No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the authors.
Contemporary spiritual seeking: understanding information interactions in contemplation and spirituality
Abstract
Purpose
Discussions in contemporary spirituality frequently highlight a phenomenon of spiritual seeking; moreover, people often describe their spiritual journeys in terms of a search. This paper takes a closer look at this metaphor by presenting a study that analysed spiritual seeking and its informational features in contemporary non-institutionalised settings.
Design/methodology/approach
In this study, the authors conducted semi-structured interviews with thirteen spiritual teachers and speakers who were asked questions about spiritual seeking in contemporary non-institutionalised spirituality.
Findings
The authors' participants explained that contemporary spiritual seekers sought spiritual information as a result of affective, developmental and metaphysical concerns. Moreover, their analysis indicated that spiritual information-seeking behaviour incorporated practices such as prayer, yoga and meditation, and contemporary spiritual information interactions were facilitated through spiritual retreats, meditation classes, yoga classes and online social platforms.
Research limitations/implications
Since the authors focused on spiritual seeking in contemporary non-institutionalised settings, their findings cannot exhaustively represent all spiritual pursuits in contemporary society. Their study (1) identifies the informational features of contemporary spiritual seeking, (2) explains spiritual seeking as an activity that may theoretically reside within a broader framework of profound information interactions and (3) helps theorise the concept of qualitative profundity in information science research.
Originality/value
This study provides an intuitive contextual approach for undertaking information research in under-explored domains such as contemplation and spirituality.
... Contemplative practices can help those who are facing mental struggles to re-establish spiritual order (Nangia & Ruthven, 2023). This activity requires the actor to build a sense of meaning through iterative use of information, internalizing information previously acquired through activities such as seeking, evaluating, and preserving into their spiritual world. ...
... Examining contemplative practices allows us to establish a direct link between information use and meaning-making (King & Hicks, 2021). Nangia and Ruthven's (2023) research on contemplative practices explores how information "should" be shaped in the context of spiritual seeking. In our study, we extend this concept by focusing on the interaction between information, body, and spirit in the resolving stage for individuals with OCD. ...
... Our findings emphasize that studying meaning-making in individuals with OCD should focus on contemplative practices developed through iterative information use. This approach enriches the LIS field's understanding of spiritual information practices (Nangia & Ruthven, 2023). Moreover, the meaning-making process for those with mental illness is directly tied to their recovery (King & Hicks, 2021). ...
When faced with significant life events, people often seek information support to help them regain a sense of meaning. Previous research has rarely explored the information practices of people with mental illnesses, particularly those with obsessive‐compulsive disorder (OCD) during life transitions. In this study, we conducted qualitative interviews with 23 people with OCD, using the critical incident technique, to explore their transitional information practices during mental health challenges and to understand how these practices support their meaning‐making processes. An integrated theoretical perspective was proposed, drawing on the information behavior theory of transitions and activity theory, to understand the interplay between the activities of people with OCD and the three transitional stages of understanding, negotiating, and resolving. These activities are influenced by a complex interplay of embodied experiences, social connections, cultural norms, and practical or abstract artifacts, which in turn shape the transitional information practices of individuals with OCD. Consequently, we constructed a model of the transitional information practices among individuals with OCD. This study contributes to the literature on information practices and meaning‐making during life transitions and provides practical insights into how individuals with OCD might receive information support and interventions from various communities.
... In addition to the information needs related to formal medical treatments, people with OCD have informal spiritual information needs. These spiritual insights assist people with OCD in introspecting their inner selves and in perceiving mental illness from 'higher' and 'deeper' spiritual dimensions (Nangia & Ruthven, 2023), such as: ...
Introduction. Obsessive-compulsive Disorder (OCD) is a severe chronic mental health issue that significantly impacts people’s everyday lives. This study aims to reveal the contextual information needs of the people living with OCD during life transitions and how these needs dynamically evolve across various transitional stages. Method. The study collected 1,500 posts from an OCD online forum of a well-known Chinese social media platform, Douban. A subsequent content analysis was performed on 324 selected valid posts. Analysis. Guiding by the information behaviour theory of transitions, two rounds of open-coding analyses were conducted on the posts. Results. Preliminary findings indicate that people with OCD have various types of contextual information needs during different transitional stages, namely understanding, negotiating, and resolving, suggested by the existing theory. Conclusion. Information needs are context-specific, complex and continuously changing during life transitions of people with OCD. Our conclusion can provide theoretical insights for future research exploring the dynamic information needs during the mental health transitions. Additionally, it serves as a preliminary conceptual framework for various stakeholders to offer informational support to people with OCD.
