Spiritual Attributes Research Articles

An Investigation of the Relationships Between Spirituality, Health Status and Quality of Life in Adolescents

This study examines the relationships between six spirituality-related attributes and quality of life (QOL) in adolescents, and the extent to which these relationships are mediated by perceived physical and mental health status and five important life domains (family, friends, living environment, school experiences, and perception of self). The data were obtained via a cross-sectional health survey of 8,225 adolescents in British Columbia, Canada. Structural equation modeling was used to test the hypothesized relationships. All spiritual attributes are significantly associated with three or more of the life domains, and four of the attributes significantly explain global QOL after controlling for the other variables in the multivariate model. The attributes indicative of adolescents’ feelings about their future and other existential matters were found to be relatively most explanatory with respect to global QOL. The predominant mediators include adolescents’ satisfaction with their family, their perceived self, and their perceived mental health status. Spirituality is important with respect to adolescents’ QOL. The multivariate model provides preliminary insights into the relevance of several attributes of spirituality and the possible mechanisms by which these attributes may contribute to adolescents’ QOL.

Humane Design for Hospital Landscapes: A Case Study in Landscape Architecture of a Healing Garden for Nurses

The overall goal of this study was to design a beautiful garden to provide a spatial experience of renewal for hospital nursing staff and for their ecologically- and culturally-specific healing. The first objective of this study was to identify the physical, social, and spiritual attributes of an existing courtyard to determine which features encouraged or discouraged use. A site-specific design concept and user-specific survey instrument were developed to gather data directly from the nursing staff on campus. There has been growing evidence that landscapes for renewal have measurable characteristics. Physical, social, and spiritual characteristics of the landscape interrelate to determine the appropriateness of a landscape for a particular health outcome. Increasingly, evidence demonstrates that contact with the living world around us is an important part of healing and recovery. This design project created a natural opportunity to research the effect of landscape improvements on renewal. The method combined standard landscape architecture ecological site design process with a qualitative empirical study of staff characteristics and landscape preferences. The transparency of the landscape design process provided the basis for a post-occupancy evaluation in the future. Sixty-one nurses participated in the qualitative phase of the design process. Preferences for contact with nature and privacy were significant among the staff. The spatial structure of the concepts was revised to include private table-and-chair places for one or two people and features that would encourage a contemplative pedestrian walk along existing shortcuts. To encourage the benefits of the typical staff's very short exposure to the garden, archetypal landscape features-thresholds, contemplative paths, garden benches, a symbolic creek, and sacred springs-were arranged to shift the spiritual dimension of the place from that of an exposed, dry gulley ravine to a green, fertile oasis. The courtyard was designed based on survey results. The final design was reviewed and found to satisfy the preferences of the nursing staff. Currently, the design is being detailed for construction, and a post-occupancy evaluation is being developed to ascertain the quality of the outcome for the nurses.

MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS: The history of a disease By T. Jock Murray 2005. New York: Demos. Price £29.95 ISBN 1-888799-80-3

‘Once on this familiar spot of ground’ On learning that a book of 580 pages is now published dealing exclusively with historical aspects of multiple sclerosis, busy clinicians caring for affected individuals and researchers interested in the disease as a problem in clinical science might reasonably ask whether it is worthwhile to study historical aspects in such detail, and at such length, in any medical field, let alone one in which fact and fiction are so inextricably intermingled and the literature so liberally decorated with decoys and distractions on the path to discovery. On May 26, 1789, Friedrich Schiller gave his inaugural lecture as a Privatdozent at the University of Jena, entitled: ‘What means and to what end does one study universal history?’ (Schiller, 1989). Two hundred years after the death of this great poet, playwright and philosopher—sometimes called the inventor of German idealism—he is still commemorated and mourned throughout the German-speaking world. In this lecture, Schiller differentiates he who is merely the professional scholar (‘Brotgelehrter’) from the true philosophical mind. Whilst the insights of the former are valuable, these are solely as a means of getting rich; gaining attention from the newspapers; securing office, rank, esteem and reputation; and coaxing favours from the nobility. The professional scholar lives from science, not for it. He or she lacks dedication. For that person, the development of mental and spiritual attributes and scholarship are the means to an end and not aims in themselves. To Schiller, this type of scholar is immersed in a fortress school system and indifferent to the genuine evolution of knowledge. Constrained from making real progress, understandings offered by the professional scholar soon stagnate, only to become fossilized in dogmatism. Competition evokes fear in the professional scholar, as his sterile fiefdom is vigorously defended. Johann Gottlieb Fichte in …

