It can be quite frustrating to be experiencing something that our medical system doesn’t have an answer for. Unfortunately, I know from experience as documented here!

This is quite common with many “spiritual”, “mystical”, “energetic”, etc. experiences and effects, that are often referred to as emergent phenomena.

A few months ago, I was delighted to discover the The Emergent Phenomenology Research Consortium. They are large group of researchers, scientists, medical, therapy and spirirtual professionals who are trying to tackle the hard problem of gathering data and research on the large catalogue of emergent phenomena experiences humans may face and the efficacy of different protocols for handling them. 

Daniel Ingram is one of the co-founders who is helping driving this effort along with 180+ other people.

Their aim is to give health care systems, mental health providers, and those who are helping to teach and promote various practices the information they need in order to make better decisions about how to both promote the benefits of these practices and manage the various effects that they can produce. 

In my opinion, accelerating the acknowledgement and effective treatment of these types of experiences in mainstream healthcare is an imperative as wisdom practices like meditation and substances like psychedelics scale up in society.

We must develop an adequate support system to help people as they go through their own evolutionary process that right not leaves a lot to be desired. I deeply hope this happens so people can navigate this more gracefully and avoid the confusing fact finding mission I had to go on 4 years ago.

I found Daniel a joy to talk to and we touch upon lots of historical information about the effort of trying to make higher states of consciousness recognized by mainstream institutions. It was a fascinating conversation that I hope enjoy!