... Furthermore, the efficacy of yoga and meditation in assessing both physical and emotional well-being has been established, providing a comprehensive framework for understanding and addressing psychological states (Gothe et al., 2019). Their philosophical and spiritual aspects, derived from Vedic and Buddhist traditions, are acknowledged for their potential in alleviating stress and enhancing the quality of life, underscoring the holistic nature of these practices in promoting overall well-being (Nangia & Ruthven, 2022). Ultimately, the significance of yoga and meditation in cultivating mental, emotional, and spiritual well-being is evident in their multifaceted impact on cognitive function, emotional regulation, stress management, and overall quality of life. ...
In the absence of a comprehensive understanding of Vedic philosophy regarding health and well-being, this chapter advocates a global integration of these principles. Personalized healthcare in Ayurveda, yoga and meditation's transformative effects, and spiritual practice's significance are highlighted as key elements of the chapter. Readers are encouraged to embrace Vedic wisdom as part of their daily lives as a means of achieving a balanced and fulfilled existence. As a result, the chapter goes on to argue that integrating Vedic perspectives can be instrumental in addressing global health challenges in a way that emphasizes their relevance across cultures and time periods.
... He will begin by outlining how scholars have researched spiritual, religious and contemplative information practices within information and communication studies, museum studies and library research. Following this, he will present Panels -seeking patterns and librarian attitudes (towards spiritual/religious information provision) in contemporary spirituality and non-institutionalised religious settings (Nangia & Ruthven, 2022a, 2022b, 2022. This segment will review & consolidate current understandings and stimulate discussion to help engage the audience later in thinking about possible agendas for future research into religion and spirituality-related meaning-making and information experience. ...
This panel centers on presentations that address examples of spiritual and/or religious experiences through an information lens. The panelists will initiate a timely conversation about the ways in which individuals and communities make sense of their information worlds post pandemic and in contexts of high uncertainty (e.g., climate anxiety, increased polarization, AI developments, etc.). In examining coping strategies of the spiritual and/or religious kinds, the panel brings together scholars in a range of information fields to address several of the conference's themes, including new theoretical conceptualizations of the cultural, social, cognitive, affective, and situational aspects of information needs, searching, use, and sharing. As well, the session's examined contexts of everyday lived religion and spirituality can enrich our understanding of the intersections between health and well‐being, socio‐technical arrangements, and evolving and diverse information practices.
The short presentations and interactive engagement bring together an international group of emerging and established scholars into conversation and will coalesce into the formulation of a research agenda on this topic. Speakers’ interventions will revolve around three connected questions: How can religious and spiritual experiences be theoretically contextualized within Information Science?
What research approaches are most suitable for exploring spirituality/religion in our digital networked world?
What ethical challenges do researchers encounter in undertaking this type of research (especially during a pandemic) and how can they be effectively addressed?
Hajj is the spiritual and religious journey of a lifetime for many Muslims around the world. In June 2022, the Saudi Ministry of Hajj and Umrah decided to introduce a new travel booking system that mandated pilgrims from Europe, America, Australia, and New Zealand to reserve directly their pilgrimage travels, thus bypassing the local Hajj travel operators. Additionally, Motawif was deployed just a few weeks before the 2022 Hajj. This announcement triggered a wave of panic among would-be pilgrims and resulted in an intense social media conversation. This article examines the conversation that took place on Twitter (now X) for the period following the launch of Motawif and up until the completion of the 2022 Hajj. Using computational social science methods, we undertook several analyses of the Twitterspace to understand the perceptions of the would-be pilgrims with the Motawif system. The study illuminates how forms of community organizing in online spaces (and associated information practices and discursive strategies) have contributed to reconstituting the Hajj pilgrim's identity and agency in ways rarely seen before among this community. Our findings also point to various strategies and information practices that enable connective action through solidarity and recognition of shared grievances.
This chapter examines the contours of the religious and spiritual information experiences subfield through a review and content analysis of selected contributions from the past two decades in both information science and related fields. The research question that guides this review is: How have spirituality and religion been conceptualized in information science? Our focus has been on the LIS literature along with the fields of information behavior/practice/literacy, as well as related fields such as human–computer interaction (HCI), media and digital studies, religious studies (including sociology and anthropology of religion or religious tourism). Our aim was to highlight the ways in which the information science literature has contributed to advancing these conversations (using a collections/service/user experience or practice lens), but also how the discussions around the sacred, lived religion, contemplation, conversion or techno‐spiritual practices (to name a few) have provided insights into information phenomena and processes. We also discuss the evolution of, and practices associated with, social media and digital practices as well as a discussion of representation (or the lack thereof) of less mainstream religious and spiritual traditions in the literature reviewed. We end with suggestions for future research directions.
