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.
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