In a recent trauma seminar in Salt Lake City a presenter told a story of a cultural practice of spiritual healing. She described a village in which a family had lost an 11 year-old son to illness. The parents were inconsolable. The spiritual leader of the village took the family, relatives and close friends out into a private place in the woods, where together the group danced, sang and prayed throughout the night, according to their traditions. . . .
At this point the presenter then stated “at about dawn, the entire group had a mass hallucination that the boy appeared to them all, and comforted them, and let them know he was ok and in a good place”
The audience was startled into silence, not by the group’s experience, but by the speaker’s judgment that the experience was a “mass hallucination”.
Finally one member of the audience raised his hand and said, very gently “do you think that could have been a spiritual experience?”
The speaker replied “well yes, of course it was a spiritual experience.” She then said no more, leading us to wonder if , in her mind, all spiritual experiences were hallucinations of some sort.
The belief that deceased loved ones can appear to comfort their families is commonly held among both LDS members—the dominant religious group in Utah—and by Christians of other religions. One might initially conclude that the speaker was insensitive to the regional culture of Utah, a state in which 73 percent of the population belongs to an organized religion, (72.4 of them a Christian religion)and a significant percent of those who don’t belong to a religious group still believe in a higher power.
The truth is that nationwide polls show the rate of religious belief across the nation are not any lower. A recent Gallup poll showed that among US citizens nationwide 78% believe in God and identify themselves as Christians, 15% believe in “A universal spirit or higher power”, 6% believe in “neither”, and 1% indicate they are unsure. Thus the speaker’s interpretation was likely to be experienced as culturally insensitive by 80 or 90% of the listeners.
In contrast to our first story, a national expert on traumatic grief, Dr. Duane Bowers, stated in a grief and trauma conference that one of the most important tasks to be worked through in bereavement counseling is the transition from a physical relationship with departed loved one to a spiritual relationship. Dr Bowers appropriately left the interpretation of “spiritual relationship” open to interpretation by the listener.
In the last ten years there has been a movement in therapy communities to be more respectful of the spirituality and religious beliefs of clients, and to counsel within the framework of a client’s belief system. However, as the first experience illustrates, this paradigm still needs additional work in implementation.
A continuing bias against religious perspective is most evident in professional publishing arenas and scientific journals, creating a schism between the paradigms of scientific theory and the realities of working with clients.
Spirituality is not only helpful but in many cases it encompasses the best coping resources that clients possess. A variety of very beautiful therapy techniques have been developed that help clients most effectively utilize their own spirituality for healing. However, these are not widely taught in the university or continuing education settings.
In this program we will explore several of these tools as aids to recovery from depression, trauma, addiction, and grief and loss. We will also address issues of common thinking errors about spirituality that interfere with healing.