Nils is a Swedish entrepreneur and coach who I met at a Guardian of Life retreat near Stockholm, Sweden. Although his transcendent experience was initiated at a Burning Man event, not by a psychological crisis, what he articulately describes here reminds me of the experiences I have heard people who have had a crisis try to describe for many years.
In our first interview with Adam in CRAZYWISE he described his crisis this way. “When it first happened, it was very fun and exciting. It was the first time I felt at one with the Universe—where I was it and it was me. It was incredible. It was like a shattering of my ego, but then I kept going and I went way too far. “
Since that 2012 interview, I have talked with and interviewed well over a hundred individuals who have suffered a psychological crisis. Although described with many different words the experience often resulted in a personal redefinition of ‘self’ along with a sense of interconnectedness, unity and compassion. Many would struggle and say there is really no language to describe what I experienced and felt. Others would say things like “I felt ultra-connected”; “My ego boundaries blurred then disappeared”; “I felt at peace and one with everyone and everything”; and “I became nothing but yet I was everything”.
