Over the past 20 years research in psychology has systematically tried to investigate the concept of the existence of a transcendent aspect of human experience within the adult phase of life and is usually associated with the search for meaning and purpose, and the individual placing the self within a broader ontological context. This aspect of the self has been expressed through religions, arts, nature and the environment for centuries and is reflected in the range and variety of language and vocabulary used to describe spirituality. This wide variety of expressions of spirituality is representational of the varied range of concepts and aspects that are associated with spirituality, and include many variant themes. According to Elkins et.al (1988) there are nine major components that make up spirituality:
- 1. Transcendental Dimension: Belief in more than that which is seen, that may or may not be belief in God; and belief that personal power is drawn through harmonious contact with this dimension.
- 2. Sense of purpose/meaning in life: Deep confidence that one’s life has purpose, emerging from a quest for meaning.
- 3. A mission in Life: The spiritual individual has a vocation and sense of responsibility; knowing that in “losing one’s life” one “finds it.”
- 4. Sacredness of Life: Belief that life is holy.
- 5. Material Values: Realization that ultimate satisfaction is from spiritual, not from material things.
- 6. Altruism: Belief in social justice, and awareness that “no man is an island.”
- 7. Idealism: Commitment to the actualization of positive potential in all aspects of one’s life.
- 8. Awareness of the Tragic: Deep awareness of human pain, suffering, and death, and that life has value.
- 9. Fruits of Spirituality: Benefits of spirituality realized in relationships with self, others, nature, and what one perceives as the Ultimate.
Defining spirituality has been challenging for science and many attempts have been made , but there are other common themes and elements that have been identified from both qualitative and quantitative data, which help frame and define it. The elements that help define spirituality from the literature include:
- A sense of connectedness/relationship- to self, others, nature, God or other- themes of connectedness and constructs of relationships with the self, other, nature, higher being are found throughout various definitions of spirituality and these constructs are supported and integrated by wholeness, love and harmony, commitment and communication. The relationship with others involves empathy altruism, sharing and giving of the self.
- A quest for wholeness- Spirituality can be expressed as one’s contemplating or becoming and connecting with the self or higher self, being or God, to become integrated as one. It also concerns integration of oneself with a community feeling whereby one feels he or she belongs with others and has also developed an ecological connection with nature and the cosmos as a whole.
- Hope- Hope is a belief in a positive outcome. Several researchers have identified hope as a construct of existential reality as a result of formulating meaning and purpose to life. It is considered a fundamental aspect of spiritual growth and several researchers have identified the hope as a construct of existential reality as a result of formulating meaning and purpose to life.
- Transcendence- Transcendence is considered by many as an essential component or indictor of spirituality and is often referred to as a rising above or going beyond the limits of material reality and that it extends beyond time and space. It is represented in everyday life as a level of awareness through which a person achieves new perspectives and experiences that exceed ordinary boundaries for example, in health psychology, liberation from suffering and opening up to life and death.
- Becoming- is described a as an unfolding of life that demands reflection and experience; including a sense of who one is and how one knows, and a sense of being an evolving being.
Underlying many of those themes is an assumption that an intrinsic (often sub-conscious) human activity is one of trying to make sense of the world around us and of our meaning and place within it.