Creativity, Schizotypicality, and Mystical Experience: An Empirical Study
Kerri Michalica, H. Hunt
July 1, 2013 DOI: 10.1080/10400419.2013.813780 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Cross-sectional comparative study |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 174 |
| Population | Community adults (artists, people with schizophrenia, matched comparisons) and university students |
| Topics | Mystical experience |
| Key findings | Artists and people with schizophrenia share a propensity for mystical experiences, but artists differ by having higher creativity, better spatial ability and balance, more positive presence, and lower neuroticism. In students, creativity correlated positively with positive schizotypy and related traits, with absorption fully mediating the relationship between creativity and mystical experiences. |
Abstract
This study examined the commonalities and the differences between creativity and the schizophrenia spectrum. The variables measured were creativity, schizotypy, absorption, mystical experiences, spatial ability, balance, positive and negative presence, and neuroticism. Three community groups were recruited: 31 artists, 10 people with schizophrenia, and 31 comparisons matched for gender and age with the artists. A larger student group, consisting of 102 students, was also recruited to examine the correlations among the same variables within a larger, more normative, group. The largest commonality between the artist and the schizophrenic groups was the propensity to mystical experiences. The greatest differences between them were that the artists were higher in creativity, had better spatial ability, had better balance, had more positive states of presence, and were lower in neuroticism. In the student group, creativity was positively correlated with positive schizotypy, impulsive nonconformity, spatial ability, positive presence, absorption, and mystical experiences, although in the student group, the relation between creativity and mystical experiences was completely mediated by absorption.
Comparable studies
Other cross-sectional and survey studies on mystical experience, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Of Roots and Fruits: A Comparison of Psychedelic and Nonpsychedelic Mystical Experiences Self-selected participants who reported a religious, spiritual, or mystical experience | 2016 | Cross-sectional survey | n = 739 |
| Illicit Use of LSD or Psilocybin, but not MDMA or Nonpsychedelic Drugs, is Associated with Mystical Experiences in a Dose-Dependent Manner Adults recruited from the MAPS website and newsletter, most reporting use of various... | 2012 | Cross-sectional survey | n = 337 |
| Peak Experiences: Some Empirical Tests Random sample of adults in the San Francisco Bay Area | 1978 | Cross-sectional survey | |
| Peak Experience Tendencies | 1982 | Cross-sectional survey | |
| Rhythmic Chanting and Mystical States across Traditions. Regular chanters across 33 countries | 2021 | Cross-sectional survey | n = 464 |
Citations in the library
Cited by 6
- Differential relationship between meditation methods and psychotic-like and mystical experiences. PLoS One December 5, 2024
- Implications and Consequences of Post-Modern Philosophy for Contemporary Transpersonal Studies III. Deleuze and Some Related Phenomenologies of Felt Meaning: Psychosis and Mysticism as Inherent “Structures of Thought” International Journal of Transpersonal Studies July 1, 2014
- Intimations of a Spiritual New Age: II. Wilhelm Reich as Transpersonal Psychologist. Part I: Context, Development, and Crisis in Reich’s Bio-energetic Spiritual Psychology International Journal of Transpersonal Studies September 1, 2018
- Implications and Consequences of Post-Modern Philosophy for Contemporary Transpersonal Studies II. Georges Bataille’s Post-Nietzschean Secular Mysticism, Phenomenology of Ecstatic States, and Original Transpersonal Sociology International Journal of Transpersonal Studies July 1, 2013
- Continuities of Consciousness, Life-Worlds, and Numinous Experience: Cognitive-Phenomenological Foundations for an Empirical Neo-Shamanism International Journal of Transpersonal Studies February 20, 2024
and 1 more in the library
Cites 6
- “Dark Nights of the Soul”: Phenomenology and Neurocognition of Spiritual Suffering in Mysticism and Psychosis Review of General Psychology September 1, 2007
- Schizophrenia, consciousness, and the self. Schizophrenia Bulletin 2003
- Transpersonal experiences in childhood: an exploratory empirical study of selected adult groups. Perceptual and Motor Skills December 1, 1992
- The multiplicity of dreams: cognitive-affective correlates of lucid, archetypal, and nightmare dreaming. Perceptual and Motor Skills October 1, 1990
- Relationship of Mystical Experience, Differentiation, and Creativity Perceptual and Motor Skills October 1, 1985
and 1 more in the library