Christopher Silver | University of Tennessee Chattanooga (original) (raw)
Papers by Christopher Silver
The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 2021
Most anyone who studies psychology of religion has encountered the name Ralph W. Hood, Jr. His pe... more Most anyone who studies psychology of religion has encountered the name Ralph W. Hood, Jr. His perennial presence at research conferences and many contributions to the psychology of religion have now spanned more than five decades. This observation and his recent anniversary of 51 years at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC) are timely reasons for dedicating a special issue to honor him in the journal he co-founded in 1992, with Laurence B. Brown and H. Newton Malony as co-editors, and himself as book review editor. Thus, we present this issue in recognition of Ralph and his considerable accomplishments in the psychology of religion. The six articles included here represent but a small sample of areas and people his research has touched. For those who have seen Ralph at research conferences, two things readily stand out: first, his trademark jeans, tie-dyed tee-shirt, and ball-cap are elevated to formal attire by the addition of a sports coat; and second, his conference presentations are always extemporaneous, enormously stimulating, and reflective of a well-read mind not only in psychology, but also in other disciplines. He can be seen conversing with established scholars on matters of research or shared personal interest, but also with young scholars who are striving to find their way into an academy that sometimes can be less than welcoming. Succinctly put, Ralph is a regular and unmistakable presence at these meetings. In his career, Ralph has served in many capacities, including president of APA Division 36, editor/co-editor of several journals (e.g., IJPR, the Archive, JSSR, etc.), editorial board member for numerous journals, and chair/member of multiple committees in professional organizations. He also has received a number of awards for his service and research contributions from APA Division 36 and other organizations. According to Bernie Spilka and Kevin Ladd (this issue), he “has been one of the most productive and innovative researchers in the psychology of religion.” He indeed has been prolific in authoring/coauthoring some 14 books (not to mention his textbook), over 65 book chapters and encyclopedia articles, and more than 160 journal articles. But perhaps the significance of his contribution to the psychology of religion is most emblematic in his longtime partnership with Bernie Spilka – another giant among us – as coauthor of The Psychology of Religion: An Empirical Approach, which was first published more than 35 years ago (Spilka et al., 1985). Since then, this work has dominated the field internationally as “the” textbook for students and scholars alike through five editions that critically summarize theories and empirical research (e.g., Hood et al., 2018). Ralph has influenced untold students and scholars in the psychology of religion. The many who know him personally can offer stories from treasure troves of memorable experiences that illustrate his deep concern for the welfare and professional development of others. His kindness and patience with his undergraduate and graduate students have inspired them to emulate the same excellence they observe in him. He supports his students by shepherding them along the way, although he also challenges them to discover their own path as researchers. As former student Job Chen (Chen & Patel, this issue) remarked, “Ralph led me to see what I can achieve and let me explore my own ways.” Ralph challenges both students and professionals to excel, and helps them advance in their careers, whenever possible. He also has positively influenced seasoned scholars. For example, Peter Hill (this issue) learned from Ralph that “we need to be more intellectually humble” as psychologists, respecting the religious perspectives of our research participants. On an international level, his personal relationships and research collaborations have done much to enhance the relations between American and European, Middle Eastern, and Asian psychologists of religion. THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 2021, VOL. 31, NO. 3, 153–155 https://doi.org/10.1080/10508619.2021.1940531
2021 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE), 2021
This Research-to-Practice full paper presents findings from the ASSETS program - a comprehensive ... more This Research-to-Practice full paper presents findings from the ASSETS program - a comprehensive support ecosystem developed to improve retention and reduce time to graduation for engineering transfer students. ASSETS builds on the momentum established by two statewide initiatives in Tennessee that place transfer students at the forefront: (1) Tennessee Promise - a nationally recognized scholarship program launched in 2015 that provides last-dollar scholarships for low-income students to attend any state community college, and (2) Tennessee Reconnect - a last-dollar grant established in 2018 that allows adults who do not have an associate degree to attend a community or technical college tuition-free. With over 100,000 students enrolled in these programs to date, the number of students transferring to four-year institutions is expected to increase exponentially in the coming years. Historically, transfer students have been at higher risk of attrition due to known academic and social barriers. This is especially true for the Engineering disciplines. In an effort to address these obstacles, we have developed the Academic Intervention, Social Supports, and Scholarships for Engineering Transfer Students (ASSETS) program. In its third year of operation, with 35 enrolled ASSETS scholars, the program is well underway. Among our findings, we have recognized the critical importance of nurturing a community of transfer students that emphasizes equity, diversity, and inclusion. Establishing such a community involves more than just adopting established best practices. It requires a shift in mindset on behalf of the student regarding what is required to succeed, as well as on the part of faculty on what is expected of incoming students. This paper presents the findings and outcomes of the ASSETS program towards providing support to and enhancing the success of engineering transfer students.
