Mortal Spirit: A Theory of Spiritual-Somatic Evolution pdf download

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Other methods included participant observation and videography of rituals of possession. Footnote 1 The hypotheses tested in this paper were partly derived from the analysis of the qualitative data and from a review of the literature.

The practice of spirit possession is mostly found in the Southwest of the Dominican Republic, commonly referred to as El Sur. Especially in the Dominican cities of the South, violence conducted with weapons and armed robberies are a serious and increasing problem. Among the primary factors contributing to this increase are large scale migration to urban areas, unemployment, domestic violence, abuse of drugs and alcohol, drug trafficking, and the availability of weapons OSAC Because of its lack of formal structure, the actual size of the Dominican Vodou community is hard to estimate.

According to current practitioners, decades ago it was difficult to find a spiritual centre where possession was carried out as openly as it is today. Back then, it was first prohibited Davis f and then seen as a practice of Haitian immigrants or Dominicans who inhabited the distant countryside or the former centres of sugar production e. Today, spiritual centres are frequently situated in poor suburban neighbourhoods of the South.

It has to be highlighted though, that Vodou is not the dominant religious system in the Dominican Republic. Also, there is a high fluctuation between religious systems due to the high-pressure evangelization strategies by Protestant evangelical congregations such as Pentecostals, Adventists, and Mormons. In the course of the last decades, the traditional socio-demographic characteristics of possessed individuals have been changing.

A variety of social conditions contemporaneous with patterns of urbanization and modernization have contributed to the decline of females in Dominican popular religion Piper As in Haiti, male homosexuals are seen to be under the protection of certain feminine spirits, allowing them to exhibit stereotypical feminine behaviours during religious ceremonies, and an emic explanation is that these female spirits caused their sexual orientation Lescot and Magloire In general, Dominican vodouists tend to be dark-skinned and marginal to the formal economy in that they are either unemployed or work informally as vendors, janitors, or maids for the wealthier citizens.

They not only face racial discrimination Candelario but also the problems that come along with societal segmentation, such as being confronted with an inaccessible wealthier lifestyle.

In a patriarchal organized society that is rather conservative when it comes to gender roles, homosexual males are likely suffer from additional discrimination.

We conducted a questionnaire- and interview-based survey among 85 citizens of Dominican or Dominico-Haitian descent, comparing 47 individuals that had experienced possession with 38 who also follow Vodou but had not experienced it.

Both possessed and non-possessed participants were vodouists who regularly visited spiritual centres and participated in their celebrations. Possessed individuals either owned spiritual centres or joined them, for instance to manifest the misterio spirits, keep up friendships, or, if they struggled with unbidden or violent spirit possession, to seek advice from their more experienced peers.

Non-possessed individuals visited spiritual centres primarily to enjoy direct interaction with the spirits that manifested in the bodies of those possessed, and in order to improve their health, business, or love life. This means that they were most often the clients of possessed individuals. Further motives for non-possessed individuals to visit spirituals centres included exerting non-possessed ritual functions such as being a ritual assistant plaza , a litanist, a singer or a drummer, or being with friends.

Since vodouists are sometimes exposed to persecution by fundamentalist Christians and thus tend to hide their practice, we depended on already well-known experienced practitioners. The latter served as key informants who identified and introduced us to owners of spiritual centres or stores, where we requested visitors to participate in our study. Due to the high illiteracy rate in the study area, the first author interviewed the participants face to face in the local language Spanish in January and February At the beginning of the interview, participants were asked to indicate whether or not they had experienced full possession by the misterio spirits at least once in their lifetime.

Pilot testing with 21 possessed individuals showed that whereas some items in the Spanish version of the Somatoform Dissociation Questionnaire SDQ Nijenhuis et al. The entire ad-hoc questionnaire, phrased to follow the local language, was easily understood. All study participants gave verbal consent and procedures followed the Helsinki declaration. The study was approved by the Ethics commission of the Medical University of Vienna. These symptoms have been strongly associated with exposure to potentially traumatizing events including physical threats Nijenhuis At least in a Western context, these 5 items discriminate best between patients with dissociative disorders from those without these disorders Nijenhuis et al.

Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and prevalence-corrected negative predictive value range from satisfactory to excellent.

Even though the SDQ-5 was more sensitive than the DES to assess dissociative pathology among patients with somatoform disorders among Dutch psychiatric patients Nijenhuis , it performed less well in a sample of Turkish psychiatric patients Sar et al.

