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Thread: The Descent Experience -- Dark Night of the Soul, The Hero’s Journey, The Red Book

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    The Descent Experience -- Dark Night of the Soul, The Hero’s Journey, The Red Book

    Why are we sick? There are many levels of reality at which we can answer that question – the political, the economic, the biochemical, the psychological. And then there’s the mystical.


    The Descent Experience

    Since the beginning of time, humanity has described a particular kind of experience that many people have had, but many have not had. It involves terrible suffering. It lasts a very long time. During much of it, there is no help or relief that can be had. Eventually, it draws to an end, culminating in a return to life, often with additional gifts.

    It has been called The Descent Experience, and the oldest known recorded version of a descent myth was written by the Sumerians on clay tablets in the third millenium BCE. In this version, the goddess Inanna (also known as Ishtar) has to visit the Underworld. There, she is destroyed physically and psychologically in the most gruesome way. It’s bad, no one will help; it goes on for awhile. Finally, Enki, the god of wisdom, comes to her rescue in an artful way, deals are made, she is reconstituted, and returns to the world.

    Maybe 1000 years later, the ancient Greeks wrote their own descent myth about Persephone, who is abducted, raped, and held captive by Hades, king of the Underworld. It’s bad, no one will help; it goes on awhile. Finally, her mother Demeter pressures her father Zeus into negotiating her release. Deals are made, she has to spend part of every year in the Underworld, but is allowed to return to the world.
    Meds free since June 2005.

    "An initiation into shamanic healing means a devaluation of all values, an overturning of the profane world, a peeling away of inveterate handed-down notions of the world, liberation from everything preconceived. For that reason, shamanism is closely connected with suffering. One must suffer the disintegration of one's own system of thought in order to perceive a new world in the higher space."
    -- Holger Kalweit

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    The Dark Night of the Soul

    This is a spiritual term used most commonly in Christianity. The Dark Night of the Soul was most classically described by the 16th century Spanish mystic St. John of the Cross. He described the step-by-step journey that a human soul undergoes in evolving from worldliness to a union with the Divine.

    The journey is harrowing. It involves great pain, annihilation, and the loss of everything familiar. It’s bad, there is no help; it goes on awhile.

    This is because, only by purging oneself of old habits, old tastes and attachments, and limited understanding, can one be clear and sensitive enough to perceive the Divine level of reality. He compares it to how your palate must be cleansed and healthy in order to even taste the most delicate, subtle tastes.

    According to St. John of the Cross, the Divine is sending out illumination the whole time during the dark night to tempt the soul in the right direction and foment yearning for the Divine. But the soul is so off track, it can barely perceive Divine light or love until it has been purged further.

    Eventually, critical mass is reached, and the soul is healed enough to not only feel strong yearning for the Divine, but to be assertive about pursuing Divine love and grabbing it and holding on.
    Meds free since June 2005.

    "An initiation into shamanic healing means a devaluation of all values, an overturning of the profane world, a peeling away of inveterate handed-down notions of the world, liberation from everything preconceived. For that reason, shamanism is closely connected with suffering. One must suffer the disintegration of one's own system of thought in order to perceive a new world in the higher space."
    -- Holger Kalweit

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    The Hero’s Journey

    In the mid-twentieth century, the mythologist Joseph Campbell wrote a book called “The Hero with a Thousand Faces” in which he described a classic mythological story line that can be found in all times and all places.

    It has several consistent components – the hero is minding his / her own business and initially resists the call to some kind of otherworldly journey. But the transition to an out of this world experience begins anyway, and there are many trials and ordeals. It’s bad. It goes on awhile. According to Campbell, there is no *apparent* help, but, in fact, there is occult help going on the whole time. There is soul-searching, and purification, and even death – temporary death, or partial death.

    There is some kind of breakthrough; special wisdom or power is achieved. Campbell underscores the fact that, once this happens, the hero might even resist returning to the everyday world. But, once again, occult help guides the hero on the return journey and over the threshold of regular reality, which s/he crosses while retaining his / her special acquisition.
    Meds free since June 2005.

    "An initiation into shamanic healing means a devaluation of all values, an overturning of the profane world, a peeling away of inveterate handed-down notions of the world, liberation from everything preconceived. For that reason, shamanism is closely connected with suffering. One must suffer the disintegration of one's own system of thought in order to perceive a new world in the higher space."
    -- Holger Kalweit

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    C.G. Jung – The Red Book

    In 2009, the heirs of Carl Jung allowed his account of his descent experience to be published for the first time. Over the course of many years, from about 1914 to 1930, Jung wrote and drew about his own frightening falling apart, during which he confronted the darkness in himself and in the world (including WWI). He wrote and drew in order to save himself. It was bad, there was no help. It went on a long time. Eventually, he found help from beings he encountered in his mind who may have been parts of himself, archetypes, and/or spirits of the dead.

