Читать книгу The Call of Spiritual Emergency: From Personal Crisis to Personal Transformation - Emma Inc. Bragdon - Страница 10

Despite the discounting and repression of experiences such as the one my client had in childbirth, people are in fact beginning to acknowledge their spiritual experiences publicly. Andrew Greeley and pollsters at the University of Chicago reported the results of their most recent findings in 1987.¹ In the United States, 42 percent of the adult population revealed that they had "had contact with the dead"; 67 percent of widows have had "contact with the dead"; 73 percent believed in life after death; 74 percent believe that after death they will be "reunited with dead loved ones." In terms of psychic phenomena, 67 percent reported that they had experienced extrasensory perception; 67 percent had experienced déjà vu; 31 percent had experienced clairvoyance.

These figures have been echoed in national surveys by the Gallup Organization.² From 1980 to 1985 their surveys indicated that 15 percent of Americans have had a near-death experience; 43 percent have had an unusual spiritual experience; 71 percent believe in life after death; 95 percent believe in a universal spirit or God. In 1986, 67 percent of teenagers reported that they believed in angels. Studies in the 1970s by Greeley and his associates showed 15 percent to 30 percent less activity in terms of spiritual experiences—with only 27 percent of adults reporting contact with the dead; 59 percent reporting déjà vu; 58 percent reporting ESP; and 24 percent reporting clairvoyance.

Either the numbers of people having spiritual experiences are increasing, or people are more courageous about admitting that they are having these kinds of experiences. Is this an indication that more of us are crazy? Are we a nation of psychotics? Or are we a nation of people now opening to share with each other a level of spiritual life we have not yet spoken about?