Archive for the Psychology of Religion
January 12, 2026
Junyi Hao, Chang Liu, Shaozhen Feng et al.
Daoist meditation has been less widely adopted than Buddhist meditation as a daily method for psychological regulation, partly due to the complexity of its underlying philosophical system. This study aims to explore how key Daoist meditation practices can be psychologized and adapted into a usable method for modern psychological training. A comparative analysis was conducted on classical Daoist...
Archive for the Psychology of Religion
July 26, 2024
Hemal P. Trivedi
2 citations
This article proposes a model of comparative mysticism that bases its rationale for comparison in the dynamic interaction between three components: neurocognitive mechanisms and substrates, phenomenal experiences, and noetic accounts. In examining the phenomenon of ego - dissolution ( EDn ), using this model, a scholar can identify universal and contextual components of a mystic’s experiences....
Archive for the Psychology of Religion
November 1, 2022
Qi Wang, Xiaochen Zhou, Siu-Man Ng
This article aims to explore contemplative (pray or meditation) practitioners’ direct lived experiences of enlightenment and develop a multi-item scale measuring these experiences. A mixed-method approach was adopted. The first study is a phenomenological study that interviewed 24 participants with enlightenment experiences and the second study is a scale-development study that recruited 1130...
Archive for the Psychology of Religion
October 10, 2022
Jonathan Doner
Labyrinths have held the fascination of people since ancient times. Although walking a labyrinth can simply be an interesting recreation, it has increasingly been seen as an intentional tool for personal or spiritual growth. Religious and spiritual experience is generally understood to be a product of the kinds of evidence given within the experience as well as the person’s cognitive and...
Archive for the Psychology of Religion
July 1, 2019
Vadim Putzu
This article reevaluates the mystical techniques and experiences peculiar to Abraham Abulafia’s Kabbalah and attempts to offer an alternative approach to their dominant understanding, which largely depends on Moshe Idel’s work. Current scholars of Jewish mysticism have a habit of highlighting the “unique character” of Abulafia’s mystical practices while asserting that they cannot be compared...
Archive for the Psychology of Religion
December 1, 2018
Katie Givens Kime, J. Snarey
The neuroscience revolution has revived interpretations of religious experiences as wholly dependent on biological conditions. William James cautioned against allowing such neurological reductionism to overwhelm other useful perspectives. Contemporary psychologists of religion have raised similar cautions, but have failed to engage James as a full conversation partner. In this article, we...
Archive for the Psychology of Religion
March 15, 2017
Mengchen Dong, Song Wu, Yijie Zhu et al.
14 citations
Religious beliefs in Chinese cultural background, especially in Chinese secular society, have rarely been systematically investigated. The nonreligious-based population in China endorses certain supernatural beliefs or has related transcendent experience, even though they usually claim themselves as non-believers. Therefore, the current research examined the spirituality-prosociality...
Archive for the Psychology of Religion
September 1, 2014
Vanchai Ariyabuddhiphongs, Atiwat Pratchawittayagorn
A Thai company organizes a weekly sermon and meditation session for its clients and members. We hypothesized that vipassana meditation's positive effects in work would be manifested in peace of mind, loving kindness, and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), that peace of mind would predict OCB, and that loving kindness would mediate the relationship of peace of mind to OCB. Peace of mind...
Archive for the Psychology of Religion
May 1, 2011
Dave Vliegenthart
4 citations
Neurotheology is a fast-growing field of research. Combining philosophy of mind, neuroscience, and religious studies, it takes a new approach to old questions on religion. What is religion and why do we have it? Neurotheologists focus on the search for the neural correlate of religious experiences. If we can trace religious experiences to specific parts of the brain, chances are we can reduce...
Archive for the Psychology of Religion
September 1, 2009
Niko Kohls, Harald Walach, George Lewith
31 citations
Both spiritual experiences and mindfulness as a psychological variable have been identified as components of wellbeing and health. As there is uncertainty about their relationship, we have investigated the impact of spiritual experiences and mindfulness as well as their interaction on distress in chronically ill patients. The unidimensional Daily Spiritual Experiences Scale (DSES), the...
Archive for the Psychology of Religion
May 1, 2009
Brandon Randolph-Seng, Michael E. Nielsen
Two studies are reported in which participants’ reports of altered states of consciousness (ASC) were manipulated using priming methods. Study 1 used both subtle and blunt supraliminal priming methods, while Study 2 used a subliminal priming method. Across the two studies, two different methods for inducing ASC were used. In both studies a direct and an indirect measure of ASC was employed in...
Archive for the Psychology of Religion
2008
William A. Richards
19 citations
Accompanying the resumption of human research with the entheogen (psychedelic drug), psilocybin, the range of states of consciousness reported during its action, including both nonmystical and mystical forms of experience, is surveyed and defined. The science and art of facilitating mystical experiences is discussed on the basis of research experience. The potential religious import of these...
Archive for the Psychology of Religion
2006
Antoon Geels
The author suggests a new model for interpretation of mystical experience, based on a fruitful combination of cognitive psychology and depth psychology. Offering a rather wide definition of mystical experience, the author then turns to two basic assumptions—a general systems approach and an organismic-holistic view of development. Hans Loewald's analysis of primary process cognition is combined...
Archive for the Psychology of Religion
2006
Lynn G. Underwood
The Daily Spiritual Experience Scale (DSES) is an instrument designed to provide researchers with a self-report measure of spiritual experiences as an important aspect of how religiousness/spirituality is expressed in daily life for many people. The sixteen-item scale includes constructs such as awe, gratitude, mercy, sense of connection with the transcendent, compassionate love, and desire for...
Archive for the Psychology of Religion
1992
Ilma Szász
2 citations
Mantra is a word or a short saying, a short prayer repeated in order to fix the distractions of the mind. Under mantra meditation I mean the repetitive prayer, the aim of which is meeting with God, and involving the whole person at prayer. (I do not speak about the simplified techniques aiming only at healing or success and using only parts of the capacity inherent in this meditation...