Are Humans Spiritual by Nature? An Exploration into Spiritual Experiences that Manifest in Nature and Their Relation to Human Evolution

An Article by Leah Black

Independent Researcher

leah@ecoinnersense.com 

Abstract

Humans have experienced the divine, the numinous, the extraordinary throughout existence; you only have to glance at rock art and ancient sacred places to sense such potentiality. But, why do certain individuals experience the divine? Is there an evolutionary purpose to spiritual experience? Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution questioned creation and opened the doors for others, like biologist Sir Alister Hardy, to explore territories beyond the physical; diving further, into the realms of spiritual evolution. Hardy’s trailblazing scientific investigation into spiritual experience revealed clues about the spiritual nature of humans that today tempt further research and raise additional compelling questions; like, are extrovertive spiritual experiences signs of Nature communication ability? Are they indicators of animism? Are they shifting human moral behaviour and increasing our responsibility towards Nature? This article skims the surface of such intrepid evolutionary contemplations and delves into the intriguing waters of various theories and thoughts on the spiritual nature of humans by evolution.

Key Words: Nature Communication; Spiritual Experiences in Nature; Sir Alister Hardy; Human Spiritual Evolution; Religious Experience and Climate Crisis

Introduction

The study of spiritual experience, sometimes referred to as mystical, extraordinary or religious experience, was pioneered by William James (1842-1910), an American philosopher, psychologist, Gifford lecturer and author of The Varieties of Religious Experience (1902) (Marshall, 1986, p. 225). Yet, it was the distinguished British biologist and professor of zoology at Oxford university Sir Alister Hardy (1896-1985), that pioneered the study of spiritual experience and its interlink with human evolution by means of natural selection (Moreira-Almeida et al., 2021, p. 3). In his book The Spiritual Nature of Man (1979), Hardy defined non-ordinary experience as ‘a deep awareness of a benevolent non-physical power which appears to be partly or wholly beyond, and far greater than, the individual self’ (1979, p. 1). It is these fascinating spiritual experiences and their connection with our human evolution, which this article will strive to investigate by drawing upon the philosophy of various scholars, individuals and the perspectives of biologists with underlying interest in spiritual experience and evolution.

The article will distinctly concentrate on the Western context and spiritual experiences that transpire in natural settings, sometimes referred to as ‘extrovertive’, which is a term developed by acclaimed scholar of mysticism, W.T. Stace (1886-1967) (Hunter, 2019, p. 11). This specific focus on ‘extrovertive’ extraordinary occurrences is an act of homage to mother Nature, who is suffering greatly under the current climate crisis and Western human disconnect from the more-than-human world. Hereby, to complement the enquiry, the reasons as to why spiritual experience may be happening in Nature will also be considered by touching upon indigenous, archaeological and traditional knowledge where befitting to the investigation. Firstly, however, this article will commence by introducing the work of Sir Alister Hardy as an important starting point to set the scientific scene of spiritual experiences and evolution. Thereafter, it will delve deep into other research, ideas and opinions focused specifically on non-ordinary happenings that manifest in Nature, considering various aspects of them, such as Nature communication, spiritual experiences and the climate crisis, dormant animistic abilities, forgotten sensory-capabilities and shifts in our responsibility towards Nature.

Spiritual Experience and Sir Alister Hardy

Spiritual experience was a lifelong interest of Hardy’s, his study of which began a century ago, when he started collecting material for its investigation from 1925, at just twenty-nine years old (1979, p. 3). As noted in his unpublished autobiography, Hardy made a vow when he went to fight in the First World War that if he survived ‘he would devote his life to attempting to bring about a reconciliation between evolutionary theory and the spiritual awareness of humanity that would satisfy the intellectual world’ (Hay, 1998, p. 3). Hardy held back from his pursuit of passion, however, because he was advised to develop his reputation as a scientist to gain an academic voice before delving into the unknown of spiritual experience (Hay, 2011, p. 2). Yet, his eagerness to explore the interface between religion and biology never diminished, resurfacing in his retirement, when he began to devote himself to the research of spiritual experience (Hay, 1994, p. 2). Hardy subsequently became a Gifford Lecturer at Aberdeen during the sessions 1963-4 and 1964-5, which were published as The Living Stream (1965). In these lectures, Hardy ‘offered a biological interpretation of the phenomenon of religion’ (Hay, 1994, p. 1). And after them, in 1969 Hardy successfully founded the Religious Experience Research Unit (RERU) at Manchester College, Oxford. Nowadays, it is based at The University of Wales Trinity Saint David at the Lampeter Campus and is renamed the Religious Experience Research Centre (RERC) (Schmidt, 2016, p. 1).

