Absorption and spiritual experience: A review of evidence and potential mechanisms

Some people seem to have a ‘talent’ for spiritual experience: they readily sense the presence of supernatural beings, receive special messages from God, and report intense feelings of self-transcendence, awe and wonder. Here we review converging strands of evidence to argue that the trait of 'absorption' captures a general proclivity for having spiritual experiences. Participants scoring highly on the Tellegen Absorption Scale report vivid experiences of hearing God's voice during prayer, intense mystical experiences in response to psychedelics or placebo brain-stimulation, and strong feelings of presence and transcendence when confronted with natural beauty, virtual reality, or music. Several mechanisms may help to explain the relationship between absorption and spiritual experience. We suggest that absorption captures an experiential mindset that intensifies inner and outer sensory experience in ways that reflect both prior expectation and novel sensory engagement. It seems to enable that which must be imagined to feel more real.     

Ecology of Sites of Confinement: Everyday Life in a Detention Center for Illegalized Non‐citizens

Drawing on almost 3 years of fieldwork, comprising qualitative interviews and ethnographic observations, this study provides an exploration into the detention of illegalized non‐citizens in Italy. Taking the largest detention center as a case study, the fabric of everyday life and the lived experiences of people, both detainees and professional actors, are the focus of examination. An ecological community psychology framework, with a focus on justice, guided the data collection, analysis, and interpretation. Findings highlight the oppressive qualities of detention, and its ripple effects on people's life spaces. Scarcity of resources, activities, and information created a very distressing environment for detainees, also enhancing feelings of powerlessness and frustration in professionals willing to assist them. Uncertainty and instability, rather than coercion or discipline, emerged as modes of governing and dominating. Bound in a different space and time, detainees were turned into unwanted and expendable others, their confinement becoming a means to extract profit from them. Yet, people languishing in these sites displayed an extraordinary ability to cope with, resist, and challenge the persisting conditions of injustice they endured. We conclude by highlighting the potential of the proposed framework, and discussing broader implications of our findings and avenues for research and action.     

高中生生涯学习经验问卷的编制及信效度检验

在文献分析基础上,以Holland（1997）职业理论和社会认知生涯理论为理论依据,结合国内高中生生涯活动的实际情况,编制了高中生生涯学习经验问卷。验证性因素分析结果表明,该问卷属于多维度因素结构,包含Holland六种生涯领域学习经验分问卷,每种分问卷包括成就表现、口头劝服、替代学习和积极情绪唤起等四个学习经验。信效度检验结果表明,该问卷多维构念合理,拟合良好,具备良好的内部一致性信度和构念效度。以中国个人球形职业兴趣量表简版中的生涯自我效能分量表为关联效标,发现在每种生涯领域下的生涯学习经验与生涯自我效能感都显著正相关,支持了量表的实证效度。该问卷可以作为我国高中生生涯学习经验的测量工具。     

心理治疗中的同化模型

同化模型是一个有关心理治疗改变过程的理论构想。它融合了多家理论观点, 形成一个用于解释心理治疗一般改变过程的整合性框架。依据此模型, 针对治疗改变过程提出八个可以预期的发展阶段。一系列有关同化模型的研究已经对模型及其发展序列进行了验证, 并提供了实证性的支持。同时发现不同疗法的同化过程模式存在差异; 不同疗法对处于不同同化阶段的当事人具有不同的效果。在研究主题的细化方面, 已有研究开展了同化阶段的标识研究、同化阶段的子阶段研究; 并拓展向不同障碍类型、不同治疗方法的当事人, 以及新的研究领域(如药物治疗, 移民丧失)。在未来的研究中, 可以进行跨文化的研究来对此模型进行验证, 也可以对模型有关治疗改变线性过程的潜在假设进行验证, 或针对声音方面展开深入研究。     

