As an aside to the recent thread discussing what 'spirit' is, this article is about 18 months old, but may be of interest if you haven't seen it before.
The study (or at least this summary of it described on the Mail Online news website), doesn't define what exactly is meant by a 'spiritual' person, but I personally take it as a very broad term covering everything from New Age hippies who feel they have a relationship with the energy of the universe or those who are striving to reach innner calm by meditating and living a simple life communing with nature, to beliefs in astrology, feng shui, and a host of other paranormal phenomena, plus many shades in between. Some 'spiritual' beliefs are obvioulsy just superstitions, but others are currently neither provable nor disprovable by science. Maybe it's open to debate, but I guess if a belief can be demonstrated as 100% true by science, it's not considered 'spiritual'.
One interesting point is that apparently unlike some surveys undertaken in the US, this one from the UK found "no clear relationship between religious belief and happiness".
Hope this doesn't offend anyone who considers themselves spiritual, that's really not my intention; but at least it's not branding anyone as "mentally diseased"!
Here is the article:-
Spiritual people are more likely to be mentally ill (but at least they think life has more meaning)
Being spiritual may give life deeper meaning, but it can also make you more susceptible to mental illness, new research suggests.
A study found that people professing to be spiritual, but not conventionally religious, were more likely to suffer from a host of mental challenges.
They suffered problems including abnormal eating conditions, drug abuse, anxiety disorder, phobias and neurosis.
They were also more likely than others to be taking medication for mental health problems.
Professor Michael King, from University College London, and his fellow researchers wrote in the British Journal of Psychiatry:
'Our main finding is that people who had a spiritual understanding of life had worse mental health than those with an understanding that was neither religious nor spiritual.'
The study was based on a survey of 7,403 randomly selected men and women in England who were questioned about their spiritual and religious beliefs, and mental state.
Of the participants, 35 per cent described themselves as 'religious', meaning they attended a church, mosque, synagogue or temple.
The vast majority of this group were Christian.
A further 19 per cent claimed to have spiritual beliefs or experiences without following a specific religion, while 46 per cent were neither religious nor spiritual.
More than nine out of 10 were white British, with an average age of 46.
Of the different groups, spiritual people were 50 per cent more likely to have a generalised anxiety disorder and 72 per cent more likely to suffer from a phobia.
They also had a 77 per cent higher chance of being dependent on drugs and were 37 per cent more at risk of neurotic disorder.
Spirituality was also associated with a 40 per cent greater likelihood of receiving treatment with psychotropic drugs.
Individuals of religious faith and those with none experienced equal levels of mental problems, the study found.
But there were fewer problems with drugs or alcohol among the faithful.
Unlike some American studies, the new research found no clear relationship between religious belief and happiness.
One recent large internet study in the US reported that non-religious people with spiritual beliefs were emotionally less stable than other groups.
However, they made up only 2 per cent of the study sample.
The researchers wrote: 'We conclude that there is increasing evidence that people who profess spiritual beliefs in the absence of a religious framework are more vulnerable to mental disorder.
'The nature of this association needs greater examination in qualitative and in prospective quantitative research.'