In 1859, British naturalist Charles Darwin brought evolution into the intellectual limelight through his book On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, arguing in it that all species evolved from a shared origin and thereby humans descended from apes and are bonded by vast commonalities with animals. And through his eye-opening study, Darwin discredited the view that Nature is mechanical and that animals are simple machines or sense-less objects (Narby, 2006, p. 48). Hardy, as a renowned biologist, was a fan of Darwin’s work, describing himself as an ‘ardent Darwinian’; however, he did not consider that the evolution of humans by natural selection was caused by a plain desire to serve material needs (Garland, 1988, p. 13). Hardy expressed ‘I was just as convinced of the reality of evolution as I was of man’s spiritual experience’ (1997, p. 2). And contended that ‘evolution is as much divine as physical in nature’ (1966, p. 27). Probably owing to him being a devoted Darwinian, Hardy, therefore, wanted to handle spiritual experience from the viewpoint of evolutionary science (Hay, 2011, p. 2). Hardy’s theory that humans were by nature a spiritual animal, would bring a completely new and unique contribution to science and religion. And, as contended by fellow zoologist and former colleague of Hardy, David Hay, Hardy’s ‘account of the biological roots of religion is in fact revolutionary in that it offers a testable naturalistic hypothesis about the nature and function of human spirituality which is not reductionist in intention’ (1998, pp. 4-5). Thus, in his attempt to prove the sacred as a universally natural and vital essence of human life, Hardy’s somewhat unconventional view began to add unique insights into the realm of spiritual experience; as can be seen in his final book The Spiritual Nature of Man (1979).

Hardy’s distinctive position as a biologist evidently brought a whole new perspective to the world of spiritual and religious experience research. In his efforts, he managed to contribute the widest database of spiritual and religious experiences that has ever existed globally; and now the RERC archive is renowned for its strength, sheer size and incomparable uniqueness (Rankin, 2021, p. 37). By combining a quantitative method into a field dominated by deeply personal qualitative accounts, his study stands out over others before him, and brought with it clues to the possible interlink between evolution and spiritual experience.

Spiritual Experiences, Not the Realm of Fantasy!

By 1979, Hardy had added several remarkable insights into spiritual experience from his vast and fruitful investigation. For example, he found that many accounts were not ‘church-goers before or after their experiences, but had nonetheless been transformed’ (Rankin, 2008, p. 232). In addition to this, Hardy noticed that ‘institutional religion plays little part in most of these accounts’ (1979, p. 132). Thus, signifying that someone does not need to be religious to have a spiritual experience, and nor may they become religious as a consequence of the event. This added a considerable new finding to the field, denoting that the reasons for having such spiritual occurrences are not related to religious belief, and thus, could feasibly be a human trait. Moreover, his philosophy could not be ignored as simple fantasy, as what they also discovered is that spiritual experiences are far from uncommon (Marshall, 1986, p. 225). They are widespread; displaying serious potential for them being an actual attribute of human evolution.

Furthermore, it is argued by Hay that many accounts within the RERC also back Hardy’s view on the sensory element of experiences (1994, p. 17). This is because they show ‘awareness of a sacred or divine presence is experienced paradoxically as ‘sensory’ yet unaccompanied by any of the normal sensory inputs’ (ibid.). Wildman asserts to this point also, stating that Hardy recognised ‘sensory or quasi-sensory’ features were commonly reported in the accounts he received, which he managed to group into twenty-two different types, including various extra-sensory headings (2011, p. 73). This sensory element of such happenings will be discussed in more depth later on in the article, with specific focus on extrovertive spiritual experiences that occur outdoors in Nature. In a landmark realisation, Hay signifies that Hardy was certain that ‘members of the human species have the potential to become aware that they are in a presence of a transcendent reality’; and, after further collection of accounts this became very apparent (2011, p. 215).

