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The Original Study:
The Spiritual Healing Project is an international study designed to discover the meaning of Spiritual Healing for people in mainstream religious communities. The study was designed by Rev. Bobbie McKay, Ph.D. and is conducted by Dr. McKay and her husband, Lewis Musil, MFA. The project raises two questions:
- What are the words you associate to the term, "Spiritual Healing"?
- What stories do you tell about Spiritual Healing according to your definition?
Approximately 3,000 people from mainstream Protestant, Catholic and Reform Jewish congregations have participated in the study. We have collected over 1,000 stories about Spiritual Healing. Over 1,800 questionnaires, written specifically for this project by the authors, have been completed and processed at Johns Hopkins Center for Learning and Health and analyzed at the University of Pennsylvania. The study became an international study in 1999 when presented to the Alister Hardy Religious Experience Research Centre at Westminister College at Oxford University, U.K.
Results of the Project:
- Universally, people defined Spiritual Healing as an experience of the Presence and Action of God in their lives which was transforming. By "transforming," they meant that God had become real to them. The project demonstrated a rich resource of spiritual life within the lives of people in mainstream religious communities which is rarely talked about.
- As a direct result of their experience of spiritual healing, people report feeling better, more connected to others and to God, less angry, more loving, more interested in living in the present, and very interested in becoming more active in their religious communities.
- The unity of response between people of different religious traditions, ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds offers a unique opportunity for interfaith dialogue and an exploration of the spiritual bonds we share.
- People told us of three kinds of spiritual healing experiences: (1) Physical curing experiences where a disease was present and "miraculously" cured; (2) Stories where there was a disease present, but with no cure. People felt "spiritually healed" in the process, regardless of cure; (3) The largest category of experiences occurred in the ordinary flux of life, with no disease present, with or without a stressor, in which people felt spiritually healed and transformed (God became "real").
Summary of the Spiritual Healing Project
- 99% believe that Spiritual Healing experiences can happen in religious communities
- Over 90% report an experience of Spiritual Healing according to their definition
- 63% felt comfortable talking about the subject of Spiritual Healing and 80% were willing to share their experiences in the Church/Synagogue but most people did not do so
- 97% wanted to learn more about Spiritual Healing; 96% wanted more opportunities for dialogue about Spiritual Healing in the Church/Synagogue; 68% wanted this dialogue in the form of small groups
Critical Questions about the Experience of Spiritual Healing
- 82% reported the experience of a change in their self identity (the understanding of who they are) as a result of their experience of Spiritual Healing
- 90% felt their experience of Spiritual Healing had changed their lives
General Demographics
- 83% of the participants were in the 35-75 age range
- 74% of the participants were female, 26% male
- 47% of the participants had been members of their present religious institution for more than 15 years
- 89% of the participants reported having Spiritual Healing experiences between the ages of 30 - 59
- All the respondents had support systems: Friends (#1) and Family (#2) ranked #1 and #2
New Research Programs:
- The Spiritual Aging Project: A Study of Spirituality in the Aging Process, for people over the age of sixty, in religious and secular settings: 2004.
- The Spiritual Health Project: A Study of the Meaning of Spiritual Health: 2006.
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