Tobin Hart’s research while affiliated with University of West Georgia and other places

The aim of the study is to shed light on the perception of spiritual exemplars by those who consider them as such. The authors asked 300 experts in the religious-spiritual field from different traditions to nominate spiritual exemplars they knew and describe them “specifically indicating what it is that makes each of them exemplary.” Seventy-seven expert informants provided descriptions of 180 spiritual exemplars. In thematic analysis of the descriptions, 15 categories of exemplar characteristics were developed and organized into three themes: Concrete-Performative (e.g. practices, actions), Descriptive-Qualitative (e.g. presence, humility), and Relational-Impactive (e.g. love, gratitude). Salient features of spiritual exemplarity were its multifacetedness and elusiveness. The findings underscore the important role of relational feelings, subjective impressions, and felt impact in the perception of spiritual exemplars. Through the eyes of many expert informants, a spiritual exemplar is an inspiring archetype of multifaceted wholeness, exemplifying the unity of the sacred and the mundane.

The aim of the study is to shed light on the perception of spiritual exemplars by those who consider them as such. The authors asked 300 experts in the religious-spiritual field from different traditions to nominate spiritual exemplars they knew and describe them "specifically indicating what it is that makes each of them exemplary." Seventy-seven expert informants provided descriptions of 180 spiritual exemplars. In thematic analysis of the descriptions, fifteen categories of exemplar characteristics were developed and organized into three themes: Concrete-Performative (e.g., practices, actions), Descriptive-Qualitative (e.g., presence, humility) and Relational-Impactive (e.g., love, gratitude). Salient features of spiritual exemplarity were its multifacetedness and elusiveness. The findings underscore the important role of relational feelings, subjective impressions and felt impact in the perception of spiritual exemplars. Through the eyes of many expert informants, a spiritual exemplar is an inspiring archetype of multifaceted wholeness, exemplifying the unity of the sacred and the mundane.

The aim of this study is to shed light on the experience of Living Transcendence, a relatively stabilized spiritual state considered in many religious traditions the pinnacle and holy grail of the search for the sacred. It explores how Living Transcendence is experienced by individuals, identified by others as spiritual exemplars having and evincing that experience. Multiple in-depth phenomenological interviews were conducted with 32 such individuals of different traditions and spiritual paths. Based on their analysis, four qualities of this experience are described: noetic (preconceptual, nondiscursive, and nonsymbolic knowing/awareness/consciousness of ultimate reality or truth), affective (supremely positive affective qualities of joy, happiness or bliss, and love), embodied (somatic and/or energetic presence or sense of a spiritual essence), and relational (a sense of connectivity or “inter-being” with everything, God, or the Whole). A characteristic of the experience of Living Transcendence is its constancy over time, amid and through the fluctuations of normal life and various crises. An additional characteristic is its association with an unusual type of volitionality, that is, the will to obey, surrender to, or be in service of a “calling.” While the presence and prominence of each of these qualities and characteristics vary between individuals, they appear to be facets of one essence. The experience of Living Transcendence appears to be constantly and consistently unitive, connective, and supremely positive, and to inextricably permeate all other experiences and contextualize them.