A project from a team led by Gary Elkins of Mind-Body Medicine Research Lab at Baylor University aims to investigate a novel spiritual exercise designed to facilitate profound mystical experiences (MEs) among Christians and explore how Christian integration practices may sustain their psychological and spiritual benefits.

The project draws on previous scientific research on hypnosis and its therapeutic benefits. In hypnosis, a trained hypnotherapist guides a person into a state of deep relaxation and altered concentration, increasing openness to suggestion. This heightened suggestibility allows the therapist to guide subjective experiences involving perception, sensation, emotion, cognition, and behavior. This project explores the co-induction of MEs, or  “peak spiritual experiences,” and examines how integration techniques following these experiences can be optimized to promote flourishing-related outcomes.

Building on pilot research of a previously-tested Guided Invocation for Mystical Experience (GIME) intervention, the project will recruit 120 college students who identify as Christian and are interested in having MEs. Participants will undergo a session of the GIME protocol (involving breathwork, guided imagery, and hypnotic suggestions for ME within a Christian setting) and then be randomly assigned to either a Christian integration condition or a structured control integration condition for four weeks. Assessments will be taken after the initial session, during the four-week integration period, with follow-ups at one and two months. Various self-report measures of religiosity, spirituality, flourishing and wellbeing, ME, and consciousness will be taken and analyzed. Qualitative data will also be collected from participants who report a peak spiritual experience and subjected to thematic analyses.

The project addresses a gap in current research, which often relies on psychedelics to study MEs. It seeks to establish a scalable, non-substance-based alternative and explore how Christian-oriented integration practices can support spiritual and psychological wellbeing. Outputs will include open-access academic publications and data, a training and integration guide, and a public-facing video series on understanding transformative spiritual experiences.