Spirituality and Wellbeing; Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Study of Religious Experience and Health; Schmidt; Leonardi

Edited by

Bettina E. Schmidt [+–]

University of Wales Trinity St David

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Prof Bettina E. Schmidt is a cultural anthropologist and currently professor in study of religions at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David and the director of the Alister Hardy Religious Experience Research Centre. She received her doctorate and post-doctorate from the University of Marburg, Germany. Previously she worked at Marburg University, Oxford University and Bangor University. She was also visiting professor at the City University of New York and visiting scholar at the Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo. Prof Schmidt is the current President of the British Association for the Study of Religions. She has published extensively on Caribbean and Latin American religions, religious experience, anthropology of religion, identity, cultural theories, gender, and migration. Her main fieldwork has been conducted in Mexico, Puerto Rico, Ecuador, New York City, and Brazil. She is the author of Spirit and Trance in Brazil: An Anthropology of Religious Experiences (2016, Bloomsbury), Caribbean Diaspora in the USA: Diversity of Caribbean Religions in New York City (2008, Ashgate), Einführung in die Religionsethnologie (2008, Reimer Verlag Berlin), and co-editor of Spirit Possession and Trance: New Interdisciplinary Perspectives (2010, Continuum), and of Handbook of Contemporary Brazilian Religions (2016, Brill).

Jeff Leonardi [+–]

University of Wales Trinity St David

Jeff Leonardi is a retired Anglican priest who was for 17 years Bishop’s Adviser for Pastoral Care and Counselling in the Lichfield Diocese of the Church of England. He has been a qualified Person-centred Counsellor for the past forty years, and has a PhD in the spirituality of Person-centred Counselling in relation to Christian spirituality, and the implications for Christian ministry and pastoral practice. He is currently an Honorary Research Fellow of the Religious Experience Research Centre at the University of Wales Trinity St David at Lam-peter, undertaking a joint research project into relational spirituality with Professor Bettina Schmidt. He has chapters in J.Moore and C. Purton (eds.) 2006 Spirituality and Counselling: Experiential and Theoretical Perspectives, PCCS Books, Ross on Wye; and C. Lago and D. Charura (eds.) 2016 The Person-Centred Counselling and Psychotherapy Handbook: Origins, Developments and Current Applications, Open University Press, Maidenhead. He is the editor of The Human Being Fully Alive: Writings in Celebration of Brian Thorne, 2010, PCCS Books, Ross on Wye.

The authors represent a rich breadth of disciplines and bring in a range of perspectives. The chapters also link the debate to various religious traditions including Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, Afro-Brazilian religion and even paranormal experiences that will further the reflection on the link between spirituality and wellbeing.

Preliminaries

Acknowledgements [+–] vii

Bettina E. Schmidt,Jeff Leonardi FREE

University of Wales Trinity St David

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University of Wales Trinity St David

Interest in spirituality and wellbeing is rising. However, research in that area is still lacking, in particular from a non-medical perspective. This book shows how the relationship between wellbeing and spirituality is studied by a range of disciplines including religious studies, theology, anthropology, psychology and history. The introduction discusses the term ‘wellbeing’ and introduces the debate on spirituality and wellbeing. The editors give a broad definition of spirituality and show the multifaceted nature of wellbeing and how it is linked to spirituality. Each chapter then reflects on the topic in its unique way which shows the interdisciplinary nature of the subject. The authors represent a rich breadth of disciplines and bring in a range of perspectives. The chapters also link the debate to various religious traditions including Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, Afro-Brazilian religion and even paranormal experiences that will further the reflection on the link between spirituality and wellbeing.

