AMERICAN CENTER FOR THE INTEGRATION OF SPIRITUALLY TRANSFORMATIVE EXPERIENCES

Description

From the Session Abstract

A Chrysalis Crisis: Within Its Danger Lies the Opportunity for Transformation

For many years now we’ve been hearing reports of exceptional experiences where individuals encounter phenomena or manifest abilities that fall outside what might typically be considered normal. While these experiences may baffle the individual, when they’re felt to be positive, as in the case of blissful, ecstatic, or peak experiences, they may be more easily integrated and transitioned. However, if these exceptional experiences are perceived as threatening, accompanied by physically discomforting symptoms, or generate phenomena that are so foreign to the individual that they engender fear, the person is usually considered to be undergoing a spiritual emergency. But what is it that is emerging and from where does it arise? And what is the process that facilitates these phenomena coming into awareness?

Dr. Pasciuti prefers to refer to these negatively experienced spiritual emergencies as Chrysalis Crises. In his opinion, they mark critical junctures in an individuals’ ongoing psycho-spiritual awakening. He defines a Chrysalis Crisis as a critical developmental episode that occurs when an unprepared individual experiences physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual phenomena that are manifestations of expanded consciousness. When understood and integrated, such a crisis may provide an opportunity for personal growth and spiritual transformation.