Breaking Open - Navigating Spiritual Emergency with Jules Evans, Sean Blackwell and Louisa Tomlinson

★★★★★ “The session was mind-blowing. Thank you for approaching this 'taboo topic' with raw honesty and so much compassion.” - Annamaria 

A spiritual emergency is a period of intense and extended disturbance to a person’s ordinary sense of self and reality, which can involve psychotic-like symptoms such as mania, ego-dissolution, a heightened sense of meaning, hallucinations and a confusion of inner and outer worlds. These experiences can be treated as symptoms of chronic brain disorders requiring psychotropic medication. However, they are better understood as attempts by the psyche to seek greater wholeness. If properly handled, they can be transitions to greater maturity, flourishing and wisdom.

As more and more people take psychedelics and have ecstatic experiences, some of these experiences will be messy 'spiritual emergencies' and it's important that our culture (and particularly psychedelic culture) learns more about these experiences and how to navigate them. 

On this evening webinar, Jules Evans, Louisa Tomlinson and Sean Blackwell will gather together first-person accounts of spiritual emergencies and explore what they’re like and what self-care practices help people through. They will draw on Jules' new book Breaking Open -Finding a Way Through Spiritual Emergency, which collects 14 people's account of their experiences and what helped them through. 

This is the second evening hosted by Jules Evans bringing together information that helps people navigate spiritual emergencies and unusual experiences of reality. Feedback from the first session in June includes: 

★★★★★ “I absolutely loved every moment of this . I trembled with resonance , bought all the books and feel extremely grateful to know the community of my experiences. Thank you” - Kay

★★★★★ “So informative!” - Ravital

★★★★ “..the speakers and the subject were fascinating.” - Lola

★★★★★ “Excellent presentation and Q&A” - Sam  

Jules Evans is an author, broadcaster and academic philosopher. He is a research fellow at the Centre for the History of the Emotions at Queen Mary, University of London. He also organizes the London Philosophy Club, the largest philosophy club in the world. He is the author of Philosophy for Life and Other Dangerous Situations (2012) , The Art of Losing Control (2017). and Holiday from the Self: An Accidental Ayahuasca Adventure (2019). His website is www.philosophyforlife.org
 

Louisa Tomlinson is a trauma-informed coach, passionate about creativity, enchantment and transforming trauma. She is also a counsellor, specialising in working with asylum seeking young people, and an award winning poet. She has worked in art events and press for almost 20 years, including as writer, editorial director and creative consultant to the Jaipur Literature Festival. She has lived, studied and worked a lot in India, and these days is based in Brighton. 

Sean Blackwell is the author and host of Bipolar or Waking Up. He has been researching the spiritual dimension of bipolar disorder since 2007, after being sent to a psychiatric hospital in 1996, for a short, but traumatic stay. "For me, my experience of so-called "acute psychosis" was more like a spiritual awakening, something for which I am forever grateful." 

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