Recognition of seven spiritual identities and its implications on children

Seven spiritual identities are determined based on a study conducted on a group of 125 participants. The objective of the study was to examine (a) how spirituality is experienced individually and collectively; and (b) identify the commonalities and differences in spiritual experiences. The participants ranged in age from 17 to over 55, and were recruited from three sources. One group consisted of an on‐campus population of undergraduate students majoring in different disciplines. The second group consisted of faculty and students who attended annual seminars on ‘Spirituality and Children’. The third group consisted of participants at meetings and conferences who volunteered to participate in the study. Altogether they formed a self‐selected sample of 29 males and 96 females, representing different religious and non‐religious backgrounds. Based on the analysis seven spiritual identities are recognised and presented and broad classroom strategies for professionals working with children are discussed.     

Evolution and process of spiritual awakening: A grounded theory study

The present study used a constructivist grounded theory (CGT) approach to explore, examine and develop a grounded theory (GT) of spiritual awakening conceptualisation and process. The authors used the interview data of 34 eminent spiritual teachers who have written books on spirituality, led spiritual retreats and conducted lectures and trainings on spiritual quest. These participants come from diverse backgrounds (e.g., American, Asian, European and Mexican), trainings (e.g., Buddhism, Yoga, Hinduism, Taoism, Christianity and other mindfulness traditions) and professional experiences. The data analysis of the interviews led to the development of the spiritual awakening evolution (SAE) model, explaining the process and evolution of spiritual awakening. According to this model, spiritual awakening evolves through four phases: an initial transient shift in perception, further practice to support spiritual development, surrendering and a continuous journey of spiritual development. As spiritual awakening experiences are transcultural, the SAE model can inform counsellors' understanding of clients' spiritual needs and the meanings of those experiences. Implications for counsellor practitioners, counsellor preparation programmes and research are discussed.     

Revelation,delusion or disillusion: subjective interpretation of religious and spiritual experiences in bipolar disorder

The objective of this study is to explore the interpretation of religious and spiritual experiences during mania, depression and recovery, from the perspective of bipolar clients and to inquire into their expectations of treatment in relation to these experiences. For this purpose, a qualitative pilot study is designed, which includes interviews with 10 outpatients of Altrecht, a Dutch mental health institution. The meaning of religious and spiritual experiences and the question of their authenticity proved to be an important theme for the participants. The support of spirituality for illness management was brought to the fore, as well as the temporary lack of this support during depression by some participants. Participants considered it desirable that more attention be paid to the topic during treatment, and to establish better cooperation between spiritual counsellors of the institution and other professionals. Thus, a more existential or hermeneutical approach towards religious experiences in relation to bipolar disorder would be a desirable contribution to standard treatment. The exact outlines of such an approach demand more empirical research.     

Posttraumatic spiritual growth: a phenomenological study of cancer survivors

A small but growing body of research has sought to investigate the specific role of religion and spirituality in posttraumatic growth. Recently, investigations have reported identifying spiritual growth following trauma, specifically that of cancer patients and survivors. The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate how having cancer affects the spiritual growth of cancer survivors across a multidimensional conceptualisation of spirituality. The researchers investigated posttraumatic spiritual growth by studying the lived experience of 13 cancer survivors using phenomenological data analysis. Participants reported experiencing spiritual growth across the following domains of spirituality: (a) general spirituality, (b) spiritual development, (c) spiritual social participation, (d) spiritual private practices, (e) spiritual support, (f) spiritual coping, (g) spirituality as motivating forces, (h) spiritual experiences, and (i) spiritual commitment. Growth was not endorsed by participants in the following three domains of spirituality outlined in the model: (a) spiritual history, (b) spiritual beliefs and values, and (c) spiritual techniques for regulating and reconciling relationships. Two additional domains of growth emerged beyond the theoretical model that was used to guide this study from participants’ narratives, including evangelism and enhanced spirituality of family/friends.     

