Spiritual and Religious Interpretations of Psychotic-Like Experiences Are Associated with More Positive Perceived Life Impact

Abstract

Abstract Experiences that resemble symptoms of psychosis or dissociation in clinical research do not necessarily impair daily functioning and may instead be interpreted within religious or spiritual frameworks. However, the extent to which such interpretations influence perceived life impact remains unclear. Distinguishing phenomenological experiences from their spiritual or religious interpretations, we examined 12 psychotic- and dissociative-like nonordinary experiences (N = 7368). Interpreting experiences as religious or spiritual was consistently associated with more positive perceived life impact. This association remained after controlling for experience frequency and religious affiliation. Individuals who were uncertain whether an experience was religious or spiritual did not differ from those who rejected such interpretations. Although effect sizes varied across experience types, associations were positive throughout. These findings suggest that religious and spiritual interpretations are associated with more positive appraisals of phenomenologically similar experiences and may help explain why comparable experiences are linked to markedly different perceived life consequences.