Mystical beliefs predict a meaningful life even without organized religion

New research published in Religion, Brain & Behavior provides evidence that holding mystical beliefs predicts a greater sense of meaning in life, regardless of whether one is religious or not. The study found that individuals who identify as “spiritual but not religious” report more meaning than non-believers specifically because of these beliefs, though they trail behind religious believers who benefit from communal bonds.

In many developed nations, there has been a significant demographic shift away from organized religion. Census data and sociological surveys from countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom indicate a rising number of people with no religious affiliation. Despite this trend toward secularization, not all individuals who leave religion adopt a strictly materialist or atheist worldview.

A substantial portion of the unaffiliated population identifies as “spiritual but not religious.” These individuals often reject the dogma, rituals, and institutional authority of traditional religion. At the same time, they continue to embrace spiritual concepts, such as a belief in a higher power, the soul, or cosmic interconnectedness. The researchers aimed to understand the psychological implications of this identity.

Prior research has often categorized all unaffiliated individuals into a single group, failing to distinguish between confirmed atheists and those with active spiritual lives. The authors of the current study sought to correct this oversight. They hypothesized that spiritual beliefs might offer some of the same existential benefits as religion, such as providing a sense of purpose and coherence to life.

“There has been much research comparing religious believers and non-believers. However, in recent decades there has been a huge increase in the number of people who are spiritual but not religious and we know very little about them,” said study author Steven Heine, professor of psychology at the University of British Columbia and author of Start Making Sense.

Free daily newsletter

“Do these people think about their lives like religious people or like atheists? And what aspects of their lives predicts how meaningful they feel? Our initial interest was to see what these spiritual but not religious people were like, but our study pointed to something that we hadn’t expected: mystical beliefs are associated with having more meaningful lives.”

The researchers conducted two separate studies. The first study focused on a sample from the United States, a nation that remains relatively religious despite recent secularizing trends. The research team recruited 917 American adults through the online platform Prolific.

Participants were asked to categorize themselves into one of three groups based on their identity. These groups were religious believers, spiritual but not religious individuals, and non-believers. The sample included 293 religious believers, 266 spiritual but not religious individuals, and 358 non-believers.

The primary measure used in the study was the Multidimensional Meaning in Life Scale. This assessment asks participants to rate their agreement with statements regarding the purpose, coherence, and significance of their existence. High scores indicate a strong sense that one’s life matters and makes sense.

To understand the mechanisms driving potential differences, the researchers assessed the strength of participants’ spiritual beliefs. They presented participants with a composite measure of various supernatural concepts. These included belief in karma, the existence of an afterlife, dualism (the separation of mind and body), and the idea that the universe has a higher plan.

The study also measured social connection. The researchers used a scale designed to assess existential isolation, which captures the extent to which an individual feels that their personal experience of reality is shared by others. This allowed the team to see if the benefits of religion were primarily social rather than theological.

The data analysis from the American sample revealed a clear hierarchy in reported meaning in life. Religious believers reported the highest levels of meaning. The spiritual but not religious group scored in the middle, reporting significantly more meaning than the non-believers. Non-believers reported the lowest levels of meaning in life.

The researchers then utilized statistical mediation models to explain these disparities. The analysis indicated that the difference in meaning between the spiritual group and the non-believers was largely attributable to spiritual beliefs.

It appears that holding a worldview where the universe has order, purpose, or spiritual significance fosters a sense of personal meaning. This effect persisted even in the absence of religious affiliation. Non-believers, who tend to hold materialist worldviews, lacked this specific source of existential reassurance.

In contrast, the difference between religious believers and the spiritual group was not explained by beliefs. Instead, this gap was best explained by social connection. Religious believers reported much higher levels of social bonding and shared reality than the spiritual group.

This suggests that while spirituality provides a cognitive framework for meaning, organized religion provides a supportive community that further enhances well-being. The spiritual but not religious individuals, often practicing a “do-it-yourself” spirituality, missed out on this communal aspect.

To ensure these findings were not unique to the United States, the researchers conducted a second study in the United Kingdom. The United Kingdom represents a more secularized society where non-religious individuals constitute a majority. This context allowed the researchers to test if the patterns held true where religion is less culturally normative.

The second study included 1,289 participants from the United Kingdom. The recruitment and procedure mirrored the first study to allow for direct comparison. Participants again classified themselves as religious, spiritual but not religious, or non-religious.

The measures for meaning in life and spiritual beliefs remained the same. However, the researchers used a broader tool to measure social connection in this second study. They employed the Social Connectedness Scale, which assesses general feelings of belonging and closeness with others.

The results from the UK sample replicated the findings from the US sample. Religious believers again reported the most meaning in life, followed by the spiritual group, with non-believers scoring the lowest. The statistical models confirmed the previous mediation effects.

Differences in spiritual beliefs continued to account for why the spiritual group experienced more meaning than non-believers. Differences in social connection continued to account for why religious believers experienced more meaning than the spiritual group. This replication provides evidence that these psychological dynamics are robust across different cultural contexts.

The researchers also analyzed which specific spiritual beliefs were most strongly associated with meaning. Mystical beliefs that implied a sense of order or connection in the universe appeared to be the most impactful. For example, belief in karma, universal connectedness, and the law of attraction were strong predictors of meaning.

“We found that having mystical beliefs, including those that are not part of any organized religion, are importantly associated with feeling that life is more meaningful,” Heine told PsyPost. “While much more research is needed to better understand why mystical beliefs and meaningful lives go together, this suggests that people might fare better by being open to any mystical traditions that align with their own ways of thinking.”

Beliefs that were less about cosmic order, such as belief in luck or a “porous mind” susceptible to spirits, were less strongly associated with meaning. This nuance suggests that it is not supernatural belief in general that provides meaning. Rather, it is specifically those beliefs that frame the universe as a coherent, interconnected system that offer existential comfort.

“We really did not expect to find that people’s mystical beliefs would be so strongly aligned with feeling that one’s life was meaningful,” Heine said. “I was originally expecting that different kinds of beliefs would predict meaningful lives for the different groups – rather we found that regardless if one is religious, spiritual but not religious, or a non-believer, having more mystical beliefs predicted more meaningful lives.”

The study has some limitations that should be considered. The research design was cross-sectional, meaning it captured data at a single point in time. As a result, the researchers cannot definitively prove that spiritual beliefs cause an increase in meaning.

It is possible that individuals who naturally feel a greater sense of purpose are more drawn to spiritual ideas. Alternatively, a third variable, such as a general philosophical outlook, could drive both meaning and belief. Only longitudinal research, which follows participants over time, can establish clear causality.

Another limitation involves the measurement of meaning itself. Concepts like “meaning in life” are abstract and subjective. It is possible that religious and spiritual individuals interpret the questions differently than non-believers.

For a religious person, “meaning” might be inherently tied to a divine plan. For a non-believer, “meaning” might be defined in strictly humanistic or personal terms. The scales used in psychology may subtly favor the type of cosmic meaning found in religious traditions.

“We aren’t saying that you need to have mystical beliefs in order to have a meaningful life,” Heine noted. “Meaningful lives are especially predicted by people’s connections. Interpersonal connections, connections with one’s community, and connections with one’s work all predict more meaningful lives. But we now know that connections with the spiritual realm are also important.”

Despite these limitations, the study provides a clearer picture of the psychological landscape of secularization. It challenges the binary view of the world as simply divided into the religious and the secular. The findings suggest that the spiritual but not religious demographic occupies a unique middle ground.

The authors emphasize the need for longitudinal studies to track individuals over time, allowing researchers to determine if spiritual beliefs directly cause increased meaning in life or if the relationship is driven by other factors.

“We want to better understand why mystical beliefs have these unexpected existential benefits,” Heine said. “Also, we’d like to see if people’s feelings of meaning in life change as their spiritual beliefs change over time.”

The study, “The varieties of nonreligious experience: meaning in life among believers, non-believers, and the spiritual but not religious,” was authored by William Jettinghoff, Dunigan Folk, Paniz Radjaee, Aiyana Willard, Ara Norenzayan, and Steven J. Heine.