From self-transcendent emotions to transcendent experiences: an exploratory study in the continuity between everyday and mystical experiences
Philosophical Psychology November 6, 2025 Florián Cova, Angela Gaia F. Abatista 1 citation
Mystical experiences—marked by unity and self-loss—may not be rare and special; they may lie on a continuum with common, everyday experiences. In an exploratory study, participants described past experiences of unity and self-loss. Everyday unity experiences, often triggered by feeling part of a social group, shared many features of mystical experiences, including feelings of unity, insight, and the presence of meaning. Both types of experiences also involved social emotions. These preliminary results suggest that investigating the continuity between mystical and everyday experiences could help reveal the psychological mechanisms and evolutionary origins of mystical experiences.