A narrative study of contemporary ritual and the revitalization of the spiritual imagination.

摘要

This study investigates the contemporary phenomenon of group ritual within the context of present-day, secular culture in the United States and outside of the boundaries of particular religious institutions and cultural traditions. The research explores the psychological and spiritual value and meaning of ritual experiences for a group of self-selected subjects. A phenomenological analysis of their descriptive narratives of experience is followed by a hermeneutic interpretation of the thematic content that emerged from those descriptions.; Twelve co-researchers (subjects) delineated the phenomenon under study by selecting which of their experiences they would describe. Before being interviewed about their group ritual experience, the co-researchers completed a questionnaire which focused on their religious backgrounds, their current spiritual practices and past participation in psychotherapy. The in-person interviews were audiotape-recorded and later transcribed. Significant statements were extracted from these narratives and then clustered by meaning into the eight themes that emerged from the text analysis. Summaries of each interview and the texts of the interviews are included to present each narrative as a whole. The emergent themes were discussed in the light of the literature on ritual from the fields of ritual studies, anthropology, religious studies, psychology, political science and sociology.; In this study contemporary group ritual is described by participants as experiences that provide both the structure and the spontaneous process for self-discovery and expression; revitalizes somatic, emotional and creative aspects of being; creates a forum for socio-psychological experimentation of non-hierarchial forms of community that are based on shared spiritual intention; and offers avenues for the exploration of consciousness and nonordinary reality. The study concluded that contemporary group ritual is a dynamic and generative process that has psychotherapeutic value and is a constellation of experience unique to our time and constitutive of an evolution of values that can potentially enrich and challenge prevailing cultural paradigms. By connecting participants to the diversity of their collective psycho-spiritual heritage, current forms of group ritual may help resacralize participants' existence through a revitalization of the contemporary imagination.