Theses and Dissertations

Advisor

Hoffman, David M.

Committee Member

Williams, Brian

Committee Member

Lambert, Shawn P.

Date of Degree

12-12-2025

Original embargo terms

Immediate Worldwide Access

Document Type

Graduate Thesis - Open Access

Major

Applied Anthropology

Degree Name

Master of Arts (M.A.)

College

College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Department of Anthropology and Middle Eastern Cultures

Abstract

To investigate whether Western-raised Narcotics Anonymous (NA) members engage in non-theistic spirituality and non-humanist modes of sociality with non-human beings, I conducted six qualitative interviews and a small-scale survey within a Vancouver NA community. The majority of participants practice non-theist spirituality, and three interviewees relate to non-humans in ways not accounted for by Western humanism. Findings suggest that connection and sociality are intrinsically woven into recovery and well-being. This research opens conversations about non-theistic spirituality in NA recovery, non-human sociality and healing, processes of ontological negotiation, and the entanglement of spirituality, sociality, and well-being. Through daily practices of exploration and attunement, selves co-constitute new possibilities and become-otherwise together – and this is their healing. To practice spirituality is to become-with – and to become-with is to become-well.

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