The late Christina Grof describes her own struggle to overcome alcoholism and suggests that the impulse that leads to addictive behavior stems from our yearning for spiritual union. Crises of spiritual opening, she says, may often look like episodes of acute psychosis and are often difficult and even painful. Unlike psychosis, however, such crises can lead to higher states of personality integration.

Christina Grof was founder of the Spiritual Emergence Network. She is author of The Thirst for Wholeness, and a developer, with husband Stanislav Grof, of Holotropic therapy.