Belief in Miracles: Divine Intervention or Psychological Delusion?

The purpose of this study is not to determine the existence of miracles, but to explore ways in which counsellors and psychologists respond to clients who believe in, and feel they have experienced a miraculous event. The word "miracle" is used in a variety of ways. It commonly refers to an unlikely and unanticipated event which may be of divine origin, simply an accident, or an event not yet explained by science. A belief in divine miracles might reasonably result in a clinical psychology diagnosis according to various diagnostic coding manual criteria. Under what circumstances should a clinical diagnosis be rendered in cases in which there is a belief in divine miracles? To accomplish this, the question "How should you respond to a client who believes in miracles?" was posed to members of "The Psychology Network," an on-line professional discussion group, on LinkedIn. The responses were qualitatively evaluated using NVIVO 10 software analysis to identify common themes and important relationships. The identified themes were explored in relationship to ten world regions by gender, age, educational level and belief in miracles.