Impactful moments and experiences that critically affect life and well-being: part one

Enlightening expansive experience can be an accelerator for change and growth.

Life-altering experiences - by RRP design with Canva & stock photos

A dynamic, momentary, or more prolonged experience can alter and mold your life and its expression.

Any of us can recall certain impactful events that may have significantly changed our life experiences and choices. Today, for instance, was boiling and muggy with overhead threatening storm clouds and a distant rumble of an approaching thunderstorm. It took my mind back to a past eventful summer's day. I was seventeen and had worked hard that summer, earning enough to have my first car, and began dating my childhood sweetheart, my future wife. My older brother, who was working with a seasoned builder and involved with a construction project, hired me for the summer to assist the job superintendent with whatever help he needed. I felt both lucky and proud to be relied on for everything that came up. I remember one of the heavy equipment drivers who was always bragging about his smooth ways and dating life. He would tease me about being green behind the ears and maybe a little spoiled.

 I had to get up early before the sun came up to drive to the remote work site in a nearby city.

The day began hot and humid with dark threatening storm clouds overhead. The sky opened with torrid, heavy rain with a loud burst of thunder. I was running for cover and got drenched. The super yelled at me to head for a trailer used as a construction office. The moment I grabbed the metal door handle, a loud burst of thunder snaked through the sky and struck a power line that fell on the roof of the construction shack. My body shook as electricity transmitted through the metal structure to my grasping hand and body. I was stunned and thrown back through the air for at least ten feet. I was shaken, scarred, and still stunned, but I could gradually get to my feet with the help of a kind employee. He said, "Young man, you're lucky to be alive, and remember to always touch things with the back of your finger before grabbing." It turns out he was also an electrician and always did that when there was any chance of getting a shock. But of course, I didn't know the construction shack had a live wire on it.

I was deeply affected and imprinted with the idea of our profound connection and interdependence with nature and the forces of immensity beyond our small, fragile, and vulnerable existence. I had survived and realized the need to walk with more caution, humbleness, and respectfulness of all beyond our knowing and control. It no doubt became part of my inner narrative and growth into adulthood. Later that hot summer, when things seemed to fall into more of a routine, and I was accepted more and befriended by the other employees, an unexpected event gave me the first foreshadowing of my future career in healthcare.

 Later that same summer, not too long after the instance above, the supervisor at the worksite yelled for me to run over to one of the partially constructed buildings where there were low-hanging exposed metal beams that would be covered later in the construction. He said, "Take a towel for the carpenter injured there and cover his wound with pressure. He and his buddies had several beers with lunch and, when running back to get to work on time, ran through the building with the exposed beams. His head hit one of the beams, and his scalp had been partially ripped off, reminding me of the Western movies where people got “scalped.” Luckily, he could keep enough pressure on his injured head while I drove him to a nearby ER, where they quickly took him in and sutured him up. He thanked me and apologized if he had gotten any blood on my car seats. He probably was drunk enough to be spared some of the pain of the injury. I thought they would fire him, but as he was one of the lead carpenters and led one of the crews, he was warned and kept on the job. It was one of my first experiences overseeing a medical emergency, which I'm sure portended and influenced my later career choice, as was my earlier traumatic life experience with a hospitalization for an early form of polio, but that is another story.¹

The underappreciated, dramatic, or profound effects of highly charged emotional experiences

In modern psychology and psychiatry, much has been said and popularized about the impact of severe trauma and life-threatening events on a person's mental health and life. The sometimes underappreciated dramatic or profound effects of highly charged emotional experiences have mostly had attention in religious, spiritual, and Eastern cultural philosophies.

Just as traumatic negative experiences can change and shape lives, so can a very intense time of experiencing and being flooded with positive emotions and feelings such as belonging, ecstasy, love, inclusiveness, sensory expansion, quietness, peacefulness, and unity. Such experiences often have revelatory ideas, insights, and an expanded sense of clarity. The choice of pursuing or being open to such experiences may greatly benefit some. Still, it may, in others, lead to an addiction or obsessive search for a sustained state of continual gratification and release from pain and suffering.

