Life-changing religious and spiritual experiences shape people’s lives and form a central part of the autobiographical narratives of many Americans. As such, they have been key phenomena of interest among social scientists. However, the likelihood of individuals experiencing life-changing religious or spiritual experience across diverse faith traditions has yet to be studied. The current study explores the incidence of reporting life-changing religious or spiritual experiences among adherents of 6 world religious traditions as well as atheists and agnostics living in the United States (N = 970). We account for subjective religiousness, subjective spirituality, and impression management in our analysis of interfaith differences in rates of life-changing religious and spiritual experience. Findings revealed interreligious differences in the incidence of religious experience, with Protestants and Muslims more likely to report having had a life-changing religious and spiritual experience, and Jews, Catholics, and atheists/agnostics reporting comparatively fewer of these experiences. While religiousness and spirituality were associated with the likelihood of having had a life-changing religious or spiritual experience across religions, impression management was only minimally associated with religious experience. Our results suggest that an individual’s religious culture is strongly related to that person’s likelihood of having a life-changing religious or spiritual experience.

中文翻译：

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改变生活的宗教和精神体验：美国的跨信仰比较。

改变生活的宗教和精神体验塑造了人们的生活，并成为许多美国人自传叙事的核心部分。因此，它们一直是社会科学家感兴趣的关键现象。然而，个人在不同信仰传统中经历改变生活的宗教或精神体验的可能性还有待研究。目前的研究探讨了生活在美国的 6 种世界宗教传统的信徒以及无神论者和不可知论者（N = 970）中报告改变生活的宗教或精神经历的发生率。我们在分析不同信仰间在改变生活的宗教和精神体验率方面的差异时考虑了主观宗教性、主观灵性和印象管理。调查结果揭示了宗教经历发生率的宗教间差异，新教徒和穆斯林更有可能报告有改变生活的宗教和精神经历，而犹太人、天主教徒和无神论者/不可知论者报告的这些经历相对较少。虽然宗教性和灵性与跨宗教的改变生活的宗教或精神体验的可能性有关，但印象管理与宗教体验的关联很小。我们的研究结果表明，个人的宗教文化与该人获得改变生活的宗教或精神体验的可能性密切相关。和无神论者/不可知论者报告的这些经历相对较少。虽然宗教性和灵性与跨宗教的改变生活的宗教或精神体验的可能性有关，但印象管理与宗教体验的关联很小。我们的研究结果表明，个人的宗教文化与该人获得改变生活的宗教或精神体验的可能性密切相关。和无神论者/不可知论者报告的这些经历相对较少。虽然宗教性和灵性与跨宗教的改变生活的宗教或精神体验的可能性有关，但印象管理与宗教体验的关联很小。我们的研究结果表明，个人的宗教文化与该人获得改变生活的宗教或精神体验的可能性密切相关。