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My doctoral thesis, Living Transcendence and Spiritual Exemplarity: A Phenomenological Inquiry from Diverse Perspectives, was submitted to the University of Haifa in 2024. Below is its Abstract and attached is a PDF of the thesis.
Spiritual development is considered a core aspect of human development. While there are many definitions of spiritual development, a commonly accepted one in the literature is that spiritual development is “the process of growing the intrinsic human capacity for self-transcendence, in which the self is embedded in something greater than the self, including the sacred. It is the developmental “engine” that propels the search for connectedness, meaning, purpose, and contribution” (Benson et al., 2003: 205-206). Despite its centrality, “self-transcendence and character traits associated with spirituality are typically neglected in systematic research” (Sperry, 2001: 42). Such neglect is particularly evident in relation to the “vertex of maturity” (Piaget, 1970a) towards which spiritual development leads and to those who embody and exemplify it.
The research addresses this lacuna by shedding light on the characteristics of Living Transcendence and of spiritual exemplarity in different religious traditions and spiritual paths. Living Transcendence is a term referring to a relatively constant, stabilized spiritual “state of being,” considered by many religious traditions to be the desideratum and holy grail of the “search for the sacred.” Spiritual exemplars are individuals who are perceived by others as exemplifying the desideratum of their religious tradition or spiritual path. In other words, Living Transcendence and spiritual exemplarity represent the vertex or summit of spiritual development and its exemplification in individuals, respectively. The study of these two related phenomena and of the relationships between them aims at shedding light on spirituality and spiritual development.
The research addresses the questions: How is Living Transcendence experienced by spiritual exemplars? And how are spiritual exemplars perceived by and what are their effects on other people? It explores these questions from the perspectives of (1) spiritual exemplars, who describe their experience of Living Transcendence; (2) experts in the religious-spiritual field, who describe individuals they regard as spiritual exemplars; and (3) research collaborators, who describe the effects on themselves of analyzing interviews of a large number of spiritual exemplars.
The research consisted of three studies, corresponding to these three angles. They will be referred to here as Study 1, corresponding to the perspective of the experts on spiritual exemplars; Study 2, corresponding to the perspective of spiritual exemplars on their experience; and Study 3, corresponding to the perspective of research collaborators on spiritual exemplars they studied.
Study 1, whose title is What makes someone a spiritual exemplar to another?, included thematic analysis of descriptions of 180 spiritual exemplars. These descriptions were provided by 77 experts in the spiritual and religious field, who were asked to describe people they considered spiritual exemplars and specifically relate to what it was that made them spiritual exemplars. Its primary research question was: What makes someone a spiritual exemplar to another? Additional questions were: How do people recognize certain individuals and perceive them as spiritual exemplars? How do they describe or explain their recognition and perception? In the thematic analysis of the descriptions, fifteen categories of exemplar characteristics were developed and organized into three themes: Concrete-Performative (e.g., practices, actions), Descriptive-Qualitative (e.g., presence, humility) and Relational-Impactive (e.g., love, gratitude). Salient features of spiritual exemplarity were its multifacetedness and elusiveness. The findings underscored the important role of relational feelings, subjective impressions and felt impact in the perception of spiritual exemplars. They also suggested that a spiritual exemplar is commonly perceived as an archetype of integration and wholeness. Such wholeness can manifest in a multitude of ways and be pointed at from different angles, but is itself illusive or hard to describe.
Manuscript 1, describing this study and its findings, was accepted for publication in Archive for the Psychology of Religion.
Study 2, whose title is Living Transcendence: A phenomenological study of spiritual exemplars, included thirty-two of the 180 spiritual exemplars recognized and described in Study 1. Those exemplars were interviewed about their experience of Living Transcendence and the interviews were analyzed. The research question was: How is Living Transcendence experienced by spiritual exemplars? Four qualities of the experience of Living Transcendence were described: Noetic (pre-conceptual, non-discursive, non-symbolic knowing / awareness / consciousness of ultimate reality or truth), Affective (supremely positive affective qualities of joy, happiness or bliss and love), Embodied (somatic and/or energetic presence or sense of a spiritual essence) and Relational (a sense of connectivity or “inter-being” with everything, God or the Whole). Characteristics of the experience were found to be its constancy over time, amid and through the fluctuations of normal life and various crises, and its association with an unusual type of volitionality, that is, the will to obey, surrender to or be in service of a “calling.” While the presence and prominence of each of these qualities and characteristics varied between individuals, they appeared to be facets of one essence. The experience of Living Transcendence appeared to be constantly and consistently unitive, connective and supremely positive, and to inextricably permeate all other experiences and contextualize them.
Manuscript 2, describing this study and its findings, has been published in The Humanistic Psychologist, https://doi.org/10.1037/hum0000359
Study 3, whose title is Self-transformative research: Effects on researchers of a holistic collaborative study of spiritual exemplars, was done with fourteen research collaborators, who analyzed interviews of twenty of the spiritual exemplars of Study 2. The research question was: What happens to research collaborators interested in spirituality as they get exposed to a large number of spiritual exemplars? The data collected suggests that the research collaborators both formed and experienced the process as holistic and self-transformative in different ways. The main effects described were “self-reflection and insight,” “opening and broadening” and “fostering spiritual self-reliance.” From the findings it appears that spiritual exemplarity is determined by “sympathetic resonance” between the exemplar and the person perceiving them as such. The conditions which contributed to the effects of the process included the collaborators’ affinity to and personal interest in the research subject, the multi-modal research method, and maybe the unique characteristics of spiritual exemplarity.
Manuscript 3, describing this study and its findings, was has been published in Journal of Contemplative Studies, DOI: https://doi.org/10.57010/TIWG2652
The research helps fill a hiatus in the scientific literature in the psychology of religion and spirituality and humanistic and transpersonal psychology. The significance of Living Transcendence and of spiritual exemplars for religious and spiritual practitioners and seekers, and for religious traditions and spiritual paths themselves, has been abundantly expounded on in traditional texts. This abundance has not been matched, however, by scientific research on this subject. This research aims at contributing to a systematic study of Living Transcendence and spiritual exemplars and laying foundations for further research of these constructs.
The study of Living Transcendence and spiritual exemplars holds promise for addressing religious diversity and the religious/secular dichotomy by further illuminating the common essence of mysticism across cultures and religious traditions and supporting religious and cultural pluralism. Focusing on the lived experience of this essence, rather than on abstract concepts and dogmas, can be in the service of facilitating inter-religious and inter-cultural dialogue and creating bridges of shared interest, understanding, appreciation and dialogue among the world religions and cultures.