Spiritual Madness: The Necessity of Meeting God in Darkness

by Caroline Myss

An audio presentation that explores the path of today's modern mystic who seeks the divine while holding down a job and caring for a family. Caroline Myss uncovers the roots of mystical experience, both ancient and modern.

Genres: Spirituality, Nonfiction, Self Help, Mental Health, Reference, Personal Development

Audio Cassette

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

Caroline Myss was born on December 2, 1952 in Chicago, and grew up with her parents, and two brothers, one elder and one younger, in the Melrose Park, Illinois neighbourhood near Chicago. Caroline was raised a Catholic, and attended the Mother Guerin High School, River Grove, Illinois, run by the Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods. She completed her Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism from the Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College in Indiana in 1974, and started her career in journalism in Chicago.

In the course of her career, she interviewed Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, M.D., the author of the famous book, On Death and Dying, which inspired her to pursue a Master's degree in theology from Mundelein College, Chicago, which she completed in 1979. She also claims to hold a Ph.D in "intuition and energy medicine", but the degree was granted by Greenwich University, a now-defunct correspondence school that was never accredited to deliver higher education awards by any recognized government accreditation authority.

She started giving medical intuitive readings in 1982 and co-founded a small New Age publishing company, Stillpoint Publishing in Walpole, New Hampshire, where she also worked as an editor in 1983, next she began consulting with holistic doctors, which in 1984, led to her extensive collaboration with Dr. Norman Shealy, an M.D. schooled at Harvard, and the founder of the American Holistic Medical Association, with whom she later co-authored, "Aids: Passageway to Transformation," in 1987, followed by "The Creation of Health: The Emotional, Psychological, and Spiritual Responses that Promote Health and Healing," in 1988. Deriving from her practice as a medical intuitive, she started writing books, in the field of energy medicine, and healing, all of which became New York Times Best Sellers.[18] Starting with Anatomy of the Spirit: The Seven Stages of Power and Healing (1996), which overlapped seven Christian sacraments with seven Hindu chakras and the Kabbalah's Tree of Life to create a map of the human "energy anatomy"; this was followed by Why People Don't Heal and How They Can (1998), which explored the reasons people do not heal through her concept of "woundology." Her next book, Sacred Contracts: Awakening Your Divine Potential (2002) dealt with the issue of finding "Life Purpose," while describing Sacred Contracts as "a set of assignments that our soul had formed around before incarnation". She has since appeared on the The Oprah Winfrey Show numerous times.

By 2000, she discontinued doing private medical intuitive readings, and instead started teaching it, through her workshops, seminars, radio shows and guided tours. She tours internationally as a speaker on spirituality and mysticism, and lives in Oak Park, Illinois, near Chicago. In 2003, she started the Caroline Myss Educational Institute, with Wisdom University in San Francisco.

Her 2007 book, "Entering the Castle" draws upon the writings of Saint Teresa of Ávila, a 16th century Carmelite nun, who wrote her most important work, The Interior Castle, towards the end of her life.

Reviews

[W Fuller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding. This is one book/audio that should be in your home library. When events in your life seem off center, the Universe is attempting to get your attention. Surrender and grow with it.

[Tina Cody · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dark night of the soul has found me yet again. This was a well-timed read ✨🌙

[ar · Rating 1 out of 5]

came highly recommended to me from someone i respect, but it wasn't for me

[Anna Victoria · Rating 1 out of 5]

First of all her tone is incredibly aggressive and patronizing. She assumes the listener is seeking to be a mystic for some sort of spiritual gifts and self aggrandizing. Maybe her message and tone would benefit such seekers? I don't know.

I could ignore her attitude and lack of empathy and humility (she seems to assume the role of a tough guide or teacher, who constantly asks 'do you really think God is like that?' as if she has ultimate knowledge), yet her message lacks substance. Be comfortable with the dark night of the soul and chaos and find a spiritual director? I really needed the whole audiobook for that. Not.

