When you are diagnosed with cancer, or blindsided by a stroke, a health crisis can turn into a dark night of the soul.

Many patients torment themselves, asking, What did I do to make my body turn against me? And if months of agonizing treatments stretch ahead, with no guarantee of a complete recovery, the burning question may be, What is the meaning of all this suffering?

In addition to prescribing medication to help with physical symptoms, health-care professionals are increasingly tuning in to their patients spiritual needs.

For the past year at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre in Toronto, outpatients have been able to book a 20-minute session of non-denominational support from a spiritual-care provider before or after a chemo treatment. Occupational therapists in Canada have enshrined spiritual care in their guidelines, making it their job to help patients who may be physically or cognitively impaired tap into life-affirming sources of personal meaning, such as nature or the arts.

The new approach to spiritual care is not the same as religious counselling or the healing response associated with the placebo effect. Rather, it is based on the idea that everyone has the need for hope, meaning and purpose in life, and that connecting to ones spirit, the essence of the self, can be a powerful motivator in healing.

Researchers in the emerging field of spirituality in medicine argue that science alone cannot meet the needs of aging populations who increasingly suffer from depression, social isolation and chronic diseases such as diabetes and dementia, which tend to worsen over time.

Physicians and nurse practitioners should not only prescribe pills or recommend psychotherapy, researchers say, but also support patients through compassion and mindfulness.

Patients want much more than a cold doctor, said Dr. Christina Puchalski, a palliative-care physician and founder of the GW Institute for Spirituality and Health at George Washington University in Washington.

In the past two decades, more than 75 per cent of U.S. medical schools have integrated spirituality-related topics into their training.

Puchalski noted that a growing number of health-care workers, including doctors, are participating in group discussions and reflective writing exercises designed to enhance their own self-awareness.

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Reclaiming medicines spiritual roots: Treating people, not just diseases

I first became acquainted with the Enneagram 16 years ago, in the midst of an existential crisis brought on by the sudden death of a family member. Distraught and looking for solace, I enrolled in a course called Jewish Spirituality. Although I dont remember the exact description, the basic idea was that we would study nontraditional, non-God-oriented ways in which Jews connect with an experience of transcendence, something I desperately needed. Whatever the wording in the brochure, it was most assuredly not a description of the actual course.

The actual course, it turned out, was about whatever the teacher felt like talking about that night. A charismatic rabbi with a devoted following, he taught the course continually, in an unending loop of eight-week sessions attended by an enthusiastic group of regulars, many of whom both wrote down and made an audio recording of everything the rabbi said while he discoursed freely on whatever happened to be on his mind. And what was on his mind during that eight weeks was the Enneagram.

I sat there, reeling from loss, hardly able to take in what I was hearing or, rather, seeing, which was this drawing:

Get it? Neither did I. But according to legend, in the early 1900s, the famous Armenian choreographer Gurdjieff drew it on the walls of a cave where he had retreated to enjoy hallucinogens for a bit and study mysticism, emerging to bring to the world the Enneagram drawing, a secret code that implied a deep truth.

Now, I have a nearly physical aversion to non-logical (to put it mildly) theories like this. As soon as people start talking about ancient secrets and codes and mysticism, its just a hop, skip and a jump to Dan Brown and the Illuminati. For Gurdjieff and his adherents, on the other hand, the thing was a work of genius, a profound utterance that could not be expressed otherwise. It wasnt until about 30 years later, around the middle of the 20th century, that South American psychologists Oscar Ichazo and Claudio Naranjo worked the shape into their theories of psychology, a set of ideas that later became codified as the Enneagram personality types.

This theory is now expressed in wildly different ways by a variety of warring psychologists, each of whom claim their version is correct. But as I understand it, basically, the theory is that all of us are splinters of a larger cosmic whole, which, when it broke apart, created life. According to the Enneagram, our personality type is determined by the particular manner in which our own splinter longs for reunion with that wholeness. These types are described generally as:

1.The Reformer or Idealist, motivated by perfection

2.The Helper or Giver, motivated by generosity

3.The Achiever, motivated by ambition

4.The Artist, motivated by self-expression and beauty

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Why I am obsessed with the Enneagram Personality Test

In Vrindavan, work is on to build the world's tallest religious structure, a new temple for Krishna by ISKCON-Bangalore. The planned 700-feet tall structure intends to take visitors on a spiritual experience, says Veenu Sandhu

The capsule elevator will rise up the steel belly of the skyscraper. On its 700-feet journey, it will take visitors past the various universes of Hindu mythology: Svarga Loka, that transitory place for righteous souls; Vaikuntha Loka, the abode of Vishnu; and finally Goloka Vrindavan, the eternal abode of Krishna.

At each stop, visitors will get a three-dimensional, light-and-sound experience of these planetary systems as described in the Vedic scriptures. From here, the elevator will move further up to the viewing gallery at the very top that will have telescopes through which visitors can see the Yamuna, Mathura, Govardhan, Nandgaon and, on a clear day, even the Taj Mahal, 70 km away.

The 70-storey, 210-metre-high Vrindavan Chandrodaya Mandir will be nearly three times the height of Qutub Minar and taller than the Great Pyramid of Giza. Conceptualised by the International Society for Krishna Consciousness -- Bangalore, this sprawling 65-acre project intends to put Vrindavan on the world map.

About 2 km from the bustling temple town, on the highway to Mathura, work on the mammoth project, which is shaped like a peacock feather, has started. The foundation stone was laid on March 16, and last week President Pranab Mukherjee performed puja here. Over the next five years, here is how ISKCON aspires to transform what is today a vast stretch of barren land.

The architecture will be a fusion of western and traditional styles. The intended end result is a skyscraper temple. The skyscraper is a concept from modern architecture and requires modern technology, says Chanchalapathi Dasa, project president and vice-president, ISKCON-Bangalore. And the shikhar, mandap and other structures will be built in the traditional Nagara architectural style which was prevalent in northern India. The use of marble and glazing in the central structure also reflects this fusion.

While the temple will occupy about 5,00,000 square feet, close to 7,00,000 square feet will be meant for education. As ISKCON believes in salvation through devotion to Krishna, as exemplified by Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in the 15th and 16th centuries, the emphasis will be on the knowledge of Krishna that has been assimilated into local cultures across India and represented in dance, art, music, literature, architecture and even cuisine.

The KrishnaHeritageMuseum will preserve and showcase these varied expressions. The Science and Spirituality Pavilion will present contemporary scientific discoveries and concepts and try to correlate them with some of the concepts present in Indian Vedic literature -- the bugbear of modernists. For example, the Bhagavad Gita Expo will offer students an expositional tour and concepts of the Gita in a way that is appealing to the scientific temper of young people, says Chanchalapathi.

The organisation is relying heavily on technology to introduce younger children to Krishna. The days when grandmothers told stories to children are gone. YouTube and 3D experiences have taken over, says an ISKCON devotee. This is where multi-sensory environmental story-telling experiences will play a key role. The complex will have a climate-controlled, covered KrishnaLeelaPark spread across 200,000 square feet where children will get 3D experiences of the many acts Krishna performed as a child. An internally reconstructed Yamuna creek with boats will meander through this park.

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Heavenward bound: ISKCON to construct 700-ft high temple at Vrindavan