Psychological benefits of Spiritual Baptist "mourning"

Abstract

Members of the Spiritual Baptist Church in the West Indies engage in a ceremony called "mourning," which involves prayer , fasting, and the experiencing of dreams and visions while in isolation. Twenty-three church members who had undergone the experience were interviewed. Mourners cited six benefits of the practice: relief of depressed mood; attainment of the ability to foresee and avoid danger; improvement in decision-making ability; heightened facility to communicate with God and to meditate ; a clearer appreciation of their racial origins; identification with church hierarchy; and physical cures. Mourning appears to be a viable psychotherapeutic practice for these church members.