Spiritual experiences evoke awe through the small self in both religious and non-religious individuals

By Jesse L. Preston, Faith Shin. 2017

110 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract Spiritual experiences are profound moments of personal transcendence, connection, and wonder. Five studies (total N = 1064) investigate how spiritual experiences induce feelings of awe, in both religious and non-religious people, through a sense of small self. Recalling spiritual experiences increased feelings of Awe (Studies 1–5), Small Self (Studies 2, 4, & 5), and Spiritual Humility (Studies 3 & 4), but did not impact Intellectual Humility (Studies 3 & 4). We thus note a paradox – spirituality promotes humility toward the divine, but not humility about one's beliefs. Moreover, the effect of spiritual experiences on Awe was mediated by feelings of Small Self (Studies 2, 4 & 5) and Spirituality Humility (Studies 3 & 4). The effects of spiritual experiences on Awe and Small Self were found in both religious and non-religious individuals, but religious people recalled more explicit religious events and life and death events as sources of spirituality, whereas non-religious people were more likely to report experiences in nature, peak experiences, science, and yoga/ meditation as spiritual experiences. Though religious and non-religious people may generate different types of spiritual experiences, we conclude that spirituality induces awe through the feelings of small self that are shared by religious and non-religious individuals, and this may help us to understand the meaning of spirituality without religion.

Subfields: Literature and Literary Theory, Social Psychology, Philosophy

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/1ce6fb85be2574d89f7edb38e0f83e5d7b987e62