Don´t Mention The S Word
Until 1995, academic research had not extensively explored the relationship between spirituality and mental health. However, a significant breakthrough occurred in 1997 when a study (source: https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/8E7A725DD51965E66E63733273E74F2B/S1832427413000030a.pdf) recognised the potential separation of spirituality from religion. This research elucidated that while spirituality encompasses both innate and environmental factors, religion is entirely transmitted through environmental influences, often as a gift from the community. It established that spirituality, particularly dimensions associated with protection against depression and addiction, is intrinsic to human beings.
Fundamentally, humans are innately spiritual beings, with temperament comprising both innate and conditioned aspects. Roughly, individuals can consider one-third of their spiritual experience as innate and two-thirds as environmentally formed, influenced by various social and cultural factors, including faith traditions. While many in Western culture associate spiritual life primarily with religious practices, a significant portion, approximately one-third, identify as spiritual but not religious, engaging with spirituality through avenues such as poetry, music, and relationships.
Two dimensions consistently highlighted in research as both heritable and influential are the direct capacity for transcendent relationships and the expression of love within the communal fellowship, often referred to as "I-Thou" relationships. Various forms of transcendent relationship, whether with a higher power, a sense of oneness with life, or nature, contribute to spiritual experiences. Notably, these dimensions share a common neurophysiology, as evidenced by studies (source: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24369341/) showing that individuals with sustained spiritual practices exhibit cortical thickness in brain regions associated with perception, reflection, and processing, which are typically thinner in those with recurrent depression.
This scientific understanding offers hope grounded in empirical evidence for mitigating mental health challenges. The capacity for a transcendent relationship is innate and undergoes developmental stages akin to physical and cognitive development. Longitudinal studies reveal an increased search for meaning across age groups, suggesting a hardwired inclination towards spiritual growth. Moreover, decades of peer-reviewed research, including Dr Lisa Miller's work in "The Spiritual Child: The Science of Parenting for Health And Lifelong Health" (2016), support the notion that nurturing spiritual life can significantly reduce mental health issues, including depression, addiction, and suicide.
Furthermore, supporting natural spirituality, independent of religious affiliation, can aid in resilience and post-traumatic flourishing. Studies demonstrate that integrating spiritual practices into trauma recovery, such as sharing experiences and finding meaning in struggles, promotes psychological well-being. Initiatives like the Spiritual Readiness Initiative in the US Army have shown promising results, with a substantial decrease in suicide rates among participants.
Embracing struggles as opportunities for spiritual awakening challenges traditional therapeutic approaches. Individuals who have undergone profound struggles often report spiritual breakthroughs, reinforcing the idea that adversity can catalyse spiritual growth. Integrating diverse ways of knowing fosters interconnectedness in the brain, creating new neural pathways and promoting resilience, inspiration, and celebration of life.
Approaching life as a quest, guided by receptivity rather than control, enhances resilience and generates high-amplitude alpha waves in the brain. Research indicates a correlation between spiritually engaged brains emitting high-amplitude alpha waves and Schumann resonance, suggesting a natural harmony with life. This harmony appears to be inheritable, as evidenced by generational studies showing alpha wave emission in grandparents and parents but not in the third generation.
Non-duality or Oneness stands apart from other forms of spirituality in that it doesn't follow a path from point A to point B; rather, it's about recognising what already exists. It doesn't fabricate a spiritual realm beyond the realm of belief or dogma. Instead, it urges us to perceive that the essence of all spiritual experiences lies in the present moment's actual reality. It proposes that this fundamental recognition forms the basis of all religions that have evolved from it in one way or another.
Unlike many religions, which subtly or overtly reshape this fundamental experience into a belief system upon which some form of religious authority is constructed, nonduality recognition of Oneness is the ultimate democracy, freely accessible to all and independent of methods, practices, or dogmatic beliefs or schools.
In the realm of self-development or the pursuit of happiness, the notion of fixing a broken self is discarded. However, this doesn't imply that old defensive habits don´t still surface, simply that they naturally dissolve upon recognising innate wholeness which is the ultimate context for healing. This dissolution isn't the cause but rather the natural effect of recognising the existing inherent wholeness. Dr. Lisa Miller's work on "The Science of Parenting for Health And Lifelong Health" suggests that the two dimensions consistently shown to be heritable and very influential to the rest of our lives are this capacity for transcendence and social communion.
Direct capacity for transcendent relationship – in one form or another – some turn to a higher power, some turn to nature, – or as non-duality encourages, direct recognition of innate oneness. Whether we hold this relationship in the first, second, or third person, all these forms are part of a transcendent relationship. In addition, we might feel the presence of love from this transcendent relationship in the fellowship of our community. "I-Thou" relationships. Most traditions have linked the vertical relationship with the higher power to the horizontal relationship with the love of the neighbour.
Science now shows that these two dimensions share a common neurophysiology. The key study (source: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24369341/) demonstrates that for people with a sustained spiritual life over eight years, cortical thickness in brain scans in regions of perception, processing power, reflection, and orientation was observed. These same regions are thin in 80-85% of those people with recurrent depression. Moreover, a thick cortex today predicts lower levels of depression a year from now. This offers some evidence that sustained spiritual life may be neuroprotective against recurrent depression. (Source: Frontiers In Psychology, Frontiers | Spontaneous Spiritual Awakenings: Phenomenology, Altered States, Individual Differences, and Well-Being (frontiersin.org))
Is it conceivable that we, as a society, are presently navigating a collective phase akin to developmental depression, poised on the threshold of post-traumatic flourishing for all? Might we be standing at the brink of a spiritual renaissance?
The problem is that we've systematically eradicated discussions on spirituality from the public discourse on mental health, focusing exclusively on the mind and body. Our society has become spiritually non-conversant, where relationships often descend into transactional exchanges rather than fostering a deeper unity of humanity. More often than not, our interactions resemble little more than market transactions centred around materialistic values. In this process, we inadvertently discarded spirituality and its profound significance and now grappled with the consequences. Never before have so many young people entered adulthood unprepared, a trend that warrants attention. (Source: American Psychological Association (https://www.apa.org/education-career/guide/paths/jensen-arnett))
Love
Freyja