Pathways to Long-Term Recovery from Alcohol Dependence

This descriptive qualitative pilot study explored like attributes of successful recovery among 13 alcoholics with six or more years of continuous sobriety. Seven subjects were current members of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). Six subjects were spontaneous remitters (SA) chosen through convenience sampling techniques; these persons achieved and maintain stable, long-term recovery without the assistance of a support group. Open-ended questions about attributes that contribute to successful recovery were posed to these participants. Common attributes and themes were identified as these recovering alcoholics: utilized the help of supportive people, accepted help from God or a Higher Power, had a strong desire to get well, strove to be honest with self and built self confidence, and remembered the negative consequences of their past alcohol abuse. Implications for treatment and further research are suggested. The spiritual attributes listed by both groups of participants as important for successful recovery are noted.

Some Aspects of Bahá’í Scholarship

This essay identifies four core ideas that should characterize Bahá’íscholarship: the central position of the Creative Word in the acquisition of knowledge; the interconnected Bahá’í model of the world; the progressive nature of Bahá’í law; and the organic relationship of scholarship and the Covenant. Bahá’í scholarly activity rests on the constructive interaction of faith and reason, avoiding the extremes of materialism and superstition. Five principal forms of Bahá’í scholarly activity are discussed: study of the Faith’s historical origins, textual analysis, investigation of religious concepts, application of the teachings to contemporary issues, and study of social and historical phenomena in the growth of the Faith. Suggestions for future research are outlined; the spiritual attributes that should characterize individual scholars are discussed; and the article concludes with prospects for the greater unification of knowledge in the future.

Strategies for Spiritualization

Like the ability to use language, possession of spiritual attributes and qualities is a defining characteristic of the human species. Evidence from the Bahá’í writings suggests that, similar to the capacity to learn one’s first language, spiritual qualities and virtues exist innately in the young child as easily activated potential states that are subject to critical period constraints as the child matures. In the adult, although the innate capacity to manifest spiritual attributes is still present, its activation appears to occur more through an information-processing approach similar to the way other new skills are learned. Educational research has found that students who use learning strategies are more successful in developing new skills than those who do not report strategy use. If the spiritualization process in adults is similar to other learning tasks, then active use of learning strategies may facilitate the development of spiritual virtues. This article discusses a possible cognitive, language-based pathway for spiritualization and then examines the application of learning strategies to the spiritualization process.

Historical and Contemporary Human Disturbance in the Upper Barun Valley, Makalu-Barun National Park and Conservation Area, East Nepal

Results of a 1991 field investigation of the nature and extent of historical and contemporary human disturbance in the upper Barun valley, Makalu-Barun National Park and Conservation Area, Nepal, are presented. Forest structure, soils, pollen analysis, 14C dating of buried wood samples, historical documents, and contemporary land-use trends of herders and mountaineering/trekking groups were assessed. Historical religious texts suggest that pilgrims may have been visiting sacred sites in the valley since the 14th century. Genealogical records indicate that regular seasonal grazing may have commenced in the 17th century with the easterly migration of the Sherpa people from the Solukhumbu region. Results of pollen analysis and '4C dating suggest that historical anthropogenic disturbances in a dynamic environment, including the possibility of regular burning in a presumed attempt to increase pasture area, could have played significant roles in modifying the upper Barun valley landscapes. A corridor of disturbance related to contemporary indigenous and tourist use (tree harvesting, burning, grazing) was observed along the main valley trail, and impacts appeared to be growing in frequency and magnitude. Increased monitoring of these impacts is recommended, and priority research areas are identified. Support for, and monitoring of, existing park management policies which seek to recognize the rights of traditional users are also suggested as providing the most promising mechanisms for the sustainable conservation of the upper Barun valley's unique physical, cultural, and spiritual attributes.

