Sunday, 26th February 2017
Prof Kate Loewenthal - Ritual, spiritual experience and wellbeing
This paper examines the distinction between ritual and spirituality/spiritual experience, and examines the spiritual and emotional impact of ritual, and implications for mental health. It is suggested that understanding of the psychological aspects of ritual has been constrained by distinguishing ritual from private religious/spiritual experience, possibly as a result of secularisation, and /or individualist ideology. Additionally, there has been a misleading confusion between ritual and obsessionality. Studies of religious experience have focused on extraordinary spiritual experiences rather than "more routine" religious experiences. These trends have led to a view that repeated ritual involves "empty conformity". This view first emerged strongly in the social sciences 1970s, and is still prevalent. It is suggested that rituals are experienced by participants as rich in meaning, normally have a positive impact on well-being, and a range of impacts on physical, emotional, cognitive and spiritual states. Some evidence is reviewed, and further directions for research are considered.
Prof Kate Loewenthal taught psychology at Royal Holloway for over thirty years, and is currently Professor Emeritus there, with a Visiting Professorship at NYU in London, Glydwr University, Wales, and Heythrop College. Her research has focused on mental health in minority groups in the UK. She is interested in how religious factors can affect mental health, and has been involved in providing and evaluating culture-sensitive mental health services, along with work for mental health charities and other community works. She has published several books including Religion, Culture and Mental Health, and has co-edited Aspects of Terrorism and Martyrdom: Dying for Good, Dying for God. She has published numerous articles, and edits the journal Mental Health, Religion and Culture.
Prof Kate Loewenthal taught psychology at Royal Holloway for over thirty years, and is currently Professor Emeritus there, with a Visiting Professorship at NYU in London, Glydwr University, Wales, and Heythrop College. Her research has focused on mental health in minority groups in the UK. She is interested in how religious factors can affect mental health, and has been involved in providing and evaluating culture-sensitive mental health services, along with work for mental health charities and other community works. She has published several books including Religion, Culture and Mental Health, and has co-edited Aspects of Terrorism and Martyrdom: Dying for Good, Dying for God. She has published numerous articles, and edits the journal Mental Health, Religion and Culture.
Dr Madeleine Castro - Reflections on a red tent
Red Tents are a form of women’s spaces or groups in the West. Whilst they vary widely in their exact manifestation, all centralise the lives and experiences of women and both honour and celebrate womanhood. A significant aspect of this is, for many, a deeply held passion for what might be called ‘The Sacred Feminine’ (e.g. Tate, 2014). Whilst the notion of spirituality is often embedded in these gatherings, the arrangement and practice of this varies – for instance Pagan and Wiccan rituals have been integrated into the practices of some groups (Leidenfrost & Starkweather, 2011). The concept is originally based on a novel by Anita Diamant (1997) called The Red Tent, which narrates the rape story of Dinah found in the bible. “The novel makes the argument that to develop a sense of context for the self, we need spaces and time for mothers and daughters to share stories beyond the stories of “great women.” (Blackford, 2005: 78). As a potentially empowering context for women, ‘The Red Tent Movement’ emerged in the US around the turn of the millennia (late 1990s into early 2000’s) and a little later in the UK (approximately 2009 according to The Red Tent Directory).
The concept of the Red Tent has been challenged as a solely positive space for women, some suggesting that its contemporary empowering conception is a far cry from its disempowering roots. The inspiration for the novel’s portrayal of the Red Tent originates in the pre-modern ‘menstrual hut’ which has a fairly well documented depiction of male control and domination, seen as a location for women to be ‘banished to’ during menstruation potentially in part because of perceived impurity (see for instance, Strassman, 1996). This paper reflects on the history and development (including the increasing popularity) of the Red Tent movement and Red Tent groups. It argues that this movement might represent a way of reclaiming aspects and stages of womanhood and experience to be celebrated and revered (rather than hidden and cursed) and marks a redefinition of traditional conceptions. Focusing on the Red Tent as a context for exploration of the sacred and therefore associated with female spirituality and wellbeing, I will also draw on some of my own early personal reflections and experiences in recently joining a Red Tent group.
