ISSN 0022-4197
10 papers in the library · 191 citations · publishing 1984-2026
Journal of Religion and Health April 30, 2013 52 citations
People who have had near-death experiences report greater spiritual well-being than those who came close to death without such an experience. Among 224 individuals who had come close to death, depth of spiritual well-being was positively correlated with depth of the near-death experience. Spiritual well-being was measured using the Spiritual Well-Being Scale.
Journal of Religion and Health January 29, 2014 Marc G. Blainey 44 citations
The Santo Daime religion, which uses a psychoactive beverage called ayahuasca as a sacrament, has spread from Brazil to Europe and North America. Most Western governments treat ayahuasca as a dangerous hallucinogen and prosecute participants, while members consider it a medicinal sacrament or entheogen. Empirical studies support the claim that entheogens can be safe and beneficial when used in controlled settings. Drawing on anthropology's aim to make different cultural perspectives understandable to one another, this article addresses the misunderstanding between prohibition policies and the emerging subculture of entheogenic therapy.
Journal of Religion and Health January 1, 1993 33 citations
People who have had near-death experiences report significantly more symptoms of a physio-kundalini syndrome—a set of bodily sensations linked to the spiritual concept of kundalini—than people who have not had such experiences. This finding supports the hypothesis that near-death experiences may involve the awakening of a biological process described in Eastern traditions as kundalini.
Journal of Religion and Health January 1, 1984 31 citations
People who have a near-death experience (NDE) tend to become more religious and more active in their religion afterward, and the deeper the NDE, the larger the increase. However, how religious someone was before the NDE does not predict how deep the NDE will be. These findings come from interviews and questionnaires given to 40 people who had NDEs. Several theories about what causes NDEs are considered as possible explanations for the results.
Journal of Religion and Health February 20, 2019 Geoffrey Samuel 12 citations
Tibetan thought attributes many conditions that Western medicine classifies as psychiatric illness to an imbalance of rlung (wind, breath), a concept with dual origins in Ayurvedic medicine and Tantric Buddhism. Tibetan theories of rlung show significant correspondences with Western concepts of the autonomic nervous system (ANS), and Western medicine has also linked psychiatric issues to ANS problems. The article presents elements of both systems, explores similarities and differences, and asks whether these similarities could enable a productive encounter between Tibetan and Western approaches to understanding and treating psychiatric illness, considering what Western psychiatry might learn from Tibetan methods.
Journal of Religion and Health December 1, 2022 Andrzej K. Jastrzębski 7 citations
The concept of unconscious spirituality has not received sufficient academic attention despite appearing in psychotherapeutic theories and clinical practice. This article reviews the history and complexity of the idea, discusses the theories of James and Jung, and focuses on the less explored work of Victor Frankl. It then turns to contemporary clinical theories and proposes defining unconscious spirituality as an unperceived connection with the sacred, especially a connection with one's true self or spiritual core. The aim is to contribute to a more inclusive and universal conceptualization of unconscious spirituality.
Journal of Religion and Health January 1, 1991 6 citations
A model of consciousness derived from LSD-assisted psychotherapy illuminates painful experiences on the mystic's path known as the 'dark night.' The dark night experiences described in John of the Cross's Dark Night of the Soul can be conceptualized as Stanislav Grof's 'perinatal experience.' This reconceptualization has implications for understanding and evaluating mysticism, assessing LSD's potential for fostering genuine spirituality, and reassessing the ancient claim that the capacity for transcendental states is innate.
Journal of Religion and Health March 21, 2015 Caroline Humphrey 4 citations
Spirituality that emphasizes only light and love overlooks humanity's dark side, and denying or repressing it can derail personal development, relationships, and spiritual movements. Transpersonal psychology provides tools to approach and reframe unconscious depths using metaphors of shadows and daimons, along with therapeutic practices that symbolically contain and transcend polarities. Without such integration, spirituality focused solely on holistic growth may produce the opposite of its intended effect.
Journal of Religion and Health February 28, 2026 Stephen P. Lewis, Jaime Clark-Soles, Oriana Mayorga et al. 2 citations
Professional clinical chaplains, as subject matter experts in spirituality and health, are an asset to psychedelic-assisted therapies and should be utilized in research trials and clinical practice. The article argues that participants in clinical trials consistently report mystical-type experiences during dosing sessions, which may mediate clinical improvements in depression, PTSD, anxiety, and substance use disorders. Given a relative lack of training in spirituality and religion among interprofessional practitioners, chaplains can provide spiritual and emotional support, helping participants navigate non-ordinary states of consciousness with safety and insight. Competencies include spiritual and religious care, spiritual inquiry, empathic presence, ethical engagement, and advocacy. Chaplains will need specialized education and supervised experience beyond standard requirements.
Journal of Religion and Health June 1, 2006 Diane Wind Wardell, Joan C. Engebretson
A taxonomic analysis of data from a group of healers revealed a structural model of spiritual experience with three domains: circumstances (setting, situation, timing), manifestation (modes of awareness and phenomena), and interpretation (personal meaning and congruence with social norms). The examples reflected the healers' orientation. The authors suggest the taxonomy may assist clinical assessment and call for further research on its applicability to other religious or spiritual orientations.