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Mediumship and Mental Health: Investigating Spirit Communication and the Importance of Integration
Get PDFSensitivity to paranormal phenomena can be a source of emotional, mental and psychospiritual stress for individuals demonstrating verified mediumistic abilities, yet integrating these anomalous experiences in a healthy, affirming manner can reduce distress and potentially deflect egodystonic diagnoses of pathology. Because mediums can relay information which appear to be otherworldly from meditation, during trance, or by automatic writing and painting, health professionals have diagnosed mediums with mental disorders such as dissociative identity disorder and schizophrenia. This overreliance on pathology to explain anomalous experiences is troublesome and can cause severe distress to individuals demonstrating extrasensory capabilities. This paper was written to understand my own anomalous experiences and is designed to provide validity and professionalism to the practice. As the field of mental health continues to evolve, evidence supporting mediumship as a beneficial practice along with the importance of integrating this non-ordinary state of consciousness is becoming more socially accepted, and a transpersonal approach to treatment through veridical investigation and nurturing guidance is preferred over a traditional reliance on delimiting Western applications
Nondual States Are Not a Thing: This Inspiring New Age Spiritual Idea is Neither Advaita Vedanta Nor Psychology
Get PDFThe term “nondual states” has gained some currency as applied to states of mind in which the sense of self is softened, expanded, or shifted from conventional experience. Nonduality is a metaphysical concept about the nature of reality, commonly associated with the Advaita Vedanta school of Indian religion. New Age religious thought has applied the term “nondual” to states of consciousness that are believed to contact or apprehend this speculated metaphysical ideal. However, this use is incompatible with lineage-based teachings of Advaita Vedanta, inadequately precise to serve as a psychological construct, and improper as an insertion of New Age metaphysical notions into a psychological context. The paper draws on the author’s personal engagement with doctrines of Advaita Vedanta received from a scholar and lineage-holding teacher, Carol Whitfield
Psychology or Religion? Bridge-Building in the Translation History of The Tibetan Book of the Dead
Get PDFThe Tibetan Book of the Dead is one of the most popular Eastern scriptures in the West, in part because it has been framed outside of religion, as a kind of psychology. And yet its translators have also used it to stake claims in the debate about the relationship between psychology and religion, generally Buddhism, but also Theosophy, a religious and philosophical system founded in 1875, which tried to unify all religions. The first major English translation of the Book of the Dead was published in 1927, by W. Y. Evans-Wentz, who was a Theosophist, with the assistance of Kazi Dawa-Samdup. Evans-Wentz framed the text as supporting the existence of a universal religion grounded in science, altered terms to support Theosophical beliefs, and also opened the way to psychologized interpretations. Carl Jung’s 1937 introduction to the Evans- Wentz-Samdup translation solidified a psychologized reading. In 1975, Francesca Fremantle and Chogyam Trungpa produced a more accurate translation, which continued the psychologizing trend. The 2005 translation by Gyurme Dorje, with Graham Coleman and Thupten Junpa, is the most traditional and technically accurate, yet also shades meaning towards universal appeal. My evaluation of the orientation of these three translations—Theosophical (Evans-Wentz, 1927), psychological (Fremantle-Trungpa, 1975) and traditional (Dorje, 2005)—highlights the difficulty of translating religious terms. The translation history also sheds light on the ongoing debate about the compatibility of the aims of psychology (self-development) and Buddhism (self-eradication) and provides a foundation for my argument that psychologized renderings are simply a part of theological drift, a process that is continual and ongoing in religious traditions
Unexpected Side Effects: A Cautionary Note on Challenges of Persistent Self-Transcendence
Get PDFSelf-transcendence is an ambiguous construct without consensual meaning, yet many claim that it relates to, or even causes, beneficial outcomes. Few discuss its potential deleterious side effects, choosing to focus primarily on positive effects. However, anything with sufficient potency to heal may have unintended side effects, especially when it leads beyond a transitory state to becoming an enduring trait, such as when self-transcendence (ST) becomes persistent self-transcendence (PST). With PST, evidence is overviewed here, along with two illustrative case reports, that people can suffer emotional difficulties, motivation changes, loss of self-reflexivity, anhedonia, dissociation, depersonalization, memory problems, and other psychological concerns. This is discussed in terms of the disruption of the sense of self, which ordinarily serves as an integrative center for the person that conveys a sense of agency. Possible neurobiological and sociocultural effects of PST are also discussed, with a focus on its role on narrative memory as the construction of self-concept. Evidence has also been accumulating on problematic side effects of meditation and mindfulness, techniques commonly presented as paths to PST. Given that PST is often presented as a pinnacle of human development and spiritual attainment, seekers of PST, psychologists, and other mental health professionals are urged to become informed about its possible side effects, and view this phenomenon in a more balanced way
Brain Activity During Paired and Individual Mindfulness Meditation: A Controlled EEG Study
Get PDFObjective: In this study, we evaluated brain electroencephalographic (EEG) activity in healthy participants during the performance of paired and individual mindfulness meditation (MM). We hypothesized that EEG activity is differentially affected by meditation in pairs compared to individual meditation.
