I Have Wrestled With God

August 26, 2018

My name is Jacob. And like the biblical figure from whom my name derives, I have wrestled with God.

I have survived a shattering engagement with one of the extremes of human existence, an unspeakable existential emergency that forced me to examine the meaning of life and my place within the greater order of things.

I consider myself one of the luckiest people alive, not only to have risen from such depths but to have descended into them in the first place. The level of pain I have experienced matches the level of medicine I hope to bring in.

I’m here to help remind us of something we’ve forgotten: “schizophrenia” is a spiritual practice.

Think Plato’s cave allegory meets One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Think the world’s wisdom traditions pouring into psych wards. Think “schizophrenics” rejecting their diagnoses in favor of something much more profound.

Imagine the cultural healing that will take place when we quit pathologizing one of our central connections to the spirit realm. Imagine we give our “psychotics” the treatments they need to accept their summons as healers and go through proper initiatory processes. Imagine thousands of people removing multi-generational trauma.

What would that do for us as a society? What if the solution to some of our biggest problems lies in reversing the way we treat mental illness?

I’m asking you to think big. Think beyond diagnosis. Think beyond stigma. Think sacred.