This presentation was a session at the ISPS-US 2023 National Conference in Newark, DE. Thank you to our sponsors, Advocacy Unlimited (advocacyunlimited.org/) and CORAS Wellbeing and Behavioral Health (coraswellness.org/).
ISPS-US promotes psychological and social approaches to states of mind often called "psychosis" by providing education, training, advocacy, and opportunities for dialogue between service providers, people with lived experience, family members, activists, and researchers. Get involved by attending our educational events or joining us as a member to access our network of support, discussion and peer supervision groups, creative sharing spaces, our journal, and more.
www.isps-us.org
Description
In this session, an innovative self-driven process called “Re-Uncovery” will be presented providing a self-tested conceptual meaningfulness framework to harvest, practice, and embody the positive aspects and meaning of mania and psychosis. Along with these three aspects, Re-Uncovery includes six dimensions with nine lattices each. The dimension are: Perception, Action, and “Gaiaence” plus Information, Language, and Biology. The nine lattices are proposed essential learnings that are augmented in extraordinary experiences and that experiences can be extrapolated to in retrospect. Missed learning opportunities in extraordinary states can be revisited and bridged to human potential and the frontiers of science, in this “expansionist” rather than reductionist approach. Along with the bridging to potential and science, as context is built as a resonant web of self-authored meaning, a phase transition can happen where intra-subjective authority and de-centralized autonomy are embedded in the nervous system and embodied cognition strengthens the brain-body-being as one’s best possible self. With this framework, attendees will be able to use it to explore the dimensions and strengthen them.
In essence, rather than resisting or advocating for change, we crowd out non-resonant elements with what is perceived, created, and self-evident, rather than waiting for evidence 20 years out of date. The ability to understand equates to less fear, fear which is installed through diagnosis (not trusting oneself) and stigma (fear of being rejected by the community). The process is brain-fulfilling as it fuels the brains need and design to learn. We can “re-uncover” what extraordinary states uncovered for us to learn from and adapt to. As we adapt, we may discover we can now handle, harness, and process the ideas, insights, and information overflow when it happens in real-time. As neuroscientist Beau Lotto says, the next great technology is not a gadget, but a new way of seeing.
About the Presenter
Andrea Grey earned a Bachelor of Science from Simon Fraser University in Cell and Molecular Biology. She is trained as a Peer Support Worker and WRAP Facilitator. Currently, she is self-publishing books and designing related activities and experiences based on “omnipolarity.” She loves to find and create meaning in mania and psychosis while building bridges to other disciplines like human potential and science. Her wish is to inspire others to give themselves permission to “Re-Uncover,” recontextualize, and document their extraordinary experiences and participate in crowding out the old paradigm with meaning.