    Years later, he said that his most important ideas, the ones he worked on for the rest of his life, and that we remember him for, all came out of this period.

    In the Fall of 2010, Jack Kornfield, Ph.D., psychologist and Buddhist monk, spoke at one of The Red Book Dialogues in San Francisco. In discussing Jung’s descent, and descent experiences in general, he said your worst fears are the gateway to your enlightenment. You must face them, you must suffer, yet you must not get lost in the experience either. You stay present to your fears, you wait, you listen. It can take a long time. If you can trust the desert, at some point, it rains. Then, you find out what your gift, your contribution to the world is, "some new extraordinary wholeness appears and that's who you really are."
    Meds free since June 2005.

    "An initiation into shamanic healing means a devaluation of all values, an overturning of the profane world, a peeling away of inveterate handed-down notions of the world, liberation from everything preconceived. For that reason, shamanism is closely connected with suffering. One must suffer the disintegration of one's own system of thought in order to perceive a new world in the higher space."
    -- Holger Kalweit

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    So what have we here?

    These narratives are metaphors that describe a certain kind of human experience which has been traversed throughout history, even though Western psychotropic toxins were only invented a few seconds ago. The recovery from psych med neuro damage follows the classic pattern of the descent experience.

    We can take these stories as comforting attempts to make the best of a bad deal. They may even provide a bit of a road map or some guidance. Maybe it also helps to know we aren’t the only ones who have had a bad time of it. At this level, these stories are aids to handling the psychological response to misfortune. This is a good thing.

    Some of us might also want to take these stories as attempts to describe an underlying reality that humanity is still groping to understand – the transpersonal, psychic, mystical level. Nearly all of them have a magical, metaphysical or spiritual element that can be taken not just as metaphor, but as a glimpse of a level of reality that is there all the time but that we generally don’t allow ourselves to access because of social conditioning.

    The descent experience involves a dismantling of the body, mind, and spirit that is suggestive of neurological rewiring, and the consensus is that it often yields increased psychic abilities or spiritual insight at the end.

    Something about the descent experience allows people finally to see things that were there all along but that they hadn’t been able to see before.
    Meds free since June 2005.

    "An initiation into shamanic healing means a devaluation of all values, an overturning of the profane world, a peeling away of inveterate handed-down notions of the world, liberation from everything preconceived. For that reason, shamanism is closely connected with suffering. One must suffer the disintegration of one's own system of thought in order to perceive a new world in the higher space."
    -- Holger Kalweit

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    And a couple more thoughts based on conversations with Luc and another IAWP member --


    An important theme in all these models is that they are journeys, not permanent states. It seems we humans have a bit of a neuro-cognitive bias, and our view of the world is too dependent on our current state. So, when miserable, we can more easily remember all the miserable memories of our lives, and have trouble accessing or, if accessing, then really feeling, any of the happy times. And then, if we spend more than a day in a particularly bad state, we’re sure it’s going to last forever. This seems to be a design flaw to me!

    So, how much more difficult is it to believe that things can change dramatically for the better when the bad state goes on a very long time? I, personally, have always had trouble grasping the concept that things can take a very long time, and still happen.

    These models are an antidote to this human bias. They tell us about a countervailing force that is also part of our human inheritance.


    Another element of all these models is that there is some kind of interesting built-in mechanism in us that kicks in automatically under extreme conditions. The whole process happens automatically. You have to go through pain, but the pain ends. You don’t have to figure it out. In fact, you absolutely cannot force it.

    I do think we can learn how to help the process along, and just having the map that these models provide can be very relieving in itself. But, there is always a time, in each of the models, when there is nothing you can do. And we certainly experience this in w/d – a time when we are in the deepest part of the descent, feeling really helpless, and beyond help. It's important to remember at those times that there is still a built-in mechanism working for us.
    Meds free since June 2005.

    "An initiation into shamanic healing means a devaluation of all values, an overturning of the profane world, a peeling away of inveterate handed-down notions of the world, liberation from everything preconceived. For that reason, shamanism is closely connected with suffering. One must suffer the disintegration of one's own system of thought in order to perceive a new world in the higher space."
    -- Holger Kalweit

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    Senior Member Samsara's Avatar
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    Sheila......

    I came upon this and thought this may be helpful for others to refer to IF they were interested in this subject. I've been wanting to post this for some time now but my mind felt too overloaded. BTW, I have issues with the title. (lol) I wish for it to also be viewed as the Heroine's journey. I also have issues with a "goddess" appearing to save the hero or vice versa. I lean more towards finding the goddess and/or god WITHIN (as mentioned in the summary..........."self-unification") rather than subscribe to the "rescue" theory. You know what I mean?

