http://www.loc.gov/mods/v3 http://www.loc.gov/standards/mods/v3/mods-3-2.xsd
An important reason for the lack of consensus among social scientists and others about the concept of spirituality is the disregard Enlightenment scientists had for religion, and the subsequent exclusion of both religion and spirituality from most scientific inquiry. As a subjective phenomena, the spiritual experience is usually considered to be beyond the ability of researchers to investigate systematically. Here it is examined by establishing the characteristics of the "Ideal Spiritual Life World," the lived world or reality experienced by individuals during a spiritual experience. The fourteen characteristics of the "Ideal Spiritual Life World" were found in a wide variety of spiritual experiences including those of mystics, charismatics, New Religious Movements, experience of angels, Marian apparitions, 19th century spiritualists, feminist spirituality, Wicca, occult, Near Death Experiences, communication with the dead, apparitions and ghosts, psychic experiences, and hallucinations of mental patients. These commonalities argue for a single class of phenomena which is called spirituality. Another important reason that spirituality has not been included in scientific inquiry is the inability of empirical linear methodology to capture invisible phenomena. New non-linear methods and theories, such as chaos and complexity, along with improved interpretive approaches make it possible to probe subjective experiences systematically, thus developing our understanding of the super-empirical as revealed through individual experiences.
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Includes bibliographical references: pages 253-270.