On nature and the psyche: The psychological and spiritual significance of nature-based numinous experiences.

摘要

This study is an investigation of a specific type of spiritual or mystical experience occurring in nature. Experiences in nature are considered to be numinous if they have the feeling qualities, identified by Otto (1917/1950), of mystery, uncanny dread, or fascination. The primary data for this study are written accounts of nature-based numinous experiences found in the published works of Henry David Thoreau, John Muir, Richard Jefferies, Sigurd Olson, and Annie Dillard. These written accounts are presented, showing that they meet the criteria for being numinous. Next, using a hermeneutic method, the nature-based numinous experiences of Thoreau, Muir, Jefferies, Olson, and Dillard are explored using the general interpretive framework of the religious approach to the psyche, a theoretical system within the field of depth psychology developed by Corbett (1996). Within this framework, ideas from the schools of object relations, self psychology, and Jungian psychology are used to investigate the personal significance of the nature-based numinous experiences for each individual. Broad themes common to several nature-based numinous experiences, including embodiment, unitary experiences, timelessness, and confrontation with death, are explored through the tradition of alchemy, as understood within the field of Jungian psychology, and through the archetypal figure of the Green Man.;Implications of the study are discussed on various levels. On the clinical level, the study shows that nature-based numinous experiences could be an important focus of inquiry in psychotherapy. It is suggested that the sense of connection to nature fostered by nature-based numinous experiences may be an important facet of psychological health. On the collective-cultural level, the study indicates that individual nature-based numinous experiences could be part of a cultural change in the collective image of the divine, toward an image that includes nature and does not rigidly split good from evil. On the eco-cosmological level, the study suggests that nature-based numinous experiences may be manifestations of ideas from the field of Jungian psychology such as lumen naturae, the light of nature, and anima mundi, the soul of the world.