Between clarity and mystery: Bridging language in empirical research and contemplation

Abstract

This autoethnographic inquiry examines the epistemological tension between empirical research's demand for explicit clarity and contemplative traditions’ engagement with implicit mystery. Prompted by an editorial feedback critiquing ‘highfalutin’ language in a conference proposal, the study investigates how different forms of discourse organize knowledge in domains involving spirituality and health. Drawing on hemispheric specialization theory, post-positivist philosophy, hermeneutic theory, and theological insights on silence, the analysis demonstrates that contemplative language serves legitimate epistemological functions that empirical discourse cannot fulfill. Integrating phenomenological spirituality research, spiritual experience theory, and philosophical pragmatism, the work reveals silence's constitutive role in meaning-making. A clinical chaplaincy vignette reveals how attending to existential dimensions with the aid of imprecise, symbolic language opens pathways to solace and comfort. The study argues that contemplative receptivity represents necessary epistemological correctives to objectivist approaches, particularly for phenomena resisting empirical reduction. This methodological integration offers implications for interdisciplinary research bridging contemplative and empirical ways of knowing in psychology of religion and healthcare spirituality.