Psychosis or Spiritual Awakening?

Photographer Phil Borges spent decades documenting indigenous cultures and interviewing more than 40 shaman across five continents. In this TEDx talk he asks whether some psychiatric breaks, including psychosis, might sometimes be better understood as a spiritual crisis rather than pure illness. The talk is personal and observational, not a clinical study; Psylopedia reports his views here without endorsing any diagnosis or treatment claim.

Indigenous cultures and the shaman's path

Borges describes relationships in tribal cultures that differ from the Western default: intimate ecological knowledge, direct interdependence in place of institutions like retirement accounts, and an ongoing relationship with what many cultures call spirit, close to what researchers call a mystical experience. Over roughly 30 years he sought out shaman in Tibet, Kenya, Mongolia, Siberia, the Navajo Nation, the Amazon, and among the Kalash on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. Nearly all, he says, described a similar arc: a psychological crisis they call "the call," a mentor who had survived a comparable break, and an "initiation" often framed as death of the old self and rebirth into a more compassionate identity, a pattern Borges likens to ego death. Trance methods vary, from drumming in Mongolia to ceremonial ayahuasca in South America.

Adam's story and the Western psychiatric path

Borges introduces Adam, whose own break began as a sense of connection that felt "absolutely amazing" before it "got scary." Medicated for about four years, at one point taking 15 pills a day, Adam recalls severe side effects. A silent Vipassana retreat later helped him stabilize and find steady work, but he was turned away from a follow-up retreat once he disclosed his psychiatric history. What Adam and the shaman shared, Borges argues, was the presence or absence of a mentor and community able to hold the experience, a support role close to what Psylopedia's integration guide describes for psychedelic experiences.

Reframing crisis: statistics and "spiritual emergency"

Citing NIMH figures, Borges says roughly one in five people will face a psychological crisis in their lifetime, one in 20 will become disabled by it, and about three quarters of cases begin before age 24, overlapping with when many shaman he interviewed had their own crises. Indigenous communities, he argues, offer advantages often missing in Western care: a narrative treating crisis as meaningful, close to what harm-reduction literature calls set and setting, freedom from stigma, a lived-experience mentor, and a community role for resulting abilities. Some clinicians he has interviewed describe certain episodes as "spiritual emergencies" rather than pure pathology, a view Borges shares but that remains a minority position in psychiatry. He closes with a passage attributed to Albert Einstein, on the self as an "optical delusion of consciousness."

Key takeaways

• ●Borges frames the talk as a question, not a diagnosis: do psychiatric breaks look different in a culture that treats crisis as meaningful?
• ●Across 40-plus shaman on five continents, he found a repeating arc: crisis ("the call"), mentor, initiation as death and rebirth of self, then unpaid service.
• ●Trance methods vary by culture, from drumming in Mongolia to ceremonial ayahuasca in South America.
• ●Adam, whom Borges followed for over a year, reported severe medication side effects and was turned away from a retreat over his psychiatric history.
• ●Borges cites NIMH figures: about one in five people face a psychological crisis in their lifetime, most with onset before age 24.
• ●Indigenous communities offer cultural context, freedom from stigma, mentorship, and a role for resulting talents, Borges argues.
• ●Some clinicians he cites describe certain crises as "spiritual emergencies," though this stays outside mainstream psychiatric consensus.