Spiritual emergency and counselling: An exploratory study

Growing up in a multicultural community in England brought me into close personal contact with the beliefs and perceptions about healing held by people of many different cultures. In many cases, no strong boundary was seen between physical, psychological and spiritual aspects of an illness, and experiences of hearing voices or seeing visions were accepted as normal everyday occurrences. During my training as a counsellor, I came into contact with the work of Stanislav Grof on the concept of spiritual emergency, which, together with the work of African and European authors who were exploring transpersonal aspects of psychology, provided a theoretical framework for researching how counsellors respond to clients wishing to explore experiences of spiritual crisis. This paper describes an exploratory study into the phenomenon of spiritual emergency within counselling. Questionnaires were distributed by post to people known to have been in counselling relationships, and interviews were conducted with three informants reporting different types of spiritual experience. All respondents who completed questionnaires reported having at least one of the ‘non‐ordinary’ experiences classified by Stanislav Grof as characteristics of a ‘spiritual emergency’. Several participants felt unable to explore this experience with their counsellors, some for fear of being labelled as mentally ill, while others found their counsellors helpful and sympathetic. Differences in dealing with spiritual phenomena were apparent between European and non‐European participants. These findings are discussed in relation to theory and practice.     

Evoking children's spirituality in the reciprocal relationships of a learning community

Findings from my doctoral research suggest that the reciprocal relationships within a learning community can evoke and nurture children's spirituality. The study investigated the development of a community of learners in four primary school classrooms in Aotearoa New Zealand. A key finding of this study showed that when teachers and children learned together, shared decisions, and respected and trusted one another, changes were observed in some children that could not be explained in intellectual, social or emotional terms. Further analyses of these data revealed qualities that pointed to a spiritual essence. This paper presents these spiritually themed results and explores the argument that the caring, responsive and reciprocal relationships of a community of learners can provide opportunities for spiritual development.     

催眠诱导下电击性厌恶试治同性恋3例

用催眠诱导情景下的电击厌恶试治同性恋３例均获成功。认为同性恋是情绪体验记忆的结果。单纯的认知治疗不可以消除情绪记,而单纯的行为治疗仅可消除对同性的性欲却无法重建对异性的性欲。认为要根治同性弯需用对异性的性欲代替对同性的性欲。催眠诱导情景下的电击厌恶既可消除对同性的性体验,又可建立对异性的性体验。     

Not just right experiences and obsessive-compulsive features: experimental and self-monitoring perspectives

Individuals with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) often report compulsions aimed at reducing feelings of something not being just right or sensations of incompleteness. Research using self-report questionnaires has demonstrated a link between not just right experiences (NJREs) and OCD symptoms (Behav. Res. Therapy 41 (2003) 681; Anxiety, 1 (1995) 208). Extending previous work, this paper presents experimental and self-monitoring data on NJREs in an undergraduate sample. NJREs produced distress and urges to change something, but feared consequences were rare. Stronger responses were found for naturally occurring self-monitored NJREs compared to NJREs elicited in the laboratory. Several significant relationships were found between features of NJREs and OC symptoms and constructs theoretically related to OCD (e.g., responsibility, incompleteness), but no significant relationships were found between features of NJREs and non-OCD-related constructs (worry, depressive symptoms, social anxiety). Further consideration of NJREs will be useful in improving our understanding of the phenomenology, neurobiological substrates, and treatment, of OCD.     

Life and Death Matters: Losing a Sense of the Value of Human Beings

The essay combines a specific and a more general theme. In attacking ‘the doctrine of the sanctity of human life’ Singer takes himself thereby to be opposing the conviction that human life has special value. I argue that this conviction goes deep in our lives in many ways that do not depend on what Singer identifies as central to that ‘doctrine’, and that his attack therefore misses its main target. I argue more generally that Singer’s own moral philosophy affords only an impoverished and distorted sense of the value of human life and human beings. In purporting to dig below the supposedly illusion–ridden surface of our thinking about value, Singer in fact often leads us away from the robust terrain of our lived experience into rhetorical, and sometimes brutal, fantasy.     

A functional analysis of personal autonomy: How restricting ‘what’, ‘when’ and ‘how’ affects experienced agency and goal motivation

Personal autonomy is central to people's experiences of agency and abilities to actively take part in society. To address the challenges of supporting autonomy, we propose a functional model of autonomy, according to which the experience of agency is a function of the opportunity to determine what to do, when to act and how to act in goal-pursuit. We tested the model in three experiments where the three goal-pursuit components could be constrained by another person or an artificial intelligence (AI) agent. Results showed that removing any of the three components from one's own decisions reduced experienced agency (Study 1a and 1b) and lowered motivation to pursue goals in organisational contexts (Study 2). In comparison to the strong and robust main effects, interactions between the components and the effects of the source of restriction (human vs. AI) were negligible. Implications for personal autonomy, algorithmic decision-making and behaviour change interventions are discussed.