Converting from Help Seeker to Help Provider – Life Growth of Spiritual Mediums

• Main Authors: Jia-Perng Lin, 林佳芃
• Other Authors: Hung, Su-Chen
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2009
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/06707644676612631966

碩士 === 淡江大學 === 教育心理與諮商研究所碩士班 === 97 === The purpose of this study is to portray the growth path of spiritual mediums who serve in the community as mental helpers. By probing into the life path and the professional development of spiritual mediums and by revealing the demand of the society to seek for spiritual solution, the study may provide conventional consultants who also serve in the community with local materials. The field study is based on ethnography that describes the training for spiritual mediums and the life style in spiritual healing. The concept of hermeneutics is also adopted to express the life paths of the two spiritual mediums who participate in this study. From the analysis and interpretation of the study, it is realized that although the two participants had different topics pursuing their life goals, both of them have undergone the same three stages: falling into torment, receiving spiritual training and becoming a helper as a spiritual medium. During the three stages, they encountered spiritual experiences and were inspired by deities while trapped in their tormenting lives. That helped them discover the hope and courage of life. Although it was not their expected life goals to become spiritual mediums, during their spiritual training, the unconscious experience of encountering deities triggered the interior mind energy of the two participants, appeasing their negative life experiences deep in their souls and making them stride forward along the path of spiritual growth. Therefore, their becoming spiritual help providers can be seen as a metamorphosis of the lives of the two participants. Hence they can view themselves from a new angle and seek for the essence of their own lives while helping others. The research results also show that despite the lack of a systematic training course for the cultivation of spiritual mediums, the path of their career growth differs from that of other conventional consultants in a professional way. With the power of an opened spiritual connectivity, spiritual mediums combine their internalized views of spirituality and humanity learned in the religion with their life experiences to form the knowledge and faith of spiritual healing. From the archetypal images obtained during their spiritual encounters with deities as well as from the spiritual sights during the healing, it is realized that the spiritual experiences are commonly shared as a collective unconscious among human minds, and therefore it is also understood that the roles played by the spiritual mediums and the existence of various temples reflect the needs of the society.