The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 2021
ABSTRACT This study explored the lived experience of adversity as spiritual struggles among funda... more ABSTRACT This study explored the lived experience of adversity as spiritual struggles among fundamentalists. Ten Christian fundamentalists participated in phenomenological interviews and provided descriptions of their experiences with adversity. A hermeneutic-thematic analysis of transcribed interviews derived a structured pattern of five interdependent themes that described meaning in the experience of adversity for all participants. In adversity, they were aware of a specific adversary as the source of adversity; an alternation between negative-positive emotions; standing up against or down from the adversary; struggling through the adversity; and spiritual change. Themes are discussed in relation to the existential grounds of body, others, and time, and research.
Deconversion Revisited, 2021
Chapter 5: "But slowly I get the feeling that I do not fit into any category." Are Multiple Decon... more Chapter 5: "But slowly I get the feeling that I do not fit into any category." Are Multiple Deconversions in Young Adulthood Associated with Mental Health Problems? The Cases of Mia and Paris This chapter focusses on the deconversion trajectories of two young women, one in Germany, one in the US, involving issues of mental health. Mia (Germany) and Paris (USA) are in their twenties at the time of their first interview (Mia, 27, Paris, 25 years) and in their thirties at the second (Mia, 36, Paris, 38). Both had been involved with fundamentalist and then new religious movements. The women have led different lives in the time between the interviews: Paris has married, started a family and is, at the time of the second interview, coping with the death of her husband. Mia is, at the second interview, still on a quest regarding identity as well as lifestyle. Both women have a history of challenges to their mental health, both report experiences beyond what is considered "normal, " and both had psychological treatment. By following their profiles in relevant scales, their configurations of religious styles, and by narrative analysis of their consecutive interviews, we look at the developmental trajectories of their religiosity or spirituality. Based on observations of stability and change on different levels of analysis and in different cultural surroundings, we discuss what multiple deconversions mean in biographies that contain mental health issues. First, we give some biographical information on Paris and Mia 1. Both interviewees are Time 1 deconverts, who reported two deconversions at their first interviews. They have first deconverted from Christian groups with fundamentalist characteristics, then from more liberal new religious movements (NRMs). In Germany, Mia first affiliated with and then left the Evangelical youth movement, "Entschieden für Christus, " EC 2. She learned more about fundamentalist Christian beliefs when she spent a year in the US and went to high-school there. Back in Germany, upon leaving EC, she joined and then left "Jesus Freaks, " 3 a 1 With a focus on her search for "resonance" in religious and therapeutic contexts and discourses the interviews with Mia have been analyzed in by Keller (2021 in press). Here, we are interested in the comparative perspective. 2 "Entschieden für Christus, " or, in English, "Christian Endeavour" (CE), is a supra-denominational Christian evangelical youth movement, advocating a conservative morality with a Bible-based heterosexual orientation. 3 A youth movement which is strongly aligned to youth cultures and scenes, stresses personal relationship to Jesus, and has adopted a liberal moral stance toward sexuality.
