Spiritual Experiences:
I'm OK! You are OK! - even the really strange people who have spiritual experiences are OK!
The existential psychologists and editors, Park and Paloutzian, in the comprehensive Handbook of the Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, state "numerous survey studies in both the United States and Europe have demonstrated the normalcy of reports of religious experiences, including mystical experience (see Spilka, Hood, Hunsberger, & Gorsuch, 2003, pp. 307-312). Depending on the specific wording of the questions asked, anywhere from a third to a half of the populations affirm such experiences...While this correlational data does not provide evidence of that causes such reports, it does establish the normalcy of such reports and indicates social scientists have until recently ignored a common phenomena. " (p. 67) (my underlining) I haven't been able to get hold of any of the articles about the survey-studies, referenced by Park and Paloutzian yet, but the spiritual experiences from the surveys are probably a mixed bag with a wide variety of very diverse types and varieties of experiences – anywhere from mental telepathy, NDE, precognition, or ghosts.
Park and Paloutzian emphasize that the "reports" of spiritual experiences by people surveyed, definitely do not prove the reality or physical existence of a "transcendental spirit" in any way. However, Park and Paloutzian do maintain the surveys do definitely demonstrate that spiritual experiences have a "normalcy." That is, "Spiritual experiences are OK!" – which should have been the situation all along since the 'golden rule' in psychology is: I'm OK! You are OK!
What makes Spirituality Relevant in the 'Real World?
''Mainstream Psychology" which has a distinct "materialist bias" tends to have a 'predisposition' for ignoring and bypassing spirituality for the most part - as well as meaning. Though, within psychology many are aware of a materialist bias, most people haven't heard of "materialism." However, you know that "Spirituality" is a definite problem in Psychology, and that "mainstream psychology" has a "materialist bias," when, in "The Story of Psychology" Textbook (Anchor Books, 2007), which is a 700 plus page comprehensive 'History of Psychology' textbook written by Morton Hall, a well-known and prolific author on the subject of psychology, there is not even a single reference to either spirit, spirituality, religion, or even meaning. It is a comprehensive review of psychology over the course of the history of psychology - from Greek philosophers to modern psychologists. However, it eliminated all the writings about religious beliefs and spirituality by William James, Viktor Frankl, and Carl Jung, as well as all existential and positive psychology altogether (which could possibly be seen as a ‘meaning-spirituality school of thought in psychology). From a brief overview of local Maryland universities’ curriculum and speaking with psychology professors and psychology major in her last semester, that seems to be the case for the ‘teaching of psychology’ in Maryland Universities.
It is no wonder that the extensive 2018 Barna study of the younger generations' views of religion concludes that somewhere between 50 to 60% of the younger generation view religion and spirituality as not being "relevant." One of the most salient and obvious illustrations of spirituality would be the spiritual commitment to ideals and principles of civic activists, as well as the drive and endurance of civic activists and spiritual leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr., Tolstoy, Gandhi. All of these civic and social leaders made pivotal contributions to society and humanity - at very critical times in history. Without the spirituality and spiritual beliefs of these frequently very courageous exceptional individuals, humanity would be much impoverished. Martin Luther King Jr.'s speech - "Thou, Dear God" - is, perhaps, the quintessential illustration of spiritual beliefs and social ideals often found in spiritual and religious beliefs, as well as in the world's Holy Scriptures, as well.
"Thou, Dear God"
God grant that right here in America and all over this world, we will choose the high way; a way in which men will live together as brothers. A way in which the nations of the world will beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. A way in which every man will respect the dignity and worth of all human personality. A way in which every nation will allow justice to run down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream. A way in which men will do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with God. A way in which men will be able to stand up, and in the midst of oppression, in the midst of darkness and agony, they will be able to stand there and love their enemies, bless those persons that curse them, pray for those individuals that despite- fully use them. And this is the way that will bring us once more into that society which we think of as the brotherhood of man. This will be that day when white people, colored people, whether they are brown or whether they are yellow or whether they are black, will join together and stretch out with their arms and be able to cry out: “Free at last! Free at last! Great God Almighty, we are free at last!” - Martin Luther King, Jr. From "Thou, Dear God": Prayers That Open Hearts and Spirit That would definitely appear to me to be an expression of "spirit and truth" as in John 4: 23-24.
