Mindfulness
June 21, 2023
Masoumeh Rahmani, Valerie van Mulukom, Miguel Farias
14 citations
People's beliefs about what mindfulness can do—such as improving relationships, fostering peace, or transforming inner experience—shape how they respond to mindfulness interventions. A new scale, the Belief in the Powers of Mindfulness Scale (BPMS), was developed from participants' key beliefs, which fell into three themes: interpersonal relationships and compassion, peace and violence, and the inner world. These beliefs were tied to broader cultural ideas like expressive individualism and New Age philosophy. The BPMS showed strong internal consistency and validity. Older and more spiritual individuals practiced mindfulness more often and longer, reported greater mindfulness skills, and scored higher on the BPMS. The findings underscore the need to account for people's beliefs and cultural context in mindfulness research and practice.
BMC Psychol
September 27, 2024
Chung Fei Ng, Miguel Farias, Inti A. Brazil
3 citations
A stratified randomized controlled trial will test an app-based Christian and Islamic heart meditation intervention in healthy adults. The study aims to measure whether the intervention improves interpersonal and individual well-being outcomes. The protocol describes the planned methods, including participant stratification and outcome assessments, but no results are reported.
October 7, 2021
Valerie van Mulukom, Armin W. Geertz, Robert W. Clark et al.
2 citations
preprint
Art and religion function as symbolic systems that transform subjective knowledge into concrete, memorable, and shareable forms through symbols and material artifacts. Drawing on past sociologists, anthropologists, philosophers, and current cognitive research, the authors argue that both phenomena serve as repositories of meaning, encapsulating emotions, experiences, and beliefs. The self-transcendent nature of art and religious experiences enhances symbol significance, conveying rich meanings beyond descriptive language. Aligned with aesthetic cognitivism, art offers unique cognitive contributions beyond decoration. The strength of art and religion lies in their existence within imagination, underscoring the centrality of meaning-making in shaping societies by preserving and disseminating subjective knowledge beyond language's confines.