Jessica Corneille had a “spontaneous spiritual awakening” (SSA) that changed her life and led her to research mystical experiences and help others with similar experiences. In this presentation, she will explore what we know so far about the psychology of spontaneous spiritual awakenings, touching on her research on their individual differences, and effects on well-being. She will discuss the importance of ‘de-mystifying’ mystical experiences within mainstream psychology, and how these experiences, their research, and the act of “coming out of the spiritual closet” might help facilitate humanity’s progress toward a more compassionate, understanding and united world.
Jessica will describe the central feature of SSA mystical experiences – a sudden sense of direct contact, union, or communion with the universe, ‘God’, or the divine. In this ‘enlightened’ or ‘nondual’ state, the experiencer transcends their ordinary sense of self, ‘knowing’ or ‘remembering’ their true essence as part of a greater truth or reality, in perceived oneness and self-realization. The scientific community is only just beginning to acknowledge the healing potential of mystical experiences and they have scarcely been explored within the scientific framework. To date, mainstream psychology has tended to pathologize these experiences by default, and the topic is still largely misunderstood and misinterpreted in the West, despite much anecdotal evidence of their long-term positive impacts on perception, cognition, behavior, and well-being.