That is, in my view, the proof of spirituality is not in proving the existence of a "transcendental spirit" - but in the "the drive, the spiritual idealism and guidance, the meaning creation, the creativity, and creation of a sense of reality, or, perhaps, more directly, as some spiritual leaders might say, the creation of reality, itself!" Back in 1912, Emile Durkheim, a founding father of sociology, argued that religious and spiritual beliefs created social ideals, values and norms (via a collective consciousness) and essentially created society. Even a quick glance at major religions show very evident proof of social ideals such as compassion, justice, righteousness - which are vital concepts of every major religion.
In light of the fact that spiritual experiences and spiritual and religious beliefs and idealism have been a pivotal part of human societies and truth(s) for tens of thousands of years, that it would stand to reason that the spiritual experiences perform an important function in human consciousness, perhaps if simply to structure and organize the emotions and meaning structure of people. I would argue that if these spiritual experiences were completely dysfunctional then the processes of evolution would have eliminated spiritual experiences from human thinking, as it were. A biology PhD explained the de-evolution of birds that fly to flightless birds such as happened in Hawaii by saying that "flying" for birds is biologically "expensive" so if not needed such as the predator-less environment of the Hawaii Islands, birds would de-evolve to flightless birds. A psychologist, whose name I can't recall at the moment, pointed out that spiritual experiences are "expensive" (something I can vouch for) - so if spiritual experiences were not performing any function at all they would have disappeared from human behavior long ago.
While Fraser Watts, in Psychology, Religion, and Spirituality, does mention that peoples' responses to surveys vary somewhat with what kind of questions are asked, Watts states that from surveys it does appear that roughly about one third of people surveyed have transcendental spiritual-psychic experiences. Fraser Watts did highlight the fact that in one survey 24% of the people in the survey who responded that they did have spiritual or transcendental spiritual experiences turned out to be atheists. Since atheists as well as religious and spiritual people have spiritual experiences that would seem a clear indication that "unconscious" spiritual processes are at work. Carl Jung argued that 'spirit is an autonomous unconscious process' which had a superior function to the self or ego, as it were.
The views of people vary widely on the question of spiritual or transcendental spiritual-psychic experiences, and with most groups of people, if you ask three people you will tend to get three relatively very different answers. Much of the misconceptions of people stem from a general lack of correct information about spiritual experiences and some distinct disinformation from some people – especially it seems psychiatry. I do find it disconcerting, as I will discuss later that "Mainstream Psychology" which does have a distinct and obvious "materialist bias," has effectively 'sidelined' and marginalized for all practical purposes existential and positive psychology from mainstream psychology. I have briefly overviewed Maryland universities’ curriculum, as well as spoken with a UMBC professor as well as a psychology major in her last semester at Towson University, and it seems clear that the ‘official’ or mainstream psychology has marginalized spirituality. That being said, there are several psychology professors who I have spoken with who have researched and understand existential psychologists who focus on spirituality such as Paul Wong or Pargament.
My problem is that when I talk with ‘ordinary’ people or students, they have no idea of what I talk about when I talk about the idea that “spiritual processes create meaning” as advocated by Viktor Frankl, Carl Jung, William James, as well as Emile Durkheim. Furthermore, most people do not seem to be aware, as Park and Paloutzian point out, that, in fact, there does appear to be a definite “normalcy” characteristic to spiritual experiences. That is a sore point with me because I have gotten a lot of grief over my personal spiritual experience.
A link to a more thorough address on the question of spiritual processes in human consciousness: https://www.spirittruthandmeaning.com/post-titlefde4d99d
I would mention that though there are "numerous" studies cited by Park and Palotuzian, overall the studies appear to be rather limited in number - and my impression from researching psychological studies is that there would, on the face of it, appear to be more studies and research in "psychic phenomena." There are several "meta-analyses" of precognition experiments of Bem involving over 100 laboratories, Mossbridge's "presentiment meta-analysis, as well as a meta-analysis of Ganzfeld experiments. I must say I have never seen even 'meta-nothing' meta-analyses when it comes to people who have spiritual experiences.
