Mindfulness, Mysticism, and Narrative Medicine.

Mindfulness-based interventions are increasingly used in healthcare for stress reduction and improved health, but their religious and spiritual roots are often downplayed. This article uses medical humanities and narrative medicine to rebalance this trend, exploring mindfulness as a bridge between medical and spiritual approaches to suffering. The author examines historical, linguistic, and philosophic dimensions of mindfulness and mysticism related to illness, suffering, death, and dying. Two case examples illustrate mindfulness used as an intentionally spiritual practice for health concerns.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Mindfulness based interventions (MBIs) are rapidly emerging in health care settings for their role in reducing stress and improving physical and mental health. In such settings, the religious roots and affiliations of MBIs are downplayed, and the possibilities for developing spiritual, even mystical, states of consciousness are minimized. This article helps rebalance this trend by using the tools of medical humanities and narrative medicine to explore MBI as a bridge between medical and spiritual approaches to health related suffering. My narrative medicine method draws insights from the arts and humanities that are rarely used in standard clinical research but are increasingly common among medical humanities and narrative medicine scholars. The specific path I take will be to work through historical, linguistic, and philosophic dimensions of mindfulness and mysticism as relevant to illness, suffering, death, and dying. I close with two case examples in which mindfulness is used as an intentionally spiritual practice for health concerns.