Psychological benefits of Spiritual Baptist "mourning," II: An empirical assessment.
Members of a West Indian Christian sect called the Spiritual Baptists participate in a "mourning" ritual that is characterized by praying, fasting, and the experiencing of dreams and visions while in isolation. Sixteen individuals who underwent mourning were evaluated with the SCL-90-R before and after the ritual. In general, the mourners showed significant improvement on the self-report scales.
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001460:Barbados; D002562:Ceremonial Behavior; D004325:Dreams; D005215:Fasting; D005260:Female; D006117:Grief; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008602:Mental Healing; D008875:Middle Aged; D010555:Personality Inventory; D012069:Religion and Psychology; D012934:Social Isolation; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*