Here is a link to psychic research, if interested: https://www.spirittruthandmeaning.com/research-into-psychic-phenomenon
Content Copyrighted Charles E Peck Jr. Copyright ©
References and Footnotes
Profile of Dr. James Doty: https://profiles.stanford.edu/james-doty
The Center for Compassion And Altruism Research And Education: http://ccare.stanford.edu/
American Psychological Association: https://www.apa.org/
Association for Psychological Science: https://www.psychologicalscience.org/about/links.cfm
Albert Einstein comprehensive website: http://alberteinsteinsite.com/
Albert Einstein Biography: https://www.biography.com/people/albert-einstein-9285408
Godel’s Theorem of Incompleteness: https://www.jamesrmeyer.com/ffgit/godels_theorem.html
John Bargh, PhD: http://bargh.socialpsychology.org/
https://www.rogerdooley.com/john-bargh-priming
http://www.psych.nyu.edu/bargh/index.html
Rupert Sheldrake: https://www.sheldrake.org/
Viktor Frankl: http://www.viktor-frankl.com/
Viktor Frankl: http://www.viktorfrankl.org/
Dr. Harold Koenig: https://spiritualityandhealth.duke.edu/index.php/harold-g-koenig-m-d
Dr. Harold Koenig: https://medicine.duke.edu/faculty/harold-g-koenig-m-d
Roy Baumeister: http://www.roybaumeister.com/
Roy Baumeister: https://psy.fsu.edu/faculty/baumeisterr/baumeister.dp.php
Dr. Paul Wong: http://www.drpaulwong.com/
Dr. Paul Wong: https://positivepsychologyprogram.com/paul-wong-biography/
Clifford Geertz: https://www.biography.com/people/clifford-geertz-9308224
Carl Jung: https://www.biography.com/people/carl-jung-9359134
Carl Jung: https://www.psychologistworld.com/cognitive/carl-jung-analytical-psychology
12 common Archetypes: http://www.soulcraft.co/essays/the_12_common_archetypes.html
Emile Durkheim: http://durkheim.uchicago.edu/
Emile Durkheim: http://faculty.rsu.edu/users/f/felwell/www/Theorists/Durkheim/index2.htm
William James: https://www.biography.com/people/william-james-9352726
William James: https://study.com/academy/lesson/william-james-psychology-theories-lesson-quiz.html
Tania Singer references: http://cultureofempathy.com/References/Experts/Tania-Singer.htm
https://charterforcompassion.org/discovering-empathy/dr-tania-singer-and-the-neuroscience-of-empathy
Dr Amit Sood Mindfulness: https://www.mindfulleader.org/amit-sood
Dr. Harold Koenig Director, Center for Spirituality,
Theology and Health: https://spiritualityandhealth.duke.edu/index.php/harold-g-koenig-m-d
Dr. Koenig on what spirituality can do for you: https://www.beliefnet.com/wellness/health/2006/05/what-religion-can-do-for-your-health.aspx
Keith Karren – Body, Mind, Spirit:
http://pgrpdf.abhappybooks.com/mind-body-health-keith-j-karren-ph-d-pdf-5716009.pdf
E O Wilson Biodiversity: https://eowilsonfoundation.org/
E O Wilson - PBS on Ants: http://www.pbs.org/program/eo-wilson/
Anthropologist Malinowski: http://anthrotheory.wikia.com/wiki/Bronislaw_
MalinowskiSocial Anthropology - Malinowski: http://scihi.org/bronislaw-malinowski-social-anthropology/
St. Augustine (Catholic source): https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=418
St. Augustine: http://www.ccel.org/ccel/augustine
Konrad Lorenz: https://www.age-of-the-sage.org/scientist/konrad_lorenz.html
Konrad Lorenz: http://www.famouspsychologists.org/konrad-lorenz/
St. Gregory of Nyssa (Franciscan): https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-gregory-of-nyssa/
St. Gregory of Nyssa (wikiorg): https://orthodoxwiki.org/Gregory_of_Nyssa
Neuroscientist Stanislas Dehaene: https://www.edge.org/memberbio/stanislas_dehaene
Imants Barušs, psychologist and parapsychologist: http://www.baruss.ca/
Julia Mossbridge, psychologist and parapsychologist: https://noetic.org/profile/julia-mossbridge
https://sharingthesearch.com/tag/j-mossbridge/
https://www.closertotruth.com/contributor/julia-mossbridge/profile
Friedrich Nietzsche: http://nietzschecircle.com/
Nietzsche biography: https://www.biography.com/people/friedrich-nietzsche-9423452
Abraham Joshua Heschel: https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/abraham-joshua-heschel-a-prophets-prophet/
Iroquois:
http://www.ushistory.org/us/1d.asp
Greek Mythology: Apollo and the Oracle of Delphi
https://www.greekmythology.com/Olympians/Apollo/apollo.html
https://www.thoughtco.com/apollo-greek-god-sun-music-prophecy-111902
http://greek-gods.info/greek-gods/apollo/
https://www.coastal.edu/intranet/ashes2art/delphi2/misc-essays/oracle_of_delphi.html
https://www.pbs.org/empires/thegreeks/background/7_p1.html
https://www.ancient-origins.net/myths-legends/pythia-oracle-delphi-001641
https://www.ancient-origins.net/myths-legends/pythia-oracle-delphi-001641