Previous research shows religiosity (across several religions) is associated with conservative values (tradition, conformity and security) from the Schwartz value scale and not with spiritually oriented, self-transcendent values. The relationship between religiosity and spirituality is controversial. We developed a 48-item scale, the Spiritual Connection Questionnaire (SCQ)-48, to measure experience and beliefs of spiritual connection, an aspect of spirituality that is consistent with religious and non-religious or New Age interpretations of spirituality. We selected 14 items (SCQ-14) that best predicted health and then tested the correlation between the SCQ-14 and the SVS in a student and an older population in the UK. In both populations the SCQ-14 was negatively associated with values at the self-enhancing value pole (power, security and hedonism) and in the older population was positively associated with a value at the self-transcendent value pole (universalism, but not benevolence). Religiosity has been shown to be associated with values that enhance societal identifi cation and hence inter-group differentiation and confl ict. By contrast, we found that the experience of spiritual connection is associated with values that reduce inter-group differentiation. Despite these differences, we found that self-reported religiosity enhances spiritual experience.

We examined the hypothesis that a tendency to experience the world in terms of a sense of 'special' connection is responsible for the self-transcendent value dimension identified by multi-dimensional scaling and constitutes a common factor for different religious and non-religious interpretations of spirituality. Eight different groups were studied including: (a) six different types of faith leaders in India and the UK, (b) people who self-rated as spiritual but not religious, and (c) those self-rating as neither spiritual nor religious. They completed a questionnaire that assessed (a) the strength of their spirituality irrespective of type (self-perceived spirituality) and (b) the experience of special connection to the following categories: people, nature, places and the universe, with and without using the term spiritual. For all eight samples the different types of connection were highly inter-correlated, and self-perceived spirituality correlated with the sum of connection items irrespective of whether items included the term spiritual or not. Variation between groups in the size of the latter correlation was consistent with different interpretations of spirituality in those groups. Although the meaning of spirituality is socially constructed, variability within faith leader groups suggests that its interpretation is also affected by personality.

The Rational-Experiential Inventory (REI) and Tellegen Absorption questionnaire were completed by 131 undergraduate students who also completed a scale measuring complementary medicine use (with separate entries for practitioner and self-delivered use) and vitamin/mineral use. Less rationality and greater absorption predicted greater use of practitioner-delivered and self-delivered complementary medicine, and vitamin/mineral use. Logistic regression showed that rationality and absorption were independent predictors of these behaviours. In addition to confirming previous research, this is the first demonstration that complementary medicine and vitamin/mineral use are predicted by the same variables, including less rationality.

Existing psychology scales of well-being are sensitive to change after CAM treatment and consistent with symptom improvement. Existing measures of positive affect provide an alternative to the negative, symptom-driven approach of conventional medicine.

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