Exploring the spiritual in the pedagogy of Friedrich Froebel

Friedrich Froebel (1782–1852) was the inventor of the kindergarten, and his emphasis on childcentredness and play influenced the progressive movement throughout the world. The concepts of unity and wholeness are highly visible in his writings. Religion is addressed in his work and that of his followers, but little attention has been paid to spirituality per se in Froebel’s thought. This paper explores the place of the spiritual in Froebel’s scheme and in some of what has been written about him. It notes his use of the concepts of the spirit and spirituality, and considers the relationship between his faith and the Christian religion. It discusses the ‘laws’ which Froebel enunciated: of Divine Unity, opposites and the connection of opposites; the principle of self-activity; and the process of ‘unfoldment’. These principles are observed in his teaching methods and resources, specifically in the Gifts and The Mother-Song Book of 1844. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications for such concepts as the spirit of the child and spiritual education. The picture that emerges is of a child-centred education which honours the integrity of childhood. It is argued that such an education, fully embraced, is a spiritual education.     

The spiritual dimension and curriculum change

The impetus for curriculum change should ultimately be to improve student learning. Implementing change can be very stressful and diminish a teachers’ sense of well‐being and thereby minimise the chances of successful or effective change. Drawing on a recent study that investigated how faculty leaders managed curriculum change in religious education this paper reports on one key finding which suggested that attention to the spiritual dimension can help teachers to overcome feelings of anxiety and stress and lead to effective change management. In particular this paper identifies some characteristics of connectedness as expressions of the spiritual dimension within an educational context. This paper will situate the findings and provide a brief background to the study and the role of faculty leaders in managing curriculum change. It will then proceed to give an account of the spiritual dimension and how it may be fostered through experiences of connectedness within the educational setting. An overview of some characteristics of connectedness used by the faculty leaders are then outlined and conclusions drawn.     

Exploring religious and/or spiritual identities: part 1 – assessing relationships with health

ABSTRACT

There is considerable debate about the distinction between being religious and being spiritual. It is time to move beyond this issue to an examination of the health-related implications of being religious and/or spiritual. Three health outcomes are used in this study: self-rated health, depressive symptoms, and alcohol use. The data are from a large nationwide random probability survey of adults of all ages who reside in the United States (N?=?2,876–2,883). Four self-identified categories of religiousness/spirituality are examined: religious and spiritual, spiritual only, not religious/not spiritual, and religious only. Tests are performed to see if membership in each category offsets the noxious effects of lifetime trauma on the health-related outcomes. A clear pattern emerges from the data. Lifetime trauma is associated with less favourable health ratings, more symptoms of depression, and greater alcohol consumption. However, these relationships are substantially stronger among people who say they are religious only.     

Unusual but sound minds: Mental health indicators in spiritual individuals

Previous research has linked certain types of modern spirituality, including New Age and Pagan, with either benign schizotypy or insecure attachment. While the first view emphasizes a positive aspect of spiritual believers’ mental health (benign schizotypy), the second view emphasizes a negative aspect, namely the unhealthy emotional compensation associated with an insecure attachment style. This study addresses these two conflicting views by comparing a sample of modern spiritual individuals (N = 114) with a contrast group of traditional religious believers (N = 86). Measures of schizotypy and attachment style were combined with mental health scales of anxiety and depression. We further assessed death anxiety to determine whether modern spiritual beliefs fulfilled a similar function as traditional religious beliefs in the reduction of existential threat. Our results support a psychological contiguity between traditional and modern spiritual believers and reinforce the need to de‐stigmatize spiritual ideas and experiences. Using hierarchical regression, we showed that unusual experiences and ideas are the major predictor of engagement in modern spiritual practices. Anxiety, depression variables, and insecure attachment were not significant predictors of spirituality or correlated with them; on the other hand, the results show that spiritual believers report high social support satisfaction and this variable predicts involvement in modern spirituality. Further, spiritual practices were negatively correlated with and negatively predicted by death anxiety scores. Overall, the results strengthen the association between modern spirituality, good mental health, and general well‐being.     