Escape from ego-mind-entrapment and self-centeredness

Historically, efforts occurred to release individuals from ego mind entrapment and self-centeredness toward group dependence, responsibilities, cohesiveness, and allegiance to something greater and more powerful than the separated, isolated individual. In indigenous cultures, there were offerings by healers as shamans with ceremonial groups and spiritual practices, along with hallucinogenic plant medicine, music, dancing, or movement.

Now, therapies using similar modalities have gradually entered the mainstream of medicine and psychiatry. Today many therapeutic modalities are pursued with different motivations, such as a search for life-changing, unlocking experiences to gain more profound wisdom or for relief from the suffering of depression, PTSD, and addictions. Other reasons might be purely for the sake of adventure and spiritual awaking or the seeking of clarity, enlightenment, and inspiration. Mind-influencing natural and psychedelic agents can help treat specific psychological and emotional difficulties.

Caution and admonitions with new, innovative, and psychedelic therapies

In the Psychotherapy field, there have been group therapies, intensive therapeutic encounters, and now psychedelic drugs, as indigenous people use some natural plant agents in their communities to induce spiritual and awakening experiences to enhance community bonds. Today, with ketamine, psilocybin, MDMA, Ayahuasca, LSD, and others, it becomes worthwhile to understand the ecstatic or revelation experiences and effects on users.

Besides the promising benefits, some practical precautions need consideration as there are sometimes unforeseen consequences, such as the possible harmful or traumatic experience with mind-affecting or altering therapies. See reference to recent articles below about psychedelics, exploring the history, potential benefits, and risks.²

Often, it is recommended by mental health practitioners doing drug-assisted psychotherapy or intensive group therapies that whatever occurs or comes up often adequate reflection and processing as with continued discussion or therapy. The time required may vary to allow the novel perceptions and ideas to mature and integrate into the context of a person's life, inner narrative, and core beliefs. To do so is highly encouraged before jumping to any decisions or significant life-altering decisions. 

Tips and Points to Ponder:

1. Deciding or planning at the time of a profound mind-influencing experience might be an opening for change and growth or a disaster with dire consequences. A revelation or profound insight often has the potential for growth and enlargement of perspective. Still, it needs to be integrated with the larger context beyond one's current level of experience and knowledge to bring value to the experience. Otherwise, such an experience might reinforce a constrictive tendency to become more self-absorbed into a constrictive personal ego or drawn to others that reinforce a needed idea, belief, or new identity. It could further descend into destructive or radicalized "group thinking" that feeds hatred and division.

2. Every change or seeking growth entails a certain amount of risk, so wisely choosing your opportunities and course of action is essential. Many offerings to meet your desired or even felt desperate needs require careful consideration, and as the adage goes, "Buyer Beware." When necessary, find an experienced and professional helper you can trust to engage in dialogue to help you explore all the issues, allowing you to find your clarity and perspective with your decision-making, integrating new insight from intensive experiences, or getting unstuck in making wiser choices.

Mind Wise is a valuable resource for your search and interest in mental health and well-being by Ron Parks, MD, MPH, an Integrative Psychiatrist, Holistic Medicine consultant, and writer.

A special thanks to Jan Parks and Shan Parks, editor, for their valued feedback and assistance.

Dr. Parks offers sessions for help in gaining clarity and perspective. If interested, click here to schedule a session.

1.

2. Psychedelics Are a Promising Therapy, but be fully informed and approach with caution: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/10/well/mind/psychedelics-therapy-ketamine-mushrooms-risks.html?smid=nytcore-android-share);

https://nida.nih.gov/sites/default/files/drugfacts-hallucinogens.pdf;

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hallucinogen;

https://www.verywellmind.com/types-of-psychedelic-drug-22073;

https://www.verywellmind.com/psychedelic-therapy-how-does-it-work-5079161;

https://parksmd.com/the-art-of-decision-making-and-more-predictable-outcomes/