[Kaitlyn Whitten · Rating 2 out of 5]

1.75🌟

It was good until it started disregarding mental health conditions and demeaning other religions. At first it did seem pretty spiritual based, though it constantly use the term, God, but for someone more spiritual based and not religious based I looked at the term God as the universe. This worked until she started insulting divination and rituals and any other type of spiritual practice than prayer by labeling them as purely superstition. There are quite a lot of beneficial thoughts and ideas, but also quite a bit of harmful and stereotypical type slander and disregard.

[Kirsten Evenson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I listened to the audiobook recording of this (I don't think an actual text exists, it was a talk she gave) and found most of the content and insights mind-blowing at the time, although other statements felt like they were coming from her own experience or worldview but presented as spiritual truths or fact- if only you can get to her level. In general I find Myss' work to be overall so harsh and judgmental that it is hard to read and advise anyone to take her proclamations with a grain of salt.

[Timothy Cameron · Rating 5 out of 5]

Between mid-2006 to early 2010, I listened to Spiritual Madness dozens of times; it was during the most difficult period of my life. It helped me survive suicidal ideations more than any other single work. Thank you, Caroline Myss, for helping save my life! ​

[Xani · Rating 5 out of 5]

You already know I loved it….. “You are incarnating to experience life patterns that will bring out the part of you that doesn’t know God yet.” I repeated it to my shrink and a chill shot through her. That’s the power of truth…. My girl KNOWS

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars

[Shiloah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent!! So much truth and great advice!

[Adan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ever wanted to know what it means to live a normal life while believing in the extraordinary?

This presentation gives some interesting points about the roles mysticism and religion plays in the 21st century.

One thing that stood out was when Caroline Myss talked about joining a monastic life in order to experience the mystical and/or supernatural.

Myss argues that such a model is inappropriate for the modern day. She insists that people looking for the mystic (but not the superstitious) benefits of life can develop their own spiritual discipline without ever leaving their daily life behind.

Caroline Myss' work is amazing because it's refreshing to believe life should not be neatly divided between good versus evil.

Such a philosophy does not allow mystery and no journeys into darkest days or most wonderful nights of our soul.

Instead, Myss' life work adds up to the belief that the paradise you might find after death is the heaven you seek in life.

[Elizabeth Olson · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I don't agree with everything Myss has to say, she's always challenging, and there are always insights to be found in her work. Here, she discusses the difference between spiritual madness (coming undone in order to be remade by the Divine) and psychological madness (an ego-centered crisis precipitated by unresolved tensions and unacknowledged conflicts). She also addresses the difficulty of being a modern mystic, "in the world but not of it", and offers as aid a variety of demanding, though rewarding, spiritual practices.

[Victoria Evangelina Allen · Rating 5 out of 5]

OMG. It is clearly the most profound (and short!!!!!!!!!!) help-offering title in my library-EVER!!!!!! I absolutely love it and will be listening to and taking notes, and trying to implement it into my life over and over and over again. I cannot recomment it highly enough. Thank you, Janet Connor, for the recommendation!!!

[Usman Chohan · Rating 2 out of 5]

doesn't develop her arguments... just stitches vague notions together... the underlying message, that we should embrace chaos not as the absence of order but as an essential part of the experience of mysticism, could have been elaborated. Mysticism really isn't a forte of the anglo-saxon world.

[Claudette Head]

Excellent

[Lee F. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Listened to the CD - actually loved it. She is real

[Phil · Rating 5 out of 5]

this is a CD set, and it is another "bible" for me.

[Susan]

I seem to live in the dark - either I was a mushroom or I do spend a lot of time talking to God.

[Rain Jewelle Martin]

brilliant!!

[Kathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome. The audio book is even better. It is as if she was speaking directly to me.

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found several useful concepts that I could apply and use in my life. The overall message is not to be afraid of the dark times for those are the ones in which real growth occurs.

[Patrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Challenging and rewarding.