Spirituality and health: assessing the evidence

Schlitz, Marilyn

doi:10.1017/cbo9780511973406.010

Cited by 19 publications

(24 citation statements)

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“…Th e idea behind that experimental set-up is that subtle mental infl uences might be measured more easily at an unconscious level. A highly successful series of experiments was published, and a meta-analysis of this fi rst series was signifi cant and positive (Schlitz & Braud, 1997). At this point we decided to run a series of independent replications.…”

Section: Dmils and The Infl Uence Of Human Intention On Human Physiologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Spirituality: The Legacy of Parapsychology

Walach

Kohls²,

Stillfried

et al. 2009

Archive for the Psychology of Religion

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SummarySpirituality is a topic of recent interest. Mindfulness, for example, a concept derived from the Buddhist tradition, has captivated the imagination of clinicians who package it in convenient intervention programs for patients. Spirituality and religion have been researched with reference to potential health benefi ts. Spirituality can be conceptualised as the alignment of the individual with the whole, experientially, motivationally and in action. For spirituality to unfold its true potential it is necessary to align this new movement with the mainstream of science, and vice versa. Hence, both a historical review, and a systematic attempt at integration is called for, which we are trying to give here. It is useful to go back to one of the roots: parapsychology. Parapsychology was founded as a counter movement to the rising materialist paradigm in the 19th century. Adopting the methods of the natural sciences, it tried to prove the direct infl uence of consciousness on matter. After 125 years this mission must be declared unaccomplished. Surveying the database of parapsychological research it is obvious that it will not convince sceptics: Although there are enough exceptional fi ndings, it has in general not been possible to reproduce them in replication experiments. Th is is, however, a characteristic signature of a category of eff ects which we call eff ects of generalised entanglement, predicted by a theoretical model analogous to quantum theory. Using this perspective, parapsychological eff ects can be understood, and the original aim of the founding fathers can be recovered, as well as a new, systematic understanding of spirituality be gained. Generalised entanglement is a formal and scientifi c way of explaining spirituality as alignment of an individual with a whole, which, according to the model, inevitably leads to non-local correlations.

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Section: Dmils and The Infl Uence Of Human Intention On Human Physiologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Spirituality: The Legacy of Parapsychology

Walach

Kohls²,

Stillfried

et al. 2009

Archive for the Psychology of Religion

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…After reviewing a number of research studies, Schlitz and Braud (1997) conclude that the intention to help calm down anxious individuals as measured by sympathetic nervous system activity indicate that others can have almost the same mind-body effect on one as one has on oneself. Similarly, noted emotions researcher Paul Ekman (2003) used physiological data to show that an aggressive person's physiological activation diminishes in the context of a person demonstrating compassion and loving kindness.…”

Section: Invitations For a Compassionate Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

Caring and Compassion When Working With Offenders of Crime and Violence

Stefanakis¹

2008

Violence Vict

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Getting tougher on men who use violence is a rallying cry for people on both sides of the political spectrum. This article challenges the notion that a punitive framework increases safety and promotes nonviolence. The dominant worldview in today's culture and science is based on a fragmentary perspective that reinforces disconnections that facilitate rather than prevent further violence and abuse. In contrast, the nonfragmentary perspective is also scientifically valid but has very different implications for how we treat each other. This nonfragmentary perspective makes visible compassionate responses to violence that can be more effective in ending abuse and building peace in our lives and relationships. Research to support this conclusion is provided.

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“…He found that the receiver's brain waves and peripheral blood volume changed significantly when the stimulus was applied near to or on the sender's body. A meta-analysis (Schlitz and Braude, 1997) of 19 laboratory studies conducted in Scotland and California in the 1980s and 1990s, involving "healers" sending their thoughts on a randomized schedule to receivers, found statistically significant changes in the receivers' bodies using Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) measures when the senders' thoughts were focused on them. Another 40 Downloaded by [University of Colorado at Boulder Libraries] at 13:36 02 January 2015 studies, conducted during this time, employed a Ganzfield procedure (to isolate the receivers from normal visual and auditory stimuli) and Faraday cages and steel wall screening (to block electromagnetic radiation), and found that the receivers' overall accuracy rate in correctly identifying which of four images had been sent by a sender, exceeded the rate expected by chance by a factor of 10 15 to 1 (Radin, 1997a, pp.…”

Section: Prior Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Psychophysiology Of Intuition: A Quantum-Holographic Theory Of Nonlocal Communication

Bradley

2007

World Futures

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This work seeks to explain intuitive perception-those perceptions that are not based on reason or logic or on memories or extrapolations from the past, but are based, instead, on accurate foreknowledge of the future. Often such intuitive foreknowledge involves perception of implicit information about nonlocal objects and/or events by the body's psychophysiological systems. Recent experiments have shown that intuitive perception of a future event is related to the degree of emotional significance of that event, and a new study shows that both the brain and the heart are involved in processing a pre-stimulus emotional response to the future event. Drawing on this research and on the principles of quantum holography, I develop a theory of intuition that views the perception of things remote in space or ahead in time (nonlocal communication) as involving processes of energetic resonance connecting the body's psychophysiological systems to the quantum level. The theory explains how focused emotional attention directed to the nonlocal object of interest attunes the bio-emotional energy generated by the body's psychophysiological systems to a domain of quantum-holographical information, which contains implicit information about the object. The body's perception of such implicit information about things distant in space/time is experienced as an intuition.

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Spirituality and health: assessing the evidence

Cited by 19 publications

References 0 publications

Spirituality: The Legacy of Parapsychology

Spirituality: The Legacy of Parapsychology

Caring and Compassion When Working With Offenders of Crime and Violence

The Psychophysiology Of Intuition: A Quantum-Holographic Theory Of Nonlocal Communication

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