After Hardy’s death in 1985, investigations into the spiritual nature of humans continued. Paul Badham, an RERC researcher and former director of the RERC, undertook an investigation with his team in China, and in doing so, they exclaimed that ‘what we discovered gave strong support to Sir Alister’s hypothesis: while cultural, political and philosophical issues strongly affect what people believe, they have less impact on what they experience’ (2019, p. 28). Thereafter, similar fascinating results were found in Turkey and India (Rankin, 2008, p. 234). Hereby, solidifying the evidence to support Hardy’s theory of universality. Furthermore, these outcomes, as affirmed by Hay ‘vindicate Sir Alister’s conviction that, as the result of natural selection, human beings have evolved a biologically-based openness to a ‘spiritual dimension’ of experience that transcends differences in culture and religious tradition’ (2011, p. 290). If spiritual experience is found to be universal through widened research, as it appears to be, this could suggest that evolution by natural selection is at play, testifying to Hardy’s original theory. And thus, this article will continue to explore such possibility.

Delving into the Domain of Spiritual Evolution

A sense of the divine could be as ancient as consciousness, as Hardy believed, and at what point consciousness arrived in the emergence of human evolution is a mystery (1965, p. 278). British writer of mysticism Gary Lachman contends a similar notion. He believes various esoteric philosophies of consciousness ‘suggest that at an earlier time in our evolution, our consciousness was much more ‘mystical’ than it is now’ (2021, p. 7). Physical evidence to back these assertions has been lost to the sands of time. Nevertheless, some evidence is available through anthropological and archaeological records to suggest that our ancient ancestors experienced a powerful spiritual phenomenon (Hardy, 1975, p. 173).

Certainly, at a minimum, information brought back by anthropologists, missionaries, explorers and the likes has shown a common element to humanity in that ‘religious belief is almost universal amongst the human species. It forms the heart of every great historical culture without exception’ (Hardy, 1984, p. 190). However, regarding religious experience in particular, neuroscientist Todd Murphy adds that religious experience continuously appears across all global cultures and has done for millennia (2010, pp. 495-496). Furthermore, mysterious forty-thousand-year-old animistic cave paintings and symbols were argued by American Conservationist Sigurd Olson to reveal insights into the extensive spiritual element and beliefs of humans, showing that Stone Age people were ‘powerfully stirred by the mystery of the unknown and the spirit world that dwelt there’ (1966, p. 136). At the very least, a sense of reverence could have been a feature of early human evolution, even preceding our separation from apes. This point is brought forth by scholar of psychology Matt Rossano, who implies that research undertaken by various primatologists and scientists ‘suggests that the foundations of religion and religious behaviour were laid deep in the primate brain possibly prior to the onset of hominid evolution’ (2006, p. 351). It is plausible hereby, that spiritual experience could go back much deeper into human history, even before human speech arose, as Hardy claimed (1965, p. 278). Tangible evidence does, like these examples, provide some clues that Homo Sapiens in earlier human history believed in a spiritual force. Spiritual experiences of today therefore could be fleeting signs of our true human potential and ‘supernormal’ abilities such as a trait to commune with other beings.

Communication with Nature?

In consideration of our early evolution from our ancestors the apes to human kind, perhaps, back in time, communion with the more-than-human world did not rely on words. When language arrived maybe these communicative abilities even functioned side by side. Eco-psychologist Ralph Metzner states that elimination of native European pantheistic religions could have ripped away people’s evolutionary ability to commune with natural beings and the spirits of Nature (1999, p. 110). And furthermore, scholar of eco-psychology Theodore Roszak argues a complementary view, by asserting it should not surprise people to find that ‘having closed the true ‘doors of perception,’ there is so very much we can no longer ‘see’’ (2001, p. 42). Author and independent researcher Maya Ward asserts that a connection on the level of communion and ‘knowing’ with Nature was once inherent to all people prior to colonisation (2019, p. 154). Ward further argues that people of Western-style cultures have become so dissociated they are lacking in the full body experience of ‘genuine presence’ (ibid.). Hereby, it seems at some point in Western human history our reverence for Nature dissipated substantially. Metzner contends this is related to Christian monotheism, which ‘denied and denigrated the creative spiritual energies inherent in nature that the ancients had worshipped from the earliest times’ (1999, p. 110). He argues that Westernised humans have grown increasingly isolated from the Nature spirituality our pagan ancestors relished (ibid., p. 122). Metzner exclaims further that this happened over the previous two millennia ‘under the influence of Judaeo-Christian transcendental monotheism’ (ibid.). It can be seen hereby how Western unity with Nature and reverence for natural beings could possibly have been severed. Ancient traditional knowledge may subsequently have been buried away with the birth of monotheist religions, resulting in demonisation of old animistic beliefs and gods of the pagan world (Andersson, 2023, pp. 117-118). In this light, it seems that indigenous Europeans’ divinity for Nature was ripped from the land and replaced with a new sanctity. The tides of time changed in the West, and as such, our animistic principles and reciprocal connection with Nature dissolved away, resulting in the possible loss of some ‘supernormal’ human abilities. It could hereby be alleged that what is no longer seen, felt, or sensed, as was in ancient times, is today appearing to Westernised people through spiritual experiences when they are in a state of ‘genuine presence’.

