The Numinous Approach
“Schizophrenia” becomes sacredphrenia when you no longer approach it as a brain disease but rather as a spiritual dilemma with downstream brain effects. These are spiritual wars taking place inside people, wars we only see the outermost glimpses of.
Those who outwardly seem mildly troubled, inwardly are often engaged in some of the deepest philosophical questions a person can ask, questions that come alive for them in the form of cosmic battles between good and evil, grand sweeping visions of utopias and post-apocalyptic hellscapes, nagging voices that belong to wandering discarnate spirits or exiled parts of the personality.
The mind of a “schizophrenic” is often the mind of someone who can’t look away from whatever is darkest inside themselves or others or the world itself. As highly sensitive souls, they become magnets to some of the densest shadow material one can encounter, and they are in most cases emotionally, intellectually, and energetically underprepared for such heavy lifting.
Because the existential weight of such shadow material is so huge, “schizophrenics” and others experiencing extreme, torturous states of consciousness need encounters with what Carl Jung called “the numinous,” which is essentially another way of saying “the sacred,” “the divine,” “God,” etc. They need such encounters because oftentimes these are the only experiences capable of sufficiently counteracting the psychic poisons that have accrued inside them.
Some shadows can only be dissolved by the light of pure consciousness or divinity. No amount of psychiatric medication or conventional psychotherapy can touch such wounds. It’s necessary to bring in shamans, yogis, priests, exorcists, qigong masters, Reiki healers, Reichian therapists, Jungian analysts, and religious scholars where psychiatrists fall short. Ultimately, it’s necessary to teach the “schizophrenic” how to 𝘴𝘸𝘪𝘮 “in the same waters in which the mystic swims with delight,” to borrow from Joseph Campbell’s famous line.
In other words, it’s necessary for the “schizophrenic” to become the mystic. And that’s a tall order for a population whose basic needs often aren’t being met. Lately, I’ve been recognizing how much privilege I’ve experienced in comparison with “schizophrenics” who do not have stable homes and loving families. Most do not have access to quality mental health services, especially of the holistic variety that I speak of.
Perhaps my greatest advantage is that I was born into a mystical family. My grandparents studied Jung intently and were passionate about spiritual matters. My dad once wrote a 90-minute composition celebrating God called The Bristlecone Mass that combined the Eucharist tradition with Native American prophecy. My mom has always been a wellspring of wisdom regarding different religions and contemplative traditions, and counsels people in their spiritual journeys.
This stuff is embedded deeply in my DNA and was healthily included in my upbringing. Given my mystical roots, perhaps it was inevitable that I would reject the conventional theory of “schizophrenia” in favor of a more numinous understanding. My problems seemed to be largely religious in nature, so when a psychiatrist diagnosed me with “paranoid schizophrenia,” I found his opinion to be lacking. His education could not possibly prepare him for the spiritual war going on inside me, as biological psychiatry has yet to acknowledge the reality of spirit, so why would I trust my delicate inner life with him?
Jung, on the other hand, was a mystic, precisely what made him such a groundbreaking psychiatrist. As evidenced by the quote featured above, he understood that the most effective therapy consists of having deeply felt spiritual experiences that convince you, on a cellular level, of the inherent goodness at the bottom of Creation. I’m not sure there is anything more curative than that. Certainly it’s been the most important ingredient in my own mental health metamorphosis, releasing me “from the curse of pathology” and causing what was once a disease—“schizophrenia”—to “take on a numinous character”—sacredphrenia.
