Relationship between spiritual intelligence and existential satisfaction with paranormal experience
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.26439/persona2020.n023(2).4854Keywords:
paranormal experiences, spiritual intelligence, existential satisfaction, spirituality, positive psychologyAbstract
The aim of this study is to assess the frequency of paranormal experiences and their relationship with the levels of spiritual intelligence and existential satisfaction. Three instruments were administered to a sample of 200 male and female participants: the Paranormal Experiences Survey, the Spiritual Intelligence Self Report Inventory and the Existential Satisfaction Scale. The results show that survey respondents had at least one of these experiences, and that spiritual intelligence is a strong predictor of them. The relationship with existential satisfaction was also significant. These experiences result in a feeling of spiritual satisfaction, thus suggesting
that they can generate positive effects and—far from being disturbing—contribute to the individual's ability to solve meaning and existential value issues. In conclusion, spiritual intelligence could be more adaptive for those who seek a meaning for their paranormal experiences, i.e., for those people who practice yoga or meditation, recall dreams, have a mental life richer in fantasy, and share a broader context of meaning in the face of the experiences of their spiritual lifestyle: a form of “evidence” that confirms the sense of their religious or spiritual practices, and that can be seen as an indicator that shapes or reaffirms the consistency between their spiritual practices.
Downloads
References
Alvarado, C. S. (2013). Psychic phenomena and the mind-body problem. Historical notes on a neglected conceptual tradition. Revista de Psiquiatría Clínica, 40(4), 157-161.
Baer, R. A. (2003). Mindfulness training as a clinical intervention: a conceptual and empirical review. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 10(2), 125-143.
Barlow, D. H., y Durand, V. M. (2005). Abnormal psychology: an integrative approach (4. a ed.). Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole.
Bishop, S. R., Lau, M., Shapiro, S., Carlson, L., Anderson, N. D., y Carmody, J. (2004). Mindfulness: a proposed operational definition. Clinical Psychology: Science & Practice, 11, 230-241.
Boado de Landaboure, N. B. (2001). Escala Existencial: manual introductorio. Buenos Aires: Dunken.
Cardeña, E., Krippner, S., y Lynn, S. J. (Eds.). (2014). Varieties of anomalous experience: examining the scientific evidence (2. a ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Cooper, C. E. (2016). The therapeutic nature of anomalous events. An union of positive psychology and parapsychology. En M. D. Smith y P. Worth (Eds.), 2nd Applied Positive Psychology Symposium. Proceedings of Presented Papers (pp. 98-107). Buckinghamshire: Bucks New University.
Craffert, P. (2015). Do out-of-body and near-death experiences point towards the reality of nonlocal consciousness? A critical evaluation. Journal for Transdisciplinary Research in Southern Africa, 11(1), 1-20.
Dossey, L. (2014). El poder de las premoniciones. Conocer el futuro puede cambiar nuestra vida. Lérida: Milenio.
Emmons, R. A. (1999). The psychology of ultimate concerns: motivation and spirituality in personality. Nueva York, NY: Guilford.
Emmons, R. A. (2000a). Is spirituality an intelligence? Motivation, cognition, and the psychology of ultimate concern. International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 10, 3-26.
Emmons, R. A. (2000b). Spirituality and intelligence: problems and prospects. The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 10, 57-64.
Goddard, N. C. (2004). Metamorphosis: spiritual transformation as response to suffering and trauma. Dissertation Abstracts International: Section B: The Sciences and Engineering, 65, 156.
Gómez Montanelli, D., y Parra, A. (2004). A clinical approach to the emotional processing of anomalous/paranormal experiences in group therapy. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, 68.3(876), 129-142.
Gómez Montanelli, D., y Parra, A. (2005). ¿Las experiencias paranormales son psicológicamente perturbadoras? Una encuesta comparando estudiantes universitarios y aficionados a temas paranormales. Revista Interamericana de Psicología, 39(2), 285-294.
Greyson, B. (1992). Reduced death threat in near-death experiencers. Death Studies, 16, 523-536.
Greyson, B. (1993). Near-death experiences and antisuicidal attitudes. Omega, 26(2), 81-89.
Greyson, B. (1996). The near death experience as a transpersonal crisis. En B. W. Scotton, J. R. Battista y A. Chinen (Eds.), Textbook of transpersonal psychiatry and psychology (pp. 302-315). Nueva York, NY: Basic Books.
Holmes, D. S., Solomon, S., Cappo, B. M., y Greenberg, J. L. (1983). Effects of transcendental meditation versus resting on physiological and subjective arousal. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 44, 1245-1252.
Hölzel, B. K., Lazar, S. W., Gard, T., Schuman-Olivier, Z., Vago, D. R., y Ott, U. (2011). How does mindfulness meditation work? Proposing mechanisms of action from a conceptual and neural perspective. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 6(6), 537-559.
Kennedy, J. E., y Kanthamani, H. (1995). An exploratory study of the effects of paranormal and spiritual experiences on peoples’ lives and well-being. Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research, 89, 249-265.