A native American Crow elder once said:

If people stay somewhere long enough—even white people—the spirits will begin to speak to them. It’s the power of the spirits coming up from the land. The spirits and the old powers aren’t lost, they just need people to be around long enough and the spirits will begin to influence them (Snyder, 2020, p. 42).

These words, underpinned by indigenous wisdom, reflect our potential natural capabilities and forgotten evolutionary capacity in the West. Other examples of traditional knowledge can be found across the world, including Peruvian shamans who in co-creation with the psychedelic plant ayahuasca have communed ‘with plants, animals, and ‘spirits’ of the jungle for countless generations’ (Andersson, 2023, p. 46). Furthermore, academic of indigenous studies Renée E. Mazinegiizhigoo-kwe Bédard, who is a member of Dokis First Nation and of Anishinaabeg ancestry, shares a striking point, emphasising that in her culture:

We learn to live traveling across our human Earthly realm, and the concurrent realities, or Spirit realms, because that is our natural state of existing. In this way, we are intimately tied to these relations of the deep weird in ways that other cultures of the world have forgotten, forsaken, or been forced to put aside due to colonisation. (2023, p. 358).

These powerful perspectives make the somewhat non-ordinary experience of ‘spiritual experience’ more normal, and much more conceivable as a natural human ability. Bron Taylor, scholar of religion, agrees that interspecies communication is plausible, because ‘for many naturalistic animists, understanding and even communion with nonhuman lifeforms is possible’ (2010, p. 22). Robert Sharf, also a scholar of religion, maintains that every facet of indigenous people’s lives is infused with a perception of the sacred; they do not hold local language to describe the word ‘religion’ or term ‘spiritual experience’ (1998, p. 98). And, as Metzner affirms, the attitudes of indigenous cultures of present and past ‘vary greatly from modern day industrialised Western ones, for them “the spiritual is the natural”’ (1999, p. 107). Metzner additionally contends that indigenous spiritual practises are infused with more open senses, which are adapted to their environments; they literally embrace ‘communing with the living intelligences perceived to be indwelling in Nature, with conscious respect and reverence’ (ibid.). This evidence indicates that spiritual experiences in Nature could be, in all simplicity, natural beings attempting to re-commune and communicate with modern-day Westernised humans. Hereby, reflecting natural acts of human adaptation from times gone by prior to domination of anthropocentric beliefs and monotheist societal norms.

Dormant Animistic Ability?

Ecologist Stephan Harding talked about spiritual experience as a possible ‘reawakening of the old, nondualistic animism that has been dormant for so long’ (2009, p. 35). He said this is an echo of our ‘indigenous soul’ (ibid.). In alignment to this contention by Harding, the investigative work of British archaeologist Barry Taylor into Mesolithic people’s animistic relationship with Nature reveals evidence that plants, especially trees, were used in rituals (2020, p. 4). He postulates that trees were at times believed to be animate, and for some communities in the Mesolithic period ‘trees were understood to be potent entities’ (ibid., p. 17). Thus, attesting to our once animistic connection with Nature. Maybe then, the more-than-human world is seeking renewed alliance in an act to support evolution of human consciousness. It is therefore possible spiritual experiences, in their manifestation, bring forth forgotten sensory awareness once evolved to connect humans to the oneness of Earth’s beings and the unity of the universe, in days when Westerners flowed with the natural cycles of life like many indigenous peoples of past and present. And thus, our lack of current communion with Nature could be like the dormant palmaris longus muscle and appendix, which once benefitted our ancient ancestor’s survival. Olson suggests that modern people still have the same spiritual needs of times gone by, yet even though they are living far away from their ancient evolutionary ancestry they do not forget entirely (1966, p. 110). Hence, in brief moments of wonder and natural beauty, or in the presence of ancient sacred places, perhaps these events materialise in Nature as extrovertive spiritual experiences.

