It depends on your perspective…

From a pathological perspective, “getting lost” in spiritual reality looks like a serious psychological condition such as psychosis, schizophrenia or a messiah/saviour complex. Such conditions are considered abnormal, despite there being no universally agreed-upon definition of normality. A pathological approach considers any reality beyond the material as non-existent.

From a shamanic perspective, “getting lost” in the Otherworld is an initiatory rite of passage that gives birth to a spiritual healer. Not all births are successful, however, and failed initiations are common, especially in Western culture, where awakening to spiritual reality is largely unrecognised and unsupported. A shamanic approach recognises the spiritual world (collective imagination) as a parallel reality that exists alongside material reality.

From an enlightened perspective, “getting lost” is an integral part of expanding and evolving one’s consciousness. Sometimes you have to lose yourself to find yourself. This journey towards wholeness involves navigating the proverbial “dark night of the soul” which is disorienting and gives rise to temporary states of lostness. An enlightened approach recognises both spiritual reality and material reality as interdependent and without separation. It considers separation/division as illusory.