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Avis, my nick in yahoo is literarydiscussions.  I have added you to my yahoo buddy list. I am at http://www.myspace.com/literarydiscussions 

I am posting your questionairre at myspace, and will try to foward replies to you.

I also posted your questionnaire at

http://literatureforums.net/showthread.php?t=7106

and I added you to my Yahoo buddy list, where I am literarydiscussions

I am trying to coax folks in myspace Muslim chat forum to come and take the questionnaire, but so far, no luck.

Thanks, Laury, for the link to Dr. Godlas's website.

I visited his site, signed his guestbook (posting the questionnaire), and also emailed the questionnaire to Dr. Godlas's. Perhaps this shall result in some responses for Avis. One thing I have learned in life: whenever you ask, the worst thing you can hear is no, (or you may simply receive no reply.)

I have been an amateur writer on topics of spirituality for 10 years now. A number of people over the years have asked me if I am happy, or have found happiness. I think this is a natural question for people to ask of anyone, regarding their way of life. If you were to visit the Chukshi reindeer herders in Siberia, you might desire to ask them what they know of the rest of the world, and whether they are happy in the snow, with their reindeer, and their challenging way of life. Of course, when you ask someone if they are happy, you might do well first to explain what you mean by happiness. I have written some things in response to questions about happiness. I once promissed Laury that I would try to keep my posts short.

Here are a few links to what I said about happiness:

Strive to Find Happiness and Meaning Within Yourself

http://literarydiscussions.myfreeforum.org/ftopic46.php

(excerpt)

We all know examples of very wealthy, famous, powerful people who
become so unhappy as to take their own lives in suicide. This is a lesson
to us that the their fame and wealth did not help alleviate the pain of their own existence.

We also know examples of people who managed to find peace in
happiness and meaning even in the poorest and most oppressive
circumstances, even in places such as a Jewish Concentration camp in
Germany. You might like to read Viktor Frrankl's book "Mans Search for
Meaning". He is a medical doctor who survived a German concentration
camp in WWII.

As for your life, simply meet new people, nice decent people, and try to
be their friends. You will see that, if you are patient, an appropriate
spouse and life partner will be provided for you. Sometimes happiness
comes when we are not expecting it or looking for it. 

When Virtue and Happiness are One

http://literarydiscussions.myfreeforum.org/ftopic514.php

(excerpt)

Can we be "good" and also be "happy" in our goodness, our modesty,
our moderation, our charity, patience and long-suffering?

Ethical and moral righteousness of behavior is an external, but our
happiness over such behavior involves an internal transformation.

The Pursuit of Happiness

http://literarydiscussions.myfreeforum.org/ftopic896.php

Choose Happiness

http://literarydiscussions.myfreeforum.org/ftopic1086.php

(excerpt)

Lincoln said "Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be."

The 33rd stanza of the Way of the Tao says: "He who can be content with however much or little he has; that person has achieved true wealth."

I keep thinking about your problem.

You must choose happiness and peace of mind, and choose an outlook which will bring you this happiness and peace.

Our Greatest Sin

http://literarydiscussions.myfreeforum.org/ftopic844.php

(excerpt)

Our greatest sin is that we became gods, but we never became godly.

Unlike Faust, we do have the means to sweep back the ocean and make
dry land. We have power but we lack vision. It is not that God looked and saw that it was very good. The goodness was in the seeing, in the vision. Vision is seeing before there is yet anything to look at.

Our second greatest sin is that, lacking vision, we do not even go in
search of vision. We do not look for vision, and we look askance at
visionaries because we do not care. None so blind as those who will not
see. None so deaf as those who will not here. The age of miracles is when
the blind see, the deaf hear, and the dead are raised. But we are the
miracle of the walking dead, who neither see nor hear. We are not Moses
without his staff. We are Moses who leans upon his staff and does nothing.

We have laid down our instrumentality upon the shores of Babylon, and
we weep, not for Sion, but for our lack of tears. Lack of tears is the
greatest draught. Lack of hunger is the greatest famine. As Rumi said,
“Do not seek water. Seek thirst!" Water is everywhere, but without thirst, all the water in the world is useless.

