Journal of Religion and Health
December 1, 2016
Paulo H C Dias, Gilberto Safra
1 citation
This study presents a clinical conception of the human being as the paradox between immanence and transcendence. Through an exposition of the clinical conceptions of Brazilian author Gilberto Safra, we search for an integral manner in which to understand mystical experience as a way to rethink the ontological conceptions inherent to clinical practice. In such perspective, we elaborate a...
Journal of Religion and Health
December 1, 2016
Xianglong Zeng, Jun Wei, Tian Ps Oei et al.
The concept of self-compassion originated from Buddhism, but very little is known about the utility and functions of this concept among Buddhists. Four hundred and eleven individuals (179 Buddhists and 232 non-Buddhists) completed the survey packages using the self-compassion scale (SCS; Neff in Self Identity 2(3):223-250, 2003a. doi: 10.1080/15298860309027 ). Confirmatory factor analysis...
Journal of Religion and Health
August 1, 2016
Chae Young Kim
Granville Stanley Hall (1844-1924) with William James (1842-1910) is the key founder of psychology of religion movement and the first American experimental or genetic psychologist, and Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) is the founder of the analytical psychology concerned sympathetically about the religious dimension rooted in the human subject. Their fundamental works are mutually connected. Among...
Journal of Religion and Health
February 1, 2016
Bradley Lewis
5 citations
Two important movements leading the way toward a new approach to healthcare are narrative medicine and contemplative care. Despite considerable common ground between these two movements, they have existed largely parallel to each other, with different literatures, different histories, different sub-communities, and different practitioners. This article works toward integration of narrative...
Journal of Religion and Health
December 1, 2015
Joseph Bankard
Traditional moral philosophy has long focused on rationality, principled thinking, and good old-fashioned willpower, but recent evidence strongly suggests that moral judgments and prosocial behavior are more heavily influenced by emotion and intuition. As the evidence mounts, rational traditions emphasizing deliberative analysis and conscious decision making are called into question. The first...
Journal of Religion and Health
October 1, 2015
Anastasia Philippa Scrutton
51 citations
A recent paper in this journal argues that some cases of schizophrenia should be seen as cases of demon possession and treated by faith healers. A reply, also published in this journal, responds by raising concerns about the intellectual credibility and potentially harmful practical implications of demon possession beliefs. My paper contributes to the discussion, arguing that a critique of...
Journal of Religion and Health
October 1, 2015
Hemant Bhargav, Aarti Jagannathan, Nagarathna Raghuram et al.
Many aspects of spiritual experience are similar in form and content to symptoms of psychosis. Both spiritually advanced people and patients suffering from psychopathology experience alterations in their sense of 'self.' Psychotic experiences originate from derangement of the personality, whereas spiritual experiences involve systematic thinning out of the selfish ego, allowing individual...
Journal of Religion and Health
June 1, 2015
Lisa Miller, Yakov A Barton
Diagnosis of depression has low reliability (kappa = 0.28) due to "covert heterogeneity," making the identification of sub-types a focus of research. Very high rates of moderate or sub-threshold depression among adolescents (35-45 % beyond the 20-25 % with MDD), prompt consideration of a potential sub-type of moderate sub-threshold depression, linked to adolescent development. Previously,...
Journal of Religion and Health
April 1, 2015
Xianglong Zeng, Tian P S Oei, Yiqing Ye et al.
Goenka's Vipassana meditation (GVM), a widely applied mindfulness training system rooted in Buddhism, is currently widely used. Although the two abilities cultivated in GVM, awareness and equanimity, exhibit certain similarities with the mindfulness cultivated in mindfulness-based psychotherapies (MBTs), they are not major concerns in MBTs. While many mindfulness scales have been created to...
Journal of Religion and Health
April 1, 2015
Xianglong Zeng, Mengdan Li, Bo Zhang et al.
Goenka's 10-day Vipassana course is a widespread mindfulness course rooted in traditional Buddhism. Awareness and equanimity are two abilities cultivated in this course that are not featured in modern mindfulness-based psychotherapies and thereby not adequately measured by current mindfulness scales. The present article analyzed the Philadelphia Mindfulness Scale (PHLMS; Cardaciotto et al. in...
Journal of Religion and Health
March 21, 2015
Caroline Humphrey
4 citations
Contemporary spirituality discourses tend to assume that a canopy of light and love overarches all spiritual pathways. Unfortunately, the dark side of humanity cannot be spirited away so easily, and aberrations of personal spiritual development, interpersonal spiritual relationships and new spiritual movements can often be traced to the denial, repression and return of our dark side....
Journal of Religion and Health
February 1, 2015
Jean Evans
The practice of spiritual direction concerns the human experience of God. As praxis, spiritual direction has a long tradition in Western Christianity. It is a process rooted in spirituality with theology as its foundation. This paper explores the convergences between aspects of philosophy (contemplative awareness), psychology (Rogerian client-centered approach) and phenomenology. There are...