The role of music in young adults’ spiritual development

Abstract

This article focuses on the role of spiritual music in Finnish young adults’ spirituality formation. The research data consist of interviews (2013, N = 10) and questionnaire answers (2011, N = 278). Spiritual music refers to music that the young adults themselves experienced supportive for their spirituality. The article indicates that the spiritual music enhanced young adults’ spirituality formation as the music was well related to the young adults’ current life questions and to experiences of early life span. According to the data, music offered tools for constructing personal world view and was experienced to strengthen confidence on higher power or life itself. As a mental resource, music had an important role in coping with life. As entertainment, spiritual music enhanced experiencing life as satisfying. As a part of public spiritual life, music advanced spiritual connection with other people. The role of spiritual music in spirituality formation was related to questions of spiritual well-being.     

Navigating the spaces of children’s spiritual experiences: influences of tradition(s), multidisciplinarity and perceptions

ABSTRACT

Children across the world report similar spiritual experiences. Empirical studies suggest that most resonate with the children’s traditions; a finding which should, in theory, afford them a safe spiritual space. However, a number of factors can situate them in a less certain place. The paper uses the metaphors of trees imbued with different shades of light, from the vivid, shimmering and opaque to the invisible, to illustrate the types of spiritual spaces in which children find themselves. Their location is shaped in part by connection or disconnection with traditions, alongside wider cultural forces. Three navigation tools are used to show how children may move between these spaces: the spiritual experience and its relationship with traditions; the influences of multidisciplinary approaches; and children’s perceptions of their experiences. The paper concludes that these metaphors and tools may be a useful way to understand the spiritual spaces in which children find themselves.     

The lived experience of spiritual abuse

Over the years there has been considerable research investigating the controversial issues of cult recruitment, “mind control” and post-group difficulties of ex-members from a variety of religious groups. However, the less-well-defined phenomenon of “spiritual abuse” is still under-researched as a specific phenomenon. This is particularly evident in the lack of studies exploring the subjective, internal experience. This study reports on the lived experiences of six individuals who left five different religious groups that were essentially Judeo-Christian in their orientation. An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) revealed six core themes throughout the participant narratives. They consist of “Leadership representing God,” “Spiritual bullying,” “Acceptance via performance,” “Spiritual neglect,” “Manifestation of internal states,” and “Expanding external/internal tension.” These are offered as a foundation to answer the question What can be described as the lived experience of spiritual abuse? The findings suggest that spiritual abuse is a multi-faceted and multi-layered experience that is both process and event, affecting the bio/psycho/social and spiritual domains of an individual.     

Taking spiritual experiences seriously in the religious education classroom: a transrational approach

ABSTRACT

Spiritual experiences are common across religious and non-religious faiths, but schoolchildren are often afraid to share these because they fear ridicule from peers who are convinced religion is irrational. The need to speak about spirituality in religious education is increasingly recognised. Signposts suggests that intercultural understanding implies recognising religious students’ perception of reality and helping others understand it. Religious education in Norway now includes exploration of existential questions as a core element, and in England, making sense of religious, spiritual and mystical experiences has been suggested as a big idea. In this paper, we discuss how the dualistic paradigm of modern science makes it difficult to take spirituality seriously as lived experience and empirical phenomenon. Instead we suggest a transrational approach to explore our multidimensional reality in an intercultural dialogue where insiders and outsiders learn from each other. We also explore examples of transrational research on spiritual phenomena.     

