Too Much Light

The title, ‘Too Much Light’, reflects the experience of Spiritual Emergence/y of both Karen Adler and Teresa McLaren. This phenomenon is little known in Western society and is most easily understood as an extreme emotional state with symptoms such as delusions and hallucinations which are similar to those labelled psychosis. We are bringing this compilation together as a resource to provide a counter-story to the dominant paradigm of mental health treatment in society today. An alternative lens – one which doesn’t automatically view extreme states of consciousness as mental illness – is urgently required so that lives are not ruined and identities forever altered due to misinformation, lack of cultural context, willful ignorance and biased, outdated research.

Our stories of Too Much Light and finding our way back to health, happiness and sanity via the arts and The Hero’s Journey archetype are shared by many in the world today. It is a common initiation story in very disparate cultures and among very different individuals. The commonalities of these stories serve to illustrate the underlying connectedness of who we are as human beings.

This universality is the inherent strength of both the arts and of archetypes. There are many among us who have stumbled upon the power and capacity of both to bring us back home to ourselves. And there are also many among us who, unguided or misguided, have become lost in the depths and the intricacies of the unconscious. Many become so blinded by the light or engulfed by the darkness that they are unable to emerge from the depths. Many fail to remember that it’s always darkest before the dawn and don’t survive the dark night of the soul, that place which is bereft of all hope, where despair reigns supreme.

We hope that our stories and artworks will encourage others to heed and benefit from the deep wisdom, beauty and strength that reside in all of us. We hope that both lay people and members of the mental health profession will use this resource as a source of explanation and understanding for experiences which are deeply disturbing and quite often terrifying.

We live in an age in which spiritual searching and seeking is more common, particularly among youth. The need for answers and solutions to a world in danger of dieing, of a society in which corruption and decay are so transparently obvious, leads many on paths which are dangerous and unchartered. The metaphor of journey, the art of navigation, the notion of process and movement, provide us with tools to not only emerge whole from experiences which have the power to break and shatter us, but to provide maps for others to use.

Both Teresa and I hope that the generosity of people who reveal their souls and their darkest moments to you impacts your life. We hope that ’Too Much Light’ saves and enriches lives as our experiences have saved and enriched ours.