List of Figures [+–] viii

Bettina E. Schmidt,Jeff Leonardi FREE

University of Wales Trinity St David

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University of Wales Trinity St David

Introduction

Introduction [+–] 1-15

Jeff Leonardi,Bettina E. Schmidt £17.50

University of Wales Trinity St David

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Interest in spirituality and wellbeing is rising, however, research in that area is still lacking, in particular from a non-medical perspective. This book shows how the relationship between wellbeing and spirituality is studied by a range of disciplines including religious studies, theology, anthropology, psychology and history. The introduction discusses the term ‘wellbeing’ and introduces the debate on spirituality and wellbeing. The editors give a broad definition of spirituality and show the multifaceted nature of wellbeing and how it is linked to spirituality. Each chapter then reflects on the topic in its unique way which shows the interdisciplinary nature of the subject. The authors represent a rich breadth of disciplines and bring in a range of perspectives. The chapters will also link the debate to various religious traditions including Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, Afro-Brazilian religion and even paranormal experiences that will further the reflection on the link between spirituality and wellbeing.

Section One: Setting the Scene

1. Spirituality and Wellbeing: Is there a Necessary Link? Toward a Critical Approach to the Study of Spirituality [+–] 19-43

Everton de Oliveira Maraldi £17.50

Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo, Brazil

Everton de Oliveira Maraldi is a professor at the Post-Graduate Program on Religious Studies of the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo, Brazil. He has a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Guarulhos University, as well as master’s and doctor’s degrees in Social Psychology from the Institute of Psychology of the University of São Paulo, Brazil, where he also carried out postdoc research. Everton was a postdoctoral research fellow at Coventry University (Brain, Belief, and Behaviour Lab) and University of Oxford (SCIO – Scholarship and Christianity in Oxford), UK. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Parapsychological Association (USA) and is also a research member of the Social Psychology of Religion Laboratory and the Inter Psi – Laboratory of Anomalistic Psychology and Psychosocial Processes, both based at the Institute of Psychology of the University of São Paulo, Brazil.

Spirituality has been defined in many ways, including meaning in life, inner peace and harmony, feelings of hopefulness, or having transcendent experiences. Such definitions are so broad that it is sometimes difficult to specify what exactly spirituality is. Furthermore, definitions based on wellbeing concepts tend to tautological results, especially when measures of spirituality and mental health are correlated since spirituality is conceived as inherently beneficial. In this chapter, I propose to define spirituality mainly in terms of individual religiousness and a secularized search for transcendence, independently of wellbeing and mental health. I present data from a Brazilian survey indicating that people who define themselves as “spiritual, but not religious” are similar to religious participants in their perspectives on spirituality, despite presenting low church/ritual attendance when compared to religious believers. Self-proclaimed atheists consider themselves significantly more as non-spiritual and understand life as meaningless. However, they usually report fewer psychopathological symptoms. These findings suggest that spirituality is not necessarily a matter of wellbeing, and its relationship with mental health may be more complex than measured by some spirituality scales. Spirituality may sometimes involve therapeutic benefits, but challenges and difficulties also constitute an essential part of the spiritual growth process. Spiritual growth would be better defined in terms of the Jungian concept of individuation.

2. Clinical Parapsychology: The Interface Between Anomalous Experiences and Psychological Wellbeing [+–] 44-63

Chris Roe £17.50

University of Northampton

Chris Roe is Professor of Psychology at the University of Northampton and Director of the Centre for the Psychology and Social Sciences that is based there. Chris is the Perrott-Warrick Senior Researcher (Trinity College, Cambridge) and Visiting Professor at Bucks New University. He is President of the Society for Psychical Research and the International Affiliate for England of the Parapsychology Foundation. He has served as Chair of the British Psychological Society Transpersonal Psychology Section, and as President of the Parapsychological Association. He is an Associate Editor for the Journal of Parapsychology and is on the editorial board for the Journal of the Society for Psychical Research and the Transpersonal Psychology Review. His research interests are around understanding the nature of anomalous experiences and includes research on the phenomenology of paranormal experience, particularly as it affects wellbeing, the psychology of paranormal belief and of deception, as well as experimental approaches to test claims for extrasensory perception and psychokinesis, particularly where they involve psychological factors. Recent research has been concerned with the relationship between altered states of consciousness and psychic experience. He has published over 100 journal papers and book chapters and given over 150 invited and conference presentations.

