Spiritual Development through the Chakra Progression

• Authors: Jennifer Drapkin , Clayton McClintock , Elsa Lau , Lisa Miller
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

This pilot study investigates spiritual development as progressing in accordance with chakra theory. Chakra theory posits that spirituality emerges in a developmental monotonic fashion with increasing degrees of connection and spiritual awareness. People further into the progression generally show greater mental health and stronger character virtues, while individuals in earlier stages of development show greater pathology and lower levels of character virtues. Latent Class Analysis (LCA) was used in a sample of 1633 adults from the United States to empirically derive five profiles of spiritual connection, which reflected the monotonic progression predicted by the chakra theory. Participants who were low on all five variables of spiritual connection (3% of participants) were labeled the “Disconnected” class, and participants who were high on all five variables were labeled the “Highly Connected” class (16% of participants). The Disconnected class showed the greatest psychopathology (depressive and anxious symptoms) and lowest levels of positive psychology traits (gratitude, grit, satisfaction with life, selfcompassion, and flourishing), while the Highly Connected class showed the lowest psychopathology and highest levels of positive psychology traits. The other three classes, which fell between the Disconnected class and the Highly Connected class, carried intermediate levels of psychopathology and character strengths. Findings support future investigation on a universal progression of spiritual development based upon chakra theory.

Keywords

EN

Chakra; Spiritual Development; Character Strength; Psychopathology; Depression; Anxiety

• Publisher: Sciendo
• Journal: Open Theology
• Year: 2016
• Volume: 2
• Issue: 1

Dates

received

2015-12-30

accepted

2016-03-10

online

2016-07-01

Contributors

author

Jennifer Drapkin

• Teachers College, Columbia University, USA,

author

Clayton McClintock

• Teachers College, Columbia University, USA,

author

Elsa Lau

• Teachers College, Columbia University, USA,

author

Lisa Miller

• Teachers College, Columbia University, USA,

Identifiers

DOI

10.1515/opth-2016-0048