Psychosis or Spiritual Awakening: Phil Borges at TEDxUMKC

Summary

The speaker shares insights from visiting indigenous cultures, highlighting their deep relationships with the land, each other, and the spirit world. He contrasts these connections with modern society's disconnection and discusses his journey of understanding shamanism. By interviewing shamans worldwide, he observes the transformative power of psychological crises, often seen as spiritual awakenings in these cultures. The talk concludes by emphasizing the need for modern society to support individuals experiencing such crises and suggests that our species is in a collective spiritual crisis, urging a rise in consciousness.

Takeaways

• 🌍 Indigenous cultures provide a window into how humanity lived centuries ago, emphasizing close relationships with the land and with each other.
• 🛠 Indigenous people often have no intermediaries between them and their survival, relying on their deep knowledge and ingenuity to live off the land.
• 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Relationships within indigenous communities are tight-knit, with communal living and shared responsibilities, such as communal child-rearing and mutual support.
• 🕊 Many indigenous cultures have a strong spiritual connection, believing in the spirits of the earth and ancestors, which guide their everyday lives.
• 🧙‍♂️ The speaker has studied various shamans worldwide, noting common experiences of psychological crises, mentorship, and a journey through an altered state of consciousness.
• 🌿 Shamanism is considered the world's oldest spiritual practice, with unique methods across cultures for entering trances and communicating with the spirit world.
• 🧠 In many cases, psychological crises among shamans are seen positively, as a calling or initiation that leads to greater awareness and abilities, unlike the stigma often attached to mental illness in Western societies.
• 💊 The speaker contrasts the supportive community and mentoring that shamans receive with the Western medical approach to mental illness, which often involves medication and stigma.
• 🚶‍♂️ A significant number of young people experience psychological crises, often labeled as mental illness in Western cultures, which can lead to stigmatization and isolation.
• 🌌 The speaker suggests that humanity is undergoing a collective crisis, requiring a rise in consciousness and greater compassion for all living things, echoing Albert Einstein’s thoughts on the interconnectedness of life.

Q & A

What does the speaker appreciate about visiting indigenous cultures?

The speaker appreciates that visiting indigenous cultures allows them to step back in time and see how people lived centuries ago, and observe the differences in relationships with the land, each other, and the spirit world.

How do indigenous cultures' relationships with the land differ from modern cultures?

In indigenous cultures, people have a direct, intimate knowledge of the earth as there are no grocery stores, utility districts, or fast food restaurants. They depend solely on their ingenuity and knowledge of the earth for survival.

What are the unique aspects of social relationships in indigenous cultures according to the speaker?

Social relationships in indigenous cultures are characterized by tight-knit communities where people depend on each other for survival, lacking social security, elder-care facilities, or retirement plans. They often live in extended families and raise children communally.

What is the significance of the relationship to spirit in indigenous cultures?

The relationship to spirit is strong in indigenous cultures. People often pray to the spirits of the forests, mountains, and rivers, and consider their ancestors' spirits very important. They view life as a continuum with the spirit world, where the elderly and young are seen as closely connected to the spiritual realm.

What was the speaker’s experience with the Dalai Lama’s oracle in Tibet?

The speaker witnessed a medium channeling the Dalai Lama's oracle in a monastery in Tibet. The medium entered a trance and spoke in a high-pitched voice while monks wrote down his words. After five minutes, the medium fainted and had to be carried out. Later, the medium shared that he did not remember anything he said during the trance.

What similarities did the speaker find between different shamans around the world?

The speaker found that shamans across different cultures experienced a similar calling, often involving a psychological crisis or hallucinations. They were usually mentored by an elder and went through an initiation process that involved a symbolic death and rebirth.

What is the 'shaman’s advantage' according to the speaker?

The 'shaman’s advantage' includes having a cultural context that views psychological crises positively, not stigmatizing these experiences, having a mentor to guide them, and being part of a community that supports and values their unique abilities.

How did the speaker’s view on the spiritual experiences of shamans change over time?

Initially, the speaker viewed these spiritual experiences as superstition or naive thinking. However, over 30 years, their perspective changed as they observed commonalities in the experiences of shamans around the world and saw the healing and predictive practices these shamans engaged in.

What challenges do people with mental health crises face in modern societies, according to the speaker?

People with mental health crises in modern societies often face stigma, are labeled as broken, and are treated with medications that suppress symptoms rather than addressing underlying issues. They may lack mentors, community support, and opportunities to use their unique abilities constructively.

What does the speaker suggest about the current state of human consciousness?

The speaker suggests that humanity is in crisis and is being asked to raise its consciousness to a higher level, embracing compassion and interconnectedness with all living beings and nature, as a path to liberation and inner peace.