We live at a time that above all values ‘sanity’. If we examine what we mean by sanity, often what we really mean is reason. Definitions also include sound judgement, or soundness of mind, which are not the same as reason but still its close neighbour. Modern scientific method further values reason, measurement and the tangible world.
Insanity may become thought of as anything beyond reason or measurement. This can make us very uncomfortable with our emotions and even less comfortable when we have experiences we cannot explain. Experiences might include seeing or hearing visions, having sensations of heat or light, feeling depressed or anxious.
Medicine often looks for a physiological cause for troubling thoughts, feelings and sensations. When they become very troubling, the response may be a chemical fix. This treats the symptoms by repressing them.
While sometimes there will be biological causes for how we think, feel or perceive the world, in many cases there are not. Psychological causes are more likely in this case. If this is so, taking pills to cope and to repress symptoms can store up trouble for later. This is where counselling can help. Thoughts, feelings and sensations alert us that something is wrong and we need to make changes, not just soldier on. This may require us to descend into darkness beyond the light of reason in order to remake ourselves. This unconscious realm of image and symbol can be frightening.
Spiritual experience may also be mistaken for insanity, as it is often beyond reason. Hearing voices, seeing visions, sensations of expansion, out of body experiences: the list of experiences where spirituality and insanity can be confused is long. Today, where medicine and psychiatry are the first stop rather than the priest, it is very easy to diagnose spiritual experience as madness. If this happens then the person having the experience can get stuck in a psychiatric system that represses and denies their experience. This may also be the attitude of some counsellors who don’t include the Transpersonal as part of their model.
My own experience of madness as transformation is modest. During a difficult time in my life I had a period when I could look at people and see them with angelic or demonic wings. I knew at the time that this was my intuition and imagination at work and so was not afraid. I still had a voice at the back of my mind telling me I might be going mad, but thankfully I understood this voice was that of my inner critic that did not want to accept anything that was not ‘reason’. I allowed myself to see these things and engage with other ‘unreasonable’ but healing thoughts, visions and practices. I believe this helped my transformation to be smoother and quicker than if I had resisted these things.
I’d like to suggest that ‘soundness of mind’ goes beyond reason. If we react to insanity not as an illness, but as powerful messages from our unconscious or the transpersonal realm, they become a component of our own personal transformation. Insanity becomes something to move towards and through, not to run from or repress. The experiences may be overwhelming, which is where professional help from medicine and counselling is valuable. If we take an attitude to insanity that does not seek to get rid of it, we may find our way through it more easily.