Methods: A total of 20 healthy female university students (mean age 19.54 years, SD =1.53) with no prior experience in MM participated in this study. All participants had to perform a 5-minute MM task together and individually while the other participant was in rest or performing a concentration task (control condition). To exclude social interaction as main factor, participants were separated from their research partner by an opaque screen while instructions were given through headphones. Brain electroencephalographic (EEG) activity from each individual student was measured during all conditions.
Results: The main findings indicate that left-frontal alpha and theta spectral EEG power was significantly higher during the paired MM condition compared to individual MM and control condition.
Conclusions: This controlled MM study demonstrates differences in brain activity between practicing mindfulness in pairs compared to practicing it individually. We conclude that the increased alpha and theta EEG power during paired MM may be associated with social facilitation or the activation of theory of mind. The results invite further reflection on interpersonal communication and mindfulness
Effects of Brief Daily Kundalini Yoga Meditation on Self-Esteem, Mood and Emotional Self-Efficacy: A Randomized Comparison Study
Get PDFThis randomized comparison study measured the impact of brief daily use of two types of kundalini yoga meditation from the Yogi Bhajan lineage on self-esteem, regulatory emotional self-efficacy, and positive and negative affect in a non-clinical sample of 46 Spanish-speaking adults residing in Spain. Results of the two meditation types—Kirtan Kriya and Internal Conflict Resolution—are compared. Results showed that both types of meditation had positive impacts on all study variables, though the degree of change and effect size depended on the type of meditation used. Results point to these relevant forms of brief daily meditation as simple and inexpensive tools to improve welfare and support positive personality development in populations without psychological pathologies
The Mystical Exodus in Jungian Perspective: Transforming Trauma and the Wellsprings of Renewal
Get PDFComparison of Chinese and Western Arts Mirroring the Evolvement of Consciousness
Get PDFA few researchers of consciousness in the West demonstrate that the development of western art mirrors the evolvement of human Consciousness since human civilization emerged. This paper explores the differences in art development between China and the West by comparing the artworks in the same era. Furthermore, discussing why the Chinese scholar art over two thousand years does not reflect the same structures of Consciousness that western researchers defined
The Luminous Night of the Soul: The Relationship between Lucid Dreaming and Spirituality
Get PDFLucid dreams, in which the dreamers are aware that they are dreaming, can be a source of spiritual and mystical experiences. This empirical study aimed to explore the relationship between lucid dreaming and spirituality, taking into account the role of mystical lucid dream experience, in an online sample of 471 respondents, 95% of whom had lucid dream experience and 65% were frequent lucid dreamers. The findings support the relationship between lucid dreaming and spirituality: spiritual transcendence was positively associated with both lucid dream frequency and mystical lucid dream experiences. Thus having recurrent lucid dreams and mystical experiences in them may foster spiritual growth, rendering lucid dreaming possibly a viable spiritual practice, especially within the secular context. However, the correlative nature of the present research does not imply causality and further longitudinal research confirming this is needed
