Despite the plethora of research linking spirituality, religiosity and psychological well-being among people living with medical illnesses, the role of afterlife beliefs on psychological functioning has been virtually ignored. The present investigation assessed afterlife beliefs, spiritual well-being and psychological functioning at the end of life among 276 terminally ill cancer patients. Resu...

Results. Bleak or uncertain views about the afterlife are associated with multiple aspects of distress postloss. Uncertainty about the existence of an afterlife is associated with elevated intrusive thoughts, a symptom similar to posttraumatic distress. Widowed persons who do not expect to be reunited with loved ones in the afterlife report significantly more depressive symptoms, anger, and int...

OBJECTIVES We explore whether beliefs about the existence and nature of an afterlife affect 5 psychological symptoms (anxiety, anger, depression, intrusive thoughts, and yearning) among recently bereaved older spouses. METHOD We conduct multivariate regression analyses using data from the Changing Lives of Older Couples (CLOC), a prospective study of spousal loss. The CLOC obtained data from ...

We examined lay people's conceptions about the relationship between mind and body and their correlates. In Study 1, a web survey (N = 850) of reflective dualistic, emergentistic, and monistic perceptions of the mind-body relationship, afterlife beliefs (i.e., common sense dualism), religiosity, paranormal beliefs, and ontological confusions about physical, biological, and psychological phenomen...

If religious beliefs matter, how should we expect those beliefs to affect the behavior of religious terrorists? The religious motivation for terrorism often is assumed to be pursuit of bene ts in the afterlife. Though Berman (2009) and others do not nd much empirical support for theology as an motivator for terrorism, few economic models of terrorism attempt to incorporate religious beliefs. We...