Positive Psychology and Spiritual Experience Part 2

Loading...

來自 University of Pennsylvania 的課程

Positive Psychology: Martin E. P. Seligman’s Visionary Science

1882 個評分

University of Pennsylvania

Positive Psychology: Martin E. P. Seligman’s Visionary Science

1882 個評分

課程 1（共 5 門，Specialization Foundations of Positive Psychology ）

Dr. Martin E.P. Seligman—renowned worldwide as the “father of Positive Psychology”—has led visionary leaps in the scientific research, empirical data and personal understandings of human flourishing. This course explores the past, present and future of positive psychology as a journey through the key scientific leaps led by Dr. Seligman and his colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania's Positive Psychology Center and Master of Applied Positive Psychology program. There are no prerequisites.

從本節課中

Future Directions in Positive Psychology

In this module, Dr. Martin Seligman discusses some of the most inspiring recent and future developments in the field of Positive Psychology, in particular those that transcend individual experience and have the potential to transform our world.

Positive Psychology and Spiritual Experience7:59

Positive Psychology and Spiritual Experience Part 26:58

與講師見面

Martin E.P. Seligman, Ph.D.
Zellerbach Family Professor of Psychology & Director, Positive Psychology Center
Positive Psychology Center

[MUSIC]

And so I think it's important to differentiate what we mean by when we

say spiritual experience.

Because different people mean different things and we know that because we've

read through over a thousand descriptions of these experiences.

And we know that people report very different kinds of content.

And so here's an example of a scale that we're developing.

And these are example items from each category.

So again these categories there's a lot of research on each one of them

that has been done in isolation, and we're going to try to bring that all together.

So that we can look at the triggers and

the outcomes of each of these unique types of experiences.

So just take a look at these and see if you would agree,

whether you've had any of these kinds of experiences.

Now again, we're not saying that there's, that these experiences are necessarily

true or that they're completely illusions, that question is off the table.

We're only looking at what people report,

what triggers those experience and what kind of outcomes that

come from those experiences particularly those related to well being.

Okay, now we get to experiences, and experiences are really my interest and

expertise and what most of my research is focused on and that's no accident.

I, myself, had a spiritual experience as an atheist,

lying in my dorm room bed in college.

I felt sort of a heat in my chest,

and it felt like it came on pretty spontaneously so much so

that I thought that it was just maybe heartburn or something.

And that heat began to spread, and

at that point I thought this is someone unusual.

Especially when the heat spread over my entire body,

and a voice in my mind said this is love.

At that point I went into my mind I felt like I went out of my body and

just saw 360 degrees boundary less

horizon in this intricate fabric that I was woven into.

And that feeling of love just increased to the boiling point.

And it probably only lasted about a minute or so, but it felt like it lasted years.

And when I woke up, when I opened my eyes, my body was laughing and

crying at the same time.

It was just a huge emotional release, really unusual for me.

And I really felt changed after that experience,

I felt more open to life and other people.

More interested in possibilities, and

all of that was incredibly profound and positive.

It was the most positive, meaningful moment of my life.

But the thought occurred to me, what just happened to me?

And that question has guided a lot of my research in this area.

And I really feel that it's kind of a calling to continue to pursue

that question.

I'm not alone in having these experiences.

Here's Dostoevsky who was an epileptic describing his

experiences that were similar to mine in some ways.

And I want to draw your attention to the end of this passage where he's saying,

I don't know if this felicity lasts for seconds, hours or months.

But believe me, for all the joys that life may bring, I would not exchange this one.

And I think if we take him at his word that's a really profound statement to say

that a single moment is almost equal in some ways to many months of other moments.

And so as positive psychologists, we should really

pay attention to that statement and look at what's going on here.

Jill Bolte Taylor did a great TED talk on her experience, and

I invite you to watch that.

And she describes a stroke that she had, that triggered a very

intense spiritual experience that she also describes as life changing.

In the book that I mentioned, Being Called, a number of scientists and

scholars describe their own spiritual experiences and

they interpret them in very different ways.

Remember, you can differentiate belief from experience.

And so we have religious, spiritual, agnostic, atheist,

scientist and scholars all describing at sometimes similar,

sometimes quite different experiences.

But that they found very meaningful and often life changing.

And so I want to asked you now, have you ever felt at one with all things?

And just think for a second if you would agree with that statement.

If you said yes, about 33% of the population,

probably would say yes as well.

And this is based on a number of studies in the US and the UK.

Now how about this question,

this is a gallop question that's been asked a number of times.

So I've had a profound religious experience or

awakening that changed the direction of my life.

How would you answer that?

If you would say yes, about 41% of people

also say yes, which is a really astonishingly high number.

Before I knew this data, I had no idea that so

many people are having this experiences and not only just momentary flashes.

But experiences that they say change the direction of their life.

Lastly, I just want to draw your attention to a website VarietiesCorpus.com

where we're hoping to gather people's descriptions of their experiences.

Any kind of spiritual or

self transcending experience that you've had we'd love to hear from you.

You can also read a number of fascinating

descriptions that other people have provided us with.

And learn a little bit more about the ongoing research

on this fascinating topic.

So I just want to thank you for listening and feel free

to contact me if you have any questions or further interest in this topic.

Thank you.

探索我們的目錄

免費加入並獲得個性化推薦、更新和優惠。

Coursera 致力於普及全世界最好的教育，它與全球一流大學和機構合作提供在線課程。

© 2019 Coursera Inc. 保留所有權利。

通過 App Store 下載

通過 Google Play 獲取