    I can only share my personal experience and opinion but I believe that one almost has to be emotionally isolated.......trapped within one's pain, and receive few to no forms of emotional rescue in order to maximize the evolutionary process. Mind you, it's far more painful this way but in the end, greater empowerment occurs although greater degree of trauma can result as well.

    Perhaps, I'm missing something and/or allowing my feminist attitude and/or cognitive deficits to interfere with my ability to accurately interpret the Summary of Steps. With that said, I do know of people who have met someone at a critical time in their lives and the said person (hero or heroine) was instrumental in their evolution. BTW, I'm not referring to just romantic intervention. Rather, it could be a friend, family member, a physical spiritual guide that assisted.

    Still, I tend to lean towards my first statement. I just don't believe that "I" would receive the epiphanies required for evolution IF I was being emotionally and/or physically rescued during the dark descent. I believe you have to be alone with the pain in order to find your own strength and power. With that said, such a journey can also break someone. It's a tricky and very scary journey that requires a great deal of trust and faith.


    Samsara
    Nobody's gonna break my stride......nobody's gonna slow me down......Oh no, I gotta keep on moving." (Men at Work)

    "To face my trials with the grace of a woman rather than the grief of a child". (Veronica A. Shoffstall)


    40 Months drug-free from kindling & tolerance WD (Doxepin) + many past C/T & C/switches from benzos, ADs, and APs, Lithium & thryoid h rx'd for severe GI symptoms.

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    Summary of Steps Involved in the Hero (Heroine's) Journey

    The Hero's Journey : Summary of the Steps

    This page summarizes the brief explanations from every step of the Hero's Journey.

    A. Departure

    1. The Call to Adventure

    The call to adventure is the point in a person's life when they are first given notice that everything is going to change, whether they know it or not.


    2. Refusal of the Call

    Often when the call is given, the future hero refuses to heed it. This may be from a sense of duty or obligation, fear, insecurity, a sense of inadequacy, or any of a range of reasons that work to hold the person in his or her current circumstances.


    3. Supernatural Aid

    Once the hero has committed to the quest, consciously or unconsciously, his or her guide and magical helper appears, or becomes known.


    4. The Crossing of the First Threshold

    This is the point where the person actually crosses into the field of adventure, leaving the known limits of his or her world and venturing into an unknown and dangerous realm where the rules and limits are not known.


    5. The Belly of the Whale

    The belly of the whale represents the final separation from the hero's known world and self. It is sometimes described as the person's lowest point, but it is actually the point when the person is between or transitioning between worlds and selves. The separation has been made, or is being made, or being fully recognized between the old world and old self and the potential for a new world/self. The experiences that will shape the new world and self will begin shortly, or may be beginning with this experience which is often symbolized by something dark, unknown and frightening. By entering this stage, the person shows their willingness to undergo a metamorphosis, to die to him or herself.


    B. Inititation

    1. The Road of Trials

    The road of trials is a series of tests, tasks, or ordeals that the person must undergo to begin the transformation. Often the person fails one or more of these tests, which often occur in threes.

    2. The Meeting with the Goddess

    The meeting with the goddess represents the point in the adventure when the person experiences a love that has the power and significance of the all-powerful, all encompassing, unconditional love that a fortunate infant may experience with his or her mother. It is also known as the "hieros gamos", or sacred marriage, the union of opposites, and may take place entirely within the person.

    In other words, the person begins to see him or herself in a non-dualistic way. This is a very important step in the process and is often represented by the person finding the other person that he or she loves most completely. Although Campbell symbolizes this step as a meeting with a goddess, unconditional love and /or self unification does not have to be represented by a woman.

    3. Woman as the Temptress

    At one level, this step is about those temptations that may lead the hero to abandon or stray from his or her quest, which as with the Meeting with the Goddess does not necessarily have to be represented by a woman. For Campbell, however, this step is about the revulsion that the usually male hero may feel about his own fleshy/earthy nature, and the subsequent attachment or projection of that revulsion to women. Woman is a metaphor for the physical or material temptations of life, since the hero-knight was often tempted by lust from his spiritual journey.

    4. Atonement with the Father

    In this step the person must confront and be initiated by whatever holds the ultimate power in his or her life. In many myths and stories this is the father, or a father figure who has life and death power. This is the center point of the journey. All the previous steps have been moving in to this place, all that follow will move out from it. Although this step is most frequently symbolized by an encounter with a male entity, it does not have to be a male; just someone or thing with incredible power. For the transformation to take place, the person as he or she has been must be "killed" so that the new self can come into being. Sometime this killing is literal, and the earthly journey for that character is either over or moves into a different realm.

