The Spiritual Dimension was added to the definition of health after the historic resolution WHA37 in 1984 by WHO, making the Spiritual Dimension important for the strategies for health. Multiple scientific studies have clear evidence of the importance of the spiritual dimension in all public health and healthcare domains. The spiritual dimension of health is perceived directly in religious contexts, making it communal, complex, ambiguous, and ill-defined boundaries with religions make it a misfit for modern scientific healthcare systems. It resulted in a neglected approach in training and application by health professionals and policymakers, leading to poor research, education, and clinical use of spiritual health, which strongly influences individuals and communities’ organized efforts and choices in preventive, promotive, and curative health. To solve these problems in the training and education of healthcare professionals by decreasing the complexities and ambiguities in defining spirituality. We analyzed the human thought process in a life-threatening situation. Based on our observations, we proposed the ’Thought Model’ of spirituality to free it from the religious bounding with a scientific approach and make it less ambiguous for public health applications based on the evolution of human thought processes. In clinical settings of modern healthcare, this ’thought model’ of defining and understanding spirituality provides its scientific compatibility by decreasing the conflicting religious beliefs common in healthcare delivery systems to almost nil by navigating the conflicting religious, cultural, and scientific thoughts.

1. World Health Organization, Handbook of Resolutions and Decisions. Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organization, 1985.
2. N. Dhar, S. K. Chaturvedi, D. Nandan et al., “Spiritual health, the fourth dimension: A public health perspective,” WHO South-East Asia Journal of Public Health, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 3–5, 2013. doi: https://doi.org/10.4103/2224-3151.115826
3. World Health Organization. (2006) Constitution of world health organization. [Online]. Available: https://bit.ly/3bzox8A
4. K. Park, Preventive and Social Medicine. India: Allied Book Company, 2017.
5. M. Bhatt, Spiritual Health. Chennai, India: Notion Press, 2018.
6. Wikipedia. (2019) Spirituality. [Online]. Available: https://bit.ly/34Wzwq8
7. Wikipedia. (2019) Sociocultural evolution. [Online]. Available: https://bit.ly/2S0SYgj
8. Wikipedia. (2019) Hinduism. [Online]. Available: https://bit.ly/3apunYY
9. Wikipedia. (2019) Christianity. [Online]. Available: https://bit.ly/2VRHEnN
10. Wikipedia. (2019) Islam. [Online]. Available: https://bit.ly/3aCkhEk
11. Wikipedia. (2018) Religion. [Online]. Available: https://bit.ly/2KqZF7l
12. L. Tischler, “The growing interest in spirituality in business,” Journal of Organizational Change Management, vol. 12, no. 4, pp. 273–280, 1999. doi: https://doi.org/10.1108/09534819910282117
13. M. Taverna, P. O. Berberat, H. Sattel, and E. Frick, “A survey on the integration of spiritual care in medical schools from the German-speaking faculties,” Advances in Medical Education and Practice, vol. 10, pp. 1009–1019, 2019. doi: https: //doi.org/10.2147/amep.s224679
14. C. G. Paul Victor and J. V. Treschuk, “Critical literature review on the definition clarity of the concept of faith, religion, and spirituality (just accepted),” Journal of Holistic Nursing, pp. 1–7, 2019. doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/0898010119895368
15. F. Capra. (2015) Science and spirituality. [Online]. Available: https://bit.ly/2xGp3mN
16. R. Bansal, K. A. Maroof, P. Parashar, and B. Pant, “Spirituality and health: A knowledge, attitude and practice study among doctors of North India,” Spirituality and Health International, vol. 9, no. 4, pp.263–269, 2008. doi: https://doi.org/10.1002/shi.358
17. A. S. Susuman, “Mental health issues and policy in Sub Saharan Africa: A view from Cape Town to Cairo,” International Journal of Health and Medical Sciences, vol. 3, no. 3, pp. 59–66, 2017. doi: https://doi.org/10.20469/ijhms.3.30001-3
18. M. Bhatt, “Spiritual health: New paradigms in our understanding of spirituality,” in International Conference on Spirituality and Psychology, Bangkok, Thailand, 2019.
19. Wikipedia. (2019) Humanism. [Online]. Available: https://bit.ly/3apyJzi
20. M. Bhatt, Spiritual Health: Spirituality, Religion, Science, Health and our Thought Processes. A Paradigm Shift in Understanding of their Interactions and Relations. Chennai, India: Notion Press, 2017.
21. Wikipedia. (2019) Religiosity. [Online]. Available: https://bit.ly/34Wh4ho

Bhatt, M. “The ‘thought model’ of spirituality to solve conflicts in training and education of spiritual health in modern public healthcare systems,” International Journal of Health and Medical Sciences, vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 29-34. doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.20469/ijhms.5.30004-1