Psychological benefits of Spiritual Baptist "mourning," II: An empirical assessment

Abstract

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.