Rethinking Prayer and Health Research: An Exploratory Inquiry on Prayer’s Psychological Dimension

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, Vol. 30, No. 1-2, pp. 23-47, 2011

25 Pages Posted: 26 Jan 2012

Date Written: December 22, 2011

Abstract

A brief literature review of cancer survival trials is employed by the author to raise questions on their design and to bring speculatively into discussion concepts such as “worldview,” “intentional normative dissociation,” and “psychosomatic plasticity-proneness.” Using prayer’s psychological dimension as a way to unite such elements opens new fertile perspectives on the academic study of prayer and health. In this context, it is suggested that a consistent interdisciplinary research agenda is required in order to understand those biopsychosocial factors interconnected within the process and outcome of prayer before attempting to decipher the big answers laying dormant probably within the transpersonal and spiritual layers of human experience.

Keywords: prayer, worldview, intentional normative dissociation, psychosomatic plasticity-proneness, cancer survival, spirituality and health, subjectivity,embodiment, biopsychosocial, spiritual capital, transpersonal capital

Suggested Citation

Andreescu, Adrian, Rethinking Prayer and Health Research: An Exploratory Inquiry on Prayer’s Psychological Dimension (December 22, 2011). International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, Vol. 30, No. 1-2, pp. 23-47, 2011 , Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1992323

Adrian Andreescu (Contact Author)

affiliation not provided to SSRN ( email )

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