Spirituality in Health Care Spirituality plays a very large part of my personal worldview. As such, it is prudent to define the various connotations and denotations that this term has in my worldview. Firstly, spirituality is a belief in a higher power -- a deity -- that has a creating and a controlling influence in the world today. What is essential about this particular definition of spirituality is that it is largely contrasted with religion. Religion is man's rules about the deity or even about spirituality. Spirituality, however, is an increasing awareness and state of communing with that spirit directly, which encompasses a large part of this definition of spirituality. Additionally, in my worldview the term spirituality is a reference to the term spirit, which is largely contrasted with the soul. I believe that all humans are imbued with a soul -- which is an aspect of the deity that animates that person. However, I also believe that people and most other living things have a spirit. It is possible for one to feel, perceive, and even to see various vestiges of a living object's spirit -- even if that living creature is no longer still alive -- both in terms of literally seeing or perceiving that creature and in other ways. For instance, I readily believe that one can experience and perceive the spirit of the slain rapper Tupac Shakur via listening to his music. I readily believe that one can know and desire the spirit of Charlotte Bronte by reading her writing (Bronte, 1850, p. xiii). These two definitions of spirituality are both equally important in my worldview. The one provides the fabric of existence while the other provides existence meaning.

Therefore, in terms of managed care and modern health care, I think it is vital to convey the positive aspects of one's personality and spirits when administering treatment to or nursing a patient. Doing so makes it possible to 'lift one's spirit' -- meaning that of the patient. Patients who are in a better mood and who are more secure spiritually (meaning feeling free, positive, and in comfortable surroundings and company) can take to treatment better and have a better chance of improving their physical health. Possibly one of the most important tenets in my worldview is the connection between the spiritual and the physical. Physical ailments can ail the spirit, and spiritual assistance (in the form of 'lifting' a patient's spirits) can aid the physical (Prentis et al., 2014, p. 45). Although this belief is part of my own personal philosophy, it pertains to the core definition of a human being. People are merely spirits housed in physical bodies (of homo sapiens). Thus, there is a natural correlation between treating the spirit and treating physical ailments.

This correlation partly relates to conceptions of postmodernism which, in viewed in terms of spirituality and religion, is a dedicated effort to get back to a more spiritual approach as opposed to the rationalist scientism that characterized modernism. Postmodernism is also tolerant and inclusive of many different varieties of ideas (Poweel, 1998, p. 1). Quite simply, spirituality is much more valued in a postmodern society that it is in a modern society. That sort of valuation is certainly aligned with my personal worldview, and is well aligned with pluralism as well. Pluralism is the inclusion of multiple tenets of ideas of morality or of religion (Mason, 2015). Moreover, postmodernism is of particular value in managed care and modern health care settings because of sociological concerns. These environments can encompass individuals of a number of different religions and denominations. Sometimes, the only point in common between all of these points of differentiation is spirituality itself -- which is a core value of my worldview.

The point of synthesis between the spirit and the physical senses that the body provides is an important aspect of epistemology upon which my worldview is based. Quite simply, one of the major branches of epistemology (empiricism) posits the notion that knowledge is all based on what the senses can detect (Markie, 2015,). Traditionally, those are just the five senses but I believe in certain extra sensory perception as well. This synthesis enables prime reality to consist of the spiritual world or of spirits in the physical world.

My worldview and the eminence it places on spirituality is somewhat adverse to other types of philosophies regarding the world, the universe, and the very cosmos. For instance, scientism is the notion that the scientific method -- based on evidence, proofs, and tangible evidence of the existence of things -- is the best or most reliable...

I do not believe in this philosophy because it effectively limits the universe to that which man can understand. Man, in my esteem, is inherently flawed and certainly needs to do more than consider evidence to ascertain what really exists and animates the world. That is why it is crucial to understand that my version of empiricism includes extra sensory perception as a sort of sixth sense -- a refined clairvoyant, intuition which enlightens people based on spirituality.
I believe that a human being is a reflection of the deity itself, and that it is imbued with a soul. That is my definition of this term. I also believe that human beings were brought forth into existence in order to shape the world. They do not have to do so literally, but can do so figuratively by accomplishing things -- great deeds -- for which others will remember them. Also, human beings are essentially flawed.

The nature of the world around is spiritual. Although things exist in their physical form, they do so much more profoundly and innately in their spiritual essence. Cats provide an excellent example of this fact. One can be within a foot of a cat that is resting while a noisy airplane lazily drones overhead. Despite the noise and the clutter taking place around the cat, the moment a person attempts to skulk away that cat will raise its eyes, perhaps its ears, and on some level that transcends the physical perceive a disturbance in its surroundings due to the spiritual.

The main thing that happens to a person at death is that his or her soul departs his or her body. Such a departure is the launching point for death, and the only aspect of death of which I am totally convinced. The soul endures; I know that much as well. But I do not know what form it endures, where it goes, or what's fate is. But it becomes detached from its body and the physical mockery that most people thing is the world around them.

It is possible to know anything at all because of love. Love actually is a force in the universe, in existence outside of the physical inhabitants. Perhaps love is a part of the spiritual inhabitants that make up the vast majority of existence. Regardless, love provides the basis for understanding, for empathy, and for a general cognizance of things as they are and as they are not. Love is the very fabric of kindness.

We know what is right from wrong innately, based on intuition. The very fabric of that knowledge, in fact, is best summarized as the golden rule. We know parity and equity in treatment -- both with how we treat others and in regards to how they treat us. When we see things happen to people that we know we would not want to happen to us, we get the idea that something is wrong. This feeling is intrinsic.

For the most part, the meaning of human history is simple wretchedness. Mankind has continually made mistakes virtually since it was created. Misery and sorrow are all throughout the annals of human history, as are greed, tragedy, and selfishness. Thus, human history simply means a lengthy legacy of mistakes and tragedies, some of which are narrowly averted, and many of which are not. Nonetheless, there are a few remarkable achievements -- although for the most part history is merely someone's biased account of events.

Personally, I believe that prime reality is the spiritual essence which animates people and those things that are living. The spiritual essence is to where we return, and the spiritual essence is from which all things stem. I also think that there are myriad other distractions from keeping people unaware of the true prime reality of spiritual essence. There are certain people and their histories that have been more attuned to this prime reality than others.

References

Bronte, C. (1850). Biographical notice of Ellis and Acton Bell. In Wuthering Heights. International Collectors Library: Garden City, New York.

Markie, P. (2015). Rationalism vs. empiricism. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. http://plato.stanford.edu / http://plato.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/encyclopedia/archinfo.cgi?entry=rationalism-empiricism

Mason, E. (2015). Value pluralism. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. http://plato.stanford.edu / Retrieved from http://plato.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/encyclopedia/archinfo.cgi?entry=value-pluralism

Powell, James. Postmodernism for Beginners. New York: Writers And Readers. 1998.

Prentis, S., Rogers, M., Wattis, J., Jones, J., Stephenson, J. (2014). Healthcare lecturers' perceptions of spirituality in healthcare. Nursing Standard. 29(3), 44-52.