Deconversion Revisited, 2021
Case study construction in longitudinal perspective means to follow a single case across time bas... more Case study construction in longitudinal perspective means to follow a single case across time based on the consecutive Faith Development Interviews (FDIs) and drawing on psychometric data. We regard the interviews as the focus of our current study. Therefore, in this chapter, we first look into the history of method development. Then, we present the basic method, the Faith Development Interview, and explain the structural evaluation according to the model of religious styles. Next, we turn to content, to what was said at different points in time in the domains of the FDI, to narratives and to key aspects already defined or newly emerging. Working in longitudinal perspective, we are interested in tracing change as well as stability. We do this by comparing the interviews obtained at the time of the original Deconversion Study (Streib, Hood, Keller, Csöff, & Silver, 2009)-in this volume referred to as Time 1-, and at the time of re-interviewing-here referred to as Time 2, which means after a time span of about 10 years. These are interpreted against the background of the differences and similarities of psychometric profiles obtained at both points of measurement. As an outlook, we discuss ongoing methodological innovation and how to balance this with continuity in longitudinal research. 4.1 The Faith Development Interview: A Short History The Faith Development Interview was designed by James Fowler (1981) and his team (Fowler, Jarvis & Moseley 1986, DeNicola & Fowler, 1993). The theory underlying this instrument is based on Fowler's broad concept of "faith. " Fowler, with reference to Cantwell Smith (1963, 1979), defined "faith" as a person's constructions and reconstructions of everyday experience in light of the ultimate conditions of existence, thus as ways of meaning-making in response to transcendent centers of value and power (cf. Fowler, 1981, p. 92-93). This conceptualization of "faith" is very broad, open, and inclusive-aiming at a kind of common core of the various religious and worldview traditions, embracing theistic and non-theistic worldviews, and also ways of apparently non-religious meaning-making. This is different from "religion, " which, according to Cantwell Smith, designates the cumulative traditions (institutions, texts, religious traditions) and from "belief, " which means consent to
Deconversion Revisited, 2021
While serpent symbolism is common in many religious traditions, few traditions have including the... more While serpent symbolism is common in many religious traditions, few traditions have including the actual handling of serpents that can maim and kill in their rituals. Two exceptions are various Manasa sects common in India and the serpent handlers of Appalachia in America. We presented brief descriptions of each of these traditions along with videos of the handling of serpents in each tradition under three degrees of risk, video with no serpents, video with serpents but no bites, video with serpents and bites. Under a fourth condition only for the Appalachian handlers, the video showed a handler dying from a bite. American, largely Christian participants rated assessed each condition for ritual quality and perceived legitimacy. As predicted, serpent handling in America was perceived as less legitimate than serpent handling in India. No differences were found between perceived legitimacy and level of risk except in the condition where a handler was seen dying from a bite.
Mental Health, Religion & Culture, 2021
Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 2020
Negative attitudes toward the nonreligious persist in America. This may compel some nonreligious ... more Negative attitudes toward the nonreligious persist in America. This may compel some nonreligious individuals to conceal their identity to manage feelings of social identity threat. In one correlational study and one experiment, we found evidence of social identity threat and concealment behavior among nonreligious Americans. Our first study showed that Southern nonreligious individuals reported higher levels of stigma consciousness and self-reported concealment of nonreligious identity, which in turn predicted lower likelihood of self-identifying as “atheist” in public settings than in private settings. Our second study successfully manipulated feelings of social identity threat by showing that atheists who read an article about negative stereotypes of their group subsequently exhibited higher concealment scores than did atheists who read one of two control articles. Implications for how nonreligious individuals negotiate social identity threat and future directions for nonreligion ...