Journal of Religion and Health
December 1, 2014
Xianglong Zeng, Tian P S Oei, Xiangping Liu
Awareness is one of the two most important abilities cultivated in Goenka's Vipassana meditation, which refers to sensitivity to subtle bodily sensations and the associated psychological processes. This sensitivity and its derived function of monitoring emotion are not of notable concern in modern mindfulness-based psychotherapies. Evidence supports that Vipassana meditation truly enhances...
Journal of Religion and Health
January 29, 2014
Marc G Blainey
44 citations
Santo Daime, a Brazilian religion organized around a potent psychoactive beverage called ayahuasca, is now being practiced across Europe and North America. Deeming ayahuasca a dangerous "hallucinogen," most Western governments prosecute people who participate in Santo Daime. On the contrary, members of Santo Daime (called "daimistas") consider ayahuasca a medicinal sacrament (or "entheogen")....
Journal of Religion and Health
September 1, 2013
Peter Bray
38 citations
In the aftermath of loss, it is not uncommon for individuals to disclose psycho-spiritual experiences that lead to personal changes and psychological growth. This article argues for and outlines a broad conceptual framework that captures and acknowledges the significance of these subjective experiences. The model synthesises and integrates two approaches to healthy growth: Lawrence Calhoun and...
Journal of Religion and Health
April 30, 2013
Surbhi Khanna, Bruce Greyson
52 citations
People who have near-death experiences often report a subsequently increased sense of spirituality and a connection with their inner self and the world around them. In this study, we examined spiritual well-being, using Paloutzian and Ellison's Spiritual Well-Being Scale, among 224 persons who had come close to death. Participants who reported having near-death experiences reported greater...
Journal of Religion and Health
December 1, 2012
Gretty M Mirdal
73 citations
The use of mindfulness-related methods for the treatment of a variety of psychological, somatic and interpersonal problems has increased dramatically in the last decade. Almost all mindfulness-based therapies include the practice of meditation in addition to various cognitive and/or behavioral techniques. The source of inspiration for mindfulness has traditionally been Buddhism, while Islamic...
Journal of Religion and Health
June 1, 2012
Brick Johnstone, Guy Mccormack, Dong Pil Yoon et al.
34 citations
The objective of this article is to determine the convergent/divergent validity of the Brief Multidimensional Measure of Religiousness/Spirituality (BMMRS; Fetzer Institute & National Institute on Aging Working Group 1999) subscales by correlating it with the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI) Self-Transcendence subscales (i.e., Mysticism, Transpersonal Identification,...
Journal of Religion and Health
September 1, 2010
Bruce Stephen Kerievsky
1 citation
This paper examines the attractions of passionate involvement in wanting particular outcomes, which is popularly known as rooting. The author's lifelong personal experience is the source of his analysis, along with the insights provided by spiritual literature and especially the work of Dr. Thomas Hora, with whom the author studied for 30 years. The phrase "choiceless awareness," utilized by J....
Journal of Religion and Health
June 1, 2009
Carl Allen Hammerschlag
7 citations
An American transcultural psychiatrist, and a Mexican engineer deeply involved with the Huichol Indians, build a team that heals a decade-long epidemic caused by sorcery. Huichol children in boarding schools became possessed by demonic witchcraft that transformed them into aggressive animals. Many local shaman had been called in to treat the illness but had been unsuccessful. The team found a...
Journal of Religion and Health
December 1, 2008
Curtis W Hart
6 citations
This essay addresses the familial, religious, and cultural context for the writing and presentation of William James' classic work The Varieties of Religious Experience. The essay emphasizes the importance of the impact of Henry James, Senior, upon his son. This relationship along with a severe cardiac condition contributed to James' taking on and carrying through with his exploration of...
Journal of Religion and Health
March 1, 2008
Yaseen Ally, Sumaya Laher
77 citations
The important role that religious beliefs may have on perceptions of mental illness cannot be ignored. Many religions including Islam advocate witchcraft and spirit possession--all of which are thought to influence the behaviour of a person so as to resemble that of a mentally ill individual. Thus this research explored Muslim Faith Healers perceptions of mental and spiritual illness in terms...
Journal of Religion and Health
June 1, 2006
Diane Wind Wardell, Joan C. Engebretson
Spiritual experiences are often associated with health crises, with little information about the structure of the experience. A taxonomic analysis was conducted on data from a group of healers, unveiling a structural model of spiritual experience comprised of three domains: circumstances, manifestation and interpretation. Circumstances included the aspects of setting, situation, and timing....
Journal of Religion and Health
September 1, 1995
C H Rosik
This study examines the process of unifying consciousness as described in the Christian mystical tradition and in the psychological treatment of dissociative identity disorder (DID). A comparison of the experience of the self in the contemplative and the DID patient is also undertaken to emphasize points of continuity. The present analysis proposes that differentiating first-order dissociation...
Journal of Religion and Health
March 1, 1993
M S Saur, W G Saur
In this paper, we demonstrate that the study of prayer facilitates understanding of the deeply personal object related nature of religious experience. Within prayer, individuals enter the transitional sphere and meet their God representation. Both conscious and unconscious aspects of prayer can be made available through the use of a projective test developed by the authors, known as STARR:...