Plato's Dialogue with Gorgias

http://literarydiscussions.myfreeforum.org/ftopic1009.php

(excerpt)

We should keep in mind that one of the charges against Socrates at his
trial, in addition to corrupting the youth of Athens, was that he taught
people the art of "making the weaker argument defeat the stronger."

I sometimes wonder if our contemporary educational system isn't
corrupting the youth by heaping scores of sheet music before the
symphony and never attempting to tune the instruments in the orchestra. Society shall prepare and drink its own cup of hemlock for that crime.

An offer is made to have Gorgias repeat his performance for Socrates'
benefit, but Socrates convinces Gorgias to enter into a simpler dialogue of brief questions and answers. Socrates gleefully compliments Gorgias on how well he complies with the rules of this simple form of dialogue.

Socrates is leading Gorgias into his dialectic trap. I once saw a cartoon in a magazine depicting a dog, who has laid down a trail of cat food, leading to an open dryer, hiding and gleefully waiting for the cat to step insidethe dryer. Once the cat is in, the dog will slam the door shut and rejoice as the cat spins round and round. Once Gorgias agrees to enter Socrates' "laundromat" of syllogisms, then poor Gorgias will find his head spinning like that cat.

An Analysis of Holiness

http://literarydiscussions.myfreeforum.org/ftopic587.php

(excerpt)

The mere recognition that there is such a thing as holiness and that
it is to be desired is the beginnings of holiness. - Sitaram

If I am ugly, yet I know that beauty exists.

If I am foolish, yet I know there is Wisdom.

If I am mortal, yet I know there is something Eternal.

If I am unclean, it is Purity which teaches me of my uncleanliness.

If I am sinful, yet I am not so sinful as to say there is nothing
Holy.

- Sitaram

Constantly Marvel in Wonder at the Ordinariness of it All

http://literarydiscussions.myfreeforum.org/ftopic756.php

(excerpt)

Stop and think for a moment. If YOU could reach that point in YOUR
spiritual life where at EVERY WAKING MOMENT, you were CONSTANTLY
MARVELLING IN WONDER at the ordinariness of everything, what would
you have achieved? What would your spiritual state be called? Would you be happy or sad in such a state?

It is by THOUGHT, and EQUANIMITY that we transcend the unpleasant
physical realties of our mundane corporeal existence. Mind makes
suffering. Mind makes all things, in a way, all things that matter. Eleanor Roosevelt stated this in a different way when she said, "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent". Even a thief hanging on a cross is able to keep his dignity and elevate his mind. We can never escape the need to sit on a toilet, but we are not forced to keep our MIND on the toilet, or IN the toilet. Our Mind is free to be in the Heaven of Heavens with the Archangels and Cherubim and Seraphim, ceaselessly changing "Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Hosts". Are those angelic orders not also CONSTANTLY MARVELLING IN WONDER at the ordinariness of it all.

Pleasure, Knowledge and Happiness

http://literarydiscussions.myfreeforum.org/ftopic285.php

(excerpt)

Stop and think of two scenarios which quantitatively are identical, but
qualitatively are quite different:

One person begins their career earning 10,000 the first year, 20000 the second, and so-on throughout their career, til the final year of retirement, they earn a million dollars... a clear example of continued success in the eyes of the world.

Now, consider a second person who earns a million dollars the first
year of their career, but each successive year, they earn less, until
their final year they earn a mere 10000... the world sees this as a
patter of failure... yet both individuals earned the same total
amount in their lifetimes, and the second had the opportunity to
invest the million in the first year

It is possible to see, in to lives, quantitatively the same "amount",
and yet it is the quality which dictates public opinion about
success/failure/happiness/fortune

Making Peace with Our Unhappiness

http://literarydiscussions.myfreeforum.org/ftopic346.php

(excerpt)

Neal: Are you happy? Because when you reach high meditation and spirtual knowlege
You are suppose to have some sort of upliftment like inner peace

Sitaram: I will not lie to you, I am not always happy, but my studies make it much easier for me to bear my sorrow and pain.

Sometimes, peace means making peace with our unhappiness, though it is not necessarily honest to call that "Happiness"

Job, in the Old Testament Bible, is certainly not "happy",
but he certainly has made peace with his unhappiness

Avis, perhaps you will find something useful in the above.