Hey thanks for the comment!

Yes I’ve made it out, but it took around 2 and a half years and I am still a work in progress.

I think coming out of it might look different for everyone because what places people there can be quite individual.

Oddly enough, it was not spiritual practice that pulled me out of the dark night.

I kept trying to push spirituality further thinking that if I meditated enough, had the right psychedelic trip, or followed the right practice, then I’d be pulled out. For me, coming out actually looked more like leaving spirituality as I knew it. I could not find the answers there. There were only promises.

What pulled me out was a mix of more conservative intellectualism such as Ayn Rand and Jordan Peterson, as well as depth psychology and rekindling my creativity and natural capabilities. I was also very very liberal and feminine in my personality (anima possessed, if you know any Jungian theory). I was out of balance - perhaps one way to put it was that I was too far on the ‘Yin’ side.

A mind too embroiled in chaos, relativism, emotions, and fluidity is not one that knows how to live in a direct way, formulating a vision, and developing boundaries and strength. A lot of my problem was not knowing how to act in the world. I was incredibly frustrated by spirituality in this context because largely spirituality teaches how to be, not act.

Furthermore, depth psychology outlines the concept of the “unlived life” as well. That contributed to me getting a sense of ‘ought’ back from my reluctant nihilism.

As for your question… humanity can answer many many questions and the amount of questions we can answer increases every day. As for the ultimate questions such as whether there is a purpose for all this, no one knows. For me I have answered it inside myself with faith. Not in any religion, but a faith that there is a reason for all this.

I have answered it in this way because hope is a necessity. I have been without hope, and I could not live that way. You will probably know this feeling of having no hope at all. The mind and body requires hope for proper functioning.

We have a personality, we have potential, and we must cultivate these things. I found that elements of the spiritual community negate this and deem it as ego and ambition, but I think that’s wrong.

I believe that there is something there within us that ought to be expressed. This is what I think “believe in yourself” really means. This goes against what much of the spiritual community teaches when they say you are consciousness and consciousness is emptiness.

I have had that experience of pure presence many times. It’s valuable and relieving but it is not human to remain there permanently. It may be for some, but not for everyone. We need to develop our personality and express ourselves, especially in youth.

Carl Jung says youth, like a light, is the time to extend your rays, and in the afternoon of life you can draw them back in to illumine the self. I plan to further illumine myself in this way when it is appropriate. Jung says a lot of neuroticism comes from refusing to extend in youth, and withdraw in age. Much of my dark night was not knowing how to extend my rays , and I was chasing spirituality to give me purpose — when it mostly was a release of purpose.

I’m not sure if this helps, and I don’t have more time to shorten it or say it more elegantly, but this is how I came out.

I wish you luck!