Journal for the Study of Spirituality, 2018
The present study aims to analyse the association that different types of spiritual and religious... more The present study aims to analyse the association that different types of spiritual and religious practices have with the occurrence of Exceptional Human Experiences (EHEs) as well as their emotional evaluation. We analysed the relation that meditation, prayer, and 'other' spiritual practices, or the lack of them, have with the occurrence of EHEs, which were measured employing the Exceptional Experiences Questionnaire (EEQ). Samples were recruited at psychology departments in the UK and USA. They consisted of n = 301 non-clinical participants, of whom n = 156 were from Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA (average age = 32.3, SD = 13.7); and n = 145 from Northampton, UK (average age = 25.2, SD = 9.8). Results suggest that people who pray experienced fewer experiences of deconstruction/ego loss, psychopathological and visionary dream experiences than other spiritual practice groups. Those who pray also reported more positive mystical experiences than non-practising individuals; whereas individuals with a regular meditative practice experienced more visionary dream experiences, and evaluated such experiences more positively, than those who pray and non-practising individuals. Results suggest that different spiritual and religious techniques are associated with different phenomenological end evaluative patterns of EHEs that can be differentiated from psychopathological experiences.
Journal of Empirical Theology, 2019
Plasmonic nanoapertures generate strong field gradients enabling efficient optical trapping of na... more Plasmonic nanoapertures generate strong field gradients enabling efficient optical trapping of nanoobjects. However, because the infrared laser used for trapping is also partly absorbed into the metal leading to Joule heating, plasmonic nano-optical tweezers face the issue of local temperature increase. Here, we develop three independent methods based on molecular fluorescence to quantify the temperature increase induced by a 1064 nm trapping beam focused on single and double nanoholes milled in gold films. We show that the temperature in the nanohole can be increased by 10°C even at the moderate intensities of 2 mW/µm² used for nano-optical trapping. The temperature gain is found to be largely governed by the Ohmic losses into the metal layer, independently of the aperture size, double-nanohole gap or laser polarization. The techniques developed therein can be readily extended to other structures to improve our understanding of nano-optical tweezers and explore heatcontrolled chemical reactions in nanoapertures.
Semantics and Psychology of Spirituality, 2015
Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions, 2014
The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 2021
Most anyone who studies psychology of religion has encountered the name Ralph W. Hood, Jr. His pe... more Most anyone who studies psychology of religion has encountered the name Ralph W. Hood, Jr. His perennial presence at research conferences and many contributions to the psychology of religion have now spanned more than five decades. This observation and his recent anniversary of 51 years at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC) are timely reasons for dedicating a special issue to honor him in the journal he co-founded in 1992, with Laurence B. Brown and H. Newton Malony as co-editors, and himself as book review editor. Thus, we present this issue in recognition of Ralph and his considerable accomplishments in the psychology of religion. The six articles included here represent but a small sample of areas and people his research has touched. For those who have seen Ralph at research conferences, two things readily stand out: first, his trademark jeans, tie-dyed tee-shirt, and ball-cap are elevated to formal attire by the addition of a sports coat; and second, his conference presentations are always extemporaneous, enormously stimulating, and reflective of a well-read mind not only in psychology, but also in other disciplines. He can be seen conversing with established scholars on matters of research or shared personal interest, but also with young scholars who are striving to find their way into an academy that sometimes can be less than welcoming. Succinctly put, Ralph is a regular and unmistakable presence at these meetings. In his career, Ralph has served in many capacities, including president of APA Division 36, editor/co-editor of several journals (e.g., IJPR, the Archive, JSSR, etc.), editorial board member for numerous journals, and chair/member of multiple committees in professional organizations. He also has received a number of awards for his service and research contributions from APA Division 36 and other organizations. According to Bernie Spilka and Kevin Ladd (this issue), he “has been one of the most productive and innovative researchers in the psychology of religion.” He indeed has been prolific in