 2015
    September 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    March 2015
    February 2013
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011

    Categories

    All
    Alcohol
    Alcoholic Dad
    Alcoholic Father
    Amazon
    America
    Amma
    Avaaz
    Awakening Zone
    Ayahuasca
    Barbara Marx Hubbard
    Book Contract
    Book Launch
    Book Tour
    Caduceus
    Carl Jung
    Catalyst
    Catherine G Lucas
    Cbs Radio Washington
    Coast To Coast
    Community Radio
    Conscious Life Expo
    Coping
    Cosmic Consciousness
    Daily Life
    Dark Night Of The Soul
    David Shayler. Carl Jung
    Death Row
    Depression
    Desert Island Discs
    Dream
    Dr Russell Razzaque
    Ego Inflation
    Elaine Aron
    Emma Bragdon
    Emma Goude
    Eva Cassidy
    Evolution
    Experiencer
    Findhorn Press
    Gayatri Mantra
    George Noory
    Giving Birth
    Global Awakening Of Consciousness
    Global Shift
    Global Spiritual Emergency
    Global Transition
    Grof Foundation
    Hero
    Hero's Journey
    Highly Sensitive Person
    Hope Hospital
    In Case Of Spiritual Emergency
    Intention Experiment
    International Webinar
    Japan
    Kaia Nightingale
    Katie Mottram
    Kenneth Sloan
    Kimberley Jones
    Kiwi Kickstart
    Labour
    Lovers
    Mandalas
    Manuscript
    Meditation
    Mental Health
    Mercedes Sosa
    Mindfulness
    Mindfulness For Creative Writing
    Mindfulness For Lovers
    Mindfulness Poetry
    Mindfulness Practice
    Miscarriage Of Justice
    Momentous Times
    Mundesley
    Near-death Experience
    Nhs
    Paul Levy
    Portland In Oregon
    Psychospiritual Crisis
    Radio Interview
    Rebirth
    Recovery
    Research
    Retreat
    Sandie Sedgbeer
    SEN
    Sensitivity
    Shades Of Awakening
    Shaman
    Shamanic Healing
    Sparks!
    Spirit Attachment
    Spiritual Care
    Spiritual Crisis Network
    Spiritual Emergence Network
    Spiritual Emergence Service
    Spiritual Emergence Service Canada
    Spiritual Emergency
    Spiritual Practice
    Stanislav Grof
    Steve Taylor
    Stress
    Suicide
    Suicide Prevention
    Support
    Swithin Fry
    Tantra
    Tantric Sex
    Ted Esser
    Television Interview
    The Red Book
    The Wakeup
    Training
    Transformation Through Turmoil
    Tsunami
    Usa
    Us Book Tour
    Valentine's Day
    Vancouver
    Villa Boccella
    Virtual Light Show
    World Mental Health Day
    World Suicide Prevention Day
    Writing Retreat

© Copyright Catherine G Lucas 2016. All Rights Reserved.
Banner photo: Alex Caminada • Website tuition: Graham Boston
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Books
    • Life Crisis Free Sample
    • Alcohol Recovery Free Sample
    • Articles
  • Free Mindfulness
  • Events
    • UK
    • Europe
    • United States
    • Previous
  • Support
    • What is Spiritual Crisis?
    • Mindfulness Mentoring
    • Spiritual Crisis Support
  • Interviews
    • Other Audios
  • My YouTube
  • Contact
    • Meet Catherine
    • Links
    • Privacy Policy