The Self as Process in Late-Life Reminiscence: Spiritual Attributes

ABSTRACTAgeing has been referred to as a spiritual journey. Empirical data from gerontological research and paractice literature on the phenomenon of late-life reminiscence reveal a sense of self as process, and ageing as a spiritual journey for a number of older persons. The empirical data experiential reports on reminiscence from the elderly themselves point to a life trajectory of ‘joruney’ of the self that moves from a possessive attachment to an identification with the physical self, significant others, and material belongings to a view of self as a process, as ‘being’ rather than ‘having’ within and as part of a larger process. A process conception of the self derived from William James, contemporary social science, and process theology is delineated to explain the nature of this journey and this process. Two older women who illustrate the process conception of self in their reminiscences are presented, followed by a discussion of the spiritual implications of this conception.

Leading-edge-leadership

An underlying postulate for the future is that a leader must influence an institution more than it influences him or her. Balancing artful leadership attributes with management science capabilities calls for new organizational structures, policies, processes and styles. Freer-form organizations are needed. At least ten attributes of these are outlined for study. New leadership issues are sprouting from the leading edge of scientific, technological, political, economic, social and cultural forces already at work. These issues are: intellectual operations, phenomenon of power, abstract relationships, material world and ethical-legal-religious spheres of sentient and moral powers. A third framework of the human mind is suggested with respect to the teleological-ideological, instinctive, spiritual and charismatic (TISC) attributes of a leader. This TISC framework is in addition to the logical, rational, sequential and quantitative (LRSQ) and the perceptive, intuitive, simultaneous and qualitative (PISQ) optimal working frameworks of the human mind proposed by Zeleny [10]. The new breed of leaders may find this triple framework helpful in initiating and maintaining structure in expectation and interaction which is the true meaning of leading-edge-leadership.

The Anesthetist and the Patient

APATIENT is a person possessing a complex of physiological, psychological, and spiritual attributes which are his alone and which set him apart from all other persons. Marked individual differences characterize the way in which people endure pain, discomfort, and stress associated with sickness. Some individuals who may be most seriously ill will remain tranquil and apparently contented; others will be restless and anxious; others apathetic and depressed; and still others obviously resentful and suspicious. If a patient has sufficient trust and confidence in those caring for him, he will not find it difficult to discuss the particular problems that are presented to him by the illness. His specific questions should be answered as directly, simply, and frankly as possible. Keeping him in the dark may arouse unnecessary suspicion and fears, just as uncalled for discussion of symptoms, treatment, and prognosis may arouse anxious speculation.

Some Aspects of New Testament Miracles

Christianity is a religion of the spirit,—a religion of faith, as the Apostle Paul would have said. That is, its essential nature resides in unseen and spiritual attributes; on the persistence of spiritual forces depends its identity from age to age; the inner attitude of the soul is the sphere of its true life. Neither letter nor form, but spirit, is the characteristic mark of Christianity. If this is true, it follows that the life of Christianity necessarily implies the continually new expression of the Christian spirit amid the ever-changing phases of human thought and life. And historical conditions will govern not only the outward forms and modes of Christian life, but also, at least in its concrete formulation, the thought of Christians about religion. The changes that have taken place in Christian thought and doctrine may well be no indication of any weakness or imperfection in Christianity. They are, in fact, rather the manifestation of its excellence, the proof that it is indeed the supreme religion, capable of bringing in the kingdom of God.Some have tried, by a process of successive eliminations, to discard the Jewish, the Greek, the pagan, the Teutonic influences which from time to time have affected Christianity, as if by such expurgations they could isolate essential Christianity from its accidents, and separate the kernel from the husk. But if Christianity is a religion of the spirit expressing itself under historical conditions, its expression in any period of history will be made through the ideas, true and false, through the modes of life, crude or refined, through the existing beliefs, philosophies, laws, customs, and even superstitions of the time. Many philosophies which we deem false, many rites which we find degrading, have been the well-justified means of expressing the religion of the spirit for men who held those philosophies and to whom those rites were dear. Those things are to be called foreign influences upon a pure Christianity only in the same sense in which that would be true of the inadequate science, clumsy philosophy, and sorry philistinism of custom which in our own day do duty, as the best we have, for civilization.If it be asked, wherein, then, lies the assurance that our Christianity is properly called Christian, what force binds together these shifting phases of life and thought, and entitles us to speak of them as belonging to one religion, a personal conviction is the only answer that can be given,—namely, that the identity of the Christian religion through the ages depends on the New Testament, and in particular on the presentation of Jesus Christ found in the gospels and on the persistent spiritual power of his person.From the general point of view thus outlined the question of the miracles of the New Testament, like every other historical topic connected with the Christian religion, must be considered.