Autoethnographic Reflection on Spirituality, Mysticism and Consciousness: Transformations in the Academy and Beyond

Dear Colleagues,

The role of mystical, metaphysical, transcendental, or spiritual intuition as a source for knowledge building has been sidelined in academia for years. Yet, spirituality can be a source of motivation and wisdom (Ecklund, 2012) and a means by which we are able to perceive and understand important aspects of the phenomena we study (Hendry, 2009). More than a few scholars (Bharati, 1982; Bucke, 2009; Deloria, 2003; Harner, 2013; Ichazo, 1976), including quite a few empirically hard-nosed physicists (Wilber, 2001) have had significant and transformative mystical experiences that changed the way they understand humanity and the world. 

While some scholars might dismiss and even sneer at mystical/religious/peak/transcendent experiences and other expressions of human spirituality as unworthy of scholarly attention, these experiences, which vary wildly in duration, intensity, quality, content, and outcome are significant experiences to many.  In mild form they bring a sense of peace, acceptance, and quietude. When intense, these experiences are capable of instantly healing addiction (Wilson and Smith, ND), miraculously curing psychological trauma, radically changing one’s perspective and worldview (Sosteric, 2018b), and permanently changing one’s life (Miller and Baca, 2001). 

Awareness of the ideological functions of organized religion and fear of the response of skeptical colleagues have made some scholars rightly reluctant to show explicit interest in transcendent experience, much less centering spiritual experience in a space for inquiry.  This hesitancy goes double when it comes to researching and understanding the scholar’s own experiences with spirituality, mysticism, and other forms of transcendent experience. Autoethnographer Chang (2011) described the moment she “sensed deep-seated resistance toward personal expressions of spirituality in the academy” (p. 11). She later was compelled to co-edit a volume of autoethnographic writing around religion and spirituality in higher education, offering a space for a form of writing that was previously sidelined in academia (Chang and Boyd, 2011). 

Autoethnography is a qualitative, self-reflexive, and context-conscious method of inquiry that encourages one to reflect on human phenomena explored through personal interpretation of one's own experiences (Chang and Boyd, 2011). Chang and Boyd affirm this approach as well suited for understanding the highly subjective nature of spirituality and its connection to all aspects of our lives, including academic pursuits. 

Interest in human spirituality and spiritual experiences is growing within and outside the academy. While deeply personal and subjective experiences of this kind may have  been regarded with suspicion in the academy in the past, we now see an openness to explore transcendent experience through narrative methods. The narrative mode of knowing is concerned with meaning that is ascribed to an experience as an individual tells their story. 

In nearly every culture throughout history, people have been predisposed to telling their stories as a way of making sense of their experiences (McAdams, 2008). Autoethnography as a method  of inquiry draws on the practices of autobiographical writing, narrative inquiry, and ethnography to inquire into aspects of the researcher’s own story (Chang, 2008; Hollman Jones, Adams, and Ellis, 2016; Hughes and Pennington, 2016). Autoethnography gives space for attention to physical experiences, thoughts, sensations, emotions, and inclinations of the spirit (Amoroso, 2021; Bilgen, 2018; Cozart, 2010; Hendry, 2009; Merriam, 2008; Poulos, 2010) in holistic inquiry that pushes past arbitrary methodological dogmas that scholars should neither embrace nor examine their own experiences in the research setting. The increase in the number of researchers and practitioners turning to autoethnography attests to the impulse among scholars to expose, explore, reflect, and critically analyze their own spiritual experiences.  As autoethnographer Chris Poulos (2010) once wrote: 

Since the beginning of human consciousness, the mystics among us have pointed to categories of transcendent experience, wherein we humans may find ourselves wrapped up in a moment in which something sacred, something mysterious, something numinous (i.e., the divine) is showing itself to us. This is the kind of experience some of us seek, and some of us just stumble upon. I have found myself betwixt and between these two poles. I seek, but, more often than not, I stumble into something unexpected, and there find the kind of moment I was seeking, though not exactly in the line I had expected. Either way, we may find ourselves engulfed in mystery and wonder, and thus called upon to act.” (p. 49)

It is through this ability to tackle the intangible, hard-to-measure, metaphysical, and highly personal issues of life that researchers across disciplines are being drawn more and more to autoethnography. We are among the many researchers that welcome this development. 

