Existential crisis.
I hear this term get thrown around a lot.
According to dictionary.com, an existential crisis is “a psychological episode in which a person questions the meaning of their life and of existence itself.”
I would define it this way:
“An existential crisis is a realization or series of realizations where the ego self discovers that it is full of sh*t and that its ideas about how life should be and how the person should be are actually wrong.”
People don’t like this experience.
To say the least. 🙂
But it’s one of those spiritual turning points that can be really good.
Or a total trap.
Turning Towards Conscious Awareness or Unconsciousness?
Why both ways?
In this situation, the ego is at a point where it is questioning life.
This is the good part!
But the ego generally wants an answer to protect its beliefs and bring a sense of safety and order back to the person’s life.
That’s the bad part.
An existential crisis may open up a person to the possibility that they don’t know who they are or what life is. That can send a person on the quest for the truth. But usually, the ego doesn’t want to know the truth. It doesn’t want to see all of its nonsense, illusions, and crap. It wants safety, happiness, or whatever it feels like was lost.
This grasping can spiral people down into a dark night of the soul.
Most people will grab onto any thing or idea that they think will give them what they want. This leads many people to shutting down again and sinking back into the ego ignorance that caused the suffering that very likely caused the existential crisis in the first place.
Even More Unconscious Than Before
More than a few people end up creating a whole spiritual ego than before the existential crisis.
The root causes for the crisis don’t get dealt with.
The person finds some set of beliefs, substances, and/or practices to bury themselves into. A helpful meditation retreat can become an addiction–there are many, many spiritual retreat junkies.
This is all still avoidance, and now there is the original ego with a layer of spiritual ego piled on top.
Wisely Dealing with an Existential/Ego Crisis
The existential crisis is an opportunity if you are willing to take it.
In this sacred turning point, you have a chance to find your way out of suffering and transform the crisis into a moment of spiritual rebirth.
So the best way to deal with an existential crisis is to go within, begin to understand your ego and its many false beliefs, and learn to surrender to what is.
Here are some blog posts to help you:
Has God Turned His Back on You?
Do You Really Want to Know You?
Spiritual Liberation and the End of Ego Suffering
Updated 4/27/2026