Parapsychology is concerned with the scientific study of experiences which, if they are as they seem to be, are in principle outside the realm of human capabilities as presently conceived by conventional scientists. Such experiences are often termed ‘paranormal’, and although surveys show that they are relatively common across different cultures and time periods, they are typically dismissed by the academic mainstream. As a consequence, members of the public who have experienced parapsychological phenomena find it difficult to access accurate and balanced information about them or to have their experiences taken seriously, which can exacerbate any psychological distress they are feeling. In this paper I will discuss new developments in parapsychology that are focused on the therapeutic benefits of developing an understanding of parapsychology that can be shared with mental health professionals so that they can better meet experients’ needs.

Section Two: The Body in Focus

3. Made in the Image: The Christian Understanding of the Body [+–] 67-86

Jeff Leonardi £17.50

University of Wales Trinity St David

Historically, Christianity has for the most part tended to view the body as a relatively unimportant vessel for the soul. The body has been associated with desire – and therefore sin – mortality and decay. In our own time this legacy has led to Christianity being seen as anti-pleasure and anti-sex, and even more so with regard to same-sex relations. All this is somewhat surprising given the Christian doctrine of the Incarnation, and indeed Resurrection (of the body). This chapter will outline some of the negative theological attitudes to the body and suggest ways in which this aspect of Christian culture impacts negatively upon health and wellbeing. It is also suggested that the wider post-Enlightenment culture incorporates an extent of Mind-Body dualism which can also contribute to these unhelpful effects. It will also be suggested that Christianity can offer a more appreciative and celebratory perspective on the body, with important implications for health and wellbeing. Drawing from Person-centred psychology it is suggested that the concepts of the actualising tendency and organismic awareness can offer a more holistic balance to these historical quandaries.

4. Spirituality and Wellbeing in Traditional China: Food, Self-Sacrifice, and Spiritual Practice in a Chinese Buddhist Legend [+–] 87-112

Thomas Jansen £17.50

University of Wales Trinity Saint David

Thomas Jansen is Associate Professor in Chinese Studies at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David, Lampeter. He has published Höfische Öffentlichkeit im frühmittelalterlichen China: Debatten im Salon des Prinzen Xiao Ziliang (Freiburg: Rombach, 2000) and several articles on early medieval China. He co-edited Globalization and the Making of Religious Modernity in China Transnational Religions, Local Agents, and the Study of Religion, 1800-Present (Leiden: Brill, 2014). His current project is entitled Religious Text Production in Late Imperial China: Social, Religious, and Performative Aspects of Chinese Sectarian Scriptures from the 16th to 19th Centuries and will explore the manifold interactions between religious texts and their users.

This chapter examines the interrelationship between bodily nourishment, spirituality and wellbeing in traditional China, using the well-known Legend of Princess Miaoshan as an example. The Miaoshan story engages several interrelated themes that lie at the heart of Chinese ideas of wellbeing and spirituality: filial piety, spiritual cultivation, body, gender, and sexuality. Miaoshan symbolizes cultural characteristics—motherhood, spiritual aspirations, physicality, social engagement—that go beyond conventional gender-related dichotomies in favour of general human concerns. The chapter discusses different interpretations and uses of the legend and its religious imagery by men and women, utilizing Caroline Bynum’s work on religious imagery in spiritual writings of the later middle ages in Europe. The legend’s vision of spiritual transformation, it is argued, shows a remarkable similarity to modern ideals of evolving personhood, for example in the person-centred approach of psychotherapist Carl Rogers or the dialectical relationship between personalisation and socialisation in the thought of Teilhard de Chardin. The chapter concludes by suggesting that wellbeing could be construed not as a state of being (‘well-being’) but rather as a fluid process of becoming in which the different actors constantly negotiate the meaning of wellbeing from personal, inter-personal or societal perspectives.