Kennedy, J. E., Kanthamani, H., y Palmer, J. (1994). Psychic and spiritual experiences, health, well-being, and meaning in life. Journal of Parapsychology, 58, 353-383.
King, D. B., y DeCicco, T. L. (2009). A viable model and self-report measure of spiritual intelligence. International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 28(1), 68-85.
King, D. B., Mara, C., y DeCicco, T. L. (2012). Connecting the spiritual and emotional intelligences: confirming an intelligence criterion and assessing the role of empathy. International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 31, 11-20.
Längle, A. (2004). Psicoterapia analítico-existencial de los trastornos depresivos. Revista Chilena de Neuro-Psiquiatría, 42(3), 195-206.
Lehmann, D., Faber, P. L., Achermann, P., Jeanmonod, D., y Gianotti, L. R. R. (2001). Brain sources of EEG gamma frequency during volitionally mediation-induced altered states of consciousness, and experience of the self. Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, 108(2), 111-121. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0925-4927(01)00116-0
Love, P. G. (2002). Comparing spiritual development and cognitive development. Journal of College Student Development, 43(3), 357-373.
Mascaro, N., y Rosen, D. H. (2005). Existential meaning’s role in the enhancement of hope and prevention of depressive symptoms. Journal of Personality, 73, 985-1014.
Noble, K. D. (2000). Spiritual intelligence: a new frame of mind. Spirituality and Giftedness, 9, 1-29.
Paloutzian, R. F., y Ellison, C. W. (1982). Loneliness, spiritual well-being and the quality of life. En L. A. Peplau y D. Perlman (Eds), Loneliness: a sourcebook of current theory, research and therapy (pp. 224-237). Nueva York, NY: Wiley.
Parra, A. (2008). Efectos de las experiencias espirituales/paranormales en la vida de las personas y su bienestar psicológico. Revista Argentina de Clínica Psicológica, 17(3), 233-244.
Parra, A. (2011). ¿Qué es... sensibilidad psíquica? Buenos Aires: Longseller.
Parra, A. (2015). Personality traits associated with premonition experience: neuroticism, extraversion, empathy, and schizotypy. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, 79.1(918), 1-10.
Parra, A. (2018). Empatía cognitiva y emocional en relación con cinco experiencias paranormales. Revista de Ciencias Sociales, 4(1), 95-106.
Parra, A., y Argibay, J. C. (2013a). A free-response ESP test in two hypnotic susceptibility groups: a pilot study. Australian Journal of Parapsychology, 13(1), 27-35.
Parra, A., y Argibay, J. C. (2013b). Anomalous remote diagnosis: mental and motor psi impressions under iconic representation of the person-target. Journal of Parapsychology, 77, 123-130.
Parra, A., y Corbetta, J. (2013). Experiencias paranormales y su relación con el sentido de la vida. Liberabit, 19(2), 251-258.
Piechowski, M. M. (2001). Childhood spirituality. Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 33, 1-15.
Seligman, M. E. P., y Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2000). Positive psychology: an introduction. American Psychologist, 55, 5-14.
Sheldon, K. M., y King, L. (2001). Why positive psychology is necessary. American Psychologist, 56, 216-217.
Sin, N. L., y Lyubomirsky, S. (2009). Enhancing well-being and alleviating depressive symptoms with positive psychology interventions: A practice-friendly meta-analysis. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 65(5), 467-487.
Srivastava, P. S. (2014). Interaction effect of sex, achievement motivation, and emotional intelligence on spiritual intelligence of pupil-teacher. Scholarly Research Journals, 5-2(15), 2286-2306.
Steffen, E., Wilde, D., y Cooper, C. E. (2017). Affirming the positive in anomalous experiences: a challenge to dominant accounts of reality, life and death. En N. J. Brown, T. Lomas y F. J. Eiroa-Orosa (Eds.), The Routledge International Handbook of Critical Positive Psychology (pp. 227-244). Londres: Routledge.
Vaughan, F. (2002). What is spiritual intelligence? Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 42(2), 16-33.
Wigglesworth, C. (2006). Why spiritual intelligence is essential to mature leadership. Integral Leadership Review, 6, 68-79.
Wolman, R. (2001). Thinking with your soul: spiritual intelligence and why it matters. Nueva York, NY: Harmony.
Yalom, I. (1980). Existential psychotherapy. Nueva York, NY: Basic Books.
Yoffe, L. (2012a). Beneficios de las prácticas religiosas/espirituales en el duelo. Avances en Psicología Latinoamericana, 20(1), 9-29.
Yoffe, L. (2012b). La religión y la espiritualidad en los duelos desde la visión de la psicología positiva. En M. M. Casullo (Ed.), Simposio de Psicología Positiva, 4, 83-116.
Zohar, D. (1997). Rewiring the corporate brain: using the new science to rethink. Nueva York, NY: Diane.
Zohar, D. (2000). SQ. Connecting with our spiritual intelligence. Londres: Bloomsbury.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Acceptance for publication implies the transfer of printing and reproduction rights, by any form and means, to the publisher, while the author retains the intellectual property of the article.