authoring/coauthoring some 14 books (not to mention his textbook), over 65 book chapters and encyclopedia articles, and more than 160 journal articles. But perhaps the significance of his contribution to the psychology of religion is most emblematic in his longtime partnership with Bernie Spilka – another giant among us – as coauthor of The Psychology of Religion: An Empirical Approach, which was first published more than 35 years ago (Spilka et al., 1985). Since then, this work has dominated the field internationally as “the” textbook for students and scholars alike through five editions that critically summarize theories and empirical research (e.g., Hood et al., 2018). Ralph has influenced untold students and scholars in the psychology of religion. The many who know him personally can offer stories from treasure troves of memorable experiences that illustrate his deep concern for the welfare and professional development of others. His kindness and patience with his undergraduate and graduate students have inspired them to emulate the same excellence they observe in him. He supports his students by shepherding them along the way, although he also challenges them to discover their own path as researchers. As former student Job Chen (Chen & Patel, this issue) remarked, “Ralph led me to see what I can achieve and let me explore my own ways.” Ralph challenges both students and professionals to excel, and helps them advance in their careers, whenever possible. He also has positively influenced seasoned scholars. For example, Peter Hill (this issue) learned from Ralph that “we need to be more intellectually humble” as psychologists, respecting the religious perspectives of our research participants. On an international level, his personal relationships and research collaborations have done much to enhance the relations between American and European, Middle Eastern, and Asian psychologists of religion. THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 2021, VOL. 31, NO. 3, 153–155 https://doi.org/10.1080/10508619.2021.1940531
2021 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE), 2021
This Research-to-Practice full paper presents findings from the ASSETS program - a comprehensive ... more This Research-to-Practice full paper presents findings from the ASSETS program - a comprehensive support ecosystem developed to improve retention and reduce time to graduation for engineering transfer students. ASSETS builds on the momentum established by two statewide initiatives in Tennessee that place transfer students at the forefront: (1) Tennessee Promise - a nationally recognized scholarship program launched in 2015 that provides last-dollar scholarships for low-income students to attend any state community college, and (2) Tennessee Reconnect - a last-dollar grant established in 2018 that allows adults who do not have an associate degree to attend a community or technical college tuition-free. With over 100,000 students enrolled in these programs to date, the number of students transferring to four-year institutions is expected to increase exponentially in the coming years. Historically, transfer students have been at higher risk of attrition due to known academic and social barriers. This is especially true for the Engineering disciplines. In an effort to address these obstacles, we have developed the Academic Intervention, Social Supports, and Scholarships for Engineering Transfer Students (ASSETS) program. In its third year of operation, with 35 enrolled ASSETS scholars, the program is well underway. Among our findings, we have recognized the critical importance of nurturing a community of transfer students that emphasizes equity, diversity, and inclusion. Establishing such a community involves more than just adopting established best practices. It requires a shift in mindset on behalf of the student regarding what is required to succeed, as well as on the part of faculty on what is expected of incoming students. This paper presents the findings and outcomes of the ASSETS program towards providing support to and enhancing the success of engineering transfer students.
The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 2021
ABSTRACT This study explored the lived experience of adversity as spiritual struggles among funda... more ABSTRACT This study explored the lived experience of adversity as spiritual struggles among fundamentalists. Ten Christian fundamentalists participated in phenomenological interviews and provided descriptions of their experiences with adversity. A hermeneutic-thematic analysis of transcribed interviews derived a structured pattern of five interdependent themes that described meaning in the experience of adversity for all participants. In adversity, they were aware of a specific adversary as the source of adversity; an alternation between negative-positive emotions; standing up against or down from the adversary; struggling through the adversity; and spiritual change. Themes are discussed in relation to the existential grounds of body, others, and time, and research.