The SPQ - DR also included seven questions regarding spirit possession that we solely asked to possessed individuals. Single missing values with random distribution were tolerated without interpolation approaches to avoid loss of power. For variables in which subgroups differed significantly, we performed a discriminant function analysis to assess the extent to which these variables discriminated between subgroups. For this analysis, we set the cut-off for interpretation of structure matrix loadings at 0.

To test the intercorrelations across questions, we conducted a Principal Component Analysis PCA with varimax rotation and used as cutoff a variable loading of 0. Data of completed questionnaires was statistically processed using SPSS version Table 1 depicts demographic characteristics. The majority of participants reported being in a relationship, having completed primary education or less, having been born in an urban setting and still living in such a setting, and never having been a member of a Protestant church.

The groups did not differ in having more dreams in which spirits appeared or in friends or family reporting that they would some day become possessed. As depicted in Table 3 , we found clear differences between P and NP concerning somatoform dissociation and sleep. Besides the overall difference in the SDQ scale, the P had higher scores in the following items: having the body or parts of it being insensitive to pain, seeing things around differently than usual, feeling that the body or parts of it have disappeared, being unable to speak or speaking only in a whisper, and not sleeping well at night.

The groups did not differ in trouble urinating or feeling pain in the genitals. We conducted a discriminant analysis to evaluate which variables predicted assignment to P or NP. In total, 79 valid cases could be used in the analysis for P and NP individuals. Initially all predictors were entered simultaneously. Next, we entered the predictors stepwise to reveal items with the best predictive potential for group classification.

We also conducted a factor analysis to evaluate the associations across variables. The two groups did not differ demographically except that the P seemed to have developed a socioeconomic advantage from their experiences by using it professionally. With reference to gender differences, we did not replicate the greater incidence of women than men among possessed individuals reported by other authors e.

With respect to previous traumatic events, the P group reported more frequent experiences of mortal danger such as assaults, accidents or diseases, than the NP, but the difference was only marginal.

A previous history of trauma was thus not a clear predictor of possession. Regarding experiential predictors of possession, P overall reported more of them but the only item that was independently significant was that they saw more signs of spiritual forces in the environment. A tendency to give meaning to patterns was also found in a psychoanalytic study in which P and NP females from the Dominican Republic were tested with the Rorschach projective technique.

Because in Vodou and shamanism in general seeing signs is interpreted as a positive form of spiritual contact, it is reasonable to us that P might experience them in their daily lives without finding them dysfunctional or disruptive.

Furthermore, since both groups often endorsed prophetic dreams, visions, and unbidden thoughts attributed to the spirits, we may conclude with Seligman a , that mere alterations in consciousness are not the central and defining predictor of possession.

As far as somatoform dissociation, P endorsed more items except for problems when urinating, which had a very low incidence in our sample. Thus, the widespread urogenital problems found in the zar cult Boddy , which may combine long-term physiological damage with somatoform reactions, cannot be generalized to Dominican Republic women, who are not exposed to clitoridectomy or similar practices.

In our study, somatoform dissociation was the strongest variable differentiating P from NP. Jung and Reich: The body as shadow. Edinger, E. Ego and archetype. Boston, MA: Shambhala. Original work published in Edinger, E. Wilmette, IL: Chiron Publications. Ferrer, J. What does it really mean to live a fully embodied spiritual life? International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 27, 1— Embodied participation in the mystery: Implications for the individual, interpersonal relationships, and society.

The participatory turn in spirituality, mysticism, and religious studies. Hillman, J. Alchemical psychology. Uniform edition. New York, NY: Spring. Jung, C. The psychology of the child archetype R. Hull, trans. Read et al. Series Eds. This dimension is grounded in the principle of equiprimacy, according to which no human attribute is intrinsically superior or more evolved than any other.

As Romero and Albareda point out, the cognicentric i. In principle, however, all human attributes can participate as equal partners in the creative unfolding of the spiritual path, are equally capable of sharing freely in the life of spirit here on earth, and can also be equally alienated from spirit. Intrapersonal cocreation affirms the importance of being rooted in spirit within i.

Interpersonal cocreation emerges from cooperative relationships among human beings growing as peers in the spirit of solidarity, mutual respect, and constructive confrontation Ferrer, ; Heron, , This principle does not entail that there is no value in working with spiritual teachers or mentors; it simply means that human beings cannot be ranked in their totality or according to a single developmental criterion, such as brainpower, emotional intelligence, or contemplative realization.