5. ‘Spiritus Contra Spiritum’: Spirituality, Belief and Discipline in Alcoholics Anonymous [+–] 113-134

Wendy Dossett £17.50

University of Chester

Senior Lecturer in Religious Studies
Department of Theology and Religious Studies

The Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) suggest that the solution to alcohol addiction may be found in ‘a power greater than the self’. Carl Jung, who engaged in a correspondence with one of AA’s founders, asserted that medicine, even analytical psychology, could be of limited use to a sufferer. He agreed with AA that the problem was of a spiritual nature and a solution was to be found in a spiritual awakening. This chapter explores the ways in which members of Alcoholics Anonymous identify their recovery as ‘spiritual’. It demonstrates that much contemporary AA engagement deviates considerably from its Christian theistic roots and sits more comfortably within the holistic milieu. However, the practice of ‘spiritual discipline’ central to the Twelve Step programme captures an easily overlooked feature of AA, and one which also sets it apart from self-soothing and happiness-seeking features of contemporary well-being spirituality.

Section Three: The Diversity of Perspectives

6. Narratives of Spirituality and Wellbeing: Cultural Differences and Similarities between Brazil and the UK [+–] 137-157

Bettina E. Schmidt £17.50

University of Wales Trinity St David

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Wellbeing, happiness and life satisfaction are perceived depending on a range of factors, from income, social position, gender, age and cultural context. Some even argue with the Ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus that material possession is the least important aspect for a sense of happiness. This understanding led to the perceived paradox of happy but poor peasants and miserable millionaires. However, research shows that a more traditional feeling of contentment among rural people has been replaced by a feeling of dissatisfaction with their place in the contemporary globalised economic system. Is there therefore a trend to perceive wellbeing in similar terms despite cultural differences? This chapter looks at narratives of wellbeing that derived from a study of spirituality and wellbeing in Brazil and the UK. Brazil is usually portrayed with the greater acceptance of alternative spirituality and healing that should support a more holistic understanding of wellbeing. While the study has shown little evidence for the acceptance of spirituality within the medical context in Brazil, it has also shown a greater awareness of the importance of spirituality for wellbeing. Comparing subjective definitions of wellbeing from Brazilian and British spiritualists and other people involved in mediumistic religions, this paper highlights the cultural framework of these narratives and discusses similarities and differences.

7. Using Autoethnography to Explore the Experience of Spirituality in Epilepsy [+–] 158-180

Louise N. Spiers £17.50

University of Northampton

Louise N. Spiers is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology and Counselling at the University of Northampton, UK, where she is a Doctoral candidate researching transpersonal understandings of spiritual experiences in epilepsy. She is interested in exceptional human experiences and their phenomenology and research methodologies that enable this. She is passionate about the use of autoethnography as a qualitative methodology for researching experiences that are otherwise pathologized or silenced. An Integrative Psychotherapist & Counsellor (UKCP, MBACP), Louise works as a transpersonal psychotherapist in private practice in London, where she uses therapeutic methods which include the use of creative expression, dreams and archetypal symbolism.

This chapter introduces the use of autoethnography as a means of exploring spiritual experiences. Autoethnography is a qualitative research approach where the researcher identifies with, or is a member of, the group being studied – a so-called ‘anthropological-insider’ (Hayano 1979). Its meaning comes from the conjunction of auto (I), with ethno (culture) and analysis (graphy) (Ellis 2004). In autoethnography, the autobiographical voice is given primacy, reflexively acting as a critical mirror of the culture within which the individual lives. Focus is placed on evoking the nature of the experience and its impact on the life of the experient. Autoethnographers present first-person data using narrative, poetry, dance and the visual arts which is ‘layered’ alongside a discussion of relevant literature. This embodied and non-linear approach is unique. Although there is analysis of the material presented, in autoethnography there is an emphasis on showing, rather than telling. The autoethnographic approach suggests that in gaining a deeper, more empathic response to the subject-matter, the reader will have a deeper and richer understanding of the subject matter. Autoethnographic methodology is employed here as a narrative that provides an insight into the phenomenology of spiritual experience in epilepsy, through the lens of the researcher’s personal experience.

