Part One: Why Read This Book?
Introduction and Invitation / 3
Part Two: Exploring Your Experiences
2: Instructions for Answering the Sixteen Questions / 21
3: The Daily Spiritual Experience Questions / 33
Part Three: Why Numbers?
4: Using the Number Scores / 91
5: “Studies Have Shown”: Results from Research Using the DSES / 97
Part Four: Themes
6: The Flow of Love / 115
7: Connection versus Alienation / 129
8: Yes! / 143
9: Translating “God” / 157
Part Five: Springboard for Communication
10: Why and How to Communicate Using Daily Spiritual Experiences / 169
11: Organizational, Professional, and Personal Uses / 181
Part Six: Awake and Alive
12: What Now? What Next? / 199
Acknowledgments / 215
Appendix / 217
Notes / 221
Lynn Underwood has published widely in areas such as quality of life, cancer, stress, compassionate love, and the understanding of ordinary experiences in a multicultural context. Originally trained in medicine, she holds a PhD in epidemiology, is an elected member of the Academy of Behavioral Medicine, and was awarded a Kluge Fellowship at the Library of Congress. She has directed foundation programs and developed projects with the World Health Organization and the National Institutes of Health. Her consulting practice helps organizations with research, strategy and program evaluation. She also lectures and facilitates workshops.
“Drawing on a lifetime of experience, reflection, and research,
Lynn Underwood invites the reader to look at daily life with new
eyes, to see signs and sources of spiritual growth that might
otherwise be missed. She brings her heart to this book, along with
her scientific rigor, personal vulnerability, and down-to-earth
wisdom. If you want to deepen your sense of the spiritual in your
life, and share such experiences with others, this is the book for
you.” —Parker J. Palmer, author of Healing the Heart of Democracy,
A Hidden Wholeness, and Let Your Life Speak
“I think this fine book will be invaluable to an awful lot of
people! Religious folks have been told what to see instead of how
to see, which only calls forth a lot of inner resistance and
nonseeing. There is nothing to resist here, but a lot to
appreciate, enjoy, and see—for yourself. This is good!” —Richard
Rohr, OFM, Center for Action and Contemplation
“Lynn Underwood has distilled her lifework into a masterpiece. Not
only does her book provide the average reader (devout or agnostic
alike) a guide to deepen their spirituality in a way that Catholic
St. Ignatius and Buddhist Thich Nhat Han would approve: but in a
very modest and low key way she provides a moving account of her
own spiritual Journey, akin to Karen Armstrong’s Spiral Staircase.
Every reading group and Temple and Church adult study group should
have Spiritual Connection as required reading. It is a gem.”
—George Valliant, MD, Professor, Harvard Medical School and
Director of the Study of Adult Development, Harvard University
“Grounded in science and authentic personal experience, this book
is a treasure of profound wisdom. Everyone can benefit from
deepening awareness of their own spirituality by reflecting on
these questions and learning how others have responded. The book is
an inspiring gift of love made visible.” —Frances Vaughn, PhD,
psychologist and author, Shadows of the Sacred
“This is the best book available today for anyone of us who feel
the need to transform our lives. Over many years, Lynn Underwood
quietly developed what is now internationally renowned as the most
thoughtful and valid measure of spirituality available today. The
reader will find opportunity for deepened self-awareness and
spiritual growth in responding to each question, and will find that
this spiritual classic and powerful self-assessment tool opens up
new horizons of serenity, hope, joy, and vision. Its scientific
grounding is impeccable.” —Stephen G. Post, PhD, professor of
preventive medicine, Stony Brook University
“Lynn Underwood’s Spiritual Connection in Daily Life is a welcome
and valuable contribution for caregivers, professionals, patients,
and ordinary people. She creates a pluralistic approach rich in
stories and examples from around the world, yet grounded in
research. The author encourages readers to explore their
experiences of love and connections to people, the universe, and
God (or the holy or divine) and to use her questions as a starting
point for discussion and reflection rather than a conclusion.”
—Rabbi Robert Tabak, staff chaplain at the Hospital of the
University of Pennsylvania
“I warmly recommend this practical exercise for establishing one’s
personal spiritual profile— its strengths, and its, as yet,
unfulfilled potential. Particularly valuable are the insights
arising as to how one might progress towards an enhanced
relationship with God and with other people, as well as have a
greater awareness of all that life has to offer.” —Russell
Stannard, emeritus professor of physics, Open University, U.K.
“Through her Daily Spiritual Experience Scale, Lynn Underwood has
elegantly bridged a divide between science and spirituality in
language and experiences that are accessible to all religions,
faith traditions, and cultures. This book is not just for reading;
it is for experiencing and savoring. It is rich food for the soul.”
—The Rev. Walter J. Smith, SJ, PhD, president and CEO, HealthCare
Chaplaincy
“As a scholar in the field of traumatic stress I always encourage
my students to look beyond the impact of stressful events into the
realm of human nature resilience. My research has shown me that
Underwood’s Daily Spiritual Experience Scale is an important
measurement that taps the unique experience of spirituality as it
is manifested in day-to- day life. I would recommend this book to
managers of stressful work places who are interested in promoting
the well-being of their workers.” —Gadi Zerach, PhD, clinical
psychologist, Department of Behavioral Sciences, Ariel University,
Israel
“We do the mystics an injustice by putting them on a pedestal. Lynn
Underwood knows that the mystic is not a special kind of human
being, but every human being is a special kind of mystic. This
includes you and me—ordinary people for whom this book is written.
Wisely, the author uses the term mystic sparingly. She speaks
rather about “experiences of connection with the divine in our
lives.” If this is for you what it deserves to be, a topic of prime
concern, then the Sixteen Little Questions of this workbook can
indeed Make a Big Difference in your life. In fact, you may learn
to be—in the midst of Daily Life—the unique mystic you are meant to
be.” —Brother David Steindl-Rast, Benedictine monk, cofounder of
www.gratefulness.org
“Spiritual Connection in Daily Life introduces a remarkable concept
known as the “Daily Spiritual Experience Scale,” which consists of
sixteen multiple-choice questions measuring among other things your
daily life connections with others, divine providence, your inner
spirit, and nature. This scale helps us find the “spiritual
connection” in one’s daily life and one’s sense of compassion,
love, joy, and inner peace. An excellent tool.” —Dr. Alwi Shihab,
Islamic scholar, trustee, University of Indonesia, Jakarta, and
Hartford Seminary
“Zen Buddhism may best highlight a core feature of Chinese
Buddhism—an emphasis on integrating spiritual practice into daily
life. In line with this belief, the Daily Spiritual Experience
Scale (DSES) was appealing to us. We found all the 16 items
relevant and essential in our cultural context in Hong Kong. Our
findings supported the transcultural properties of the DSES and it
continues to be useful to us and to others in Hong Kong.” —Dr.
Siu-man Ng, Department of Social Work and Social Administration,
University of Hong Kong
“Lynn Underwood has very skillfully provided for us a readable,
user-friendly, and intimate approach. Far from evading the
emotional, spiritual, and existential challenges involved in the
search for meaning and wholeness, she has opened for us an exciting
and compelling way of coping with the inescapable task of plumbing
the depths, and finding the treasures, of life’s inscrutable joys.”
—Kortright Davis, professor of theology, Howard University School
of Divinity
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