Although peer-to-peer human relationships are vital for spiritual growth, interpersonal cocreation can include contact with perceived nonhuman intelligences, such as subtle entities, natural powers, or archetypal forces that might be embedded in psyche, nature, or the cosmos e. Interpersonal cocreation affirms the importance of communion with spirit in- between i. This dimension is grounded in the principle of equiplurality,7 according to which there can potentially be multiple spiritual enactions that are nonetheless equally holistic and emancipatory.

Transperson- al cocreation affirms the importance of being open to spirit beyond i. Although all three dimensions interact in multifaceted ways in the enactment of spiritual events, the creative link between intrapersonal and transpersonal cocreation deserves special mention.

Whereas the mind and consciousness arguably serve as a natural bridge to subtle, transcendent spiritual forms already enacted in history that display more fixed forms and dynamics e. A Creative Spirituality In the infancy of participatory spirituality in the s, spiritual inquiry operated within certain constraints arguably inherited from traditional religion.

Expanding this account, I have suggested that most religious traditions can be seen as reproductive insofar as their practices aim to not only ritually reenact mythical motives, but also replicate the enlightenment of their founder or attain the state of salvation or freedom described in allegedly revealed scriptures Ferrer, , , a. Although disagreements about the exact nature of such states and the most effective methods to attain them abound in the historical development of religious ideas and practices—naturally leading to rich creative developments within the traditions—spiritual inquiry was regulated and arguably constrained by such pregiven unequivocal goals.

In contrast, Heron distinguished between experiential training within a traditional body of doctrine, and authentic experiential spiritual inquiry, both individual and cooperative. Participatory enaction entails a model of spiritual engagement that does not simply reproduce certain tropes according to a given historical a priori, but rather embarks upon the adventure of openness to the novelty and creativity of 0 The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, , Vol.

Grounded on current moral intuitions and cognitive competences, for instance, participatory spiritual inquiry can not only undertake the critical revision and actualization of prior religious forms, but also the cocreation of novel spiritual understandings, practices, and even expanded states of freedom see Ferrer, b, b.

Spiritual Individuation This emphasis in creativity is central to spiritual individuation, that is, the process through which a person gradually develops and embodies his or her unique spiritual identity and wholeness Ferrer, b, , b.

Religious traditions tend to promote the homogenization of essential features of the inner and outer lives of their practitioners, for example, encouraging them to seek the same spiritual states and liberation, to become like Christ or the Buddha, or to wear the same clothes in the case of monks. These aspirations may have been historically legitimate, but after the emergence of the modern self Taylor, , our current predicament at least in the West arguably calls for a bold integration of spiritual maturation and psychological individuation that will likely lead to a richer diversity of spiritual expressions Ferrer, , b.

In other words, the participatory approach aims at the emergence of a human community formed by spiritually differentiated individuals. It is important to sharply distinguish between the modern hyper-individualistic mental ego and the participatory selfhood forged in the sacred fire of spiritual individuation. Whereas the disembodied modern self is plagued by alienation, dissociation, and narcissism, a spiritually individuated person has an embodied, integrated, connected, and permeable identity whose high degree of differentiation, far from being isolating, actually allows him or her to enter into a deeply conscious communion with others, nature, and the multidimen- sional cosmos.

A key difference between modern individualism and spiritual individuation is thus the integration of radical relatedness in the later. Similarly, Almaas , distinguished between an essential personhood that integrates autonomy and relatedness, and the narcissistic ego of modern individualism. Participatory Pluralism The participatory approach embraces a pluralistic vision of spirituality that accepts the formative role of contextual and linguistic factors in religious phenomena, while simultaneously recognizing the importance of nonlinguistic variables e.

Participatory pluralism allows the conception of a multiplicity of not only spiritual paths, but also spiritual liberations and even spiritual ultimates. If we regard human beings as truly unique embodiments of the mystery, would it not be plausible to consider that as we spiritually individuate, our spiritual realizations might also be distinct even if potentially overlapping and aligned with each other?

Participatory approaches, that is, seek to enact with body, mind, heart, and consciousness a creative spirituality that lets a thousand spiritual flowers bloom. Put simply, the mystery cocreatively unfolds in multiple ontological directions Ferrer, b.

