The dynamic uncertainty of narrative, place, and practice in spiritual experience
Clues from the phenomenology of walking a labyrinth
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 13824579 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jonathan Doner (0000-0003-0228-8864, DP/DS, Keswick, VA, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2022 |
| Volume | 44 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 129-146 |
| Publication date | 2022-10-10 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Archive for the Psychology of Religion (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0084-6724 • E-ISSN: 1573-6121 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/00846724221131149 |
| OpenAlex | W4303986299 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 41 |
Labyrinths have held the fascination of people since ancient times. Although walking a labyrinth can simply be an interesting recreation, it has increasingly been seen as an intentional tool for personal or spiritual growth. Religious and spiritual experience is generally understood to be a product of the kinds of evidence given within the experience as well as the person’s cognitive and emotional attributions. This article offers a phenomenological perspective which identifies a set of critical elements in the generation of the person’s experience. These include the individual narrative of the participant, the place narrative of the labyrinth, the geometric structure of the place, and the person’s internal and behavioral practice within the place. Through the exploration of each of these elements and their interactions, it is shown that the potential for personal and spiritual experience when walking the labyrinth is related to several processes. The first is simply the walker’s ongoing intentional participation in the experience. The second is the interaction between the place narrative and the individual’s narrative, particularly as it relates to the person’s relevant concern. This interaction affects the person’s expectations and attributions during and after the experience. Two final processes, however, the individual practice and the place geometry, create the evidentiary basis for the labyrinth’s deepest experiences. The embodied, cognitive, and emotional resolution of the unexpected dynamic uncertainty regarding place, movement, and outcome created by the geometric and informational nature of labyrinths, can prove experientially potent
Aesthetics · Art · Attribution · Cognition · Cognitive psychology · Embodied cognition · Epistemology · Narrative · Perspective (graphical · Phenomenology (philosophy · Recreation · Community Health and Development · Philosophy · Place Attachment and Urban Studies · Psychology · Social Psychology · Social Representations and Identity
Toward a new philosophy of biology
The Literary Animal
Phenomenology of Perception
Place and Experience
The Primacy of Movement
Symbolic Ties That Bind
Religious and spiritual struggles.
Space and place
Childhood Place Attachments
Sacred Texts of the World A Universal Anthology
Life Takes Place
Place Attachment
The Varieties of Religious Experience
Religious Experience Reconsidered
Through the Labyrinth
Place Spirituality in the imaginary locus
How ritual might create religion
The Idea of the Labyrinth from Classical Antiquity through the Middle Ages
The Embodied Mind
A General Attribution Theory for the Psychology of Religion
Eliciting Mystical States of Consciousness with Semistructured Nature Experiences
The Construction and Preliminary Validation of a Measure of Reported Mystical Experience
Attribution Theory and the Psychology of Religion
| Citations per year | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2024 - 2025 (2) |
| Highly cited | No |