Department of Religious Studies
Department of Religious Studies
Gino

Gino Crededio Jr

Master's Student
Email: frn4ma@virginia.edu

Education

Master of Arts, University of Virginia (in progress)
Bachelor of Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (2017) 

Research Interests

  • American Religion - Spiritual but not Religious Demographic
  • Ethnographic Approaches
  • Theory of Religion
  • Contemplative Practice & Flourishing
  • Extraordinary Experiences & Consciousness

Thesis Topic

The Role of Chaplains in the Extraordinary Experiences of Those Under Their Care - Intervention and Research

Bio

Gino Crededio Jr centers his work on the American SBNR demographic and is interested in who they are, what they believe, and how their lifeways intersect with other Americans. He hopes his scholarship will be of service to them. Gino is interested in what their non-institutionalized forms of spiritual practice and community can reveal about the phenomena of religion in America and perhaps globally.

Gino spent the better part of his adult life ministering to this population through his eleven years at the School of Metaphysics (SoM), a humble Midwestern non-profit and mystery school that focuses on teaching wholeness through interfaith spiritual principles and practices. Founded in 1973, the SoM draws primarily from a combination of kriya yoga, Christianity, and American metaphysical ideology to promote flourishing. Here he taught meditation, dream interpretation, concentration, healing, and metaphysical worldview giving his time as a volunteer teacher and branch director. Gino dedicated himself to serving hundreds of largely SBNR peoples through his self-developed classes, workshops, and public talks.

Currently, Gino serves on two interdisciplinary teams. At UVA's Contemplative Science Center, he fulfills his lifelong interest in service through teaching contemplative practice and research with CIRCL: Contemplative Innovation + Research Co-Lab where he seeks to develop public scholarship. Further, at the historic Division of Perceptual Studies, he explores questions on the interplay of spirituality, direct extraordinary experience, and consciousness, working in partnership with them on his thesis studying hospital and hospice chaplains.

University Affiliations & Fellowships

  • Contemplative Science Center CIRCL - Graduate Research Assistant studying interplay of worldviews and contemplative practice; volunteer meditation facilitator
  • Division of Perceptual Studies - Graduate Research Assistant studying religious studies approaches to veridical after death communication and other extraordinary experiences; grant-writer for "Direct Experience and Meaning Making: A Comparative Study of Psychedelic Direct Experiencers" submitted to the Templeton Foundation
  • GSASC Religious Studies Co-Representative
  • Civic Cornerstone Fellowship - Karsh Institute of Democracy

Conference Presentations

  • International Association of Near-Death Studies Aug 2026 - Verifiable ADCs: Evidence and Impact
  • Parliament of the World's Religions Aug 2023 - The Importance of Spiritual Education