Spiritual awakenings, also called extraordinary experiences, and their transformational effects have been documented within the broader population in many traditions throughout history.1 Harvard Psychologist, William James, was one of the first academics to explore their nature and effects in his studies in the late 1800s and early 1900s.2 Spiritual awakenings have been described as experiences of an intensified and expanded awareness, with intensifications of perception, feelings of connection and well-being,3, 4, 5 and “a subjective experience in which an individual's ego transcends their ordinary, finite sense of self to encompass a wider, infinite sense of truth or reality”.2,6 Research studies have explored both the common core of phenomenological features that typify these mystical experiences, and their transformational effects.3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

Spiritual awakenings appear to occur in a substantial portion of the U.S. population, and presumably the broader cultural population, as a Gallup Poll9 has indicated that 41 percent of Americans responded to the statement “I have had a profound religious experience or awakening that changed the direction of my life,” with the answer that it completely applied to themselves. Though this Gallup Poll documents the occurrence of spiritual awakening in 41% of the adult population, it is, paradoxically, a phenomenon that remains private for most experiencers and is seldom discussed publicly.