What we can learn from children! "Spirituality is a natural human predisposition"" Relational spirituality Hay and Nye; Spirituality as intelligence K Adams, B Hyde "experiences can heal-D Thomas + D Scott "Children's experiences will feel normal to

Preface: Edna's story of her struggle with the death of her father: "I began to understand then, that everything I needed to overcome the turmoil that I was experiencing, was within myself … Spirituality became a part of my life, and was repeatedly looked upon for understanding in other situations. My spirituality is a part of my very existence that is made up of hopes, mysteries, and values. It is shown in my interactions with others, and in my writing … It is the light of being that gives meaning and understanding to everything and everyone that I encounter. I give thanks to the spirituality within me." You wouldn't ordinarily think a 12-year-old could write something as sophisticated and profound as that – but this was written by "Edna (12), struggling with the death of her father," One small study revealed that 68 out of 125 people who are grieving – not surprisingly – engage spirituality Spirituality is a natural human predisposition. It is more primal than institutional religion and concerns a person's sense of connectedness with self, others, and the world (or cosmos). Kate Adams Bishop Grosseteste University College Lincoln & Brendan Hyde Australian Catholic University Setting the stage: The Neuroscience Map-Model of Morals = a Model of intricate complex interrelationships Funk and Gazzanigna observe that: "Morality is a set of complex emotional and cognitive processes that is reflected across many brain domains. Some of them are recurrently found to be indispensable in order to emit a moral judgment, but none of them is uniquely related to morality……Some of the emotions processed are more central to morality than others, but all emotions contribute to moral judgment given specific contextual situations…..The neural circuits of brain regions implicated in morality overlap with those that regulate other behavioral processes, suggesting that there is probably no undiscovered neural substrate that uniquely supports moral cognition." Brain Architecture of human morality, Funk and Gazzanigna) The model presented by the neuroscience of music is a similar model – of overlapping and intricately connected processes. There is no reason to think spiritual processes would be any different. For instance, a close analysis of Jean MacPhail's experience reveals a synthesis process involved in setting things in order – and "putting her house in order" in dealing with her mother's death as a young girl.