As someone who wobbles on the edge between the “weird” and the pragmatic, I have taken long dips into the rabbit holes of “is this real or am I having a psychotic break?” It is something I feel like any modern mystic would think about considering the majority of the things that occur in the mystic framework we have have no real context culturally, psychologically, or otherwise.
We do have to think and be aware of what is real versus what we want to be real. It is a difficult line to cross especially when there is no real context in the West regarding what it means to have interactions with the Divine.
In the case where we know it is spiritual psychosis and where it is coming from, there is often an underlying cause to the problem that they are experiencing. This can mean poor mental health, medications, drugs, or other stress-induced paranoia or schizophrenia that can make up the difference between what is real and what isn’t.
Of course, to the person experiencing the hallucinations, it is very real to them. But to the outsiders watching, it can seem like a struggle between some strange force outside of them and the person within the body. We cannot define what is real and what isn’t to someone experiencing a sign much less what a person who does have psychosis is feeling. In that moment, regardless of whether that person is having a mystical experience or not, the experience is incredibly real to them and it doesn’t matter how much reality says otherwise.
The argument cannot be whether or not the person experiencing something is having a “real” experience because anything that is experienced is unique to the individual.
The difference sometimes can mean a difference of opinion. In the end, most spiritual people to an atheist would otherwise be defined as having some sort of psychosis episode because, in their mind, spirituality only exists within the mind and not as an external force of metaphysical beings, energetically or otherwise. It is a difficult adjustment to have someone who claims to have no experiences within the realm of the supernatural or paranormal say that someone else might be having a spiritual experience outside of themselves.
This mindset is what causes a lot of issues in the pagan community due to believing only the individual gets to decide for themselves whether or not they are communing with the Gods or not. Because of the lack of context, there is no assigned definition to how the Gods are supposed to be behaving. We have beliefs ranging anywhere from the Gods being archetypes to the Gods being given only a story to act a part of.
All of these issues combined create a doorway for spiritual psychosis to become a major issue within the community. Not only because we have no definition of what a mystical experience is but because we have no way to actually hold accountable the people who are claiming to have a mystical experience and then causing problems with people already inclined to have psychosis.
In pursuit of wanting to have community and having validation from others around you, the human brain is already predisposed to believe that everyone else is not an imposter when you are already inundated with imposter syndrome. Anxiety pushes people to feel as though everyone else somehow is more legitimate than they are. This leaves the narcissists and the abusers free reign over anyone who does not already have their own beliefs situated. They will take advantage of this insecurity and allow anyone who thinks otherwise to be cast aside in pursuit of what is more widely acceptable in the Western world and philosophy.
That desire for belonging scares most people into believing anything anyone else says regardless of whether or not it is normally the case for the Deity Themselves or regardless of them having experiences that might change the opinion of the people who would not be experiencing what you are experiencing.
The hesitance to even relate experiencing a Divine Being then gets washed up and stuck inside an echo chamber instead of actually flourishing and becoming a more authentic standard for who He is. Whatever experiences others might be having take precedence and whatever experiences that the person who is having this issue is having becomes unreal and unnatural.
Psychosis comes when you cannot trust your own guidance. You get so swept up in wanting to believe everything everyone else is doing that you twist your own experiences to compensate for the lack of understanding you have about your own mind and your own body.
Modernly, we are more obsessed with comparison than ever before in human history thanks to social media and the way technology has gripped the human mind. Though our communication skills are more advanced than ever and that can prove to be a good thing when wanting to provide context for an experience not many others are going to inevitably be having, we still warp what we experience for the betterment of the whole before ever wanting to deny the plausibility of whomever else is experiencing it.
Unfortunately, we are still involved in a lot of Enlightenment-based thinking wherein reason and factual evidence proves to be more substantial than lived experience. Replacing our own mind with the mind of everyone else’s is certainly not going to be substantial, either, when it comes to experiencing the Divine or embodying the Divine within. We cannot truly and fully embrace the Divine in our community until we let go of the need for being right and being proven to be right based off of what the community is experiencing.
The answer, as in every mystical inquiry, is to know thyself. Know who you are, your thinking patterns, what you do and why you do it. Be curious and without shame. Come to your own understanding as a result of an experience you have without the prompting of someone else around you and know that it’s okay to be wrong. If the experience was worth having, it will mean something to you. Whether or not it was a Divine being speaking through the experience or whether it was Them trying to say something to you, it really doesn’t matter. Having the experiences repeatedly will cause an overarching understanding that will be formed by your experiences alone before ever comparing notes with someone else.
In the case of the community, we need to set better standards for those in positions of power. Those who are actually capable of leading will not give you answers to all the problems you have on your own path. They might give you structure, context, and tools, but they will not solve the problem of discernment for you. You have to be able to do that for yourself.
The Gods are fully capable of making Themselves known with or without the community aiding in it. They can define for Themselves who and what is actually real and make you aware of it without any big name pagan telling you otherwise. You are capable on your own of deciding whether or not an experience is real or not without it getting conflated with the confusion and the misdirection of the leading people in the community. It is a natural human instinct to be involved with the Divine as well as a natural human tendency to know the presence of the Divine, as well.
Our own discernment goes down the drain when we get involved in communities that believe they have the answers at hand or follow some tradition that has no bearing on the way things were actually done before Christianity.
We cannot have the answers if we do not know how to look for them or where we go to ask. Our textbooks are biased and those who have spoken on eyewitness accounts are Christian, too. We have to go back to square one to get any legitimate practice and relationship with the Gods and that is by building an authentic relationship with the Gods. Until that happens, we are only the blind leading the blind further into darkness.
Devoured by Flame 