Insanity and the Spiritual Path

[anagogy]

what do you think creates 'insanity'?

is it exposure to too great a catalyst, and then the mind 'cracks', as it can't integrate what was offered/presented?

in the same way that many soldiers of war experience a long term Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), but on an even larger scale.

I use the term insanity as a particular expression of mental illness/disorder.  Not all mental illnesses are insanity.

/ /

* there seem to be a large number of personal cases (not myself) where exposure to too great a dosage/too intense a dosage of drugs caused the mental break.  I don't blame the drugs - the drugs just opened the doorway to experiences/events that the person wasn't ready or capable of handling.  Hence the psychic split.

I think it is simply the result of being stretched too thin too far.  If you've read the Michael Newton books on life between lives, he makes the interesting observation that souls sometimes don't bring enough of their spiritual energy into incarnations, so as to give themselves a greater challenge in dealing with the impulses of the physical body.  Also, this allows the remaining chunk of spiritual energy still in the spirit world to remain more engaged in its ethereal interests and activities.  Interestingly enough, it was often the more developed souls who would short change themselves the most in lives, not bringing even remotely the recommended amount.  This fool hardiness could be due to the fact that since the more developed soul's energy is stronger than a less developed souls (and thus more vigorous in smaller quantities) and thus they misjudge the amount needed to withstand life's pressure. This sometimes resulted in souls becoming unable to withstand the trauma of life catalyst, sometimes causing them to become earthbound ghosts after death.

So essentially, it appears to be when something occurs that cannot be comfortably integrated into the identity, so the identity cracks as a sort of self defense mechanism. It flees from the horror of catalyst presented by diverging from reality.