Mysticism and Spiritual Intelligence: Reality or Fantasy?

In a previous article, I discussed a study (Bitēna & Mārtinsone, 2021) that examined links between participants’ reports of mystical experiences with a measure of “spiritual intelligence” as well as measures of psychopathological traits including schizotypy and psychotic experiences. To recap briefly, mystical experience and spiritual intelligence were very strongly related to each other and to a lesser extent with certain schizotypy traits, such as unusual beliefs and experiences (e.g., claiming to have supernatural abilities such as mind-reading or telekinesis; seeing things that others do not) and psychotic experiences.

The authors argued that the results suggested that mystical experiences are spiritual in nature rather than pathological. However, I pointed out that their measures of mystical experience and spiritual intelligence had overlapping content and were likely tapping the same or similar underlying experiences. Hence, claiming that mystical experiences are “spiritual” is somewhat tautological and does not offer much substantive insight into their nature.

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Mystical Experience: Spiritual or Pathological?

Regarding whether mystical experiences are pathological, I am inclined to agree with the authors that such phenomena are likely to be relatively benign. For example, with schizotypy, there is considerable evidence that the “negative” traits such as social avoidance are more maladaptive and more likely to be linked to mental illness than the “positive” traits such as unusual beliefs and perceptions (Mohr & Claridge, 2015).

The fact that mystical experience and spiritual intelligence were not associated with the “negative” traits is, therefore, encouraging in this regard. This is in line with previous research findings that people who engage in nonmainstream spiritual practices tend to be higher in “positive” schizotypy traits of unusual beliefs and perceptions/magical thinking compared to more traditional religious believers but not in indicators of mental illness such as depression, anxiety, and insecure attachment (Farias et al., 2013). The authors of this latter study suggested that practitioners of new religious movements who engage in spiritual practices benefit from having a belief framework that helps them to make sense of their unusual inner lives.

The fact that mystical experience was positively correlated with psychotic symptoms in the study deserves further clarification, as the measure used in the study grouped together somewhat disparate symptoms, including delusions, hallucinations, and disorganized speech, thought, or behavior. The authors correctly note past research that shows that some phenomena like auditory hallucinations may be relatively common (e.g., more than 10 percent) in people who are not mentally ill and may not cause problems (Bitēna & Mārtinsone, 2021). However, disorganized speech, thought, or behavior may be more likely to be maladaptive, so further research should attempt to clarify what kind of psychotic symptoms tend to be related to mystical experience to resolve whether they could be considered pathological.

The Underlying Trait of Psychological Absorption

The finding that mystical experience and spiritual beliefs tend to be associated with psychotic-like experiences such as unusual beliefs and perceptions/magical thinking is in line with previous research that these kinds of experiences are related to a broad psychological trait known as absorption. Absorption represents an “individuals’ tendency to become deeply engrossed in sensory or imaginative experiences” (Lifshitz et al., 2019) and is strongly related to the personality trait openness to experience, which represents the breadth, depth, and complexity of one’s inner life. Furthermore, absorption is consistently associated with altered states of consciousness, including various kinds of “spiritual” experiences. For example, a review of studies found that the strongest psychological predictor of intensity of response to the hallucinogenic drug psilocybin was absorption (Studerus et al., 2012).

Absorption can also predict response to nondrug stimuli: In a study using a placebo “god helmet” that was supposed to induce mystical experiences through electromagnetic stimulation of the temporal lobes but was actually a sham (i.e., no stimulation was actually applied), volunteers high in absorption reported more frequent and more intense extraordinary experiences, often of a mystical nature (Lifshitz et al., 2019). Lifshitz et al. suggest that differences in absorption may explain why, in most societies around the world, there are some people who are regarded as “spiritual experts” such as shamans and mystics who have an ability to enter altered states of consciousness readily, yet there are no societies in which everyone is such an expert. They suggest that absorption represents a “talent” for having “spiritual” and related experiences that operates by blurring the boundaries between the inner and outer worlds so that what is imagined may seem real. In this respect, it is also interesting that people high in absorption are also more prone to report having anomalous experiences that are unlikely to be real, such as apparent paranormal phenomena and fantastic experiences like alien abduction.

On the other hand, some people may be high in absorption yet not regard their experiences as being particularly spiritual or paranormal. Hence, whether one interprets particular experiences as “spiritual” phenomena or simply as interesting mental events may depend on one’s view of the world. Based on this, I propose that purported “spiritual intelligence” likely represents a high capacity for absorption combined with an outlook that interprets ambiguous phenomena in “spiritual” terms. People who are high in absorption may be prone to both mystical experience and unusual beliefs and perceptions that could be interpreted as psychotic symptoms, although without necessarily being maladaptive.

Furthermore, although mystical experiences can have highly beneficial effects on well-being, I think it should also be acknowledged that they may be accompanied by tendencies to believe in things that could be regarded as irrational or even deluded—for example, that one has special powers or has gained esoteric insights into the world. Hence, it is not surprising that mystical experience and “spiritual intelligence” would be associated to an extent with positive schizotypy. Personally, I think it is useful to regard the “spiritual” as a very interesting dimension of human experience but not actually indicative of the existence of an immaterial “reality” unknown to science.