Psychology & Spirituality

THEORIAS - Réseau international de chercheurs pour la théorisation transdisciplinaire de la spiritualité

by Jean Ehret

On February 18, 2012, an international network for the transdisciplinary theorization of spirituality was founded at... more On February 18, 2012, an international network for the transdisciplinary theorization of spirituality was founded at the Catholic University of Louvain. People interested may find the statutes in this document. For more information and for joining the group, please email me.

The Ultimate Reality and Meaning of Samkhya

by Shiv Talwar

Published in the Journal of Ultimate Reality and Meaning, Vol. 24, No.1, March 2001.
Print a copy by visiting spiritualeducation.org.

It is in the nature of thinking and feeling minds to attempt to explain the totality of human experience. In the... more It is in the nature of thinking and feeling minds to attempt to explain the totality of human experience. In the absence of a plausible explanation, humanity attempts to improve its understanding until a reasonably satisfactory explanation is found that satisfies both the human head and the heart. Sages around the world have always searched for such explanations. In India, a school of thought known as the Samkhya philosophy is an outstanding example of this universal search for global truth.

Samkhya seems to understand the universe of sense perception as resulting from an unseen ultimate reality. Although this reality is totally imperceptible in itself, it is capable of being felt by the human heart and it underlies the entirety of perceptible universe.

Samkhya thinking regards the perceptible as a manifestation of the imperceptible underlying reality through some process of successive discretization. It enumerates the sequentially concrete and ephemeral principles emerging from the infinitely subtle and eternal ultimate reality. These principles together culminate in the universe of sense perception.

Training issues in spirituality and psychotherapy: A foundational approach.

by Louis Hoffman

Richard H. Cox, Betty Ervin-Cox, & Michael Mitchell, co-authors

Book chapter in R. H. Cox, B. Cox, & L. Hoffman (Eds.), Spirituality and psychological health. Book chapter in R. H. Cox, B. Cox, & L. Hoffman (Eds.), Spirituality and psychological health.

A 17-year longitudinal study of religion and mental health in a Mormon sample.

by Timothy B. Smith

Religiousness and depression: Evidence for a main effect and the moderating influence of stressful life events.

by Timothy B. Smith

The Spiritual Self: Toward a Conceptualization of Spiritual Identity Development.

by Timothy B. Smith

Outcomes of religious and spiritual adaptations to psychotherapy: A meta-analytic review.

by Timothy B. Smith

Spiritual Interventions In Psychotherapy: Evaluations by Highly Religious Clients

by Timothy B. Smith

Development and validation of the theistic spiritual outcome survey.

by Timothy B. Smith

Keeping Faith, Externalizing Belief: The Political and Therapeutic Significance of Narrative Therapy in a Post-Secular Era.

by Leland Maerz

In confusing the separation of church and state with the triumph of science and reason over religion and faith, the... more In confusing the separation of church and state with the triumph of science and reason over religion and faith, the modern secular project has produced a pressured situation where religious values and beliefs are perceived to be inappropriate and inadequate resources for addressing problems in the public sphere. Using autoethnographic accounts, as well as current events and recent research from a variety of disciplines, this work will express the need for a revised secularity —a post secular era— in which faith and belief are not exempted from public ‘places’ but rather, where there is discursive ‘space’ for both religious and nonreligious options to be freely sought.  While there is every indication in research and in popular opinion that such change is needed, there is little being written or said about the practices that might make such change possible.
The theory and practice of narrative therapy will be presented as not only therapeutically significant in addressing religion and spirituality in counselling but also politically influential in its contribution to a post-secular manner of engagement.  The therapeutic process and relationship in narrative therapy are built on practices that reveal the implicit influence of societal discourses upon the lives of people seeking help with their problems.  Religion and spirituality can be seen as both constraining of, and a potential resource toward, a more preferred experience of life.

Welcome, sister death: On the remarkable departures of illumined beings

by Ronald L. Boyer

A reprint of one of my first published essays in 1981. Originally published in Laughing Man Magazine (1981). Please ignore typos in recreated version by unknown typist.

