(re)claiming spirit

The possibility of (re)claiming the word spirit in the context of my academic work was initially prompted by the work of Edith Turner (1993/2003) who pushed the field of anthropology to move beyond its "religious frigidity" (1993/2003, p. 150) and acknowledge that the world of spirit need not be reduced to cultural myth, or an instance of primitive thinking (see also, Young & Goulet, 2004; Wallis, 2000).

Current research in the area of non-material neuroscience (e.g. Beauregard & O'Leary, 2007) also supports this stance – as do ongoing studies in transpersonal psychology (e.g. Braud, 2004; Clements, 2004).