<p> Ayahuasca has been used for thousands of years for psychological, emotional, and spiritual healing as well as divination by different Indigenous tribes. In the last 20 years, Ayahuasca has gained increasing popularity in Western culture, and retreat centers all over the world offer healing for different issues by offering Ayahuasca ceremonies. Although extensive research on the benefits of Ayahuasca&rsquo;s different psychological and physiological potential has been done, there are almost no empirical studies on the integration process of these experiences. This research aims to investigate the nature of participants&rsquo; Ayahuasca experiences, while focusing on their liminal phases and participants&rsquo; process of integrating their Ayahuasca experiences to create change. </p><p> The methodology used was an adaption of grounded theory in order to understand the integration process as it unfolds in time, with particular attention given to the phenomenology of Ayahuasca ceremonies and each individual&rsquo;s subsequent integration process. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 13 individuals, aged 21 and above, at least 1 year after their experience participating in Ayahuasca ceremonies in retreat centers. Using Jungian psychological theory, this study aimed to develop an initial thematic description to help understand the somatic, emotional, psychological, and spiritual processes participants experienced in their integration process. Moreover, this study aimed to describe shared themes of what was helpful for participants in their integration process and its liminal stages.</p><p>

<p> The purpose of this project is to acquire and apply the knowledge found in understanding compassion fatigue in chaplains who are serving in the United States Army Reserves and hold a full-time civilian clergy position, into a workshop to provide a resource to assist chaplains to effectively cope with compassion fatigue. The research consisted of a combined qualitative and quantitative approach through completing a verbatim and a questionnaire on all ten participants. The results found those who experienced high amounts of compassion fatigue had poor self-care, aspects of burnout, and no one to process their feelings with after difficult counseling sessions.</p><p>

<p> Developing awareness of the inseparable link between mind and body and their mutually informing relationship is critical to contemporary dancers who want to enhance creativity and somatic intelligence. While there are multiple, if not numerous, approaches to somatic learning and mindful practices, I propose a mindfulness-based dance practicum to achieve a self-reflective and inquiry-based relationship of mind to body. My study was devised over a semester-long exploration in the studio, following six years of studying modalities such as yoga, Bartenieff Fundamentals and mindfulness. Mindfulness can be used as a way to generate and activate movement through the practice of Bartenieff fundamentals, breath work and sensing. The dancer can engage in more profound awareness of bodily sensations and begin to develop a deeper and more exploratory connection to their own body. Through different practices, exercises, and activities to engage students, students are able to let go of the product mentality and dive into the process, encouraging exploration of movement pathways and &lsquo;saying no&rsquo; to the voices that are filled with judgment and fear. Creating this self-practice, students can grow as movers and individuals who interact with the outside world and whose heightened emotional self- awareness encourages greater creativity. Ultimately, a dancer can experience changes in perception of both self and environment that lead to the opening of new vistas of experiences. The goal of this practicum is to provide tools for students to develop and/or heighten their somatic intelligence ultimately discovering their own somatic practice. This not only creates a smarter body but enhances understanding and acceptance of our individual bodies while deepening reflexive practice as a dance artist.</p><p>

Germany's Weimar republic has been understood as a time in which gays and lesbians asserted their demands for social tolerance and protection under the law. Many historians of this period have so far treated the complicated relationship between sex and gender variance and the scientific community. Yet the creation of the "homosexual" in the late nineteenth century as a kind of person also opened up the possibility for the discussion of a specifically sex variant soul. At the same time, the relative freedom of expression that occurred during Germany's Weimar period allowed for sex and gender variants to engage with existing ideas to articulate their own formulations. One journal, Die Freundschaft was a mouthpiece for a particularly vast array of opinions regarding same-sex love. Influenced by the works of Plato, as well as German romanticism, Die Freundschaft's authors saw their desires as being guided by Eros, a non-human and sacred force. Moreover, they fused Magnus Hirschfeld's notion of a "third sex" with the theosophical principle of reincarnation, arguing that part of the karmic path was the eventual incarnation of a soul into a body of opposing gender. Finally, the sentiment commonly espoused during Weimar Germany, that one could discover one's soul in nature, made nature a place in which sex and gender variants could discover their unique souls, and come to terms with their desires. Examining the ways in which sex and gender variants chose to describe themselves and their experiences in the language of the sacred reveals the extent to which they were able put forward an articulation of same-sex love that subverted scientific prescription, describing a constellation of desires and embodiments that were hallowed as well as natural. / Arts, Faculty of / History, Department of / Graduate

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This aim of this study was to gain a better understanding of the experience of suicide bereavement and how coping and meaning making occurs. Additionally, the use of spirituality as a means of coping and making sense of suicide was studied. This is a new area that has been previously unexamined in suicide bereavement research. Using the methodology of transactional phenomenology, the experience of suicide bereavement was studied from the perspectives of those bereaved by suicide, mental health practitioners who work with the bereaved, and a cross-over group of survivors who were also practitioners. Results show that survivors and practitioners are in agreement on many aspects of coping and meaning making following suicide bereavement. However, there are also instances where these groups provided differing insights. Perspectives between groups are compared and several best practices when working with those bereaved by suicide are presented and discussed.

<p> While the field of leadership can trace its roots to Plato, Sun Tzu and Machiavelli among many others, it has become a focus of contemporary academic studies in the last 50 to 75 years. And while spirituality can trace its origins to Muhammad, Jesus and Buddha, the exploration of the nexus of leadership and spirituality is much more recent and as a result, a limited body of knowledge exists and thus, is ripe for study.</p><p> Many challenges exist, including the fact that the study of leadership is a multidisciplinary academic field that includes a myriad of topics from a vast array of disciplines and spirituality, too, is extraordinarily diverse. This study explored a set of theories and tools to enable leaders to develop and support qualities in themselves and in those with whom they work and interact. Specifically, this work is a qualitative study exploring the nexus of leadership and spirituality, which addresses the gap in the literature that considers this intersection, as evidenced by the Venn diagram that includes leadership, spirituality, and thinking and behavioral attributes.</p><p> While a qualitative study, the quantitative element used is Emergenetics, a 30-year-old psychometric tool that looks at the four thinking attributes of analytical, structural, conceptual and social and the three behaviors of expressiveness, assertiveness and flexibility. With more than 630,000 profiles completed in 21 languages by people around the world, the universe for this study consisted of 14 one-to-one interviews and two focus groups of 14 people each, one in person and one online. The myriad of faith traditions with which the participants identified in their youth is provided in Table 2. With regard to the tradition with which participants identify today, of the 42 participants, 24 identify as Science of Mind/Religious Science and 18 identify with other faith traditions or no faith tradition.</p><p> The primary question was does spirituality influence leaders' thinking and behaviors. The secondary questions included an exploration around in what ways spirituality influences thinking and behaviors. It also explored the questions as to if spirituality informs the ways leaders challenge things in their organizations and if acknowledging one's spirituality publically helps or hinders building effective teams.</p><p> The highlights of the research include the finding that spirituality does indeed influence everything a leader does and is, whether thinking and behavior attributes and how a leader questions things. As well, while publicly acknowledging one's spirituality is thought to be positive, there are some confounding circumstances and those ideas are also presented.</p><p> The study also includes the group Emergenetics profiles for the two focus groups and all of the individual interviews as one profile, respectively, with an explanation as to how that informed the research.</p><p> Finally, the implications of this research to the study of leadership, the study of spirituality and leadership and the use of the Emergenetics tool in such work is explored.</p>