Transcript Dimensions of Spirituality

The Dimensions of Spirituality
David Rousseau PhD
Centre for
Spirituality Studies
Centre for
Systems Philosophy
Centre for
Systems Studies
www.hull.ac.uk/fass
www.systemsphilosophy.org
www.hull.ac.uk/hubs
Study Society 5 Jun 2013
Spirituality vs. Religion
Spirituality is the personal quest for understanding answers to ultimate questions
about life, about meaning, and about relationship to the sacred or transcendent,
which may (or may not) lead to or arise from the development of religious rituals
and the formation of community
Religion is an organized system of beliefs, practices, rituals, and symbols
designed (a) to facilitate closeness to the sacred or transcendent (God, higher
power, or ultimate truth/reality) and (b) to foster an understanding of one's
relationship and responsibility to others in living together in a community.
-
Koenig et al., The Handbook of Religion and Health (2001)
•
Spiritual:
92-97%
•
Spiritual Experiences :
45-75%
•
Religious:
50-70%
•
Church attendance :
8.5-20%
Milestones in the scientific study of spirituality
•
1859
Charles Darwin
The Origin of Species
•
1882
Henry Sidgwick
Society for Psychical Research
•
1902
William James
The Varieties of Religious Experience
•
1976
Ninian Smart
Department of Religious Studies,
Univ. of Lancaster
•
1975
Raymond Moody
Life after Life
•
1997
Harold Koenig
Center for the Study of Religion, Spirituality,
and Health, Duke Univ
•
2008
Margaret
Holloway
The Centre for Spirituality Studies,
Univ. of Hull
Rise of academic research into spirituality
“spiritual”
1970-79
1980-1989
1990-1999
2000-2009
MedLine
0
1
31
3947
PsychInfo
5
248
1625
7985
PhilPapers
48
88
244
779

The Center for Spirituality, Theology and Health
Duke University

The Center for Spirituality and Health
University of Florida

The Dalai Lama Center for Ethics and Transformative Values
MIT

The Centre for Spirituality Studies
University of Hull

The Spirituality, Religion and Personal Beliefs Group
WHO-QoL
Modern academic views on spirituality

the belief that there is an unseen [moral] order, and that our supreme good lies
in harmoniously adjusting ourselves thereto (James, 1902, p. 53)

the personal quest for understanding answers to ultimate questions about life
(Koenig et al., 2001, p. 18)

the need for achieving transcendent meaning in life (Hill & Pargament, 2003, p.
65)

the capacity to be virtuous (show forgiveness, compassion etc) (Emmons 1999
p.163 )

following a practice aimed at cultivating awareness of the sacredness of certain
things (Stone, 2012, p. 493)

ability to use spiritual resources for problem solving (Emmons 1999 p.163)

the experience of cultural pleasures such as listening to classical music or
learning theorems or admiring architecture (Bunge, 2010, pp. 95–96)

the experience of material pleasures such as luxurious living (Solomon, 2006)

