Positive Emotions and Self-Transcendence
Psychology Press eBooks July 24, 2013 60 citations
This chapter examines how positive emotional states, self-transcendence, spirituality, and religion are interconnected. It is divided into three parts. The first part explores how positive emotions dissolve rigid boundaries between the self and the outer world at intra- and inter-individual levels. The second part examines positive emotions at a collective level through rituals, focusing on movement synchronization and music in social and religious contexts that spread positive emotions and enhance rapport. The third part investigates the role of positive emotions in religion and spirituality, proposing a family of self-transcendent positive emotions and presenting research on both directions of causality—positive emotions as consequences and as possible antecedents of religion and spirituality.