Journal of Religion and Health
February 1, 2015
Jean Evans
Spiritual direction, a practice rooted in Western Christianity, involves guiding individuals in their experience of God. This paper argues that phenomenology, a philosophical method focused on lived experience, converges with spiritual direction in three key areas: Ignatius of Loyola's own phenomenological approach to his religious experiences, the use of phenomenological concepts like epochē (bracketing assumptions) and empathy by spiritual directors, and the process of examining and clarifying religious experience during a spiritual direction session. These convergences also connect to contemplative awareness and the client-centered approach of psychologist Carl Rogers.
Journal of Religion and Health
December 1, 2014
Xianglong Zeng, Tian P S Oei, Xiangping Liu
Awareness of subtle bodily sensations is a core ability cultivated in Goenka's Vipassana meditation, yet this sensitivity and its role in monitoring emotion receive little attention in modern mindfulness-based psychotherapies. Evidence indicates that Vipassana meditation enhances sensitivity to bodily sensations, but more research is needed to determine whether it improves awareness of psychological processes. The value of monitoring mental processing is widely accepted in psychology, though enhanced sensitivity may also carry potential risks to mental health. The article discusses implications for practice and future studies.
Journal of Religion and Health
June 1, 2006
Diane Wind Wardell, Joan C. Engebretson
A taxonomic analysis of data from a group of healers revealed a structural model of spiritual experience with three domains: circumstances (setting, situation, timing), manifestation (modes of awareness and phenomena), and interpretation (personal meaning and congruence with social norms). The examples reflected the healers' orientation. The authors suggest the taxonomy may assist clinical assessment and call for further research on its applicability to other religious or spiritual orientations.
Journal of Religion and Health
September 1, 1995
C H Rosik
The Christian mystical tradition and the psychological treatment of dissociative identity disorder both describe a process of unifying consciousness. Comparing the experience of the self in contemplative practice and in DID patients reveals points of continuity. Differentiating first-order dissociation (separation from a divine being or source) from second-order dissociation (separation from parts of one's own self and experiences) can preserve insights from both spiritual and psychological perspectives.
Journal of Religion and Health
March 1, 1993
I M Rosen
Current approaches to anxiety disorders, which rely on biomedical, behavioral, and narrowly cognitive frameworks, fail to address large areas of human concern. Aspects of existential, wholistic, and transpersonal psychology can enhance therapy for the anxiety spectrum by incorporating broader dimensions of human experience.
Journal of Religion and Health
March 1, 1993
M S Saur, W G Saur
Prayer helps people connect with their personal representation of God within a transitional psychological space. A new projective test called STARR (Spiritual Themes and Religious Responses test) can reveal both conscious and unconscious aspects of prayer. The data suggest that Winnicottian concepts of transitional phenomena, playing, communicating, and the capacity to be alone provide a useful contemporary psychoanalytic framework for understanding religious experience.
Journal of Religion and Health
March 1, 1989
S L Zimdars-Swartz
The first year (1950) of the Virgin Mary apparitions reported by Mary Ann Van Hoof of Necedah, Wisconsin, served not only the broader community but also helped the seer find meaning in an emotionally deprived and abusive childhood. Public serial apparitions are complex events that should be examined for how a seer's personal characteristics and experiences interact with the public events that form around those experiences.
Journal of Religion and Health
September 1, 1988
J R King
Sufi teaching stories, akin to parables in other religious traditions, provide insights into religious experience and emotional well-being. The paper examines how selected Sufi tales comment on the basic structure of situations, employ non-rational or lateral problem-solving techniques, facilitate consciousness-raising, and address the experience of confronting unexpected reality.
Journal of Religion and Health
September 1, 1984
G F Kohn
Spirituality plays a significant role in recovery from alcoholism. The balance between brain hemispheres is linked to alcohol abuse; excessive drinking dampens the left hemisphere's language and action-oriented functions, allowing the right hemisphere's receptive mode—associated with religious experience—to become more engaged. A model of spirituality that balances hemisphere functions and modes of consciousness may offer a non-chemical alternative to excessive alcohol use.
Journal of Religion and Health
March 1, 1984
J R Haule
The concept of 'soul-making,' drawn from Jung and Hillman, involves integrating spiritual and bodily imagery into a wholeness that exceeds conscious understanding. Pierre Janet's case of the psychotic mystic Madeleine shows she was actively 'making' her own soul, even though Janet's theory lacked a concept of soul. Janet's soul-stripping theory is contrasted with a soul-making approach, particularly in their interpretations of Madeleine's altered states. Religious ecstasy is described as a 'stretching' of soul into spirit, requiring a subsequent descent into and reconciliation with tradition, society, the outer world, and the body.
Journal of Religion and Health
March 1, 1984
D A Helminiak
Experiences labeled "religious" that arise from temporal lobe epilepsy or certain personality disorders can be authentic, even when triggered by neurological pathology. Authenticity depends on whether the experience furthers the subject's genuine growth, not on its cause. Historical examples show that pathological conditions have occasioned authentic religious experiences. The question of God's role in such experiences is secondary for practical purposes, and miraculous claims should not be accepted without sufficient evidence. This perspective resolves apparent conflicts between scientific explanations and religious faith.
Journal of Religion and Health
March 1, 1984
J M Spiegelman
The author examines two of Jung's articles on psychotherapy and the clergy, written in 1928 and 1932, from a perspective fifty years later and drawing on personal experience analyzing members of both vocations. The author notes that relatively few people achieve the kind of ego integration Jung describes—an essentially religious experience in which one's center gravitates around the Self. Nevertheless, Jung's work has profoundly affected spiritually inclined people of all ages. The article examines the predictions Jung made in those articles regarding therapy, the dissemination of psychology to the masses, and other issues.
Journal of Religion and Health
June 1, 1982
M Wasserman
Madness can be understood as a religious experience that unfolds through four developmental stages: the hurt-and-be-hurt state, a self-induced psychedelic experience, a confusion-and-dread reaction, and a reconstruction-with-insight worldview. This argument is based on existing literature and conversations with psychiatric patients. The poet Allen Ginsberg's psychotic episode is used to illustrate each stage.
Journal of Religion and Health
March 1, 1982
E E Thornton
Behavioral psychology has been overlooked by pastoral psychologists, to the detriment of both fields. This paper examines behaviorist principles and data on behavioral treatment of neuroses, then analyzes B.F. Skinner's philosophy of science. A critique from transpersonal psychology's perspective is offered, concluding with a potential reconciliation between behavioral and transpersonal ways of knowing.