The moderating role of mystical-type experiences on the relationship between existential isolation and meaning in life

Introduction

Sielaff and colleagues frame the study around existential isolation (EI) — the sense that one’s subjective experience of reality is not shared or validated by others — and its established negative association with meaning in life (MIL). They note that EI is distinct from loneliness and objective social isolation, can be measured as a dispositional trait, and is linked to lower self-competence and social validation. The authors situate this question within broader debates about how meaning is socially constructed and how autonomy and relatedness both contribute to a sense of meaning. The paper tests whether having experienced a mystical-type experience (MTE) moderates the relationship between EI and MIL. MTEs are phenomenologically distinct events (comprising mystical unity, transcendence of time/space, positive mood, and ineffability) that many people report as highly meaningful; they can arise in various contexts including psychedelics, ritual, near-death experiences and meditation. The central hypothesis is that among people who have not had an MTE there will be the expected negative association between EI and MIL, whereas among people who have had an MTE there will be no such relationship — that is, prior MTEs may decouple EI from lower meaning rather than produce a positive association. The authors justify this moderator hypothesis by noting that MTEs often combine feelings of both existential isolation (ineffability, unique subjective content) and mystical connectedness (feeling "at one"), and thus may alter how individuals relate to their existential condition. The study uses two undergraduate samples to examine replication and generalisability within the population accessible to the investigators.