8. To Thine Own Self be True: Alcoholics Anonymous, Recovery and Care of the Self [+–] 181-195

Lymarie Rodriguez £17.50

University of Wales Trinity Saint David

Lymarie Rodriguez-Morales is a research psychologist and Lecturer in Psychology based at University of Wales Trinity Saint David. Her research addresses the emotional experiences that underpin recovery and wellbeing, the role of spirituality in mental health, and nature-based health interventions.

In this paper, a discussion is built upon findings from a qualitative study that investigated how young men worked through the process of recovery from substance use disorder whilst participating in 12-step fellowships in the UK (e.g. Alcoholics Anonymous). Alcoholic Anonymous’ spiritual discourse on recovery gives prominence to the development of a set of spiritual practices that trains participants in their capacities of self-care and self-regulation (i.e. writing, praying). Drawing on Foucault (2005), spiritual exercises were in antiquity a form of pedagogy, designed to teach people of a philosophical life that had both a moral and existential value. Spiritual practices were ways in which to enact self-transformation – an exercise of self upon the self by which one attempts to develop and transform, in order to attain a certain mode of being. The participants’ narratives presented authenticity and care of the self as a salient aspect of their recovery. Care and authenticity had become, in Antonovsky’s (1987) words, ‘a generalized way of seeing the world’.

Section Four: Applied Practice

9. Religiosity, Spirituality and Wellbeing in the Perception of Brazilian Health and Mental Health Professionals [+–] 199-224

Marta Helena de Freitas £17.50

Catholic University of Brasilia

Marta Helena de Freitas is Professor at the Catholic University of Brasilia – UCB, since 1989. She is a psychologist with a Master in Social Psychology and Personality, Ph.D. in Psychology, University of Brasilia. Post-Doctor in Psychology of Religion, University of Kent at Canterbury, UK, and also in Culture Psychology, University of Oporto, Portugal. Researches on the following topics: psychology of religion, thanatology, gerontology, the Rorschach psychodiagnostic, phenomenology, training in psychology and mental health. Coordinator of Psychology & Religion Working Group of National Association of Post-Graduation and Research in Psychology – ANPEPP and member of International Association for the Psychology of Religion – IAPR.

This chapter presents information from three research projects in which 158 Brazilian health and mental health professionals were interviewed in depth on their perceptions and experiences about the relationships between religiosity, spirituality and physical and mental health. It describes the method used in the three surveys, according to a phenomenological approach, presents the main results, focusing on the main convergent elements in the perceptions and experiences of these professionals regarding religiosity and spirituality in the context of health, as well as some of its specificities according to the context (hospital or mental health services). Finally, as a conclusion, it presents some general considerations about the implications of these results for health practices and policies committed to the well-being of people in Brazil and beyond.

10. Compassionate Presence: Buddhist Practice and the Person-Centred Approach to Counselling and Psychotherapy [+–] 225-243

Rebecca Seale £17.50

Coleg Sir Gar

Becky Seale is a lecturer in counselling on the University of Wales Trinity St David validated foundation degree and BA in counselling at Coleg Sir Gâr in Ammanford, Wales, UK.
Becky has a Buddhist practice and also works as a school-based person-centred counsellor working with children and young people.

