Many things can wrong on our spiritual journey, and in fact, they are supposed to if we are doing our practices correctly. An odd notion, but one deeply rooted in spiritual traditions including Qabala and Alchemy. For over twenty years the "pathology of the sublime" as some have called it, has been an integral part of the teachings and practices of the Institute for Hermetic Studies Topics covered include: - Why It Gets Worse Before It Gets Better - What's My Motivation? Balancing Service and Positive Self-Interest - Problems With Authority - Invoking Authority Figures to Overcome Them - Nightmares, Night Terrors, and Why You Think You Are Going Crazy and When You Really Are Going Crazy - Spontaneous, and No So Spontaneous Awakenings (Yoga Instructors Take Note) - Hauntings, Paranormal Phenomena, and Obsession, and Possession - Mapping the Energy Flow - Why Tradition is Critical - Keeping It Safe - The Great Marketing Lie of Modern Spirituality - Initiation is Terror, Death, Not for the Weak, and How To Get Over It These teachings are ideal for those practicing or instructing others in yoga, meditation, psychotherapy, shamanism, healing energy modalities, and psychosomatic medicine, as well as psychic investigators. Referencing original research for the Philosophers of Nature (LPN-PON), the Institute for Hermetic Studies, Psychosynthesis, the works of Arthur Guirdham, M.D., M. Scott Peck, M.D., William Gray, Jacques Vallee and others, specific side-effects and pathologies as they relate to the effects of spiritual practices are explored along with why crisis is essential on the spiritual journey.