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UID:20260724T165954BST-6809cUfuvU@https://m.institutemh.org.uk/
DTSTAMP:20260724T155954Z
DESCRIPTION:5th December 2025\, 11:00 - 12:30\nOnline via MS Teams\nSpeaker
 s:\n\nDr Katja Milner\nRachel Cummings\n\n \nDr Katja Milner\nMystery and 
 Mental Health: Mythos and meaning in spirituality and mental health recove
 ry stories\nResearch has demonstrated that spirituality can form an import
 ant part of mental health and recovery and that many people would like to 
 have this dimension addressed within mental healthcare contexts. However\,
  a 'spirituality gap' has been highlighted in which people's spiritual nee
 ds can often be invalidated\, dismissed or pathologised within clinical pr
 actice. This presentation outlines salient findings from a PhD conducted a
 t the University of Nottingham exploring lived experience accounts of the 
 role of spirituality in mental health and recovery (supervised by Paul Cra
 wford\, Mike Slade and Alison Edgley). An initial qualitative systematic r
 eview (MISTIC study\, Milner et al.\, 2020) revealed meaning making to be 
 a key theme within existing literature exploring experiences of spirituali
 ty and mental health. A subsequent narrative study explored specifically h
 ow people make meaning and its potential functionality in these contexts.S
 piritual meaning making emerged as a fundamental component of many partici
 pants’ recovery narratives and was often characterised as having symbolic\
 , liminal\, mystical or mythical elements. Such ‘mythos’ frameworks were c
 ontrasted and juxtaposed with more logical\, rational\, or scientific ‘log
 os’ approaches to sense-making\, yet both were identified as essential to 
 understanding spiritual and mental health experiences. Mythos meaning maki
 ng was described as playing a key role in internal spiritual guidance\, he
 lping participants navigate and discern the sometimes confusing\, harrowin
 g\, yet wisdom-inducing terrains of their recovery journeys. Findings of t
 his research suggest that contrary to the stigma and pathologisation which
  often surround subjective spiritual and mental health experiences\, under
 standing and validation of these same experiences can hold important keys 
 to healing\, recovery and psychospiritual development.\n \nRachel Cummings
 \nMystery and End of Life Care\nThis talk will focus on an aspect of the d
 ying experience often well-known to those working within palliative care\,
  but little discussed beyond: so-called ‘deathbed experiences’. These are 
 events occurring in the last weeks or days of life understood in terms of 
 metaphysical or relational value\, when material explanations are possible
 .Examples include a dying person seeing a deceased loved one at the bedsid
 e\, talking as if on a journey\, waving to people others cannot see\, seei
 ng or hearing children playing and accurately predicting their time of dea
 th. They can also refer to those events reported by people around the dyin
 g: visions of bright lights or something emanating from the dying body as 
 well as reports of meaningful coincidences - someone dying on a significan
 t day\, a clock stopping at the moment of death or a white feather falling
  inexplicably from the sky.For many\, these moments are deeply meaningful.
  They speak to the profound significance and an often ineffable transcende
 nce that people seek in the dying phase. Such moments mark a transition fr
 om profane to sacred and the dying person’s liminal status as both in this
  world and already elsewhere. For others they are simply a materialist fea
 ture of dying\, caused by opioid toxicity\, delirium\, electrolyte imbalan
 ces\, malignant spread of disease to the brain\, psychosis\, psychological
  distress or cognitive error.This presentation will consider the tension b
 etween these two forms of explanation. Based on a seven-month ethnography 
 of a hospice in-patient unit and 42 interviews with palliative care profes
 sionals it will explore when and by whom alternative understandings exist 
 within the clinical space and their consequences for both clinical knowled
 ge and patient care\n \nJoin the meeting now https://m.institutemh.org.uk/
 events/event/256-centre-for-social-futures-mystery-and-mental-health-myste
 ry-in-mental-health-and-end-of-life-care-experiences
DTSTART:20251205T110000Z
DTEND:20251205T123000Z
LOCATION:Online via MS Teams  ()
SUMMARY:Centre for Social Futures: Mystery and Mental Health - Mystery in M
 ental Health and End of Life Care Experiences
URL:https://m.institutemh.org.uk/events/event/256-centre-for-social-futures
 -mystery-and-mental-health-mystery-in-mental-health-and-end-of-life-care-e
 xperiences
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