    5. Apotheosis

    To apotheosize is to deify. When someone dies a physical death, or dies to the self to live in spirit, he or she moves beyond the pairs of opposites to a state of divine knowledge, love, compassion and bliss. This is a god-like state; the person is in heaven and beyond all strife. A more mundane way of looking at this step is that it is a period of rest, peace and fulfillment before the hero begins the return.

    6. The Ultimate Boon

    The ultimate boon is the achievement of the goal of the quest. It is what the person went on the journey to get. All the previous steps serve to prepare and purify the person for this step, since in many myths the boon is something transcendent like the elixir of life itself, or a plant that supplies immortality, or the holy grail.


    C. Return

    1. Refusal of the Return
    So why, when all has been achieved, the ambrosia has been drunk, and we have conversed with the gods, why come back to normal life with all its cares and woes?

    2. The Magic Flight

    Sometimes the hero must escape with the boon, if it is something that the gods have been jealously guarding. It can be just as adventurous and dangerous returning from the journey as it was to go on it.

    3. Rescue from Without

    Just as the hero may need guides and assistants to set out on the quest, often times he or she must have powerful guides and rescuers to bring them back to everyday life, especially if the person has been wounded or weakened by the experience. Or perhaps the person doesn't realize that it is time to return, that they can return, or that others need their boon.

    4. The Crossing of the Return Threshold

    The trick in returning is to retain the wisdom gained on the quest, to integrate that wisdom into a human life, and then maybe figure out how to share the wisdom with the rest of the world. This is usually extremely difficult.

    5. Master of the Two Worlds

    In myth, this step is usually represented by a transcendental hero like Jesus or Buddha. For a human hero, it may mean achieving a balance between the material and spiritual. The person has become comfortable and competent in both the inner and outer worlds.

    6. Freedom to Live

    Mastery leads to freedom from the fear of death, which in turn is the freedom to live. This is sometimes referred to as living in the moment, neither anticipating the future nor regretting the past.

    Heros Journey : Summary of Steps
    Maricopa Center for Learning and Instruction (MCLI)
    Maricopa Community Colleges

    the ' net connection at MCLI is Alan Levine
    comments about the site to : [email protected]
    questions about the content to : [email protected]

    last modified: 11/19/1999 15:06:34
    URL: http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/sm...f/summary.html
    Nobody's gonna break my stride......nobody's gonna slow me down......Oh no, I gotta keep on moving." (Men at Work)

    "To face my trials with the grace of a woman rather than the grief of a child". (Veronica A. Shoffstall)


    40 Months drug-free from kindling & tolerance WD (Doxepin) + many past C/T & C/switches from benzos, ADs, and APs, Lithium & thryoid h rx'd for severe GI symptoms.

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    Founder Sheila's Avatar
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    Wow, it's really a great archetypal human story, and it applies beautifully to psych med recovery. It will be very helpful to have it here. Thank you!

    << morphing mandala
    Meds free since June 2005.

    "An initiation into shamanic healing means a devaluation of all values, an overturning of the profane world, a peeling away of inveterate handed-down notions of the world, liberation from everything preconceived. For that reason, shamanism is closely connected with suffering. One must suffer the disintegration of one's own system of thought in order to perceive a new world in the higher space."
    -- Holger Kalweit

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    Senior Member Samsara's Avatar
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    I thought you would like this. As you already know, the whole summary (each stage) is chalk full of very powerful stuff.

    You are so right re: how it applies to psyche drug recovery.

    I've experienced the dark descent several times in life prior to any psyche drug WD experience and I can attest that if the descent is dark enough, traumatic enough and long enough, it pretty much follows most all of the steps identified in the summary.

    With that said, I do find that this last psyche WD experience has moved me closer towards the final stage of "Freedom to Live" whereas all previous descents only inched me into that step and I never fully moved into it for a variety of reasons.

    6. Freedom to Live

    Mastery leads to freedom from the fear of death, which in turn is the freedom to live. This is sometimes referred to as living in the moment, neither anticipating the future nor regretting the past.


    While I have not completely mastered this step, I must admit that I'm shocked that I, through the horrors of WD, have made a large degree of peace with death and in doing so, it does free me up in a very huge way since, our ultimate fear as humans is the fear of dying. It is the root of all our fears and it is this fear that creates all of the problems and stressors in our lives.

    Anyway, this is a very heavy duty subject and so too is the summary. As you know, it's just packed with very deep psychological and spiritual material to analyze and work with.


    Samsara
    Nobody's gonna break my stride......nobody's gonna slow me down......Oh no, I gotta keep on moving." (Men at Work)

    "To face my trials with the grace of a woman rather than the grief of a child". (Veronica A. Shoffstall)


    40 Months drug-free from kindling & tolerance WD (Doxepin) + many past C/T & C/switches from benzos, ADs, and APs, Lithium & thryoid h rx'd for severe GI symptoms.

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