With this in mind, in this Special Issue of Religions, you are invited to explore and share, through an autoethnographic lens, your experience with human spirituality. This may include an examination of your mystical, religious, peak, and transcendent experiences, as well as an examination of other expressions and manifestations of human spirituality and religious experience. Explore your experiences in collaboration with others; explore the positive and negative outcomes of these experiences; explore the precursors to these experiences; explore the challenges that you have faced in understanding and integrating these experiences into your personal and professional contexts. Explore in whatever way you feel is appropriate. The goal is to use autoethnographic methods to develop a deeper, more critical awareness of this important and often overlooked aspect of human spirituality, particularly as it manifests within the academy. This call is multidisciplinary, and you may use any theoretical framework within which to explore your experience. We expect this issue to be wide ranging and to include a multicultural, multi-faith balance of accounts. 

References

Amoroso, Lauriel-Arwen, "Walking as a Way of Knowing: An Autoethnography of Embodied Inquiry" (2021). Dissertations and Theses. Paper 5651. https://doi.org/10.15760/etd.7523

Bharati, A. (1982). The Light at the Center: Context and Pretext of Modern Mysticism. Ross Erikson.

Bilgen, W. A. (2018). Constructing a Social Justice Leadership Identity: An Autoethnography of a Female Jewish Christian Social Worker Living in Turkey. Eastern University. ProQuest Dissertations Publishing.

Boylorn, R. M., & Orbe, M. P. (Eds.). (2014). Critical Autoethnography: Intersecting Cultural Identities in Everyday Life. Left Coast Press.

Bucke, R. M. (2009). Cosmic Consciousness. E.P. Dutton.

Chang, H., & Boyd, D. (Eds.). (2011). Spirituality in Higher Education: Autoethnographies. Left Coast Press.

Cozart, S,C (2010) When the Spirit shows up: An autoethnography of spiritual reconciliation with the academy, Educational Studies, 46(2) , 250-269. 

Deloria, V. Jr. (2003). God is Red: A Native View of Religion. Fulcrum Publishing.

Denzin, N. K. (2013). Interpretive Autoethnography. In S. H. Jones, T. E. Adams, & C. Ellis (Eds.), Handbook of Autoethnography (pp. 123–142). Left Coast Press.

Ecklund, E. H. (2012). What Scientists Really Think. Oxford University Press. https://corpwatch.org/article/what-neoliberalism

Ellis, C, & Adams, T. E. (2014). The purposes, practices, and principles of autoethnographic research. In The Oxford handbook of qualitative research (pp. 254–276). Oxford University Press.

Ellis, Carolyn. (2004). The Ethnographic I. Rowman & Littlefield.

Harner, M. (2013). Cave and Cosmos: Shamanic Encounters with Another Reality. North Atlantic Books.

Hendry, P. M. (2009). Narrative as inquiry. The Journal of Educational Research 103(2), 72–80.

Holt, N. L. (2003). Representation, Legitimation, and Autoethnography: An Autoethnographic Writing Story. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 2(1), 18–28. Academic Search Complete.

Ichazo, O. (1976). The Human Process of Enlightenment and Freedom. Arica Institute.

Jones, S. H., Adams, T. E., & Ellis, C. (Eds.). (2013). Handbook of Autoethnography. Left Coast Press.

Merriam, S. B. (2008). Adult learning theory for the twenty‐first century. New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, (119), 93–98.

McIlveen, P. (2008). Autoethnography as a method for reflexive research and practice in vocational psychology. Australian Journal of Career Development, 2, 13–20.

Miller, W. R., & Baca, J. C. (2001). Quantum Change: When Epiphanies and Sudden Insights Transform Ordinary Lives. The Guildford Press. https://amzn.to/2D1gYZo

Poulos, C. N. (2010). Spirited accidents: An autoethnography of possibility. Qualitative Inquiry, 16(1), 49–56.

Sosteric, M. (2018a). Everybody has a connection experience: Prevalence, confusions, interference, and redefinition. Spirituality Studies, 4(2). https://www.spirituality-studies.org/dp-volume4-issue2-fall2018/files/assets/common/downloads/files/4-2-sosteric.pdf

Sosteric, M. (2018b). Mystical experience and global revolution. Athens Journal of Social Sciences, 5(3), 235–255. https://doi.org/10.30958/ajss.5-3-1

Spry, T. (2011). Body, paper, stage: Writing and performing autoethnography. Left Coast Press.

Wilber, K. (2001). Quantum Questions: Mystical Writings of the World’s Great Physicists. Shambhala.

Wilson, B., & Smith, B. (ND). The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous (Kindle). Renegade Press. https://amzn.to/2tVJ1nY

Dr. Mike Sosteric
Dr. Wendy Bilgen
Ms. Gina Ratkovic
Guest Editors

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• autoethnography
• mysticism
• mystical experience
• spirituality
• connection experience
• peak experience
• flow experience
• transcendence
• pure consciousness event
• plateau experience
• autoethnography