The Holy Light of Cyberspace: Spiritual Experience in a Virtual Church
Religions February 24, 2022 Nesrine Mansour
Light in virtual sacred architecture can evoke spiritual experiences similar to those in physical sacred spaces. An empirical study measured participants' emotional responses to a virtual church, finding that light design influenced subjective spiritual appreciation. The research offers a quantitative method for assessing digital religion and virtual 'built' environments, bridging architecture and social sciences. The authors propose that cyberspace can frame sacred experience and that spiritual events in such settings reflect emotional responses to architectural elements.