Participatory Epistemology and Critical Theory Despite its relaxed spiritual universalism, participatory pluralism does not entail the uncritical or relativistic endorsement of all past or present religious understandings or forms of life. Put differently, the participatory rejection of an objectifiable pregiven spiritual ultimate referent does not prevent qualitative distinctions in spiritual matters.

To be sure, like beautiful porcelains made out of amorphous clay, traditions cannot be qualitatively ranked according to their accuracy in representing some imagined accessible or inaccessible original template; however, this does not mean we cannot discriminate between more evocative, skillful, or sophisticated artifacts.

Whereas the participatory turn renders meaningless the postulation of qualitative distinctions among traditions according to a priori doctrines or a prearranged hierarchy of spiritual insights, these comparative grounds can be sought in a variety of practical fruits existential, cognitive, emotional, interpersonal, etc. Specifically, I have suggested two basic guidelines: the egocentrism test, which assesses the extent to which spiritual traditions, teachings, and practices free practitioners from gross and subtle forms of narcissism and self-centeredness; and the dissociation test, which evaluates the extent to which the same foster the integrated blossoming of all dimensions of the person Ferrer, , b.

Given the many abuses and oppressions perpetuated in the name of religion, it may be sensible to add an eco-social- political test, which assesses the extent to which spiritual systems foster ecological balance, social and economic justice, religious and political freedom, class and gender equality, and other fundamental human rights see Heron, The well-known four yogas of Hinduism reflection, devotion, action, and experimentation come quickly to mind in this regard, as do other spiritual typologies that can be found in other traditions e.

Second, the participatory emphasis on overcoming narcissism and self- centeredness, although arguably central to most spiritual traditions, may not be shared by all. Likewise, many religions have had a demonstrably negative environmental impact e. Thus, the integrative and socially engaged thrust of the participatory turn is foundational for the development of a participatory critical theory of religion.

From this evaluative principle, applicable standards, rules or tests to assess spiritual choices and practices can be derived. In addition to self- and peer- assessment e. In addition, the thoughtful combination of other tests may indicate the degree of psychosomatic integration of spiritual states, for example measures of transcendence e. To sum up, the emancipator epistemology of the participatory approach assesses spiritual paths according to the degree to which they foster both an overcoming of self-centeredness and a fully embodied integration that make us not only more sensitive to the needs of others, nature, and the world, but also more effective cultural and planetary transformative agents in whatever contexts and measure life or spirit calls us to be.

Integral Bodhisattvas Since for most individuals the conscious mind is the seat of their sense of identity, an exclusive liberation of consciousness can be deceptive insofar as we can believe that we are fully free when, in fact, essential dimensions of ourselves are underdeveloped, alienated, or in bondage—as the dysfunctional sexual behavior of numerous modern spiritual teachers attest e.

As discussed above, participatory spirituality seeks to foster the harmonious engagement of all human attributes in the spiritual path without tensions or dissociations. Despite his downplaying the spiritual import of sexuality and the vital world, Sri Aurobindo was correct when he wrote that a liberation of consciousness in consciousness cannot be equated to an integral transformation entailing the spiritual alignment of all human dimensions pp. Likewise, as the above description reflects, my use of the term bodhisattva does not suggest a commitment to early Buddhist accounts of liberation as extinction of bodily senses and desires and release from the cycle of transmigratory experience samsara Collins, ; Harvey, ; see Ferrer, b.

Participatory Spiritual Practice In addition to many classical spiritual skills and values e. This emphasis can be found in some traditional practices, many contemporary revisions of traditional practices, and a number of innovative spiritual developments. Examples include the following. Whereas some traditional practices kabbalistic, contemplative, indigenous, esoteric, etc. With this outline of participatory spirituality established, the discussion now turns to understandings of the participatory approach in the field of transpersonal studies.

To date, transpersonal scholars have understood the participatory approach in three main ways: as a disciplinary model, theoretical orientation or perspective, and paradigm or paradigmatic epoch. This section briefly examines each case. Disciplinary Model The participatory approach is considered a theoretical model within the discipline of transpersonal psychology. After discussing some major differences among these models e. In this spirit, Washburn describes three major transpersonal theoretical orientations—structural-hierarchical Wilber , spiral-dynamic Washburn , and participatory Ferrer —noting that the participatory orientation challenges the other two in their claims to exclusive or complete spiritual truth.

