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Spiritual Transmission
What is transmitted in the spiritual teacher–student relationship, and how?
Across contemplative traditions, students often describe receiving something that cannot be reduced to words, techniques, or information. This research investigates what teachers and practitioners describe as transmission, how they experience it, and the role of the teacher–student relationship in enduring spiritual transformation.
Research snapshot
How the inquiry is conducted
Research approach
Phenomenological interviews · Comparative thematic analysis · Conceptual analysis
Current research material
100+ interviews · Multiple contemplative traditions
This line of inquiry draws on a growing comparative archive of 100+ interviews with contemplative teachers and practitioners from multiple traditions.
Why this question matters
A contested and universal question
Accounts of spiritual transmission appear in contemplative traditions across cultures and historical periods. These accounts describe encounters that practitioners regard as catalysts for enduring transformation, yet the nature of what is transmitted remains deeply contested. These questions reach beyond spirituality into broader issues of human learning, interpersonal influence, and transformative relationships.
Rather than beginning with assumptions about what transmission is, this research examines how spiritual teachers and students describe their experience. By comparing interviews across individuals, traditions, and cultures, the inquiry looks for recurring patterns.
In their own words
Voices from the archive
Selected excerpts from the interview archive show how spiritual teachers and students from different traditions describe their experience of transmission, love, paradoxes and dilemmas in the teacher-student relationship.
J Jaye Gold
Unaffiliated • CA, USA
Spiritual Transmission Interview
Surrender
Vigdis Garbarek
Unaffiliated • Norway
Spiritual Transmission interviews
Teacher-student relationship
Philip Goldberg
Interfaith Minister and Author • USA
Spiritual Transmission discussion
Enlightenment • Morality • Ethics
Publications
Published & emerging work
Featured publication
Spiritual Transmission: Paradoxes and Dilemmas on the Spiritual Path
The 2018 book examining what passes between teacher and student — and the paradoxes and dilemmas that arise within that relationship.
Related publications
- Freimann, A., & Mayseless, O. (2025). Surrender to Another Person: The Case of a Spiritual Master. Journal of Humanistic Psychology.
- Freimann, A., Mayseless, O., Hart, T., & Johnson, A. (2025). What makes someone a spiritual exemplar to another? Archive for the Psychology of Religion.
Open research questions
- Why do spiritual teacher–student relationships break down so often?
- How do a teacher’s imperfections affect their teaching work?
- How does dependency arise in the spiritual teacher–student relationship?
Research notes & conversations
Thinking in progress
Ongoing reflections, essays, and video commentaries exploring questions, findings, and emerging ideas within this line of inquiry — and inviting further reflection and discussion.
Part of one inquiry
Continue the inquiry
Take the same inquiry into your own experience — or discover the other lines of inquiry.