This panel examines conceptions of everyday life in Information Science. Several theories about everyday life and its information phenomena will be reviewed and analyzed for their origins, distinctions, and divergent claims. Four expert panelists who have published on these matters will encapsulate their ideas, and there will be a video interlude, as well. By design, the panel Agenda features short opening statements, leaving 40 minutes to discuss: How do existing notions of everyday life within Information Science bring information into focus in different ways? Are informational conceptions of everyday life adequate or wanting of critical re‐examination? In keeping with ASIS&T's multiperspective community, inputs will be sought from students, practitioners, first‐time conference attendees, and other groups, in turn. If, as Marcia J. Bates claims, we are “…always looking for the red thread of information in the social texture of people's lives” (1999, p. 1048) then we need to individually and collectively reflect on the nature of everyday life.
Purpose
More than eight in ten people worldwide identify with a religious group. In addition, people often engage with spiritual and religious content despite having no formal beliefs or affiliations. Spirituality remains a prominent feature of Western and Westernised information-based societies and cultures; however, people’s everyday interactions with spiritual and religious information have received disproportionate attention in information and library science research. Accordingly, this paper aims to understand how scholars have explored religion and spirituality in information research and identify current and emerging trends in the literature.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper analyses 115 peer-reviewed articles, 44 book chapters, 24 theses and 17 unrefereed papers published between 1990 and 2022 to present a narrative review of how scholars have explored spirituality and religion in information research. The reviewed literature is first organised into spirituality-related and religion-related articles and thereafter analysed in Internet studies, information behaviour studies and galleries, libraries, archives and museums-related research groups.
Findings
Our analysis indicates scholars in Internet studies have researched both established and alternative religious interactions, and emerging research agendas seek to explore intersections between traditional religious authority and modern Internet-facilitated engagements. Information behaviour scholars have examined interactions in Christianity and Islam, focused primarily on Western contexts and conventional interactions, with emerging research aiming to explore diverse contextual and methodological combinations. Finally, GLAM researchers have investigated the practicality, suitability, and appropriateness of spirituality and religion-related service provisions; however, a clear research agenda is currently lacking in spirituality and religion information research more broadly.
Originality/value
This paper is the first review of the spirituality and religion-related information research spanning Internet studies, information behaviour studies and galleries, libraries, archives and museums research domains.
The purpose of this paper is to report on the seeking of deeply meaningful information, also including embodied information, connected to significant, intensely personal life changes having lifelong impacts. The concepts of “meaning‐making,” “transitioning,” and information seeking in “deeply meaningful and profoundly personal contexts” are used in order to understand transgender individuals' information seeking in the contexts of gender identity formation. Based on the literature, emotions and information seeking connected to a significant life change were divided into four phases to study how they could be identified in the 25 qualitative interviews with transgender individuals from Finland between the ages of 15 and 72. Based on the findings of this study, in significant life changes, an individual needs reliable, sensible and identifiable information. Serendipitous encounters and embodied experiences characterize information seeking during transitional stages. Peer communities are important for minorities in order to find places where interviewees feel safe to share information and experiences. These communities can also be found online. The concept of “deeply meaningful information” highlights the effect information has on information seekers. Deeply meaningful information can serve as a trigger for life change, helping people forward during the transitions.
It has been over a decade since Cameron and Gatewood (2000, 2003; Gatewood & Cameron, 2004) conducted their immensely intriguing research on numinous experiences in museums. Inspired by this pioneering work, the current study was undertaken to investigate more deeply these kinds of experiences with museum objects. The essence of this encounter, as revealed by a phenomenological investigation, is comprised of a holistic uniting of intellect and affect, with a direct link to the tangible and symbolic nature of the object, a feeling of being transported, and intensely profound connections with the past, self, and spirit. These experiences are interpreted as document-centered flow experiences that fall more into the category of mystical experience than traditional learning experience. Further understanding of numinous encounters in museums can help museum practitioners make intentional choices about objects, design, and format that can serve to stimulate, connect, and inspire our museum audiences.
