12/19/2007
Spirituality and Mindfulness
Stacy Louk, a Ph.D. candidate at Loyola in Maryland, has posted a study online to examine the role of spirituality and mindfulness in well-being. She is conducting her research with Joe Ciarrocchi and Sharon Cheston. Stop by to visit her project, and tell others who might be interested in this subject.
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2 comments:
Legitimate studies are always a good thing. However, something I find objectionable both intellectually and personally - as someone with a rare, untreatable degenerative disorder - is the glib "holistic" thinking (?)that abounds in alternative medicine circles.
Physical disease is taken as presumptive evidence of spiritual/psychological unwellness. Since the evidence against such a position is overwhelming, the motivational aspect is quite clear: it's a variation of the primitive "bad things happen to bad people" theodicy, which is comforting so long as one's luck holds, but adds a needless layer of confusion and distress ("Why is God doing this to me?") under conditions of severe adversity.
Paul (and anyone else), if you have a comment or question about the study, I recommend you contact the researcher. If I recall correctly, the contact information is on the first page. I haven't looked at the project in detail, so I can't comment on it specifically, but I know that I appreciate the constructive comments I have received from people involved in my own research.
FWIW, I agree with you completely about the 'bad things happen to bad people' position. It is a convenient way to resolve profound questions, and it works well only while one doesn't face its repercussions.
Thanks for letting me know about your blog. I'm adding it to my blogroll.
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