At the heart of Buddhist teaching is the importance of facing the suffering inherent in human existence and in so doing the path to well-being also becomes illuminated. One aspect of this eight-fold path is mindfulness, a practice gaining an increasingly wide-spread popularity in the West. In the field of counselling and psychotherapy, mindfulness-based cognitive therapy is one of the best known approaches combining Buddhism and therapy. In a medicalised culture that increasingly pathologises everyday human experience of birth, sickness, aging and death, attempts to promote well-being through combining such differing paradigms as mindfulness and Western psychotherapy, whilst fitting in well with the medical model’s need for easy-to-measure approaches, may miss the wider context of Buddhist practice. With its emphasis on a way of being with clients in therapy, the person-centred approach does not sit comfortably within a medical model. Drawing on a small-scale qualitative research study, this chapter will explore how Buddhist practice through the cultivation of presence within a person-centred approach can promote well-being in a therapeutic relationship in a way that offers the potential for a holistic synthesis of Buddhism and psychotherapy.

End Matter

Index [+–] 245-248

Bettina E. Schmidt,Jeff Leonardi FREE

University of Wales Trinity St David

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University of Wales Trinity St David

Reviews

This book is an excellent contribution to debates surrounding spirituality, religion and wellbeing, and would be a brilliant resource for both those studying these topics and those generally interested in this field. The book is accessible, rich, diverse and interesting, with chapters filled with questions, and with ideas which challenge traditional Western narratives about the location and nature of the religious, paranormal and spiritual in wellbeing and healthcare.
William Temple Foundation

This book answers Sir Alister Hardy’s call for an interdisciplinary approach to religious experience, building on some of the topics covered by previous RERC occasional papers, and taking the important step from academic studies into applied practice. I found this book a refreshing blend of progressive empirically-based research that, at the same time, permits a welcome return to the more philosophical work of Carl Jung and William James. Maraldi identifies a shortcoming of much modern research on spirituality and wellbeing, “The fact is that the ethical and philosophical implications of research on spirituality are rarely or poorly addressed,” (P. 36). This volume, addressing as it does both empirically-based applied practice and deeper philosophical considerations seems to me to be an ethical and necessary step forward, to address this shortcoming.
De Numine

The interdisciplinary approach of this volume makes it inspiring and encouraging for researchers on the path of analyzing spiritual experiences. It is also of primary interest to medical practitioners willing to question the role of spirituality in therapy and patients’ wellbeing.
Journal of Religion in Europe

This valuable interdisciplinary volume is a significant contribution to the study of religious experience and health, especially given rising interest in both spirituality and well-being and their overlap.
Paradigm Explorer

Bettina Schmidt and Jeff Leonardi have fashioned an insightful collection that brings together a rich variety of approaches to the field of spirituality and wellbeing, including perspectives from psychology, healthcare, religious studies, and Chinese studies. This volume provides an excellent examination of meditation, mental mediumship, ascetical teachings in Christianity and Chinese Buddhism, Alcoholics Anonymous, the experience of spirituality in epilepsy, spirituality in healthcare settings, and Buddhist practices in psychotherapy, with deep insights into the significance of spirituality for wellbeing.
This timely contribution to the scholarship on spirituality and health makes the book a ‘must read’ for a broad readership of scholars and students interested in religion and spirituality as well as for healthcare professionals.
Journal of Contemporary Religion

The tension between secular models of health and healthcare on the one hand, and the lived spirituality of adherents (as well as researchers of religion) on the other, runs throughout this excellent and ground-breaking volume.
Religious Studies Review

The chapters, written by a variety of academics, are eclectic and offer a fascinating, international perspective on spirituality and wellness.
Thresholds

This volume provides an important and opportune contribution to the academic literature, which will hopefully, in time, filter into clinical practice. Spirituality and Wellbeing is recommended to anyone with an interest in spirituality and wellbeing; both academics and healthcare practitioners should find something of value in this book.
Journal for the Academic Study of Religion

This is a very worthwhile collection that not only contains a breadth of material understood from a variety of viewpoints, but also offers many sharp insights to the student of spirituality as well as to psychologists and members of the healing professions.
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Spirituality and Wellbeing

Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Study of Religious Experience and Health

Bettina E. Schmidt [+–]

University of Wales Trinity St David

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Jeff Leonardi [+–]

University of Wales Trinity St David

Table of Contents

Reviews

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