Illness, often severe and mysterious illness, invariably signals the beginning of an indigenous shaman's career.
Quite a few of the famous saints - notably Saint Teresa d'Avila, who famously asked her nuns 'What were you going to use your health for anyway?' - were frequently in very poor health.
You don't have to be a great or famous saint for illness to be a part of your training when you find yourself on the mystic path.
Sometimes the illness can be severe and not diagnosable by Western medicine.
The beginning phase of your spiritual development may be something you are not even aware of, as well.
The entrance ramp occurs in a dream.
You could say it's not fair.
You won't hear these victims complain, though.
Is spiritual activity sometimes the cause of these ailments? Let us count the possible ways: * Does focusing 'out there' sicken the physical body, until it adjusts to whatever the strain is? * Are some forms of spirituality or meditation attracting disease? * Are sick people spiritual because they are seeking wellness that way? * Does the reorganization of the mind that happens when you are having mystical experiences have a parallel reorganization of the brain which sometimes destabilizes physical systems? These are mysteries worthy of mystic contemplation! Theories that explain the spiritual life as the result of the ailments Although it's natural to assume that the spiritual activity is the cause of the ailments, it could easily be the other way around.
Here are a few theories that explain the spiritual life as the result of the ailments --theories, because we are unlikely to attract medical researchers with this question.
* We have all heard of the mad monk, more than one! Schizophrenia and some personality disorders produce both religious and spiritual ideation, and lead some victims to neglect themselves to the point of physical illness.
* When you are sick, especially if you have fevers and pain for a long time, consciousness is altered.
"She took to her bed and became peculiar," they said in American colonial times.
* Do some illnesses prompt some brains to stimulate the brain area where spiritual experiences originate? (Yes, there is such a thing.
Put an electric probe right there, and you see angels or hear voices!) Marsha Sinetar's 'Ordinary People as Monks and Mystics' contains many biographies of modern day reclusive contemplative individuals.
Most of these men and women pass through a phase of illness, and of disturbance of the psyche as well.
The good news is, they pass through.
Illness forces a break from the routine mentality and makes it easier to transition to 'out there.
' That is why it occurs early in the development.
What we probably have here is the chicken and the egg both: Combinations of these causes and their effects interlace into a web-work.