Bridging personal and scholarly discovery

trevor.kenney — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 18:05:57 +0000

In her thirst for spiritual knowledge, Lauren Boni has spent time at a remote Buddhist temple near Tokyo, worked for a non-governmental organization in Nepal and recently, is studying at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge.

Boni majored in Buddhism and East Asian Religious Studies as an undergraduate at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Toronto and spent several summers travelling overseas to get a sense of the religious experiences she was studying.

"I was very curious about different ways of life, different ways of being in the world," she explains.

These experiences solidified a fascination with spirituality's healing benefits.

"I realized that, although people had less in the way of material goods, they had a lot of intrinsic joy and well-being."

This is also confirmed by holistic health research, which links concrete factors like lower blood pressure with spiritual practices.

Now, Boni is at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge, working towards a Master of Science (Health Sciences) under the supervision of Dr. Gary Nixon, director and coordinator of the U of L's Addictions Counselling Program. Boni's research will employ transpersonal psychology – which asserts that psychological health is improved by connecting with a greater spiritual whole – to look at the spiritual journeys of Canadians practising Sufism, a 1,400-year-old mystical tradition of Islam.

She explains that "all religions have a mystical orientation, which focuses on the internal experience of the practitioner, more so than a specific system of beliefs."

In the course of her qualitative research, Boni will interview Sufi practitioners in Toronto to capture their experience of "non-dual self-realization" – the process of integrating their consciousness with a higher consciousness.

Although in the early stages of her thesis research, Boni says Nixon has become a mentor.

"He's exposed me to so many new ideas in such a short period of time."

Nixon says supervising students isn't unlike counselling: it's about facilitating the growth process.

"A thesis project is like a journey; a person goes through a number of phases. So, I see it as a journey of self-discovery, as well."

UNews - Lauren Boni

Bridging personal and scholarly discovery

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