Spiritual Bypass: A Preliminary Investigation

Abstract

The phenomenon of spiritual bypass has received limited attention in the transpersonal psychology and counseling literature and has not been subjected to empirical inquiry. This study examines the phenomenon of spiritual bypass by considering how spirituality, mindfulness, alexithymia (emotional restrictiveness), and narcissism work together to influence depression and anxiety among college students. Results suggested that mindfulness and alexithymia accounted for variance in depression beyond what is accounted for by spirituality and that all 3 factors (mindfulness, alexithymia, and narcissism) accounted for variance in anxiety beyond what is accounted for by spirituality. Implications for counselors are provided. S pirituality and religion play an important role in the lives of a significant number of Americans. Researchers have found that 96% of Americans believe in a Higher Power, over 90% pray, 69% are members of a religious community, and 43% have attended a religious service within the past 7 days (Princeton Religion Center, 2000). Furthermore, spirituality is a central component of an individual's culture and development, both of which are considered core tenets of the counseling profession. As a result, spirituality continues to be a vital and growing area of interest within professional counseling and counselor education (Cashwell & Young, 2005).The assessment of client spirituality, in particular, seems vital (Harper & Gill, 2005). It is essential that spiritually competent counselors accurately assess the importance of spirituality in clients' lives and how this affects their presenting issues. Spirituality is deeply personal, developmental, and often difficult to describe in words, however, and an accurate assessment is often difficult. To further complicate the assessment process, it is essential that spirituality be assessed in ways that respect the belief systems and values of the client, even when these beliefs and values diverge from those of the counselor.It is easy to believe that clients who report strong convictions, a disciplined spiritual practice, and transpersonal experiences have a high level of spiri-

The Spiritual Bypass Scale-Brazilian Adaptation: How Religious Affiliation, Age, and Gender Can Predict Levels of Psychological Avoidance and Spiritualizing

“…Two possible explanations exist for why Superiority negatively correlates with Psychological Avoidance. First, though spiritual narcissism is hypothesized as a component of spiritual bypass (Cashwell et al, 2007;Cashwell et al, 2010;Welwood, 2000;Whitfield, 2003), none of the items on the SBS-BT nor in the original version of the scale directly relate to this concept. Second, the internal reliability of the NPI is questionable, rendering the interpretation suspect.…”

“…Only one team of researchers has attempted to empirically substantiate a theoretical model of spiritual bypass (Cashwell, Glosoff, & Hammonds, 2010). In that same time, research on spirituality and its relationships to many facets of holistic health and wellbeing has only accelerated (Koenig, 2012).…”

“…This is somewhat surprising since experts have argued that clinicians' being conversant with the nuances of spiritual bypass to be vitally important as many people's pursuit of a spiritual path or being religiously committed to both Eastern and Western traditions is a common experiene (Cashwell, et al 2004;Masters, 2010;Welwood, 1984). Moreover, clinicians have attested to the serious problems that spiritual bypass poses for social, psychological, and spiritual health; among the complications it could pose include depression, anxiety, addiction, stagnated emotional maturity or alexithymia, isolation, and spiritual narcissism (Cashwell et al, 2007;Cashwell et al, 2010;Clarke, Giordano, Cashwell, & Lewis, 2013;Welwood, 2000;Whitfield, 2003). Given such postulations and its supposed widespread prevalence, research on spiritual bypass is sorely needed.…”

“…The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship of spiritual bypass and its sub-facets with the psycho-social variables that theoretically correlate with spiritual bypass based on the existing literature (Cashwell, Bentley, & Yarborough, 2007;Cashwell, Clarke, & Graves, 2009;Cashwell et al, 2010;Cashwell, Myers, & Shurts, 2004;Masters, 2010;Welwood, 1984Welwood, , 2000. Once we established their relationship, we also were interested in testing the predictive value of spiritual bypass after accounting for salient control variables.…”

“…In this study, we work with both the original and revised factor structures. We hypothesize that Psychological Avoidance and Spiritualizing will correlate positively with Superiority as the items on this factor of narcissism closely align with a concept often associated with spiritual bypass called spiritual narcissism, a tendency to act with a high degree of arrogance as if spiritually superior (Cashwell et al, 2010). In this study, the total alpha coefficients are.79 for the English (the original scale has an alpha of .83) version and .73 for the Brazilian version (the original scale has an alpha of .77), and the alpha coefficients for the Superiority subscales are .49 (the original scale has an alpha of .54) for the English version and .47 for the Brazilian version (the original scale has an alpha of .39).…”