Are you having a spiritual awakening or going insane? Sometimes it is difficult to tell the difference because mental health crisis and spiritual crisis often look a lot alike. However, spiritual crisis or dark night of the soul is usually a temporary imbalance resulting from awakening consciousness that is eventually transcended. While mental health crisis can be the result of a more pernicious and long lasting imbalance in the mind/body/spirit complex that is more difficult to remediate.

The dark night of the soul is a common symptom of spiritual awakening and arises when the soul awakens and notices within the self and life circumstances all those things that are out of alignment with the dawning soul awareness. The dark night of the soul can last for years and is often accompanied by depression, anxiety, and detoxing of the subconscious. But eventually the dawning soul awareness is integrated and there is a movement toward greater alignment and balance.

Mental health crisis on the other hand may have at its root mind/body/spirit imbalances that are manifesting physically as chemical imbalance. When mind/body/spirit imbalance is severe one may have difficulty with reasoning and cognition. Imbalances of this nature can be difficult to remediate or heal, but healing is always possible.

Whether you are having spiritual crisis or mental health crisis don’t be afraid to ask for help. We can’t always tell the difference between spiritual crisis and mental health crisis, and often aren’t aware of our own imbalances.

In addition to spiritual crisis most people on the awakening journey also experience increasing dissonance between the consensus reality worldview and their awakening consciousness. A sign of an awakening third eye is that you see reality more clearly. During the early stages of spiritual awakening many people are attracted to conspiracy theories and alternative views of reality, because the old explanations are no longer satisfactory.

Dominant culture is heavily informed by the Enlightenment notion that the world consists of dead matter and the ascent of humanity is one of gaining increasing mastery and control over our physical environment. Consciousness and spirit exist at the edges of this worldview and are often regarded with agnostic contempt. Even the theology of dominant culture exiles spirit and consciousness to the immaterial plane, rendering them largely irrelevant.

The awakening process involves a growing awareness and experience of immaterial forces. Most experientially realize in one way or another that consciousness and spirit are integral to matter and not emergent. Instead of spirit and consciousness being irrelevant, there is a dawning realization that both are fundamental and that it is material reality that is emergent.

Thus the awakening person’s worldview becomes inverted from that of dominant society. From the awakening perspective it becomes increasingly apparent that the world is upside down and that materialism is the root of all our problems. Everything conventional becomes suspect. Every conventional source of authority is doubted. Because dominant society is based on a flawed premise about reality the awakening soul realizes it is rotten to its core.

There are now two types of sanity and insanity, awakened and conventional. Awakened sanity is rational within the context of the awakened worldview. Awakened insanity is irrational within the context of the awakened worldview. Many people slip into states of awakened insanity when the awakened worldview is distorted and there is a tendency towards mind/body/spirit imbalance.

Many people suffering from awakened insanity reflexively view all things conventional as wrong and all things alternative as right. These people often become untethered from any cohesive worldview and engage in a lot of wild speculation. The more spectacular the alternative perspective the more likely they are to believe it. Moreover, the distrust of the conventional worldview can manifest as paranoia.

In order to avoid awakened insanity it is important to clearly understand the awakened worldview and how it compares to the conventional worldview. Understand where they overlap and where they differ. Recognize that all things conventional are not wrong and all things alternative are not true.

Moreover, cultivate your capacity for rational thinking and identify erroneous or unfounded beliefs within your own worldview. Be rigorous in your application of logic to every situation and belief. Maintain an attitude of curious skepticism when encountering a new claim or explanation of reality. How does this fit within your existing framework? What is the source? Is it sound? Remain grounded.