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Religious Change Experiences of the Participants of the Inner Healing Retreat at the English-Speaking Site of the Divine Retreat Centre, Kerala, India

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Religious Change Experiences of the Participants of the Inner Healing Retreat at the English-Speaking Site of the Divine Retreat Centre, Kerala, India The University of Notre Dame Australia ResearchOnline@ND Theses 2014 Religious change experiences of the participants of the Inner Healing Retreat at the English-speaking site of the Divine Retreat Centre, Kerala, India Joe Cardoso Follow this and additional works at: https://researchonline.nd.edu.au/theses Part of the Arts and Humanities Commons, and the Counseling Commons COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA Copyright Regulations 1969 WARNING The material in this communication may be subject to copyright under the Act. Any further copying or communication of this material by you may be the subject of copyright protection under the Act. Do not remove this notice. Publication Details Cardoso, J. (2014). Religious change experiences of the participants of the Inner Healing Retreat at the English-speaking site of the Divine Retreat Centre, Kerala, India (Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)). University of Notre Dame Australia. https://researchonline.nd.edu.au/theses/98 This dissertation/thesis is brought to you by ResearchOnline@ND. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses by an authorized administrator of ResearchOnline@ND. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Running head: RELIGIOUS CHANGE AT DRC 1 Doctor of Philosophy (Counselling) Religious Change experiences of the participants of the Inner Healing Retreat at the English-speaking site of the Divine Retreat Centre, Kerala, India Rev. Dr. Joe Cardoso School of Arts and Sciences University of Notre Dame Western – Australia 2014 Word count: 99,177 RELIGIOUS CHANGE AT DRC 2 Abstract The Divine Retreat Centre, Muringoor, Kerala, India is internationally known for the changes it effects in the lives of its retreat participants. To date, over ten million participants have attended the retreats over a decade. However there is a dearth of empirical research on the change processes involved in this retreat experience. This study was formulated to investigate the following research question: how do the participants at the Divine Retreat Centre come to be what they come to be as a result of each day‟s experience of the six day Inner Healing Retreat? This study is a qualitative investigation and the research strategy of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis was broadly adopted for collecting and analysing the data. Eight participants of the Inner Healing Retreat were interviewed at the end of each of the six days of this Retreat. The participants ranged between 19-55 years and included five men and three women who met the criteria for homogeneity: Goan-Catholic lineage, English-speaking, first- time Retreat participants. The findings reveal that the change process unfolded through seven super-ordinate themes: Crisis, Surrender, Opening up, Confession, Counselling, Inner Healing and Baptism in the Spirit. These themes contribute to an understanding of the nature of religious change or the change processes operating at the Divine Retreat Centre. The implications of these findings are discussed and recommendations for future research suggested. Keywords: Religious Change, Conversion, Charismatic movement, Catholic, Crisis, Surrender, Confession, Counselling, Inner Healing and Baptism in the Spirit. RELIGIOUS CHANGE AT DRC 3 Declaration I declare that this written document is my own work and does not include material from published sources used without proper acknowledgement Signed :…………………………….. RELIGIOUS CHANGE AT DRC 4 Acknowledgements I want to acknowledge my experience of this PhD expedition with a sense of gratitude to all those who contributed in many and varied ways towards this journey. I am indebted to the participants of this study who trusted me with their experience of the retreat. They were frank and personal. I anticipate that their voices will touch and live in the hearts and minds of all those who will come across their narratives through this thesis. I am extremely grateful to my Supervisors, Prof. Dr. Martin Philpott and Prof. Dr. Denis Ladbrook. Together I am also grateful to Prof. Dr. Peter Black and late Dr. Carol Holmes for their supervisory inputs. Their scholarly and rigorous supervision has been demanding but worth the trouble in drawing out the best in me. I thank them for walking this journey with me. Apart from the one-on-ones, I greatly treasured their ad hoc phone availability which facilitated clarity of thought and assisted my momentum of writing. I salute their careful inspection of my work and for the many insights provided all along, all so gently and with considerateness. This PhD would not have been but for five men in my life who gave