Dr Madeleine Castro's research has centred upon meaning and sense-making in reported Exceptional Human Experiences (EHEs). More recently, she has been exploring forms of contemporary spirituality, which includes the extent to which there might be relationships between reported EHEs and spirituality, the relationship between EHEs, the paranormal and popular culture, and the potentially positive effects precipitated by some of these experiences. Madeleine completed an MA in Social Research at Goldsmiths, University of London, in 2004, where her dissertation considered qualitative accounts of women's reported of EHEs. She completing her PhD at the University of York in 2009, exploring how people talked about and made sense of their transcendent EHEs. After a postdoctoral project at the University of York surveying the British population about their reported spontaneous paranormal experiences, she started teaching at Leeds Beckett in 2010. Since 2007, she has co-directed a Exploring the Extraordinary (EtE) with Dr Hannah Gilbert. She is currently Honorary Treasurer for the Transpersonal Psychology Section of the British Psychological Society, and her recent research has been exploring the phenomenon of women's Red Tent groups and the subjective experiences of women participating in these spaces. You can read more of Madeleine's work here.
The concept of the Red Tent has been challenged as a solely positive space for women, some suggesting that its contemporary empowering conception is a far cry from its disempowering roots. The inspiration for the novel’s portrayal of the Red Tent originates in the pre-modern ‘menstrual hut’ which has a fairly well documented depiction of male control and domination, seen as a location for women to be ‘banished to’ during menstruation potentially in part because of perceived impurity (see for instance, Strassman, 1996). This paper reflects on the history and development (including the increasing popularity) of the Red Tent movement and Red Tent groups. It argues that this movement might represent a way of reclaiming aspects and stages of womanhood and experience to be celebrated and revered (rather than hidden and cursed) and marks a redefinition of traditional conceptions. Focusing on the Red Tent as a context for exploration of the sacred and therefore associated with female spirituality and wellbeing, I will also draw on some of my own early personal reflections and experiences in recently joining a Red Tent group.
Dr Madeleine Castro's research has centred upon meaning and sense-making in reported Exceptional Human Experiences (EHEs). More recently, she has been exploring forms of contemporary spirituality, which includes the extent to which there might be relationships between reported EHEs and spirituality, the relationship between EHEs, the paranormal and popular culture, and the potentially positive effects precipitated by some of these experiences. Madeleine completed an MA in Social Research at Goldsmiths, University of London, in 2004, where her dissertation considered qualitative accounts of women's reported of EHEs. She completing her PhD at the University of York in 2009, exploring how people talked about and made sense of their transcendent EHEs. After a postdoctoral project at the University of York surveying the British population about their reported spontaneous paranormal experiences, she started teaching at Leeds Beckett in 2010. Since 2007, she has co-directed a Exploring the Extraordinary (EtE) with Dr Hannah Gilbert. She is currently Honorary Treasurer for the Transpersonal Psychology Section of the British Psychological Society, and her recent research has been exploring the phenomenon of women's Red Tent groups and the subjective experiences of women participating in these spaces. You can read more of Madeleine's work here.
Brother Richard - Mindfulness, compassion and Christianity
The meditative practices of mindful attention and compassionate outreach have always been taught within the Christian meditative tradition as mutually interdependent methodologies used to bring about inner transformation towards a life of transcendent meaning. Brother Richard, a Capuchin Franciscan friar and mindfulness teacher in the Christian monastic tradition, will share with us these core practices and how they are seen to both strengthen the connection of the practitioner with the community and invite both parties to a deeper way of being.
Brother Richard is a Capuchin Franciscan priest-friar, living and working in Ireland (mostly). He is currently a Guardian of Ards Friary in Donegal which includes a large residential retreat centre, and teaches Christian meditation and mindfulness and work with the Sanctuary Spirituality Centre in inner city Dublin.
Brother Richard is a Capuchin Franciscan priest-friar, living and working in Ireland (mostly). He is currently a Guardian of Ards Friary in Donegal which includes a large residential retreat centre, and teaches Christian meditation and mindfulness and work with the Sanctuary Spirituality Centre in inner city Dublin.
David Furlong - Awakening to, and working with the higher self for health, healing and wellbeing
In 1974 psychiatrist Dr Ralph Allison published a paper in the American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis entitled 'A New Treatment Approach for Multiple Personalities', in which he described the intervention, in one of his cases, of a sub-personality that he came to call the 'Inner Self Helper' (ISH). This aspect of the client's psyche, which spontaneously emerged during a regression session, seemed to have a full awareness of the different chaotic personalities that existed within the client and the steps needed for their integration or removal. Following this experience Allison sought out a similar personality in five other cases of multiple personality and discovered the same type character in each of them. When this personality was listened to and the advice followed inner healing became possible (Allison, 1974). Since then Allison has found a corresponding part in many of his clients that seems to have a full awareness and overview of the psyche and the ability to help heal these inner conflictual states.