Religious conversion has conventionally been treated as something that happens to the person. This represents a passivist
paradigm within the mechanistic world view of classical science. An alternative paradigm is proposed from an activist perspective
within a contextual world hypothesis typical of interactionist and dramaturgical analysis. In this view, conversion is treated
as the accomplishment of an actively strategizing seeker interacting with the others constituting a religious collectivity.
The approach is illustrated from the authors earlier investigations of how seekers act to discover and make use of a particular
means of personal transformation offered by and institutionalized within a conversionist group. Problems of maintaining a
transformed life and difficulties in conceptualizing conversion are discussed in some detail.
The present article examines spirituality as an emergent new cultural category that challenges the binary opposition of the religious and secular realms of life. The article probes the cultural significance of the popular phrase ‘spiritual, but not religious’ and examines the emergence of New Age spirituality within the framework of late capitalism and postmodern culture. It offers a new perspective on the debate of the secularization theory and re-examines the notions upon which this debate hinges. The article also examines the assessment of New Age spirituality as disguised neo-liberal ideology and proposes that the disparaging condemnations of contemporary spirituality can be seen as a response to its challenge to the entrenched notion that the religious and the secular are universal distinct categories.
The article discusses lower and higher contexts for information phenomena, and argues that there is clearly a need for a more concerted research effort in the latter sphere. The discipline of information science has traditionally favored lower contexts—like everyday life and problem solving—that are neutral or even negative by nature. In contrast, the neglected higher things in life are pleasurable or profound phenomena, experiences, or activities that transcend the daily grind. A literature sample of the scarce information research related to higher things indicates that beyond the spotlight of mainstream research, information processes often seem different and there may be significant dimensions of information phenomena that have been overlooked. Therefore, the article outlines a contextual research area in information studies to address higher things from the perspective of information. It is concluded that optimal functioning requires bringing the lower and higher sides to balance in information science. This would offer a rare chance to promote holism and interdisciplinarity in the field, and to make the discipline more relevant to the human being.
The great variety of meditation techniques found in different contemplative traditions presents a challenge when attempting to create taxonomies based on the constructs of contemporary cognitive sciences. In the current issue of Consciousness and Cognition, Travis and Shear add 'automatic self-transcending' to the previously proposed categories of 'focused attention' and 'open monitoring', and suggest characteristic EEG bands as the defining criteria for each of the three categories. Accuracy of current taxonomies and potential limitations of EEG measurements as classifying criteria are discussed.
Purpose
Trends in information technology and contemplative practices compel us to consider the intersections of information and contemplation. The purpose of this paper is to consider these intersections at the level of institutions.
Design/methodology/approach
First, the notion of institution is defined and discussed, along with information institutions and contemplative institutions. Next, sanctuary is proposed and explored as a vision for institutions in the digital age.
Findings
Sanctuary is a primordial human institution that has especial urgency in the digital age. This paper develops an info-contemplative framework for sanctuaries, including the elements: stability, silence, refuge, privacy and reform.
Research limitations/implications
This is a conceptual paper that, though guided by prior empirical and theoretical work, would benefit from application, validation and critique. This paper is meant as a starting point for discussions of institutions for the digital age.
Practical implications
As much as this paper is meant to prompt further research, it also provides guidance and inspiration for professionals to infuse their work with aspects of sanctuary and be attentive to the tensions inherent in sanctuary.
Originality/value
This paper builds on discourse at the intersection of information studies and contemplative studies, also connecting this with recent work on information institutions.
Purpose
Americans increasingly feel a sense of wonder at the universe; meditation and yoga are on the rise; and a field known as Contemplative Studies has emerged. These indicators, among others, suggest a groundswell of interest in contemplative practice and contemplative experience and raise intriguing questions for information and Information Studies. Against this backdrop, this paper asks: How might Information Studies contribute to these developments? What is the relationship between information and contemplation? What can be explored on this research frontier?
Design/methodology/approach
This conceptual paper is based upon a synthesis of recent writings from the field of Contemplative Studies as well as conceptual analysis of selected papers and themes in Information Studies. It draws from discussion that occurred at a Session for Interaction and Engagement at the 2018 iConference, entitled “Contemplating Information in the Pleasurable and the Profound” (Latham et al., 2018). The authors' creative thinking and personal contemplative practices also infuse and fortify the work.