me the opportunity to pursue this higher degree. They provided me with their unstinted support when I needed it the most in the face of unexpected ordeals. These men include Archbishop Dr. Timothy Costello SDB, Archbishop Barry Hickey, Fr Juliao Carrasco, Fr Greg Homeming and Fr Joe Tauro. I am extremely grateful to Dr. Fr. Augustine Vallooran for giving me the opportunity to conduct this study on the Inner Healing Retreat at the Divine Retreat Centre. I found a resonance of my aspirations in him, in his desire to probe the psychological in the religious domain. I admire his willingness to open the DRC experience for research. No words are adequate enough to say „Thank You‟ to Dr. Mark Fellman at the Research Department of Notre Dame for his belief in me and for this opportunity to pursue my dream of a RELIGIOUS CHANGE AT DRC 5 PhD. His support when Dr. Carol Holmes fell sick and therefore faced the risk of losing my PhD as also during the long spell of grief when I experienced three other significant losses in my life is commendable. Together I am grateful to Mrs. Lorraine Mayhew for all the behind the scenes support I have received from her all along. I would like to thank Miss Bulla Fernandes for the assistance in transcribing the interviews. She had to often turn nights into days to keep up with the workload which she accomplished with diligence, patience and personal sacrifice. My gratitude also goes to Prof. Dr. Brian Bishop and Mr. Barry Joyce for their professional editorial inputs. I am grateful to all the Priests I have lived with during the course of this PhD, namely Frs. Paul Baczynski, Blasco Fonseca, Steve Astill, Joseph Angelo, Nicholas Nweke, Dr. Kevin Long and the late Gerard Beeson and Giovanni. Their compassion, understanding and companionship were indispensable and I nurture fond internalised representations of their time with me. I cannot be grateful enough to Dr Felicity Kong, Raymond Kong and their family who took care of my well-being and treated me as one of their own. Thank you for being there. Similarly I stand indebted to Mr Gerard D‟Cotta and his family for their care and concern as also to Mrs. Marja Vandermark and her family. Finally I would like to acknowledge all the trainers and colleagues at the different psychotherapeutic trainings that I had undertake in fulfilment of the scientist practitioner orientation. These learning experiences contributed greatly towards the investigation of the lived experiences of the participants of this study. So my heartfelt gratitude goes to Zish and Claudia Ziembinski, Lyn Durham, Richard, Phillip, David Hoban, Yaro Starak and all the colleagues at Gestalt training in particular Heather Deighan; to Patricia Sherwood and her team at Sophia RELIGIOUS CHANGE AT DRC 6 College and all the colleagues there; to Rosanna Garven at the Systemic Consultation Centre and all the colleagues there; to Aldo Gurgone, Anne Holloway, Steve Lionello and Rosemary Watkins and all the colleagues at William Street Family Therapy Centre; to Dr Wendy Wollman at the Link Seminars and all the colleagues there, to Mark Pearson and Helen Wilson at the Expressive Therapies Institute and all the colleagues there. I stand immensely indebted to them for their role in my own healing work owing to which I have grown in my understanding of myself, which I bring to bear in my relationships with others. RELIGIOUS CHANGE AT DRC 7 Table of Contents TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................................................... 7 FIGURES ..................................................................................................................................... 17 CHAPTER 1: ISSUE OF INTEREST ................................................................................................. 18 1.1. A portrayal of the scene .................................................................................................. 18 1.2. Introducing the Site for this study .................................................................................. 21 1.2.1. Geographical location of DRC in Kerala, India ....................................................... 22 1.2.2. Location of DRC campuses ..................................................................................... 23 1.2.3. Brief history of DRC. ............................................................................................... 24 1.2.4. Aim of the DRC retreat. ........................................................................................... 24 1.2.5. Location and types of DRC retreats ......................................................................... 25 1.2.5.1. A sketch of both the campuses .......................................................................... 26 1.2.5.2. The Structure of the DRC retreat ...................................................................... 27 1.2.6. Strategies of recruitment at DRC. ...........................................................................
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