Mind over Matter: How Spirituality Changes Lives

Heather Salazar, Ph.D., is Professor of Philosophy at Western New England University and founder of Sweet Flow Yoga. Her publications include “Descartes and Patanjali’s Conceptions of the Self” (2014), Philosophy of Spirituality (2018), Philosophy of Mind (2019), and Creating a Shared Morality (2021). Roderick Nicholls, Ph.D., is Academic Vice President and Associate Professor of Philosophy at Cape Breton University. Among his most recent publications are Philosophy of Spirituality (2018), “The Fictionality of Theatrical Performance” (2018), and “Nietzsche on Theatricality and Imagination” (2020).

• List of FiguresNotes on ContributorsIntroductionRoderick Nicholls and Heather Salazar1 Habit and the ‘How-To’ of Self-TransformationRod Nicholls2 Faith, Meaning, and Spirituality without ReligionDrew Chastain3 An Atheistic Defense of Faith, or, the Epistemic Necessity of Faith without BeliefJerry S. Piven4 Religion and Healing: A Narrative History of Their InterconnectionsJeff Levin5 Humanizing Enlightenment: Reclaiming the Healing Power of Yoga from Fallen GurusHeather Salazar6 Treating Trauma from a Spiritual, Body-Centered PerspectiveRick McNeil7 Endurance Running as a Spiritual ExperienceMatt Fitzgerald8 A Crisis of the Soul: Achieving Sobriety through Spiritual PracticesMichelle Petrie9 Achievement through Humility: Wild Lessons from Benedictine MonasticismBrother John Baptist and Eric T. Yang10 Inventing Necessity: Nietzsche, Kandinsky, and Artistic Self-ConfidenceKerem Eksen11 Materialists for SpiritualityMichael Brodrick12 Universalizing Universalism: Finding a “Religion of Humanity” in the Aftermath of the 1923 Tokyo EarthquakeJason MorganIndex