1. SPIRITUAL TRANSFORMATION OR AS THE IMPOSSIBLE TURNS TO OBVIOUS
Pawel M. Socha Institute for the Study of Religions Jagiellonian University Psychology of Religion Unit
SPIRITUAL TRANSFORMATION
OR AS THE IMPOSSIBLE TURNS TO OBVIOUS

2. WHICH THEORIES CONTRIBUTED TO MY POSITION ON SPIRITUALITY?
Notion of the boundary (existential) situation (K. Jaspers)
Phenomenological-cognitive theory of coping (R. Lazarus)
Theory of spiritual intelligence (R. Emmons)
Terror management theory (J. Greenberg, S. Solomon & T. Pyszczynski)
Cognitive theory of the existential meaning (J. Bering)

3. THE KEY to trans-formation
THE EXISTENTIAL SITUATION
GRENZSITUATION (Karl Jaspers)

4. Process of coping with the existential situation
CONSTRUCTION OF THE HUMAN DIMENSION OF REALITY
PROCESSES OF APPRAISAL – feeling of alienation, necessities, limitations of time (mortality, transitoriness), of space, psychological deficits, inability to „get out of oneself”, economical, etc..
Biological, terrifying, direct, purely sensual, „primary experience” of reality
Hay: relational consciousness - „here and now”, „mystery”, „noetic value”)
Greenberg, Solomon & Pyszczynski – existential terror
TRANSFORMATION
Transformation is the process of symbolic adaptation
This involves the evolutionary and culturally developed abilities, consisting among others, of:
Shared with animals, processes of orientation allowing for the recognition of threats and of their avoidance
Available only to humans IMPERATIVE ability for thinking in terms of cause and reason (predicting, planning, imaging, etc.), and directing these cognitive processes into one’s self (self-awareness’ feedback)
Evolutionary ability to attribute intentionality to any object
Ability to manipulate one’s states of consciousness (mysticism)
Ability to put off the logos in favour of the mythos
Accumulation of the resources of knowledge, accessible also for next generations (creation of the culture)
In result of the transformation, THE UNAVOIDABLE CAN BECOME POSSIBLE, THE IMPOSSIBLE TURNS TO OBVIOUS

5. RESOURCES: IDEALS AND PATTERNS OF CULTURE
Existential situation
CONSTRUCTION OF THE HUMAN DIMENSION OF REALITY
PROCESES OF APPRAISAL – feeling of alienation, necessity, limitations of time (mortality, transitoriness), of space, psychological deficits, inability to „get out of oneself”, economical, etc..
TRANSFORMATION (SPIRITUAL)
AMONG OTHERS, ITS RESOURCES ARE:
Religion and religiousness
National identity
Family life
Rules of social relationships, e.g., morality
Forms of artistic expression
Techniques of personal growth and social integration
Psychotherapies
Biological, terrifying, direct, purely sensual, „primary experience” of reality
Hay: relational consciousness - „here and now”, „mystery”, „noetic value”)
Greenberg, Solomon & Pyszczynski – existential terror

6. THE OUTCOMES OF TRANSFORMATION
Existential situation
CONSTRUCTION OF THE HUMAN DIMENSION OF REALITY
TRANSFORMATION
RADICALLY NEW UNDERSTANDING AND EXPERIENCING OF THE SITUATION AS
„HOLY”, „SACRED”
„MIRACULOUS”,
„SUPER-HUMAN”
– INCLUDING ONE’S OWN PERSON AS EXCEPTIONAL:
Experience of a „higher” meaning, affording an unusual control, certainty of knowledge, „higher” personal value, e.g., as chosen („chosen” can be even a nation), predestined to a special mission, salvation, or other reward
PROCESES OF APPRAISAL – feeling of alienation, necessity, limitations of time (mortality, transitoriness), of space, psychological deficits, inability to „get out of oneself”, economical, etc..
RESOURCES:
Religion and religiousness
National identity
Family life
Rules of social relationships, e.g., morality
Forms of the artistic expression
Techniques of personal growth and social integration
Psychotherapies
Biological, terrifying, direct, purely sensual, „primary experience” of reality
Hay: relational consciousness - „here and now”, „mystery”, „noetic value”)
Greenberg, Solomon & Pyszczynski – existential terror

7. DETAILED ASPECTS OF SPIRITUAL TRANSFORMATION AND ITS OUTCOMES

8. Any experience of transformation is a reinterpretation of some element of reality, or its fragment, in a new way
For example, such a fragment can be:
Part of self-perception (elements of the Self scheme, such as self-esteem, identification with another person, actual or fictional, etc.)
Way of perception of others (e.g., through development of empathic skills)
Vision of nature (e.g., development of ecological awareness)
Adaptation of new patterns of the ethical or esthetical values

9. ... But there are also: such experiences of transformation, as:
The subject’s subordination to a superior power (e.g., a feeling of absolute dependence – Schleiermacher’s theology)
Furnishing the subject with the forces or possibilities, not affordable before (e.g., ability of healing)
Or – on the opposite pole – putting off the responsibility for the flow of things to the transcendent agent, releasing the subject from decision making or from any activity (decrease of subjectivity)

10. ... in the interaction with religious tradition:
Discovery of the new self resulting from the experience of meeting some personal (best if believed to be divine, supernatural) being, like:
JESUS CHRIST
BUDDHA

11. ... Perfection or at least „exchange” of the part of the self
The Buddhist Arhat
The Muslim convert
Jusuf Islam

12. ... Becoming a „destined” person (a new self through revelation)
PROPHETS
EZECHIEL
MUHAMMAD
JOSEPH SMITH

13. … A SATANIC TRANSFORMATION (a new self through possession)
Sister Jeanne des Anges from Loudun

14. IS THE TRANSFORMING EXPERIENCE JUST THE RESULT OF IMAGERY???
The existential situation cannot actually happen. Why we would not just imagine it? Recall:
Anxieties paralyzing the neurotic individual
Breathtaking – both fearful and ecstatic – experience of the Himalaya conqueror
Is there any benefit from these instances?

15. COPING „AS IF” – we immunize ourselves to the real situations
Moreover…
Every HEALTHY individual „likes to feel fear”
We get bored with films without a suspense
Romantic love presented in literature or film „must” be unfortunate
BUT WHY???
COPING „AS IF” – we immunize ourselves to the real situations