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groundwork let’s keep in mind a very important empirical observation which points out the complex relationship between spirituality and psychiatry.
People at higher levels of psychological development do not necessarily show higher degrees of spiritual insight, and people with severe emotional problems may have a very high degree of spiritual insight. The high-powered bank executive may have very little interest in spiritual issues and show very few spiritual qualities such as compassion, detachment and devotion. On the other hand, the severely disabled alcoholic may have authentic spiritual insight and even deep mystical experiences. He may interpret spiritual themes and feelings in a distorted manner, being overly attentive to spirituality as a defense and a way of avoiding psychological issues, but he may nevertheless have authentic experiences.
William James, in fact, wrote that the psychologically ill have authentic mystical experiences more frequently than the normal population. And Christ of course said: “The meek shall inherit the earth,” and, “It’s easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to reach the kingdom of God.”
It’s been my continuing observation, when speaking to people about my experiences with Sai Baba, that I can never predict, on the basis of psychological strength and success in the outer world, who will respond with tears and awe and who will remain completely unaffected—who seems to understand at a deeper level and who does not. Are these two dimensions unrelated, then? Contemporary debate between those who believe man developed through an evolutionary process without the intervention of a higher power, and those who believe that God participated in some way, shows the difficulty we have in accepting the possibility of an interrelationship between the material and spiritual dimensions.
PSYCHOLOGICAL CONCEPTS STAGE THEORIES IN PSYCHIATRY
Concepts about evolution are common to both psychology and spirituality. Basically they say that each progressive developmental stage in plant and animal life is based upon, and is an outgrowth of, the preceding developmental stage. It can be hypothesized that certain genetically determined human functions develop irrespective of what happened at preceding stages and are little influenced by