Attachment and spiritual coping in patients with chronic schizophrenia

Many studies on spirituality in psychosis have shown that, compared to a nonclinical population, patients make more use of spiritual beliefs/religious practices to deal with their problems. Our research question was to test whether attachment to spiritual figures could be a good explanation for religious coping strategies in patients with psychosis. First, adult attachment was investigated in 28 patients with chronic psychosis and 18 controls, using the Adult Attachment Interview. Diagnostic evaluations were performed with the Structured Clinical Interview for the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th edition, Text Revision) Axis I disorders and symptomatic evaluation with the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale. Results also show a high prevalence of insecure avoidant attachment in patients, and suggest that a significant part of religious coping might be explained by the theory of attachment (64% of the patients, 78% of controls). The implications of these results are interpreted in light of correspondence and compensation hypotheses.     

The plausibility of spiritual intelligence: spiritual experience,problem solving and neural sites

Australian teachers in Church related schools have begun to use the term ‘spiritual intelligence’ in their educational discourse. Is it accurate to describe spirituality as a form of intelligence? This paper explores whether the notion of spiritual intelligence is plausible. It addresses this firstly by discussing the notion of spiritual experience as a mechanism for problem solving—one of the central themes that underlies the concept of intelligence. Secondly, it examines some of the neural sites of the human brain that have been found to be active in those who apperceive spiritual experience. In light of this discussion, this paper argues that although some concerns prevail in considering spirituality as a form of intelligence, the concept of spiritual intelligence may nonetheless be rendered as plausible.     

Spirituality,spiritual sensibility and human growth

While notions of spirituality, spiritual experience and spiritual development seem much neglected in the literature of modern analytical philosophy, such terminology continues to be current in both common usage and religious contexts. This author has previously taken issue with some recent attempts to develop (educational and other professional) conceptions of spirituality and spiritual experience as substantially independent of religious attachment. Notwithstanding this, the present paper considers whether such a ‘religiously-untethered’ notion of spirituality, spiritual experience or sensibility might yet be sustainable in terms of two key criteria: (1) as a capacity for non-instrumental perspectives on, or interpretations of, the world of ordinary experience; and (2) as a corresponding capacity to identify goals and values that transcend or are not reducible to the meeting of immediate natural or material—either individual or social—needs.     

Sacred illness: exploring transpersonal aspects in physical affliction and the role of the body in spiritual development

This paper investigates the occurrence of somatic involvement in spiritual development by exploring transpersonal dimensions of physical illness. Using semi-structured interviews and the qualitative method of heuristic inquiry, the transpersonal experiences of seven people with long-term health conditions are reported. Results expand on current literature by revealing that a spiritual perspective in illness can extend much beyond being a coping mechanism into profound experiences of self-transformation and healing, and by illustrating that the body can be intimately involved in the spiritual process. Participants considered the transpersonal dimension to be central to their experiences and as such understood their physical challenge as a state of potency wherein healing and embodiment of transpersonal influences were inextricably linked. Implications are that the body merits our acknowledgement as an integral part of a greater reality of being, and therefore needs to be fully included in the development of an embodied, holistic, and participatory spirituality.     

Towards a model of influence of spirituality on leadership: empirical research of school leaders on Catholic schools in the Netherlands

What is spirituality? What is leadership? And what is their relationship? The article presents the concept of ‘discernment’ (Latin: ‘discretion’) as the link (tertium comperationis) between spirituality and leadership. Spirituality is a way of life in (the growth of) discernment towards human fullness, which is grounded in a moral universe (God, nature). Three elements are employed in discernment: spiritual traits (Cloninger), spiritual capital (Bourdieu) and spiritual transformation (Waaijman). The influence of spirituality on leadership is empirically tested in research among 97 leaders (principals) of Catholic schools in the Netherlands. The findings show three types of leadership, namely trustworthy guiding leadership, empowering leadership and autocratic leadership. Our model with three predictors of a spiritual life growing in discernment (spiritual traits, capital and transformation) is partially confirmed, and looks promising for future research. In the discussion, the authors reflect on trustworthy-guiding leadership from the concept of attestation of Paul Ricoeur.