The term psychosis was introduced in the 1800s as an alternative to the stigmatised labels of madness and insanity, due to its lineage of asylums, lobotomies, straitjackets, and forced medication. Its history is persecution, ridicule, and incarceration, and its enduring legacy is illness, a break from reality, something less than sanity. But is this true? Or is psychosis misunderstood spiritual awakening, from a lineage of shamans, mystics, visionaries, and prophets, something more than sanity?
My relationship to synchronicity has evolved across three stages. Initially, on rare occurrences of coincidence, I’d be dismissive and mildly freaked out. I was “scientifically-minded,” atheistic, and intellectual. If coincidences were shared (suggesting a song a friend was about to play was eerily common on car journeys), we’d pause, hold bemused eye contact, we’d say, “that’s weird,” forget about it, and move on with our lives.
Quantum physics and spirituality seem an unlikely pairing. What relevance do subatomic dimensions have with subjective experience? Doesn’t science disprove spirituality? I’m inspired by quantum theory and how its implications correlate to Eastern philosophy. Whereas classical physics has no room for non-material phenomena, quantum physics opens the door of mystery, suggesting science can support a spiritual worldview.
Freedom is a spiritual quality. Like love, or peace, or stillness, it is essential, and only truly cultivated within. Equally, freedom, like love, or peace, or stillness, is experienced in the world, or more accurately, through the world. While worldly freedom can be attained, spiritual freedom is unconditional. This freedom is not the absence of difficulty, but freedom despite difficulty.
Synchronicity signals something significant unfolding. Usually, that significance is an emerging insight. But occasionally, personal synchronicities relate to collective emergence. Recently, these synchronicities related to a process I was going through with reframing mental illness. I read Thomas Szasz’s Ideology and Insanity, discovered by chance at a bookstore, weeks before a significant review was published, which argues there is “no convincing evidence” the chemical imbalance theory of depression is true.
As my head touched the pillow last night, and I entered the halfway house between waking and dreaming, I heard a whisper: “Thomas Aquinas.” Aquinas was an influential theologian whose work I’ve encountered over the years, yet never dived into. The echo of his name in my half-conscious state made me alert, intrigued. The whisper arrived again, along with a sense of ‘knowing’ that I was him in a previous life.
Systems theory is a science of complexity. Multiple fields have applied its principles for deeper understanding, including sociology, medicine, economics, psychology, physics, and engineering. I’m particularly interested in how it can make sense of individual, collective, and cosmic consciousness, to unite spirituality and science.