MYSTICAL EXPERIENCES AND SELF-ESTEEM: A Study of the Correlation Between Personal Mystical Experiences and the Demonstration of Positive Levels of Self-Esteem in an Agricultural Population Over the Age of Sixty

Abstract

Throughout time, individuals have described experiencing states of consciousness that extend far beyond their ordinary perceptual consciousness. Such experiences can change the individual's view of the world forever. These experiences tend to be ineffable, intense, and deeply moving. This study was designed to examine whether individuals over the age of sixty, who have been involved in farming or agriculture, have experienced a significant mystical event and whether this event is correlated with positive self-esteem. The sixty subjects included in this study were drawn from a population in rural Kansas. The Rosenberg Scale was administered to establish levels of self-esteem. Questions used to ascertain the occurrence of a significant mystical experience were taken from the 1974 National Opinion Research Center (NORC) survey of 1,500 American adults. In addition to completing the Rosenberg Scale and the mysticism scale from the NORC, participants were given the opportunity to talk about a mystical or significant experience in their lives. These interviews served as anecdotal evidence of the way participants are interpreting a mystical event and the type of mystical events experienced. Results indicate that 43% of the participants in this study experienced a mystical event as defined by the NORC question. There was no significant correlation between reporting a mystical experience and having positive self-esteem. However, there were several significant correlations between reporting a mystical experience and experiencing descriptor items related to classical descriptions of mystical experience.