Mindfulness and Quasi-Religious Meaning Systems

An Empirical Exploration within the Context of Ecological Sustainability and Deep Ecology

Bibliographic Data

ID2515620
AuthorsMerlin B Brinkerhoff, Jeffrey C Jacob
Year1999
Volume38
Issue4
Pages524
Publication date1999-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal for the Scientific Study of Religion (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0021-8294 • E-ISSN: 1468-5906
PublisherJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/1387610
OpenAlexW2314638372
LanguageEN
Citations received10
References cited11

Contextualizing the back-to-the-land experience with mindfulness, a variant of meditative phenomena, within deep ecology's contention that humankind requires a fundamental shift in consciousness in order to insure ecological sustainability, this study compares and contrasts those variables that explain variance in mindfulness, operationalized as a quasi-religious indicator, with those that explain variance in church attendance, a measure of formal religious behavior. Drawing on a national sample for a mailed questionnaire survey of back-to-the-landers, the study found that the predictor variables for mindfulness share little overlap with those that explain variance for church attendance. The exception is spiritual mindedness, itself a quasi-religious measure, which has a statistically significant relationship with both mindfulness and church attendance. The data suggest, then, that the religious and the quasi-religious are relatively independent spheres of human behavior and sentiment. It would appear, consequently, at least in terms of the back-to-the-land sample and the assumptions of deep ecology, that the adherents of organized religion are not as likely to be disposed towards ecologically sustainable frames of mind as those who center their spirituality on quasi-religious practices such as mindfulness

Archaeology · Attendance · Church attendance · Context (archaeology) · Deep ecology · Environmental ethics · Epistemology · Geography · Mindfulness · Operationalization · Political science · Religiosity · Sociology · Spirituality · Sustainability · Variance (accounting) · Clinical Psychology · Community Health and Development · Ecology · Human-Animal Interaction Studies · Law · Philosophy · Psychology · Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology · Social Psychology