When I was a graduate student, my boyfriend went to a weeklong spiritual training retreat for clinical psychology students. Word was that all relationships ended soon after one of the partners had gone there, and yes, my boyfriend came back with an enlightened, elevated look in his eyes. He and his fellow enlightees had been in touch with what really matters, things he felt he couldn't explain to me, with my trivial earthly concerns and my analytic scientific reasoning. Ouch.

Over the years, I have noticed similar behavior among acquaintances who educated themselves in auras, chakras, regression to previous lives, or other spiritually esoteric skills. Invariably, they’ve discovered they had remarkable supernatural abilities and insights from a higher order, allowing them to “see” things and perceive higher meanings that we ordinary mortals are entirely unaware of.

We know from research that most people are motivated to be better—more likable, moral, competent, or just more special—than others. This is called the self-enhancement motive, and it is quite pervasive and often works automatically, outside of awareness. In contrast, spiritual training aims to guide people towards spiritual enlightenment, transcending these desires of the ego. In theory, then, people who are spiritually trained should become wiser people who rise above their private interests, feel connected to others, and refrain from judging others. But often, the self-enhancement motive appears to find its way into the spiritual experience. When it does, the result is paradoxical: Spiritual development may boost feelings of superiority by creating a sense that one has acquired insights or skills that other people lack. The result is the opposite of enlightenment.

Spiritual practices require a high level of conscious awareness, and they are often aimed at increasing reflective, contemplative thinking. Self-enhancement processes, on the other hand, operate automatically and unconsciously. This means it takes only a moment of inattentiveness for the ego to kick in and hijack a person’s spiritual progress for its own self-glorification.  If a person is attentive and mindful, this need not obstruct the spiritual path: One can observe the responses of one’s ego as part of the reality of that moment, without identifying with them or getting carried away by them. But without full awareness, spirituality may itself become a self-enhancement tool.  

Spiritual gurus and journalists have written about this pitfall of spiritual narcissism—the “I am more enlightened than you” phenomenon. But spiritual narcissism had never been studied by researchers. To do this, Anouk Visser and I developed a measure to assess the degree to which people feel they are spiritually superior to other people. For example, participants were asked how much they agreed with statements such as: “I am more aware of what is between heaven and earth than most people” and “The world would be a better place if others also had the insights that I have now.”

In three studies, we administered this spiritual superiority measure to various groups in the Netherlands, including students of mindfulness schools and energetic training schools. As we expected, spiritual superiority was related to communal narcissism, which is the belief that one is more socially skilled and empathic than others. It was also related to the tendency to see oneself as a guide for other people, as indicated, for example, by endorsing the statement: “I am patient with other people, because I understand it takes time to gain the insights that I acquired.”  Responses to our spiritual superiority scale were also related to people’s beliefs that they possessed psychic abilities, such as the ability to affect the world around them with their thoughts. This relationship between spiritual superiority and believing one has psychic ability was particularly strong among students of energetic schools. In energetic therapy, the focus is on perceiving or changing people’s spiritual or psychic energy, for instance, reading or healing auras and chakras.

In all studies, participants who had trained in energetic practices had higher spiritual superiority than all other groups. They even rated themselves highest on qualities that are specifically trained in mindfulness schools, such as being in touch with one’s senses and bodily experiences. Presumably, then, their self-ascribed superiority in these areas is illusory.

The same goes for their superior supernatural skills, which are well outside the borders of established science. Possibly, energetic schools attract people who already believe they have supernatural abilities, making them more special than others. Thus, their training may not have necessarily caused their spiritual superiority. But the training may certainly enhance their confidence that they are spiritually gifted. Many other skills can be verified by objective performance standards, so if people overestimate themselves, they are bound to have a harsh confrontation with reality at some point; but for supernatural skills, this is less likely. So it seems improbable that, during an energetic training program, trainees discover they don’t have any supernatural abilities after all.

So, are all spiritual quests just an ego trip then? Not necessarily. Spiritual narcissism is not caused by the spiritual philosophy itself but rather by what people make of it. In our studies, students from mindfulness schools showed a lower degree of spiritual superiority than those in energetic schools. This difference may be related to the type of student who is attracted to mindfulness and meditation, as well as to the fact that mindfulness training typically involves explicit attention to the pitfalls of the ego. So as part of their training, mindfulness students learn to be vigilant about this cunning obstruction on their spiritual path.

This vigilance is necessary, because the ego is always on the lookout to reinforce its own individuality, grandeur, and specialness. It happens with success in work, sports, relationships, and also spirituality.  As soon as you notice progress in your development, the ego can jump out: “See how great I’m doing!?” People who don’t share their self-congratulations, well, they just don’t really understand. In this way, the alleged spiritual insights can also become a wall of defense.

Our results illustrate the sovereignty and tenacity of the self-enhancement motive, showing its operation even in contexts that are designed to quiet the ego. This extends current knowledge on self-enhancement by showing its operation in a domain where self-superiority might be least expected.


For Further Reading

Vonk, R., & Visser, A. (2020).  An Exploration of Spiritual Superiority: The Paradox of Self‐Enhancement, European Journal of Social Psychology.  https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.2721
 

Roos Vonk is a professor of social psychology at Radboud University. She studies self-enhancement and self-defense, resistance, and perceptions of moral refusers.