Psychological benefits of Spiritual Baptist "mourning"

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Abstract
Members of the Spiritual Baptist Church in the West Indies engage in a ceremony called mourning, which involves prayer, fasting and the experiencing of dreams and visions while in isolation. Church members (23) who had undergone the experience were interviewed. Mourners cited 6 benefits of the practice: relief of depressed mood; attainment of the ability to foresee and avoid danger; improvement in decision-making ability; heightened facility to communicate with God and to meditate; a clearer appreciation of their racial origins; identification with church heirarchy; and physical cures. Mourning appears to be a viable psychotherapeutic practice for these church members.

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