having experiences perceived as of overriding personal significance (such as
signs of maturity in one’s children) (Stone, 2012, p. 493).
The Dimensions of Spirituality
Objective Spirituality
outcomes &
behaviours
• welfare outcomes:
• better mental and physical health
• better coping with adversity
• higher perceived quality of life
• better social welfare outcomes
• virtuous behaviour
• patience
• charity
• tolerance
• community spirit
• friendliness
The Dimensions of Spirituality
Objective Spirituality
outcomes &
behaviours
• capacity be or act virtuously (forgiveness,
compassion, gratitude, etc)
Spiritual Intelligence
capacities
& abilities
• capacity to experience higher states of
consciousness
• ability to use spiritual resources for problem
solving
• ability to invest the everyday with sense of the
divine or sacred
• capacity to transcend the physical and material
The Dimensions of Spirituality
Objective Spirituality
outcomes &
behaviours
Spiritual Intelligence
capacities
& abilities
• the personal search for answers to ultimate
questions about life
Subjective Spirituality
goals &
motivations
• search for meaning
• search for connections that have ultimate value
• experienced relationship to the sacred or
transcendent
The Dimensions of Spirituality
Objective Spirituality
outcomes &
behaviours
Spiritual Intelligence
capacities
& abilities
• the intuitive conviction that:
• existence has meaning and value
• life has an ‘ultimate’ purpose
Subjective Spirituality
goals &
motivations
• we are genuine contributors to how this
‘drama’ unfolds
• there are some absolute values (goodness,
evil, sacredness, duty)
Spiritual Worldview
percepts,
intuitions &
beliefs
• we are responsible for our choices (free will)
• we are responsible for our actions (authentic
agents)
Spiritual Intuitions
“There really is, as everyone to some extent divines, a natural justice and injustice
that is binding on all men, even on those who have no association or covenant with
each other"
– Aristotle, Rhetoric 1.13.1373b5
Two things fill the mind with ever new and increasing admiration and awe … the
starry heaven above me and the moral law within me. Neither of them need I seek
and merely suspect as if shrouded in obscurity … I see them before me and
connect them immediately with my existence.
- Immanuel Kant, Critique of Practical Reason (1788)
Duty to me is as real as the physical world, though not apprehended in the same
way.
- Henry Sidgwick, Letter to Major Carey (1880)
The Dimensions of Spirituality
Objective Spirituality
outcomes &
behaviours
Spiritual Intelligence
capacities
& abilities
Subjective Spirituality
goals &
motivations
Spiritual Worldview
percepts,
intuitions &
beliefs
??
Ontology of Spirituality
reality
• Cultural conditioning?
• Neurological effects?
• God ?
•?
Objective Spirituality
outcomes &
behaviours
Spiritual Intelligence
capacities
& abilities
Subjective Spirituality
Spiritual Worldview
goals &
motivations
percepts,
intuitions &
beliefs
• welfare outcomes:
• better mental and physical health
• better coping with adversity
• higher perceived quality of life
• better social welfare outcomes
•
•
•
•
•
capacity be or act virtuously (forgiveness, compassion, gratitude, etc)
capacity to experience higher states of consciousness
ability to use spiritual resources for problem solving
ability to invest the everyday with sense of the divine or sacred
capacity to transcend the physical and material
• the personal search for answers to ultimate questions about life
• search for meaning
• search for connections that have ultimate value
• experienced relationship to the sacred or transcendent
• the intuitive conviction that:
• existence has meaning and value
• life has an ‘ultimate’ purpose
• we are genuine contributors to how this ‘drama’ unfolds
• there are some absolute values (goodness, evil, sacredness, duty)
• we are responsible for our choices (free will)
• we are responsible for our actions (authentic agents)
??
Ontology of Spirituality
reality
• virtuous behaviour:
• patience
• charity
• tolerance
• community spirit
• forgiveness
•
•
•
•
Cultural conditioning?
Neurological effects?
God ?
?
The Dimensions of Spirituality
Healthcare
Objective Spirituality
outcomes &
behaviours
Sociology
Behavioural Psychology
Cognitive Psychology
Spiritual Intelligence
capacities
& abilities
Subjective Spirituality
goals &
motivations
Spiritual Worldview
percepts,
intuitions &
beliefs
Developmental Psychology
Motivational Psychology
Transpersonal Psychology
Philosophy of Values (Axiology)
Philosophy of Action (Praxiology)
??
Ontology of Spirituality
Philosophy of Religion
reality
Religious Experience Studies
Dominant academic opinion is against authenticity…
Physicist Steven Weinberg, 1999:
The more the universe seems comprehensible, the more it seems pointless.
Biologist Francis Crick, 1994:
‘You’, your joys and your sorrows, your memories and your ambitions, your
sense of personal identity and free will, are in fact no more than the behavior of a
vast assembly of nerve cells, and their associated molecules. As Lewis Carroll's
Alice might have phrased it: ‘You're nothing but a pack of neurons.’
Religious Studies Scholar Robert Scharf, 2000:
…mystical experience is wholly shaped by a mystic’s cultural environment,
personal history, doctrinal commitments, religious training, expectations,
aspirations, and so on.
How do worldviews change?
Experiences
Intuitions
Cultural &
Scientific
Knowledge
Spiritual Experiences
Type of Experience (British population)
1987
2000
%
increase
Experience of a transcendent providence in
pattern of events
29%
55%
90%
Awareness of a divine presence
27%
38%
41%
Having a prayer answered
25%
37%
48%
Awareness of a sacred presence in nature
16%
29%
81%
Awareness of the presence of a deceased
person
18%
25%
39%
Awareness of an evil presence
12%
25%
108%
Any of the spiritual experiences listed above
48%
76%
58%
Sources: (Hay & Heald, 1987; Hay & Hunt, 2000)
* International surveys give similar results
* Over this time, UK church attendance fell by 17% from 10.2% to 8.5% (Brierly, 2005)
Scientific Evidence

Unconditioned moral intuitions
•
•

Adults have cross-culturally consistent moral intuitions in unfamiliar scenarios (Pyysiäinen &
Hauser, 2010)
Pre-verbal children have a sense of right and wrong (Bloom, 2010; Hamlin et al., 2007)
Altruism and pro-social behaviour in animals
•
•
Lab research: empathy in rats (Bartal et al., 2011)
Field research (Trivers, 1971 ; Wilson 1975, 2000)

Direct experiences of Nature as having spiritual aspects (Marshall 2005)

Causal powers of a spiritual kind
•
•

Long term meditators affect other people’s axiological behaviour simply by their presence
(Ekman, 2008; Goleman, 2005; Orme-Johnson & Oates, 2009)
Transformative effects of encounters with ‘spiritual light phenomena’ (Fox, 2008)
Experiences of beings and phenomena with inherent axiological characteristics
•
•
Direct apprehension of axiological qualities in people (Lawson 2011)
Direct apprehension of axiological qualities in visions, presences, ELEs and NDEs (Fenwick
& Brayne, 2011; Fox, 2008; Kapstein, 2004; Marshall, 2005; Wiebe, 2004, Rousseau 2011,
Huffod 1983, 2012)
THANK YOU
David Rousseau
Centre for
Systems Philosophy
www.systemsphilosophy.org
[email protected]