Q & A about Holistic and Transpersonal

Q: What is a spiritual crisis?
Renu: It is an evolution towards higher consciousness. There are two basic themes in a spiritual crisis: one is “danger” and another is “opportunity”. While the passage through this kind of condition may seem difficult and frightening, yet these states have tremendous evolutionary and healing potential, because while old structures are collapsing, insight and regeneration can emerge to generate a powerful and authentic new life. A spiritual crisis may arise through any number of triggering events: physical factors such as disease or accident, prolonged lack of sleep, powerful emotional experiences, a series of personal or business failures, and various forms of spiritual practices.

Q: What is Dream-work and what role can dreams play in healing?
Renu: As Freud says, dreams are doorway to the unconscious. Dreams are protectors of sleep. They conceal as much as they reveal in order to shield us from the emotional avalanche of our real feelings about things. Dreams are a healing intelligence by themselves. Dreams can reflect a deep process of personal growth. Through dreams we can gain knowledge about ourselves, about how we do things in life, and how we might better act to achieve our aims, to express our values, to heal ourselves, and how to grow stronger in the purpose and meaning of our life.

Q: What is a Ritual, and what are the therapeutic aspects of a ritual?
Renu: Ritual is special and sacred awareness of this universe which can be codified in a song, chant, poetry, tale, carving or a painting. This art is for survival, it gives structure and coherence to unfathomable and intangible dimensions of this universality. Through ritual, a human attains some degree of control over the awesome forces of the universal mystery. Ritual can be part of an ongoing treatment process, where a client gets an actual or symbolic opportunity to move forward in life, or transform some aspects of their experience.

Q: What is personal mythology?
Renu: Personal mythology shapes our thoughts, emotions and behaviour. In contemporary context, it is a path to richer inner life and a more sophisticated spiritual outlook. This can operate at personal as well as cultural level. If one is aware of living mythically, life becomes an unfolding drama, where the journey is equally important as the destination. Meaning in life becomes larger than the day–to-day concerns. It gives us an opportunity to nurture and appreciate our cultural and ancestral roots.