Deconversion Revisited, 2021
Chapter 5: "But slowly I get the feeling that I do not fit into any category." Are Multiple Decon... more Chapter 5: "But slowly I get the feeling that I do not fit into any category." Are Multiple Deconversions in Young Adulthood Associated with Mental Health Problems? The Cases of Mia and Paris This chapter focusses on the deconversion trajectories of two young women, one in Germany, one in the US, involving issues of mental health. Mia (Germany) and Paris (USA) are in their twenties at the time of their first interview (Mia, 27, Paris, 25 years) and in their thirties at the second (Mia, 36, Paris, 38). Both had been involved with fundamentalist and then new religious movements. The women have led different lives in the time between the interviews: Paris has married, started a family and is, at the time of the second interview, coping with the death of her husband. Mia is, at the second interview, still on a quest regarding identity as well as lifestyle. Both women have a history of challenges to their mental health, both report experiences beyond what is considered "normal, " and both had psychological treatment. By following their profiles in relevant scales, their configurations of religious styles, and by narrative analysis of their consecutive interviews, we look at the developmental trajectories of their religiosity or spirituality. Based on observations of stability and change on different levels of analysis and in different cultural surroundings, we discuss what multiple deconversions mean in biographies that contain mental health issues. First, we give some biographical information on Paris and Mia 1. Both interviewees are Time 1 deconverts, who reported two deconversions at their first interviews. They have first deconverted from Christian groups with fundamentalist characteristics, then from more liberal new religious movements (NRMs). In Germany, Mia first affiliated with and then left the Evangelical youth movement, "Entschieden für Christus, " EC 2. She learned more about fundamentalist Christian beliefs when she spent a year in the US and went to high-school there. Back in Germany, upon leaving EC, she joined and then left "Jesus Freaks, " 3 a 1 With a focus on her search for "resonance" in religious and therapeutic contexts and discourses the interviews with Mia have been analyzed in by Keller (2021 in press). Here, we are interested in the comparative perspective. 2 "Entschieden für Christus, " or, in English, "Christian Endeavour" (CE), is a supra-denominational Christian evangelical youth movement, advocating a conservative morality with a Bible-based heterosexual orientation. 3 A youth movement which is strongly aligned to youth cultures and scenes, stresses personal relationship to Jesus, and has adopted a liberal moral stance toward sexuality.
Deconversion Revisited, 2021
Case study construction in longitudinal perspective means to follow a single case across time bas... more Case study construction in longitudinal perspective means to follow a single case across time based on the consecutive Faith Development Interviews (FDIs) and drawing on psychometric data. We regard the interviews as the focus of our current study. Therefore, in this chapter, we first look into the history of method development. Then, we present the basic method, the Faith Development Interview, and explain the structural evaluation according to the model of religious styles. Next, we turn to content, to what was said at different points in time in the domains of the FDI, to narratives and to key aspects already defined or newly emerging. Working in longitudinal perspective, we are interested in tracing change as well as stability. We do this by comparing the interviews obtained at the time of the original Deconversion Study (Streib, Hood, Keller, Csöff, & Silver, 2009)-in this volume referred to as Time 1-, and at the time of re-interviewing-here referred to as Time 2, which means after a time span of about 10 years. These are interpreted against the background of the differences and similarities of psychometric profiles obtained at both points of measurement. As an outlook, we discuss ongoing methodological innovation and how to balance this with continuity in longitudinal research. 4.1 The Faith Development Interview: A Short History The Faith Development Interview was designed by James Fowler (1981) and his team (Fowler, Jarvis & Moseley 1986, DeNicola & Fowler, 1993). The theory underlying this instrument is based on Fowler's broad concept of "faith. " Fowler, with reference to Cantwell Smith (1963, 1979), defined "faith" as a person's constructions and reconstructions of everyday experience in light of the ultimate conditions of existence, thus as ways of meaning-making in response to transcendent centers of value and power (cf. Fowler, 1981, p. 92-93). This conceptualization of "faith" is very broad, open, and inclusive-aiming at a kind of common core of the various religious and worldview traditions, embracing theistic and non-theistic worldviews, and also ways of apparently non-religious meaning-making. This is different from "religion, " which, according to Cantwell Smith, designates the cumulative traditions (institutions, texts, religious traditions) and from "belief, " which means consent to
Deconversion Revisited, 2021
While serpent symbolism is common in many religious traditions, few traditions have including the... more While serpent symbolism is common in many religious traditions, few traditions have including the actual handling of serpents that can maim and kill in their rituals. Two exceptions are various Manasa sects common in India and the serpent handlers of Appalachia in America. We presented brief descriptions of each of these traditions along with videos of the handling of serpents in each tradition under three degrees of risk, video with no serpents, video with serpents but no bites, video with serpents and bites. Under a fourth condition only for the Appalachian handlers, the video showed a handler dying from a bite. American, largely Christian participants rated assessed each condition for ritual quality and perceived legitimacy. As predicted, serpent handling in America was perceived as less legitimate than serpent handling in India. No differences were found between perceived legitimacy and level of risk except in the condition where a handler was seen dying from a bite.