Findings
Popular and academic contemplative movements are afoot, and Information Studies has an opportunity to participate or be left behind. The field of Contemplative Studies has established the foundational concepts that can serve as contextual material for information research into contemplation. Upon closer inspection, Information Studies has already broached the topic of contemplation at various points in its history, theory, institutional practices, and information behavior research. The conceptual points of departure for a research frontier are articulated.
Originality/value
Beyond data, information, and knowledge are deeper and more profound aims, such as wisdom, which is related to contemplation. This paper supplies a rationale, scholarly community, conceptual resources, historical precedents, and guiding questions for bridging information and contemplation.
This article argues for the concept of public library as contemplative space. Public libraries, beyond their information access and public sphere functions, have an important role to play in cultivating the inner lives of their patrons. This situation is even more acute given the psychosocial maladies of our information age. This focus on contemplation is related to the growing interest in mindfulness both in LIS and wider society. However, contemplation is a wider and more effective term to use, as it can refer to a wide range of practices focused on enhancing interiority and promoting a deepened sense of meaning and purpose. Public libraries have an important role to play in providing more affordable, equitable, and inclusive access to contemplative practices through programming and other activities. The article also discusses specific examples of public library as contemplative space. These examples chart a course and vision for a deeper and potentially transformative understanding of how libraries can be effective contemplative spaces for society. In this vision, the health, well-being, and inner lives of patrons are front and centre.
Christian Churches in Nova Scotia are facing economic, social, and theological stresses. In response many are engaged in processes of restructuring and renewal. Leaders are initiating and managing these change processes, and they are seeking information to make their decisions, and “God’s will for their churches.” Very little is known about how church leaders seek, gather, evaluate, and use information in their decision-making. In this study I asked the question: “Of the Nova Scotia churches in transition, what are the information seeking experiences of their leaders?” Using ethnographic methods at three church sites, I explored this particular context. I gathered data on church information sources and leaders’ source selections, identifying critical themes such as the impact of new technologies, prayer as a source of information, and the theology of information seeking. I developed a model of church information seeking that can be used as a foundation for further research on information seeking.
In the United States, running as a leisure activity continues to grow in popularity. Healthism can explain some of this popularity, but it does not explain ultradistance running. Motivations for running can be seen through the framework of the Kantian beautiful and the sublime. Beauty arises through extrinsic motivation (e.g. products, physique, competition) and relates to an economy of form, while the sublime arises through intrinsic motivation (e.g. life meaning) and relates to confronting the challenge of infinity. The commercial, casual, and competitive aspects of distance running correspond to the beautiful, while its wilderness, serious, ultradistance aspects correspond to the sublime. This framework is used to explain the resistance of ultrarunning to the would-be detrimental effects of commodification, as well as ultrarunning’s ‘wild turn.’
This study uses interpretative phenomenological analysis, a qualitative interview methodology, to examine the information experience of Catholic readers of the Bible. It presents a detailed, individual-focused account of how Catholics experience the Bible, in its diverse oral, print, and digital manifestations, as a source of religious information. Participants in this study were found to experience the Bible as God's Word, with which they interface in three thematic ways: Connections, Journey, and Practice. These themes are, in turn, linked by the processes of sharing, repetition, and interpretation. This work extends previous research on the religious reading of believers and numinous document experience, and it contributes to a budding conceptualization of reading as an example of document work rather than a merely cognitive activity.
Eve Fox speaks with Elizabeth Lesser about founding a prominent center for holistic learning.
1. For an intellectual history of the Western concept of the “secular,” see Taylor (2007).
“Spirituality” often has been framed in social science research as an alternative to organized “religion,” implicitly or explicitly extending theoretical arguments about the privatization of religion. This article uses in-depth qualitative data from a religiously diverse U.S. sample to argue that this either/or distinction not only fails to capture the empirical reality of American religion, it does no justice to the complexity of spirituality. An inductive discursive analysis reveals four primary cultural “packages,” or ways in which people construct the meaning of spirituality in conversation: a Theistic Package tying spirituality to personal deities, an Extra-Theistic Package locating spirituality in various naturalistic forms of transcendence, an Ethical Spirituality focusing on everyday compassion, and a contested Belief and Belonging Spirituality tied to cultural notions of religiosity. Spirituality, then, is neither a diffuse individualized phenomenon nor a single cultural alternative to “religion.” Analysis of the contested evaluations of Belief and Belonging Spirituality allows a window on the “moral boundary work” being done through identifying as “spiritual but not religious.” The empirical boundary between spirituality and religion is far more orous than is the moral and political one.
