“When the
mystic’s spiritual eye is opened, his physical eye is closed; he sees
nothing but God.”
– Abu Sulayman Ad-Darani – Muslim Writer
On my
library shelf I have four books written by women during the early to late
Middle Ages who wrote on their experience of God and spirituality, including
one designated a Doctor of the Church and was also canonized. These four women
are Julian Of Norwich, Hildegard of Bingen, Catherine of Siena and Teresa
of Avila. These women who experienced mystic states of mind were accepted
as visionaries of God during the Middle Ages, but from a modern scientific
viewpoint would be told today that their states of mind were not granted by
God, but simply were manifestations of their physiology.
In today's
society we are moving further away from believing we are connected to a higher
power, who "molded us from clay" who granted us special gifts and is
actively at work in our lives. We no longer "see" the unseen,
but rather rely on what scientific analysis including, medical science currently
tells us. But history also tells us that scientific as well as medical
studies are continuously reevaluated based on changes in paradigms.
In 1990, I
was diagnosed with a "mental illness" that the doctors said caused me
to have psychotic breaks from reality. Looking back on what the doctors
interpreted as "psychotic breaks," I now know that
"reality" differs depending on an individual experience or
interpretation. When I returned to "reality" I realized my
visions of hell and then heaven were reflective of a continuum of the reality
of what humans experience. My "hell" psychotic break has been
experienced by those who are in constant fear of their lives or for their loved
ones. My psychotic break in which I believed in no sin, violence, death,
illness or degradation on Earth was not reflective of my life experience.
I could only interpret my experience as a vision of heaven granted to me
by God.
Labeling
someone as "sick" with a mental illness is not a helpful paradigm for
someone struggling with his or her thoughts. Only when I interpreted my
experiences as an "expansion of the brain" with a direct connection
to a higher power that needed to be managed, did I start to begin to succeed in
rebuilding my life. A very wise woman once suggested it to me when I was
in my thirties that I was perhaps the "norm" and others were not.
I
learned that only when we treat the "whole person" - body, mind and
soul with a connection to God, could we succeed in transforming others and
ourselves. My mental states are not only physiological but reflect my
"mystic" states of mind and my soul connected to God. With time
I have learned to work simultaneously in my "everyday" reality while
working in a higher consciousness where I am aware of others' energy and
thoughts focused on spreading love and peace. This is not a state of mind
for me that is continuous, but seems to occur when I need it.
