Is a "Dark night of the soul" a "culture-bound syndrome"?

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I’m trying to figure out if science has some explaination for spiritual darkness.
 
Not everything can be proven by science, no matter how much people claim it.
 
Science is it’s own authority and follows their own demagogues. So, I don’t look to science for anything. I’m not certain where the instinct come from to put faith in flawed people who are biased, instead of putting Faith in God.
 
Where are you getting “culture bound syndrome” from? And what culture does it refer to?

But to answer your question, I don’t think that physiological processes need to be thrown out here. I wouldn’t doubt that since we are body and soul that there is a physiological element as well as a spiritual element to it.
 
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Well “culture-bound syndrome” seems to be a term used in psychiatry to describe problems that are culture specific that don’t fit into any current diagnostic category. A synonym is “folk illness”.
 
No, it is not. The growth and development of the interior supernatural life of the person can be compared to that of the natural life of the person. - neither of which is culturally “bound” (unless the culture is so anti-human that any kind of human growth and development is stunted, opposed).
 
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jredden92 said:
I’m trying to figure out if science has some explaination for spiritual darkness.
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How do you define science? Whatever is testable/repeatable?

Many practitioners of yoga have claimed that their spiritual systems are “sciences” - that if you meditate in the right way, you will get a consistent result, and that you will have confirmation of what they teach.

I don’t see how that differs substantially from science as it is practiced in the laboratory. You can say that “real science” rules out things like “confirmation bias”, that you can’t falsify these things. But you can’t falsify science either without bringing your own background assumptions to the table, so…

If by “spiritual darkness” you have in mind something like depression, then perhaps brain chemistry has something to say, though. At least, about the symptoms.
 
Do other religions have their own experience of spiritual dryness?
 
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People definitely can experience depression and other like psychological problems that could be spoken of as a kind of darkness. I see how science can study this but not the dark night of the soul.
Saint John of the Cross invented the term “dark night of the soul” to identify a spiritual state that is a part of the soul’s spiritual advance, a state meant to purify souls of what is not God. He compared it to night when the stars appear to men, which can only happen in the night.
I doubt if psychiatrists use the term “dark night of the soul,” and it is a term in Catholic spirituality with the meaning I indicated.
 
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Hi RepetantCatholic,

the Jesuits are firm believers in Science. Men of Science can also be Men of Faith.

Regards
John
 
Hi mdgspencer,

I’ve went through the Dark Night of the Soul, and it is was quite the scary experience. It lasted a number of months and I went through a full spiritual awakening. Your right when you say that it is purifying, as from hence forth, I have a deep unquestioning faith. Around this time I had many mystical experiences and I discuss the Eye of Providence in a topic in this Forum.

Kind regards
John
 
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