This article addresses the question “what is information?” by comparing the meaning of the term “information” and epistemological assumptions of three theories in library and information science: the “Shannon-Weaver model,” Brookes’ interpretation of Popper's World 3, and the Data-Information-Knowledge-Wisdom model. It shows that the term “information” in these theories refers to empirical entities or events and is conceptualized as having causal powers upon human minds. It is argued that the epistemological assumptions have led to the negligence of the cultural and social aspects of the constitution of information (i.e., how something is considered to be and not to be information) and the unquestioned nature of science in research methodologies.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore one broad question: what do information, information processes, information services, as well as information systems and technology have to do with the spiritual?
Design/methodology/approach
The task is accomplished by conducting a literature review of 31 refereed texts in information studies. The paper proceeds by inspecting the manifestation of spirituality in information sources, generic information processes, as well as specific information processes: conceptualizing, seeking, processing, using, storing, describing and providing information.
Findings
A total of 11 relationships between information phenomena and the spiritual are discovered. Based on these, a definition of spiritual information is put forth. There are also some descriptive statistics on the corpus as a whole.
Research limitations/implications
The results are susceptible to limitations imposed by the reviewed studies themselves. Errors of interpretation were a possibility. The article suggests many directions for further research in the context of the spiritual, and discusses how to view spirituality in information science.
Practical implications
Practical implications are only mentioned here and there, because research implications are of primary concern in the investigation.
Originality/value
This paper is the first to synthesize information research in the spiritual domain. Beyond the subject area, the article demonstrates how to classify information processes, and conduct a context‐centric literature review in the field of information studies.
Information seeking behavior research is traditionally partitioned into two realms of life experiences: 1) work or job related; 2) everyday life information seeking (Savolainen, 2010). These two spheres encompass a significant share if not majority of life's time and effort at the universal level. This paper examines information seeking behavior within two specific contexts far outside the realm of everyday life. Characterized as deeply meaningful and intensely personal with life-long impacts, these contexts may not easily fit within existing information seeking behavior framework. We use examples from lived experiences in two deeply meaningful contexts to explore the scope of everyday life information seeking (ELIS), through women who relinquished a child for adoption and from sperm donor offspring who have tried to uncover the identity of their donor. Situations like these have profound impact on the focal person; perceived information needs and search strategies directly affect processes of decision making, coping, and understanding of one's self. Continuing the shift toward a more person centric approach, we suggest information seeking behavior within some contexts should be explored as a third facet of life experience: the deeply meaningful and profoundly personal.
Despite previous research demonstrating that online self-disclosure occurs in an accelerated manner compared to offline interactions, little is known about the content of online disclosures. This study highlights a number of issues that arise when exploring the self-disclosure of different types of personal information in initial general online communications. Forty-eight students and 48 non-students completed a purpose-developed attitude towards online relationship formation questionnaire and Magno’s (2009) self-disclosure for beliefs, relationships, personal matters, interests and intimate feelings questionnaire. Findings suggest that people are more likely to self-disclose information online the more positive is their attitude towards forming relationships online. Moreover, this self-disclosure initially occurs only for superficial self-information relating to personal matters and interests, implying that it is the quantity of online exchanges that is enhanced rather than the quality thereof. These findings raise a number of issues relating to type of self-information disclosed online, as well as intent, Internet arena, social identity, privacy, trust, and general methodological issues that would benefit from further experimental exploration. Implications of the findings for future research to explore categorical self-disclosure online within an existing theoretical framework of self-categorisation and self-identity theory as well as the self-memory-system model of autobiographical memory are discussed.
Materials derived from observation of a West Coast millenarian cult are employed to develop a "value-added" model of the conditions under which conversion occurs. For conversion a person must experience, within a religious problem-solving perspective, enduring, acutely-felt tensions that lead him to define himself as a religious seeker; he must encounter the cult at a turning point in his life; within the cult an affective bond must be formed (or pre-exist) and any extra-cult attachments, neutralized; and there he must be exposed to intensive interaction if he is to become a "deployable agent."
The information practices of New Kadampa Buddhists: from ‘Dharma of Scripture’ to ‘Dharma of insight
- R Chabot
Designing for deep and meaningful student-to-content interactions
Apophatic measures: toward a theology of irreducible particularity”, Doctoral Dissertation
- R B Bannon
Seekership revisited: explaining traffic in and out of new religions
- S Sutcliffe
Spiritual but not religious: knowing the types, avoiding the traps
- L A Mercadante
Religion and the postmodern in contemporary north American fiction
- A T Sentner