Mental Health, Religion & Culture, 2021
Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 2020
Negative attitudes toward the nonreligious persist in America. This may compel some nonreligious ... more Negative attitudes toward the nonreligious persist in America. This may compel some nonreligious individuals to conceal their identity to manage feelings of social identity threat. In one correlational study and one experiment, we found evidence of social identity threat and concealment behavior among nonreligious Americans. Our first study showed that Southern nonreligious individuals reported higher levels of stigma consciousness and self-reported concealment of nonreligious identity, which in turn predicted lower likelihood of self-identifying as “atheist” in public settings than in private settings. Our second study successfully manipulated feelings of social identity threat by showing that atheists who read an article about negative stereotypes of their group subsequently exhibited higher concealment scores than did atheists who read one of two control articles. Implications for how nonreligious individuals negotiate social identity threat and future directions for nonreligion ...
Journal for the Study of Spirituality, 2018
The present study aims to analyse the association that different types of spiritual and religious... more The present study aims to analyse the association that different types of spiritual and religious practices have with the occurrence of Exceptional Human Experiences (EHEs) as well as their emotional evaluation. We analysed the relation that meditation, prayer, and 'other' spiritual practices, or the lack of them, have with the occurrence of EHEs, which were measured employing the Exceptional Experiences Questionnaire (EEQ). Samples were recruited at psychology departments in the UK and USA. They consisted of n = 301 non-clinical participants, of whom n = 156 were from Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA (average age = 32.3, SD = 13.7); and n = 145 from Northampton, UK (average age = 25.2, SD = 9.8). Results suggest that people who pray experienced fewer experiences of deconstruction/ego loss, psychopathological and visionary dream experiences than other spiritual practice groups. Those who pray also reported more positive mystical experiences than non-practising individuals; whereas individuals with a regular meditative practice experienced more visionary dream experiences, and evaluated such experiences more positively, than those who pray and non-practising individuals. Results suggest that different spiritual and religious techniques are associated with different phenomenological end evaluative patterns of EHEs that can be differentiated from psychopathological experiences.
Journal of Empirical Theology, 2019
Plasmonic nanoapertures generate strong field gradients enabling efficient optical trapping of na... more Plasmonic nanoapertures generate strong field gradients enabling efficient optical trapping of nanoobjects. However, because the infrared laser used for trapping is also partly absorbed into the metal leading to Joule heating, plasmonic nano-optical tweezers face the issue of local temperature increase. Here, we develop three independent methods based on molecular fluorescence to quantify the temperature increase induced by a 1064 nm trapping beam focused on single and double nanoholes milled in gold films. We show that the temperature in the nanohole can be increased by 10°C even at the moderate intensities of 2 mW/µm² used for nano-optical trapping. The temperature gain is found to be largely governed by the Ohmic losses into the metal layer, independently of the aperture size, double-nanohole gap or laser polarization. The techniques developed therein can be readily extended to other structures to improve our understanding of nano-optical tweezers and explore heatcontrolled chemical reactions in nanoapertures.
Semantics and Psychology of Spirituality, 2015
Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions, 2014