On this coming Saturday, the 27th of February, I am slated to give my first presentation about mental health. The talk will only last fifteen minutes, so it’s not a big deal, but the location and timing are unusual. The venue will be a hospital about an hour’s drive from my home, and it happens to also be the institution that confined me when I suffered a manic psychosis almost exactly a decade ago. In fact, my last full day at the medical center where I performed oculoplastic surgery was the 27th of February 2000. (It was the loss of my career—due to severe arthritis in my neck—that led to my psychiatric breakdown.) I wonder if there is a bit of serendipity in the fact that this first chance to speak publicly about my new domain of interest falls on the ten-year anniversary of my prior career’s collapse.
Off and on throughout my life synchronicity has seemed to play a role in the major turning points. In my more open-minded states I wonder if there exist complicated cause and effect relationships that result in such remarkably timed opportunities; some events seem to ‘fit’ too perfectly to be explained by happenstance completely unconnected to my trajectory through life. At this moment, I’m uncertain and feel more inclined to dismiss the possibility of ‘cosmic’ meaning. Maybe it’s because my luck has been dismal for so long that this oddly timed opening doesn’t stimulate a feeling of: “Wow! How perfect!” Instead, my thoughts are more along the lines of: “It’s about time something went right!”
Either way, my task now is to clarify my message. Visitors to this blog have seen my philosophy evolve over many months. At one time I started to argue the thesis that neither science nor logic rule out the possibility of a Universal Consciousness permeating the cosmos. (I had planned to cite the frequent occurrence of serendipitous events as one support for this assertion.) The several posts I wrote on that topic primed me for a profound ‘breakthrough’ experience in January, which made completing the argument unnecessary. The ‘awakening’ also had the effect of sharply reducing my psychological distress; worry and depression faded to a mere fraction of their former intensity. So one point I want to make in this upcoming talk is that there exists a state of consciousness that greatly reduces psychic suffering.
This enlightened condition has been described many times, both by individuals and investigators such as William James. I mentioned the book Quantum Change in my last post; William Miller and Janet C’de Baca demonstrate that people can attain this elevated consciousness swiftly, and sometimes almost instantaneously. Contrary to the western mental health model wherein years of strenuous psychotherapy are intended to promote slow and gradual improvement, Miller and C’de Baca show that change can occur as a more-or-less sudden event. That will be my second point in this upcoming talk: elevated mind-states can develop abruptly.
The third point will revolve around ways we can make such sudden elevations of consciousness more likely to occur. In fact, there is already a well-known mental health treatment system designed to do just that; since the 1930’s Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) has been guiding people to spiritual awakening. The DSM (a manual used by mental health professionals to classify psychiatric conditions) lists substance abuse disorders as mental illnesses, so it is appropriate to consider AA as a mental health program. However, the 12 steps of AA are not directly applicable to pervasive psychiatric issues like depression and anxiety. They have a number of phrasing problems that make them inappropriate for that purpose. In my talk, I hope to point out ways that the 12 step system could be streamlined and modified to make it work for emotional distress.
In coming days I may elaborate on each of the three points just presented. Not only will discussing them here further spread the message (a little), it will help me prepare for my brief talk. This would be a great time for me to receive comments, since I could incorporate suggestions into my upcoming presentation.
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