This article, originally published years ago in the Laughing Man, a journal of contemporary spirituality, examines... more This article, originally published years ago in the Laughing Man, a journal of contemporary spirituality, examines accounts of the extraordinary manners of death attributed to mystics, saints and sages of numerous spiritual traditions, including Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism. 

Book Review of Joseph Dispenza's "God on Your Own: Finding a Spiritual Path Outside Religion" (Journal of Religion and Health Volume 46, Number 1, March 2007)

by Kieran Conroy

Review of Ursula KING, The Search for Spirituality: Our Global Quest for a Spiritual Life

by Hans Gustafson

Counselling adolescents when “Spiritual Emergence” becomes “Spiritual Emergency”

by Peter Bray

This article provides a rationale for a closer examination and recognition of unusual consciousness events in... more This article provides a rationale for a closer examination and recognition of unusual consciousness events in adolescence that have a specifically spiritual content of the kind described by Stan and Christina Grof as “spiritual emergency”. A case vignette is discussed in the light of new understandings about how non-ordinary spiritual experiences in adolescence, triggered by loss and grief, can lead to self-actualising outcomes. This article will broadly discuss these experiences and suggest attitudes and strategic positions that counsellors can adopt to help them recognise spiritual emergence and spiritual emergency in their adolescent clients, and to encourage their disclosure and support.

Men, Loss and Spiritual Emergency: Shakespeare, the Death of Hamnet and the Making of Hamlet

by Peter Bray

How does a father manage the death of his son or his father? What might a playwright do? This article proposes that... more How does a father manage the death of his son or his father? What might a playwright do? This article proposes that confronted with the multiple loss of his son Hamnet and subsequently his father John, William Shakespeare experienced a transformational consciousness event or “spiritual problem” (DSM IV), defined by Grof and Grof as a “spiritual emergency” (SE), which he explores through the making of his masterpiece Hamlet. The play’s central male character is a fine example of an instrumental masculine response to coping with loss. It is argued that the depiction of Hamlet’s struggle towards self knowledge can be explained in terms of Stan Grof’s model of transformation. In his play Shakespeare expresses a unique view of complicated masculine grief and loss. Through Hamlet’s soliloquies he explores and maps the terrifying terrain and rich interior world of his own psychic journey and transformation.


www.jmmsweb.org/issues/volume2/number2/pp95-115

Men, Loss and Spiritual Emergency: Shakespeare, the Death of Hamnet and the Making of Hamlet

by Peter Bray

How does a father manage the death of his son or his father? What might a playwright do? This article proposes that... more How does a father manage the death of his son or his father? What might a playwright do? This article proposes that confronted with the multiple loss of his son Hamnet and subsequently his father John, William Shakespeare experienced a transformational consciousness event or “spiritual problem” (DSM IV), defined by Grof and Grof as a “spiritual emergency” (SE), which he explores through the making of his masterpiece Hamlet. The play’s central male character is a fine example of an instrumental masculine response to coping with loss. It is argued that the depiction of Hamlet’s struggle towards self knowledge can be explained in terms of Stan Grof’s model of transformation. In his play Shakespeare expresses a unique view of complicated masculine grief and loss. Through Hamlet’s soliloquies he explores and maps the terrifying terrain and rich interior world of his own psychic journey and transformation.


www.jmmsweb.org/issues/volume2/number2/pp95-115

A broader framework for exploring the influence of spiritual experience in the wake of stressful life events: examining connections between posttraumatic growth and psycho-spiritual transformation

by Peter Bray

The literature suggests that spiritual domains of experience may be influential to an individual’s growth in the... more The literature suggests that spiritual domains of experience may be influential to an individual’s growth in the aftermath of stressful life events. This paper explores the role that spiritual experience might play in the process of posttraumatic growth by examining two quite different approaches to transformational growth: Lawrence Calhoun and Richard Tedeschi’s posttraumatic growth model; and Stanislav and Christina Grof’s framework of psycho-spiritual transformation. Both approaches are briefly outlined, compared and discussed. Some observations are made about their shared understanding of the human potential for growth and the significance of spiritual experience in the struggle to master distressing life events. A further hypothetical model is presented that marries the two approaches and offers the opportunity for individuals in the posttraumatic process and helping professionals to examine their experiences in a broadercontext.