As perspectives, feminism and ecology can be equally applied by advocates of the structural, dynamic, and participatory orientations. In contrast to Washburn , however, Goddard includes feminist, ecological, and shamanic perspectives within the participatory orientation. Finally, Cunningham described the participatory approach as a transpersonal theoretical orientation located in-between the perennial philos- ophy at one end of the continuum and empirical scientific approaches based upon mechanist, materialistic, and reductionist assumptions at the other end.

Paradigm or Paradigmatic Epoch Finally, the participatory turn has also been understood as a paradigm or paradigmatic epoch. Lahood characterized this turn with a commitment to religious universalism or perennialism and included the work of Maslow, Grof, and Wilber as representative.

In a subsequent essay, Lahood extended this account into three paradigmatic epochs of transpersonalism. Whereas it may be valid to conceive the participatory approach as disciplinary model, theoretical orientation, or even conceptual revolution or paradigm , my sense is that epochal claims may have been premature. It is one thing to argue that the participatory approach represents a conceptual revolution with regard to prior transpersonal theorizing—it is quite another to claim that it inaugurated a new paradigmatic era in transpersonal thinking.

Before entertaining this possibility seriously, a thorough analysis of the actual impact of participatory thought on transpersonal scholarship seems necessary. The next section begins to explore the scope of such influence. On the one hand, as we have seen, the participatory approach can be seen as a theoretical model, orientation, or paradigm within the field of transpersonal studies. That said, this section follows the footprints of the participatory perspective in four bodies of knowledge: transpersonal studies, consciousness studies, integral and holistic education, and religious studies.

As Lahood a points out, the participatory use of the language of events vs. Likewise, my participatory approach to spiritual diversity and pragmatic emancipatory epistemology is endorsed in many transpersonal works e. Although Wilber has assimilated aspects of the participatory approach into his integral theory, from a participatory perspective many problems remain see Ferrer, b. In the rest of this section, I illustrate various ways in which the participatory perspective has been engaged in transpersonal works through three examples.

For Hollick, participatory spirituality not only accommodates the diversity of spiritualities better than other models, but also stresses embodied, ethical, cocreative, relational, and cooperative dimensions of the spiritual path that he considers crucial in our times.

Adams, , occupational science Collins, , and relational and peer-to-peer approaches to spiritual growth Bauwens, ; Heron, ; Lahood, a, b. Consciousness Studies The participatory perspective in also present in certain scholarly sites dedicated to the study of consciousness.

For an important related paper, see Walach and Runehov []. This is not the place to sum up this rather technical debate and I refer the interested reader to the original papers; my aim here is simply to point out the sites where the participatory perspective is present in the study of consciousness.

In this vein, the participatory approach is also discussed in works on the nature of consciousness Lancaster, , in the context of the anthropology of consciousness Lahood, c, , and as an important element of a general theory of enaction Malkemus, Since the initial article in , this approach rapidly disseminated in scholarly circles. In addition to the general introduction of participatory thinking to integral education, Embodied Spiritual Inquiry ESI is gaining notice as a pedagogical method seeking to put into practice the principles of participatory integral education.

Religious Studies The participatory turn has received increasing attention in the field of religious studies. In alignment with my goals in writing the book, Revisioning was reviewed in religious studies journals e. Adams, ; Fuller, ; Parsons, Also in the context of the study of mysticism, Freeman presented the participatory approach as an effective middle path to resolve the long-standing impasse between essentialists and constructivists.

To return to the question raised above, I suggest that while the participatory perspective has definitively gained prominence in transpersonal studies and related fields, it is likely too early to regard it as a paradigmatic epoch in transpersonal scholarship.

Although the number of transpersonal authors influenced by participatory thinking is increasing, it should be obvious that transpersonal studies is today a richly pluralistic field populated by many other theoretical orientations of equal or greater influence e. Wilberian-Integral Two critical responses to Revisioning were issued from the camp of Wilberian integral studies although one of those authors Paulson, , , later retracted his critique.

The following year, however, Paulson retracted these views, stating that: When I first read this book I hated it, but I have read and studied it for 2 years and find it one of the best books ever written on transpersonal psychology…This is not a Washburn or Wilber spin off but something entirely different.

The second critical response came from Wilber, who first indicated that: the view he [Ferrer] is representing is basically a green-meme view of psychology and spirituality…it is simply a matter of personal inclination: if you resonate with green-meme values, you will resonate with Ferrer; if you resonate with second-tier values [i.

Cited in Paulson, , para. More substantially, Wilber charged Revisioning with falling into performative self-contradictions i.