The Institute for Spirituality and Wellness (ISW) seeks to renew and rebuild on the legacy of Anton Boisen who was a pioneering figure in spirituality and wellness in the area of hospital chaplaincy, Clinical Pastoral Education, and ministry to the mentally ill. An initial goal is the development of a Faith-Based Community Outreach Initiative that will work with clergy and congregations at the grassroots level to bring them spirituality and health information, techniques, and practices based on cutting edge science. The first step in ISW’s Faith-Based Community Outreach Initiative is the development of a series of web pages that will serve the networking and on-line training needs of faith-based clergy and congregations in Metropolitan Chicago, as well as throughout the United States and the world.

There is an urgent need for this type of information. Clergy and congregations in Catholic, Protestant, Judaic, Islamic, and Eastern faith communities are in the trenches working every day on a grass-roots level with people reeling from economic stress, sickness, the loss of loved ones, and divorce. They are working with the military and their families. They are working with the homeless, with prisoners, and with those dealing with substance abuse and/or chronic mental illness.

Clergy and congregations know in their hearts and their souls that there is a direct and positive connection between God, faith and health. But the message they receive from over and over in Western culture message that the universe has no creator, no objective purpose, and no objective meaning or destiny.

Up until recently, mainstream science and medicine has focused on the human as machine, confident that the future of health and healing lay in increasingly sophisticated technology and medication. Today, however, the tide is turning. Some of the most cutting-edge research is being done in the area of spirituality and health. Since the 1990s, there has been a wide range of new scientific research that shows a direct link between health and spirituality-based practices and principles like prayer, meditation, forgiveness, altruism, and compassion. Investigators have also unearthed decades of previously ignored research showing the link between spirituality and health.

An Invitation to Explore Spirituality & Wellness

People of faith are invited to explore the information on these pages and use the scientific research and practical techniques to bolster and enhance spirituality and health practices in their communities of faith.  We at ISW invite you to begin exploring the links described below. We promise you that this will be an exciting, fruitful and soul-fulfilling journey.

About the Institute for Spirituality & Wellness

The Spirituality-Health Connection: An Important Link in the Chain of Life

Historically science has focused its research on what makes us sick. In fact, the positive impact of religion and spirituality on healing and health has often been discounted by mainstream science and medicine as it became increasingly mechanical from the mid-nineteenth century onward. Today, more and more health professionals and scientists are realizing that religion and spirituality are direction and strongly connected to good health and faster healing. This section provides an overview that demonstrates the importance of religion and spirituality in the chain of life.

Spirituality, Healing, & Wellness: A Curriculum for Congregations

Created by David Stewart M.D.—and also D.Min—Spirituality, Healing, and Wellness: A Curriculum for Congregations is a ten module course that helps participants accomplish the following learning objectives: to appreciate the connection of body, mind, and spirit in healing and wellness; to learn how spirituality affects health and wellness of individuals, congregations, and communities; to consider ways to move toward greater wellness for themselves, their families, their congregations, and society. The curriculum can be used in a structured class setting as a series of adult Christian education seminars or as pullout modules that can be adapted for other settings such as sermons, retreats, (adult) Sunday school, or youth groups. The curriculum in this section is designed to meet the needs of congregants who will have diverse reasons for attending classes on spirituality, healing, and wellness.

The Relaxation Response & Meditation: A Key to Healing & Health

Dr. Herbert Benson has been doing groundbreaking work in mind-body medicine since the late 1960s. In 1969, his Harvard University research team demonstrated that meditation could cause a variety of bodily changes that countered stress, including decreased oxygen consumption of the entire body and decreased respiratory rate. In his latest book, Relaxation Revolution: Enhancing Your Personal Health through the Science and Genetics of Mind Body Healing, Benson and co-author William Proctor, JD, presents the latest scientific findings, revealing that spiritually-based meditation techniques can help us heal even down to the genetic level. This section provides an overview of this scientific research and presents the Benson-Henry Protocol with suggestions on how it can be used in a community of faith setting.

Living Deeply: The Art & Science of Transformation in Everyday Life

Research shows that private spiritual practices contribute to health and healing. The book Living Deeply: The Art and Science of Transformation in Everyday Life, along with the DVD, Living Deeply: Transformational Practices from the Worlds Wisdom Traditions, are the fruits of a decade-long research program at the Institute of Noetic Sciences on the transformation of human consciousness. During the course of their investigation, IONS researches did in-depth interviews with nearly sixty world-renowned scholars, teachers, and practitioners of transformative practices ranging from priests, monks roshis, Sufis, and rabbis to dancers, artists and consciousness researchers.  Patterns were sought—and found—that spanned diverse practices, traditions, cultures, and worldviews. This section explores some of the patterns that enhance our efforts to transform and highlights the practices and techniques of some of the spiritual practitioners examined during this research.

End of Life

Spirituality is an integral part of dying. The dying, and those who care for them, frequently grapple with questions about who they are, why they are here, and why they are now leaving. Spiritual traditions can provide us with practices that guide us as we help the dying and their loved ones cope with grief, loss, and fear. Faith and the physician is an important consideration too. A doctor’s religious faith, or lack of faith, influences a patient’s end of life care, a 2010 study published in the Journal of Medical Ethics, has concluded. This section profiles the “Being with Dying” practices of Joan Halifax, a Buddhist teacher, Zen priest, Abbot, and Head Teacher at the Upaya Zen Center in Santa Fe New Mexico, who has been working in the area of death and dying for over 30 years. It also delves into some of the scientific research that focuses on the link between religion and spirituality and end of life issues.

The Journey to Forgiveness

In recent years there has been an explosion of scientific research in forgiveness that provides tantalizing evidence of the power of forgiveness to enhance mental and physical health. Forgiveness is a cornerstone of most religious and spiritual traditions. This section explores the scientific research. It also profiles the “Way of Forgiveness” method developed by Dr. Stephen Post and explores the peace and forgiveness lessons of Azim Khamisa, who lost his only son Tariq to a senseless gang-related murder.

The Western Creed vs. A Creed of Faith

Increasingly cutting edge scientific research demonstrates the strong positive links between spirituality and health. None-the-less, the man-as-machine, materialistic model of existence continues to have great power over our bodies, minds, and spirits. This section invites you to take The Western Creed, an exercise developed by psi researcher Charles T. Tart, PhD, that gets you to feel the impact that the materialist model of existence is having on your being. Then you are invited to make a heartfelt recitation of a statement of faith from your own spiritual tradition. The two exercises provide a visceral demonstration of the negative or positive health impacts that beliefs have on individuals, communities and society as a whole.