Handbook of New Spiritual Consciousness: Theory and Research (Religion and spirituality series)

Religion and spirituality are the part of the life of a great many people, a value that plays an important role in, among others, leading a healthy life and preserving their health. In the past fifteen or twenty years there has been considerable research into the effects of religion and spirituality on people's physical and mental health. Today, the polarisation of two concepts is observable: religion represents everything that comes from the outside, it is formal and institutional, whereas spirituality represents everything that is subjective, personal, emotional, comes from the inside and is not systematic. Eckhart Tolle draws our attention to another approach to spirituality. In his opinion, our present consciousness opens up the gate to spirituality. The individual must experience the present moment, while the alertness of his/her consciousness enables the person to view his or her own thoughts, emotions and reactions triggered by the stimuli of the environment. The Presence thus created (conscious alertness) brings about the sense of tranquility and internal peace. The sustained conscious attention launches the spiritual process of transubstatiation that leads the individual to a new spiritual consciousness, new perspective and new ways of observations. This process, by transforming the consciousness of the person, changes the entire personality of the individual. The author makes an effort to approach this process with the means of scientific research. Following the teachings of Eckhart Tolle, the author created the New Spiritual Consciousness Scale (NSCS) and carried out its statistical analysis. The purpose has been developing a new measuring instrument for the recognition of spiritual consciousness.