Theoretically, our industrialised geography could be suppressing our ability to commune with an-other; blocking out the natural flow of things. Metzner calls this a ‘psychic alienation of Western humanity from the natural world’ (1999, p. 112). In speculation, being in Nature could be provoking spiritual experiences as we return to our natural roots. William James himself found Nature to be a trigger of spiritual experience, in particular stating that ‘certain aspects of Nature seem to have a peculiar power of awakening such mystical moods. Most of the striking cases which I have collected have occurred out of doors’ (1917, p. 390). Hardy also recognised ‘natural beauty’ to be one of the most common catalysts of spiritual experience (1979, p. 81). It could be speculated that in the West we are returning to a sense of ‘homecoming’ during spiritual experiences in Nature, especially in moments of pure natural beauty, which tend to hit our human heart with an evocation of love.

Scholar of mysticism Paul Marshall recognised that many people in his study shared their ‘sense of returning home or rediscovering forgotten knowledge’ during their spiritual experience (2019, p. 66). And, that they regularly described feelings of oneness and ‘unity with the world’ (ibid., p. 36). Participants in a study by conservationist Annick Hedlund-de Witt articulated their extrovertive spiritual experience as something similar to ‘a sense of ‘belonging’ or ‘homecoming’’ (2013, p. 171). Furthermore, as described by psychologist Ken Wilbur, ‘evolution is the re-membering, or putting back together, of that which was separated and alienated during involution’ (1996, p. 321). Returning to forgotten ways of being hereby, based upon these philosophies, could be an indication of the link between spiritual experiences and evolution, and also the antidote to our involution and regression as a species. Maybe when people are close to the elements of Nature, they are closer to the womb of creation. And henceforth, feelings of oneness and love arise from deep within their DNA like an ancient memory stored in the subconscious; a kind of returning and remembering of our potential extra-sensory abilities that in all possibility could have developed through human evolution.

Are These Signs of Extra-Sensory Capability?

In his book The Biology of God, Hardy claims there is much tentative validation to ‘suggest a transcendent world which man at times can experience in an extra-sensory way' (1975, p. 173). The Alister Hardy Trust’s RERC records contain numerous signs, mention of and headings of extra-sensory abilities, including telepathy, precognition, clairvoyance, etcetera (Hardy, 1979, p. 26). Marshall, in his investigation of Nature-based extrovertive spiritual experiences found that extra-sensory factors were apparent (2019, p. 79). Marshall maintains that numerous accounts of spiritual experience illustrate what appear to be ‘transformed sensory contents’ (ibid., p. 70). Equally, he conveys that some of the subjects’ stories express ‘two modes of visual perception can operate simultaneously, ordinary sensory perception and mystical non‐sensory perception’ (ibid., p. 71). Strikingly, this denotes that extra-sensory ability during spiritual experience could work alongside our normal sensory perceptions, inciting the prospective that they have co-evolved. From a scientific perspective it has also been evidenced that ‘elevated temporal lobe signs have been reported by people who engage in spiritual practices and who have a history of mystic experiences’ (Murphy, 2010, p. 496); imparting proof that the human body has likely adapted a sensitivity to respond to such occurrences. On this point, Murphy argues that ‘the human brain appears to be prewired for mystic experiences’ (ibid., p. 505). Feelings of intuition we may perceive today like sensing risk could authenticate intuition to be ‘just a shadow of its former potential’ (Meycocks, 2019, p. 53). And imagination could be unmasking dimensions of reality unseen without it, initiating ‘our other way of knowing’ (Lachman, 2017, p. 37). Lachman asserts that still today ‘as children we experience something like the earlier mystical consciousness’, but as we age these sensory abilities are lost (2021, p. 7). And thus, the aforementioned biological studies and viewpoints conceivably display an interface between spiritual experience and evolution. It is feasible that spiritual experiences are transient traces of forgotten senses that were usefully adapted to guide and help us to survive ailments and perils in times gone by, perhaps even on a grand scale.

