The association between different spiritual practices and the occurrence of Exceptional Human Experiences in a non-clinical sample

The present study aims to analyse the association that different types of spiritual and religious practices have with the occurrence of Exceptional Human Experiences (EHEs) as well as their emotional evaluation. We analysed the relation that meditation, prayer, and 'other' spiritual practices, or the lack of them, have with the occurrence of EHEs, which were measured employing the Exceptional Experiences Questionnaire (EEQ). Samples were recruited at psychology departments in the UK and USA. They consisted of n = 301 non-clinical participants, of whom n = 156 were from Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA (average age = 32.3, SD = 13.7); and n = 145 from Northampton, UK (average age = 25.2, SD = 9.8). Results suggest that people who pray experienced fewer experiences of deconstruction/ego loss, psychopathological and visionary dream experiences than other spiritual practice groups. Those who pray also reported more positive mystical experiences than non-practising individuals; whereas individuals with a regular meditative practice experienced more visionary dream experiences, and evaluated such experiences more positively, than those who pray and non-practising individuals. Results suggest that different spiritual and religious techniques are associated with different phenomenological end evaluative patterns of EHEs that can be differentiated from psychopathological experiences.