Prevalence of spiritual and religious experiences in the general population: A Brazilian nationwide study.

Spiritual and religious experiences (SREs) are common subjective phenomena related to the awareness of transcendence, which transforms one's perception of life, death and suffering. Despite the high prevalence of SREs worldwide, not enough studies have been conducted beyond Europe and North America. To fill this gap, this study investigates the prevalence of SREs in Brazil and their association with socio-demographic variables.

Development of an Instrument to Assess Spirituality: Reliability and Validation of the Attitudes Related to Spirituality Scale (ARES).

Several instruments that measure spirituality present overlaps with positive emotions, impacting the interpretation of their findings. In order to minimize these problems, we aimed to develop, assess the reliability and validate a new scale to evaluate spirituality. The instrument was designed using a theoretical framework minimizing tautological issues (i.

Mental Health and Quality of Life Among Adults With Single, Multiple, and No Religious Affiliations.

Few studies have investigated the "multiple religious affiliations" phenomenon. This study aims to understand those with "multiple religious affiliations," describing its prevalence and investigating if there are differences in mental health and quality of life between this group and those with a single religious affiliation and those with no religious affiliation. A total of 1169 adults were included, and 58% had a single religious affiliation, 27.

Neurophysiological, cognitive-behavioral and neurochemical effects in practitioners of transcendental meditation - A literature review.

The term meditation can be used in many different ways, according to the technique to which it refers. Transcendental Meditation (MT) is one of these techniques. TM could serve as a model for research on spiritual meditation, unlike the meditation techniques based on secular knowledge.

The association between spirituality and religiousness and mental health.

The present study aims to investigate how different levels of spirituality and religiousness (high spirituality and high religiousness -S/R, high spirituality and low religiousness -S/r, low spirituality and high religiousness s/R and low spirituality and low religiousness - s/r) are associated with quality of life, depressive symptoms, anxiety, optimism and happiness among adults. A cross-sectional study was carried out among 1,046 Brazilian adults. Concerning the different levels of spirituality and religiousness, 49.

Religious landscape in Brazil: Comparing different representative nationwide approaches to obtain sensitive information in healthcare research.

Although the basis of religious studies start with demographics, nation-wide data are often extracted from face-to-face interviews (leading to a social-desirability bias) and in studies not originally designed to assess religion. This study aims to understand the religious landscape in Brazil and to investigate the feasibility of carrying out a representative nation-wide survey without interviewers, comparing it with other representative face-to-face surveys. We conducted a nationwide online survey representing all regions in Brazil.

Mental and Physical Health and Spiritual Healing: An Evaluation of Complementary Religious Therapies Provided by Spiritist Centers in the City of São Paulo, Brazil.

The present study aims to describe the characteristics of the complementary religious treatment conducted by Spiritist centers in the city of São Paulo (Brazil), to understand how physical and mental health problems are addressed and how the directors of these centers differentiate between persons with spiritual experiences from those with psychiatric disorders. From 365 Spiritist centers, which received the questionnaire, 55 (15.1 %) were included in the final analysis.

The effects of meditation-based interventions on the treatment of fibromyalgia.

Meditation is the third most commonly requested complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) therapy reported in a US survey. Those who suffer from chronic pain are those who most frequently use CAM therapies. This review aims to evaluate whether meditation-based interventions can help the treatment of fibromyalgia.