In the early 1990s another psychologist and hypnotherapist, Dr Tom Zinser, was struggling to help some of his clients who seemed to have inner blocks to every approach to healing. In his frustration, he was about to give up on his practice when one of his secretaries mentioned that she had a spirit guide that wished to communicate him for the guide felt that he could provide valuable information that would be helpful to healing some of Zinser's problem cases. With nothing to lose Zinser agreed to the meeting and was sufficient impressed from the first session to explore this avenue of approach. For the next ten years Zinser discussed his most problematic clients with the guide Gerod who provided Zinser with insights into the different causes of their psychological, emotional and spiritual condition. Using this information Zinser was able to test the efficacy of these insights to good effect. One of the elements of the psyche that Gerod stressed was a part that he called the 'higher self'. According to Gerod this part, which is an aspect of the soul, has the ability to have an overview on all aspects of the psyche and could direct therapeutic intervention to the traumatised sub-personality areas that need attention. Zinser came to recognise that Allison’s ‘inner self- helper’ was simply a personalised aspect of the ‘higher-self’ (Zinser, 2011).
For the past twenty-five years and unaware of both Allison and Zinser, I had discovered and been working in my therapeutic practice with a similar ‘higher-self’ (H-S) aspect of my client's psyche using light trance techniques to access through their sub-conscious minds to this higher dimensional overseeing part of their being. The research from both Allison and Zinser, backed up by my own empirical discoveries has given clarity to this aspect of the self, which can be accessed for all types of health and wellbeing conditions. It would appear that we all have an H-S that sits in the background monitoring our lives, that can be drawn upon for assistance when we need it and if we know how. In this session, focusing on how spiritual experience influences wellbeing, I will outline one or two different case scenarios where the H-S has provided outstanding insights into the inner world and then demonstrate a simple participatory meditative imagery technique for beginning to access into this profound part of our psyche.
David Furlong has been a therapist and teacher for more than 45 years, and is the author of six books including The Healer Within, Working with Earth Energies, and his most recent Illuminating the Shadow. He sees clients for health balancing, food sensitivity testing, counselling and spirit release. He runs course in the UK and abroad in related subjects. He holds a doctoral degree from the University of Sedona for his work on the shadow. For more information, visit his website.
In the early 1990s another psychologist and hypnotherapist, Dr Tom Zinser, was struggling to help some of his clients who seemed to have inner blocks to every approach to healing. In his frustration, he was about to give up on his practice when one of his secretaries mentioned that she had a spirit guide that wished to communicate him for the guide felt that he could provide valuable information that would be helpful to healing some of Zinser's problem cases. With nothing to lose Zinser agreed to the meeting and was sufficient impressed from the first session to explore this avenue of approach. For the next ten years Zinser discussed his most problematic clients with the guide Gerod who provided Zinser with insights into the different causes of their psychological, emotional and spiritual condition. Using this information Zinser was able to test the efficacy of these insights to good effect. One of the elements of the psyche that Gerod stressed was a part that he called the 'higher self'. According to Gerod this part, which is an aspect of the soul, has the ability to have an overview on all aspects of the psyche and could direct therapeutic intervention to the traumatised sub-personality areas that need attention. Zinser came to recognise that Allison’s ‘inner self- helper’ was simply a personalised aspect of the ‘higher-self’ (Zinser, 2011).
For the past twenty-five years and unaware of both Allison and Zinser, I had discovered and been working in my therapeutic practice with a similar ‘higher-self’ (H-S) aspect of my client's psyche using light trance techniques to access through their sub-conscious minds to this higher dimensional overseeing part of their being. The research from both Allison and Zinser, backed up by my own empirical discoveries has given clarity to this aspect of the self, which can be accessed for all types of health and wellbeing conditions. It would appear that we all have an H-S that sits in the background monitoring our lives, that can be drawn upon for assistance when we need it and if we know how. In this session, focusing on how spiritual experience influences wellbeing, I will outline one or two different case scenarios where the H-S has provided outstanding insights into the inner world and then demonstrate a simple participatory meditative imagery technique for beginning to access into this profound part of our psyche.
David Furlong has been a therapist and teacher for more than 45 years, and is the author of six books including The Healer Within, Working with Earth Energies, and his most recent Illuminating the Shadow. He sees clients for health balancing, food sensitivity testing, counselling and spirit release. He runs course in the UK and abroad in related subjects. He holds a doctoral degree from the University of Sedona for his work on the shadow. For more information, visit his website.