What Does It Mean to Live a Fully Embodied Spiritual Life?

Sexuality as a Transformational Path: Exploring the Holistic Dimensions of Human Vitality

“…Each path can also be held, through the profound transpersonal dimensions of sexuality that we have suggested above, as a path of embodied spirituality (Ferrer, 2006(Ferrer, , 2008. In welcoming the sensuous dance of sexuality into daily life, and relating it through the diversity of somatically rooted epistemic capacities, one is explicitly honoring the body as a sacred source of spiritual growth.…”

The Plurality of Religions and the Spirit of Pluralism: A Participatory Vision of the Future of Religion

“…This account does not seek to excoriate past spiritualities, which may have been at times-though by no means always-perfectly legitimate and perhaps even necessary in their particular times and contexts, but merely to highlight the historical rarity of a fully embodied or integrative spirituality (Ferrer, 2008b). At any rate, a participatory approach to spirituality and religion needs to be critical of oppressive, repressive, and dissociative religious beliefs, attitudes, practices, and institutional dynamics.…”

“…It should be obvious, for example, that my emphasis on the overcoming of narcissism and self-centeredness, although arguably central to most spiritual traditions, may not be shared by all. Even more poignantly, it is likely that most religious traditions would not rank too highly in terms of the dissociation test; for example, gross or subtle forms of repression, control, or strict regulation of the human body and its vital/sexual energies (versus the promotion of their autonomous maturation, integration, and participation in spiritual knowing) are rather the norm in most past and present contemplative endeavors (see Ferrer, 2008b).…”

“…Though admittedly speculative, this proposal is in accord with many mystical teachings, such as those regarding the creative role of the primordial shakti or kundalini in Hindu tantra, the (re-)generative power attributed to the chi energy in Taoism, or even the motivation behind certain celibate unions (virginae subintroductae) in the early church. On the relationship between embodiment and spiritual creativity, see Ferrer (2008b). 6.…”

The methodologies in psychology of gender and health: An integrative journey from different approaches to diverse realities

“…In this case, ecofeminist spirituality has some core points that should be heeded by therapists or counselors. First, it is an embodied spirituality (Ferrer, 2008;Washburn, 1994;Washburn, 2003), and it considers the female body to be a sacred place where the creative force lives (Ferguson, 1994;Fisher, 1995). Second, the emotional world matters, and so affects as human relations are emotion producers, and these emotions are mediators in health (Danner, Snowdon & Friesen, 2001;Folkman & Moskowitz, 2000;Park, 2007).…”