Serial/Series Title

The Role of Spiritually Transformative Experiences in Religious History and the Development of a Scale to Measure Them (open access)

The Role of Spiritually Transformative Experiences in Religious History and the Development of a Scale to Measure Them

Abstract: Spiritual experiences are a potent means by which a person's attitudes and behaviors may changed, usually (but not always) in benevolent ways. This article presents examples from various times and places, many from the annals organized religion. Research into spiritually transformative experiences is reviewed as is a means to measure spiritual content in written or verbal reports: the Casto Spiritually Scoring System. This instrument includes subscales regarding spiritual settings, spiritual objects, spiritual characters, spiritual emotions, spiritual activities, and spiritual experiences. The reliability of the system has been examined and found to be quite high. In addition, the system has been useful clinically when spirituality becomes an issue in counseling or psychotherapy.
Date: Winter 2012
Creator: Krippner, Stanley
System: The UNT Digital Library