Thirteen Lives Transformed by Spirit

The unitive mystical experience is an experience of being one with God, Spirit, or the Universe in which people often have a brief experience of knowing ultimate Love, Peace, or Truth. Through my research, I sought to determine whether the unitive mystical experience affects authenticity. I interviewed 13 adult participants about their unitive mystical experience and asked them to describe how they were living in accordance with the new understanding that they took away from their experience. One conclusion of this study is that the unitive mystical experience does affect authenticity, and that each person's path of living authentically is unique. All participants reported a change in their values and behaviors due to their experiences. The participants also verified the 12 themes that I compiled from an analysis of the transcripts. Two important findings are that the participants had an increased connection and feeling of responsibility to Spirit, people, and the world and participants experienced a surrendering of ego and self while opening to Spirit immediately before or during these experiences.