Psychosis and Spirituality: The Discontinuity Model

Can “sense of presence” experiences in bereavement be conceptualised as spiritual phenomena?

“…It might therefore be more promising to probe such a phenomenon with the help of non-linguistic 24 data collection methods such as the use of drawings, paintings and other visual data (see Coyle, 2008, for a detailed analysis of the problem). Another way of moving from presymbolic content to symbolic expression -or from the implicational to the propositional level of meaning (Clarke, 2001b;Teasdale & Barnard, 1993) -could be the use of "focusing" during the research interview, an explorative technique developed by Gendlin (1978Gendlin ( , 1996 for use in experiential psychotherapy. Braud and Anderson (1998) have presented a variety of additional ways for exploring "sensitive, exceptional, and sacred" (p. 4) experiences, e.g.…”

Mysticism and madness: Different aspects of the same human experience?

“…From clinical practice, Clarke (2001) observes that, as with mystical experience, there is an initial stage of euphoria that is common in early psychotic breakdown. She suggests that 'the most obvious difference between this euphoria and that encountered in the more exuberant forms of spiritual experience, is the disaster that characteristically follows, and which constitutes the generally recognised psychotic experience' (Clarke, 2001).…”

“…From clinical practice, Clarke (2001) observes that, as with mystical experience, there is an initial stage of euphoria that is common in early psychotic breakdown. She suggests that 'the most obvious difference between this euphoria and that encountered in the more exuberant forms of spiritual experience, is the disaster that characteristically follows, and which constitutes the generally recognised psychotic experience' (Clarke, 2001). Other commentators have noted a wide variety of phenomena, such as time distortion, synesthesias, hallucinations (auditory and visual), loss of self-object boundaries, social withdrawal, and the transition from a state of conflict and anxiety to one of sudden "understanding", all of which are reported in both mystical and psychotic experiences (Buckley, 1981;Jackson & Fulford, 1997).…”

“…Previous commentators on the similarities between mysticism and madness have often struggled to find a single, comprehensible term to refer to the shared area of experience (Clarke, 2001). Terms such as 'transliminal' (Thalbourne et al, 1997;Claridge, 2001) and 'p-s experience' (Jackson, 1991) have been designed to capture the broad experiential state, while simultaneously avoiding either psychotic (pathological) or mystical (spiritual / supernatural) connotations.…”

“…The original ideas of Batson & Ventis have led to further explorations by other cognitive theorists (Jackson, 2001;Clarke, 2001 we have termed the experience of oneness).…”