Spiritual Change Outside Institutional Religion as Inner Work on the Self: Deep Within and Beyond

The present study employed a qualitative phenomenological method to explore how processes of spiritual change were experienced outside institutional religion. In-depth interviews were conducted with 27 Israeli adults (13 men, 14 women; age range 25–66; M = 45.3) who experienced such a change. The findings underscored the pervasiveness of the concept of work, which was extensively discussed by all the participants and which reflected the meaning they ascribed to their experience of the change process. Spiritual work was experienced as effortful, demanding, and involving a gradual non-linear process without a clear end-point. Spiritual work on the self was perceived as involving two complementary processes: uncovering and cleansing the self—the Spiritual-Psychological facet—and expanding it and rising above—the Spiritual-Transpersonal facet. The discussion suggests that the interplay of psychological and transpersonal spiritual work makes up an alternative narrative of human personal development where modern values of work sustain a postmodern change process.     

Make Love and Lose Your Religion and Virtue: Recalling Sexual Experiences Undermines Spiritual Intentions and Moral Behavior

In contrast with traditional considerations, sexuality is often perceived today as being rather compatible with religion/spirituality and morality. However, there may be some inherent opposition between (a) sexuality (thoughts, affects, and pleasure) and (b) religion/spirituality (attitudes, motives) and (interpersonal) morality (dispositions, behavior). The two imply, respectively, self‐enhancement versus self‐transcendence, disinhibition versus self‐control, and disgust indifference versus sensitivity. We hypothesized that sexual experience attenuates spiritual and moral concerns and behaviors. In three online experiments, young adults were asked to recall a personal sexual experience. Compared to a control condition, sexual induction diminished spiritual behavioral intentions (Experiments 1 and 2), in particular among those with high individual disinhibition (Experiment 1), as well as behaviors of prosociality and integrity/honesty (Experiment 3). The effects were independent of individual religiousness/spirituality. These findings suggest that combining sexual pleasure with self‐transcendence and moral perfection, even if a legitimate ideal, is not an easy enterprise.     

Mind Your Own Business: Reflective Aretaic Responsibility

Ethical Theory and Moral Practice - The distinctive depth and seriousness of moral responsibility is often thought to stem from the seriousness of violating moral obligations. But this raises...     

Self-Development as a Spiritual Process: The Role of Empathy and Imagination in Finding Spiritual Orientation

According to a dialogical view on self, self-development is characterized by integrating different perspectives in the internal dialogue that constitutes the self. This article explores the spiritual dimension of this process, referring to exchanging and integrating perspectives on what makes one’s life meaningful or fulfilling. It is argued that empathy and imagination are basic capacities for self-development and spiritual orientation, and that art and religion can contribute to this process by functioning as languages of personal resonance.     

To Each His God: an Upanishadic Approach to Religion

Journal of Indian Council of Philosophical Research - Vedanta refrains from giving God any name, singular or plural. If ever Vedanta has to refer to the God, it refers to it as Tat, meaning...     

Finding God in the Silence: Contemplative Prayer and Therapy

In this paper the author shares some of his experiences of using silence in therapy. He presents one of the modes of practicing silence, namely the meditation technique known as Contemplative Prayer, and shows advantages of using this technique in the process of self-purification and self-balancing of the therapist. The author stipulates that silence is a royal way to discovering God. Finding this divine particle within oneself and client changes the whole outlook of therapy. The therapist is no longer alone with the client, but God becomes an active participant in the therapeutic process through His love for both therapist and client.     

Prayer as a Religious Narrative: The Spiritual Self and the Image of God

Pastoral Psychology - This article examines William James’s study on prayer in The Varieties of Religious Experience by framing prayer as a form of religious narrative that demonstrates the...