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Diverse Mindfulness Practices for Bipolar Recovery: Qualitative Study Results
Get PDFThis study investigated the lived experience of Buddhist-informed mindfulness practice and its utilization in recovery from bipolar disorder (BD) in 9 adult participants. Established mindfulness based interventions (MBIs) decontextualize mindfulness practice from a Buddhist theory base, omitting conceptual frameworks that may have adaptive value in recovery from BD. In interviews, participants reported blending techniques learned from various Buddhist lineages throughout the course of their recovery, as well as a variety of other contemplative practices such as techniques to cultivate adaptive emotions, devotional practices, visualization practices, embodiment practices, investigative practices, and informal daily practice. Mindfulness practice for recovery from BD is perhaps best viewed as a personalized craft of recovery, rather than a one-size-fits-all approach. Seeking ongoing optimization and expert guidance helped participants adapt their meditation practice to different mood states and the unfolding stages of their recovery. While evidence for the efficacy of MBIs for BD is equivocal, these results illustrate the idiosyncratic nature of recovery pathways and how mindfulness may improve self-management and integrate with other wellness practices in recovery from BD
A Fractal Epistemology for Transpersonal Psychology
Get PDFThe role of science has been controversial within the nascent field of transpersonal psychology. Traditional linear and reductionist models are insufficient to address rare and unreproducible states of mind, fringe rather than normative experiences, and highly personal or culturally specific aspects of awareness. Through a fractal epistemology this paper introduces novel metaphors, models, and methods within a more holistic, organic, and synthetic branch of science. Principles of the epistemology illuminate observer dependence, fuzzy boundaries, recursive patterns, and higher dimensional phenomena that emerge within the infinite expanses between ordinary, finite (Euclidean) dimensions
Spiritual Emergence(y), Psychosis, and Personality: Investigating the Role of Schizotypy
Get PDFSpiritual emergency (SEY) refers to a process of spiritual emergence (SE) or awakening that becomes traumatic for an individual, leading to a state of psychological crisis. There is evidence that SE(Y) is associated with both psychotic symptomatology and personality traits. This study examined the relationship between SE(Y), psychotic symptoms, and schizotypy, a construct that addresses psychotic-like personality traits in the general population. A total of 250 participants completed an anonymous online questionnaire. Results showed that SE(Y) was positively correlated with positive symptoms of psychosis and schizotypy, but demonstrated only very weak to no correlations with negative symptoms of psychosis and schizotypy. The results also showed that disorganized schizotypy mediated the relationship between positive schizotypy and crisis; and positive schizotypy mediated the relationship between disorganized schizotypy and crisis. The clinical implications of these results include the identification of measurable clinical and personality markers that may help: (1) differentiate between SE(Y) and cases of clinical psychosis that have a poor prognosis, and (2) identify individuals who are at risk of experiencing the potentially debilitating effects of SE(Y)
Mindfulness Based Intervention for Needle Phobia: A Pilot Study of Dissociated Ego State Resolution
Get PDFThis pilot study was designed to investigate the efficacy of a mindfulness based intervention for the treatment of needle phobia. The research question was whether one session of the dissociated ego state [DES] trauma release intervention would result in significant and durable release of needle phobia. It was hypothesized that the process tested in this study may reduce needle phobia by locating, identifying, and engaging with a dissociated aspect of the psyche developed from earlier trauma. Six participants who self reported fear of needles and resulting avoidance of medical assistance completed one 60-minute, individual session of a mindfulness based protocol for the release of specific phobia. After the DES intervention session, all participants but one reported reduced subjective units of distress while holding the needle against their skin: reduction of 61% post-test, 71% at 3-month follow-up, and 70% at 6-month follow up. Results at 6-month follow-up were statistically significant despite small sample size. Future investigations should involve larger sample sizes, populations drawn from various settings, more facilitators and a randomized, waitlist group
A Whiteheadian Innervation of the Soma: A New Vision for the Peripheral Nervous System
Get PDFThis essay draws attention to two problems in neuroscience’s set of assumptions. These self-defeating assumptions include: 1) the assumption that what the nervous system, especially the brain, does is synthesize experience, while also assuming philosophical realism, and 2) the problem of biological signal transduction. In the latter, neuroscientists and philosophers of biology have left unaddressed the issue that the signal differences between the inside and outside of the organismic boundary are of distinct ontological types; and yet no concern has been expressed regarding how it is possible that an organism’s inner states could reflect the experiential content flowing from outside of the organism’s boundary. To resolve this problem, I propose that the process philosophy of Whitehead be implemented to adjust our understanding of what body is and how the peripheral nervous system draws in experience through the senses. Some discussion will surround the enteric nervous system, regarding the evolutionary past of organisms, the thought that enteric nervous system probably played the role of the brain in our evolutionary ancestors, and how Whitehead’s philosophy of organism can help bring some understanding to this anti-Cartesian idea
