Modern Psychology and Mystical Experience
Samuel Bendeck Sotillos
Spiritual Psychology and Counseling June 30, 2026 DOI: 10.37898/spiritualpc.1922758 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Mysticism Mystical experience |
| Keywords | Psyche Psychology of religion Embodied cognition Scope computer science Hegemony Spirituality Soul Epistemology Psychoanalysis Religious experience Transpersonal psychology |
| Key points | Argues that the psychology of mysticism is an ancient tradition of a 'science of the soul' that modern secular approaches risk distorting by reducing spiritual realities to psychological order. |
Abstract
The idea of a psychology of mysticism is thought provoking, but it is often carried out by reducing spiritual realities to the level of the psyche and the psychological order, which radically compromises the scope of this endeavor. It needs to be clearly stated that the bringing together of mysticism with psychology is not a novel initiative; this integration is, in fact, embodied in the original understanding of a “science of the soul” that has existed since time immemorial across the various traditional cultures of the world. It only appears as new due to the secular and hegemonic outlook of science and its obsession with evidence-based approaches, not to mention the discipline’s tumultuous encounters with religion in the past.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on mystical experience, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Religious and Mystical Experiences as Artifacts of Temporal Lobe Function: A General Hypothesis | 1983 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| The Psychedelic Mystical Experience in the Human Encounter with Death | 1969 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Vectorial Cerebral Hemisphericity as Differential Sources for the Sensed Presence, Mystical Experiences and Religious Conversions | 1993 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| The epistemic innocence of psychedelic states. | 2016 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Mystical Experience and Religious Doctrine | 1982 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |