Method
Chapter 8 in Thesis – On the Universal Meaning and Significance of Spirituality –
We are facing the question “should spirituality be considered a universal and vital dimension of human life??” How to answer this question? Drawing inspiration from the scientific approach, I will formulate a hypothesis on the basis of the question and investigate its predictions. In this case, the hypothesis will derive from the research question as follows – “spirituality is universally vital for human life to a high extent”. What can we predict from this hypothesis?
It should first be noted that there are two potentially independent propositions embedded in this hypothesis, which can be investigated through separate predictions. The first is that spirituality is universal and the second is that it is vital to human life. I will formulate three subordinate hypotheses, each of which will emphasize either the universality or the vitality aspect or both, and from different angles. The first hypothesis will pertain to the universality aspect of the overarching hypothesis – (1) The Universality Hypothesis –, the second to will also pertain mainly to the universality aspect – (2) The Biological Hypothesis – and the third will pertain to the vitality hypothesis – (3) The Health Hypothesis –. We will now go over each of these hypotheses and understand how they contribute to the overarching hypothesis.
The Universality Hypothesis predicts that if spirituality is universally vital to human life, then we would 1. expect to find spirituality present in all cultures, independent of values and beliefs, and 2. we would expect a significant degree of regularity across known spiritualities as this would indicate a universal underlying nature. Here it is important to clarify what is meant by regularity across cultures. By regularity, I am referring to the shared patterns found across cultures. I will say that these patterns are regular across cultures. This first of all means that we would expect to find spirituality even in cultures whose beliefs and values directly oppose spirituality, but also that we would find regularity in even the most different forms of spirituality, as this would reflect an underlying nature. As a reminder, when I ask whether spirituality is present across cultures, I am not asking whether the experience of consciousness is present across cultures. Rather, I am asking whether the engagement with the experience of consciousness is.
Moving on, the Biological Hypothesis predicts that if spirituality is universal to human nature, then we would (1) expect it to be reflected in universal human biology, independent of beliefs, values and practices, and we would (2) expect this aspect to express itself naturally in ordinary human life. This means that even people who do not consider themselves spiritual would possess the biological underpinnings of spirituality and express them in their natural functioning. We might better understand the rationale of this prediction through the example of dreaming. If dreaming is universal to human nature, then we would expect it to be reflected in universal human biology and express itself in natural human functioning as indeed it does. At the same time, it is possible for some people to be entirely unaware of their dream life even though they possess the biological basis for dreaming and therefore it is possible to investigate dreams and its biological basis even in people who do not consider themselves dreamers. The same is true for spirituality.
Finally, the health hypothesis predicts that if spirituality is vital to human life, then we would expect human health to be significantly correlated with spirituality. Broadly speaking this means that we would expect better health in those reporting richer spiritual lives than those with poorer spiritual lives. In summary, the predictions are as follows.
- The Universality Hypothesis: Spirituality is present and significantly regular across cultures, independent of values or beliefs.
- The Biological Hypothesis: Spirituality is reflected in innate human biology.
- The Health Hypothesis: There is a significant correlation between spirituality and health
The following investigation will be structured in three parts, each part corresponding to one of the three hypotheses. In other words, each section will investigate one of the three hypotheses. By testing these three hypotheses we will have enough material to form a comprehensive picture of the extent to which spirituality is universality and vital to human life. With that, we will now proceed with the main investigation of the research question.
Author – Sagi Andersen