Is Bipolar Disorder a Spiritual Emergency in Disguise? with Sean Blackwell

In this episode of The Wellness Reimagined, host Shreya sits down with author and retreat facilitator Sean Blackwell to unpack a confronting question. What if bipolar disorder is not just a life-long diagnosis, but also a potential spiritual awakening.

Sean shares how a scuba accident, an intensive Landmark Forum seminar, and a sudden spiritual crisis led to a psychiatric label of bipolar or schizophrenia. Instead of staying in the illness narrative, he later discovered the work of Dr Stanislav Grof and began to see his “psychosis” as a spiritual emergency that cracked open buried fear, trauma and a sense of oneness.

Together, Shreya and Sean explore holotropic breathwork, conscious emotional clearing, and why he keeps psychiatry in the loop while working on the spiritual side of bipolar healing. This is a grounded, unfluffy conversation for anyone who has been told “this is just your brain chemistry” and quietly wonders if there is more to the story.

 

About the Guest:

Sean Blackwell is the author of “Bipolar Awakenings” and a holotropic breathwork facilitator who has spent nearly two decades working with people experiencing bipolar disorder and psychosis. After his own spiritual emergency in the 1990s and years of study of Stanislav Grof’s work, Sean began supporting individuals through private healing retreats and online programs that address trauma, bioenergetic blockages and the spiritual dimension of mental health, while respecting the role of psychiatry and medication where needed.

 

Key Takeaways  :

• Sean’s first “bipolar episode” began after a Landmark Forum exercise on fear triggered an old scuba diving trauma, leading to intense sensory changes, a feeling of oneness and eventually a full spiritual crisis that psychiatry labelled bipolar or schizophrenia.

• He was hospitalized after being found naked in a hotel ballroom preparing to “meet God”, yet he left after four days without long-term medication and went on to rebuild his life and career, seeing the event as a breakthrough rather than a breakdown.

• Discovering Dr Stanislav Grof’s concept of “spiritual emergency” helped Sean reframe his experience from chronic illness to a meaningful, though destabilizing, spiritual process.

• When his nieces in Brazil went through similar episodes, he supported one niece medication-free with empathy and containment, which opened his path to helping others with psychosis and bipolar labels.

• Holotropic breathwork, done lying safely on a mat with trained facilitators and strong music, uses intensified breathing to relax the ego so unconscious traumatic material can surface and be released through movement and vocalization.

• Sean sees the roots of bipolar disorder in bioenergetic blockages in the chakra system and works to release stored trauma in the body, rather than only focusing on symptoms.

• He draws a clear line between the biological paradigm of psychiatry and the spiritual paradigm of his work, encouraging people to keep medical exams and medication decisions with their doctors.

• Conscious emotional clearing, a body based process using movement and sound with conscious feelings, is his self practice tool that helps people slowly reconnect to emotions that may sit underneath bipolar patterns.

• For some, simply hearing their “delusions” described on Sean’s YouTube channel is deeply validating and becomes the first step out of shame and into an active healing journey.

• Sean’s core message. a diagnosis is not the end of your story. for some people, it might be a spiritual call to heal old trauma and remember who they really are.

 

How Listeners Can Connect with the Guest  :

• Website: www.bipolarawakenings.com

• Book: Bipolar Awakenings: The Quest to Heal Bipolar Disorder

• YouTube channel and information on international retreats