Following is information on a book that I think members here may find very interesting:

Recent Research on Recovery from Schizophrenia Suggests that Nonduality is the Key to Making Sense of these Disorders

Dr. Paris Williams, known for his groundbreaking research on people who have made full medication-free recoveries from schizophrenia (as mentioned in the New York Times), has just released a book, Rethinking Madness, that presents a serious challenge to the mainstream understanding and treatment of schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders.

In Rethinking Madness, Williams documents how the recent domestic and international research (including studies conducted by the World Health Organization and the National Institute of Mental Health) suggests that full medication-free recovery from schizophrenia and other related psychotic disorders is not only possible, but may actually be the most likely outcome given the right conditions. Furthermore, the findings from Williams’ own research suggest that many individuals who recover do not simply return to their pre-psychotic condition, but actually undergo a profound positive transformation resulting in a sense of wellbeing and life competence that far exceeds that which existed prior to their psychosis.

All of these findings fly directly in the face of the mainstream understanding of schizophrenia and psychosis, so it’s not surprising that as these research findings continue to emerge, we see the first stirrings of a fiery controversy that may very well continue to escalate until we are forced to consider a radical restructuring of the mental health care system and indeed the very foundation of our understanding of madness. In Rethinking Madness, Williams takes the plunge directly into the heart of this controversial topic. He begins by disentangling the complex web of research on schizophrenia, attempting to make sense of how it is that the mainstream understanding of schizophrenia has become so profoundly mistaken. He then goes about crafting an altogether new vision of madness—one that brings in the latest recovery research and integrates both Eastern and Western understandings of the mind to make sense of the findings of the emerging research.

As this new vision unfolds, Williams suggests that we arrive at both some unsettling realizations and some very hopeful possibilities. On one hand, we are forced to recognize that our current mainstream paradigm of care may actually be causing more harm than benefit, both for those so diagnosed and also for their friends, family members, and society at large. On the other hand, we discover that those who find themselves struggling with these challenging disorders have a very high likelihood of moving on to meaningful and productive lives.

Finally, in a compelling twist, we discover that those we often consider to be “mad” may very well be caught in a profound wrestling match with the very same core existential dilemmas with which we all struggle. Williams suggests that the real key to understanding these vexing experiences comes not from the findings of the latest brain research, but rather from the findings of human consciousness that have arisen from many years of introspective inquiry into the deepest layers of human experience—findings that have arisen from the Western existential movement over the past couple of hundred years as well as findings that have arisen from thousands of years of such inquiry within the nondual traditions of the East—particularly Buddhism, Taoism, and Advaita Vedanta.

Rethinking Madness (Sky’s Edge Publishing) is available through Amazon.com and other channels. More information is available at www.RethinkingMadness.com

Dr. Paris Williams works as a psychologist in the San Francisco Bay Area. He offers the rare perspective of someone who has experienced psychosis from both sides—as a researcher and psychologist, and as someone who has himself fully recovered after struggling with psychotic experiences. He can be reached at www.RethinkingMadness.com

iamom

Nothing matters so much that we should throw ourselves into a state of panic about it. No happening is so important that we should let ourselves be exiled from inner peace and mental calm for its sake.

— Paul Brunton

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Weak desires can be removed by introspection and meditation, but strong, deep-rooted ones must be fulfilled and their fruits, sweet or bitter, tasted.

—Nisargadatta Maharaj, from I Am That - Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

iamom

Instead of directly seeing what is, the seeker continues to wait for a future event of enlightenment, not admitting that he's already – and always has been – home. He often tries to anticipate what it would be like to reach a total and final understanding in which God and the universe reveal their secrets. In doing so he overlooks the fact that his mind is both part of and appearing in this universe and, thus, is not qualified to comprehend it.

Giving up one's expectations in favor of a willingness to simply accept what is may create a vacuum filled with surprising alternatives. For instance, it might be recognized that finding does not come from seeking, but that it may be revealed through giving up the search; that it is not something to see, but the seeing itself; that cherished beliefs might be unmasked as conceptual obstacles, and spiritual practices may turn out to be a way of avoiding a direct seeing into the heart of the matter.

This direct seeing exposes the illusion of a separate seeker who can arrive at 'destination enlightenment' somewhere in the future. Consequently, the seeking and the seeker are both annihilated in the realization that he is already home.

To the exhausted seeker I would like to say, 'Drop the search and drop your concepts. Stop looking for your ass. Just sit down and relax.' Letting go of your preconceived notions could suddenly shift your attention from the far-off horizon at which you gaze in anticipation of a grand and extraordinary event and reveal the wonder that exists right in front of, behind, and in your own eyes.

iamom

It was a happy realization for me, when I realized that I could "escape anything" by simply being in the immediacy of now. While that may sound "escapist", it is actually the opposite, as what is immediate in this moment is the only truth. What I realized was that by attending strictly to the "sensations" in the moment there was no way that "thought could get to me".

Regarding "sensations" above, recently it has occurred to me that I should emphasized more that when I speak of the "immediacy of the moment" I mean strictly the "sensations" as experienced in the moment, Nothing More! Each moment a new set of sensations, which are always changing. Nothing adds up, nothing combines, each moment of new sensations is independent, stands on its own.

If one attends to each moment of new sensations, regarding anything that went before as "invalidated" by what is new, then thought is experienced as just a series of changing sensations. Same with emotion or anything else. So if anything "upsetting" or unsettling would arise I would stop and just pay attention to the panorama of sensation in continual flow of change. What had been upsetting would become seen as just an area where the sensations were particularly dense and agitated. But by simply experiencing "as sensation" the dense and agitated would soften and expand until melted away. And even when dense and agitated it still wasn't a suffering (though you may use that term differently), as it was just patterns of energy I was experiencing. By shifting to experiencing as simply sensation I had effectively "stripped away all content." (!!)

– Bill Rishel

iamom

Everyone has the constricting belief that enlightenment or God is over "there" somewhere and their job in life is to "find" it. The problem is that we are "here" and will always be "here"- but if enlightenment is over "there", how can it be found? Actually enlightenment/God is also here, always was here, but what it is, is actually not what 99% of seekers really want. Seekers want the enlightenment they have been sold: being happy, important, full of love, no more problems. Like a continuous orgasmic or drug high. That is the reason they are seeking in the first place, the wished for blissful finish line. If anyone really understood what awakening was, no one would want it. Enlightenment is about "alone."

A true encounter with the Absolute/God reveals that no one is doing the experiencing, only the absolute revealing itself to the absolute. Nothing exists, yet there i s the appearance of existence. Realization is alone (all-one). But everyone fears alone, so they run to spiritual practice, patterns, lovers, food, booze, any distraction to avoid the only true fear. The fear of no self (often called emptiness) the fear that "I" do not exist. Fear of no self is not the fear of death, but the fear that you as a human being do not exist at all. That is where all the "spiritual groups" get caught, they are looking for what's in it for "them" or "us". Realization is one and alone for there is no other. Everything that tells you that you are separate from a nything else falls away. Thus you are alone, with the appearance of others. The initial glimpse of this is so terrifying to ego it responds with the emotions of meaninglessness and despair. But as soon as the mind falls away, those emotions go too and all that is left is What Is, and the marvelous curiosity about the dream and what is going to happen next.

( read the rest of my excerpt here )

iamom

As nonduality stands on the brink of a presence in major media, let's look at how Deepak Chopra addresses a question about why he has held back on delivering the full teaching of nonduality. The bottom line may be strictly commercial. However, ask yourself whether the times are a-changing and whether major media can absorb the full and diverse teaching of nonduality.

( Read my reduction of the exchange with Deepak here )