Influencing Moral Beliefs and Behaviour 

A person sensitive to spiritual experiences could be seen as a very special addition to their tribe or community. They could hold power over a group to elicit positive moral behaviour, instil hope, bring joy and wonder, and ultimately sustain group cohesion for efforts of species survival. This would be especially true during times of desolation and misery (Yaden and Newberg, 2022, p. 318). Marshall argues that such a person with psi abilities could ‘influence evolution through the special kinds of knowledge, communication, and action they confer’ (2005, p. 312). Comparably, Murphy takes the stance as a neuroscientist that having people with mystical abilities and spiritual experiences in a group improves their capacity to respond to emergencies, tragedies and to capture opportunities when they arise. He ascertains that this mystical edge could even alienate competing groups by creating a sense of suspicion in their rivals (2010, p. 505). This capability of spiritual experience would hold survival value for a group, and coincidently, survival value is a core component of Darwinian evolution. ‘Darwin wrote about the need for an organism to desire life above death in order to try to survive’ (Yaden and Newberg, 2022, p. 318). This highlights the intense benefit of human adaptation to have spiritual experiences within a group to crave existence. After all, who wants to live if there is nothing to live for? Befittingly, Murphy affirms that spiritual experiences and mystical attributes could have acted like ‘natural police’ in early evolutionary human history, because ‘spiritual authority would lend weight to the political authority they presumed when they acted out these traits’ (2010, p. 506). French sociologist Émile Durkheim argued a similar perspective, almost a century earlier, in that ‘beginning with the simplest religions we know, the basic task of sacred beings has been to sustain the normal course of life in a positive way’ (2001, p. 30). And thus, these convincing philosophies imply the pivotal role of spiritual experiences could be to unify people through positive moral discourse.

Religious behaviour could have been so important to the centre of our species’ culture that, as asserted by Murphy, those who did not follow such beliefs and morals were eventually ‘bred out’ and subsequently new behaviours were ‘engineered’ (2010, p. 506). Perhaps then spiritual experiences played a key part in the engineering of useful morals in individuals to unify them and even provoke responsible behaviour towards each other and Nature. There is howbeit, no robust evidence for this. However, in evolutionary terms, solid proof could remove the power of spiritual experience for moral discourse and hope; hence, the possible mystery of such occurrences. Thereby, not knowing the full truth of spiritual experience could have an evolutionary function in itself. Sharf explains that spiritual experience is not meant to be understood to the scientific material world as it belongs to the ‘inner spiritual world’ (1998, pp. 94-95). Likewise, scholar Terry Louise Terhaar argues that spiritual experience is hard to scrutinise, yet no one has ‘demonstrated that the phenomenon is not part of the material world’ (2009, p. 306). Therefore, it is imaginably feasible that spiritual experience acts like the ‘all seeing eye of God’ to ensure the proper moral function and order of things in a group of people or towards the environment.

Evoking Responsibility Towards Nature

Shifts in moral behaviour could have massive implications in current-day human survival. Research into spiritual experience and pro-environmental behaviour is demonstrating that such events can induce moral responsibility towards Nature. For example, Terhaar’s research into the ‘Evolutionary Advantages of Intense Spiritual Experience in Nature’ revealed that extrovertive spiritual experiences ‘evoked feelings of obligation and responsibility towards the ‘Other’’ (2009, p. 316). And, notably, Terhaar argues that these feelings ‘may have evolutionary advantages that promote human survival’ (ibid., p. 337). She maintains her findings suggest that ‘natural selection may favour intense spiritual experiences in nature’ (ibid.). This is significant, because it substantiates that extrovertive spiritual experiences could be impacting human adaptation to tackle the current ecological crisis to ensure human survival.

Like Terhaar, Marshall found his research subjects experienced conversions in spiritual and moral opinion through spiritual experience in natural settings (2019, p. 106). Similarly, anthropologist Jack Hunter asserts that spiritual experience can reward people with ‘renewed vision of the Earth and an enhanced sense of connection to the natural world’ (2019, p. 11). I found that to be the case myself, during my own extrovertive spiritual experiences whilst empathetically interacting with Nature; afterwards, I felt impelled to shift my career and I became a writer of spiritual Nature connection and a mentor in the same topic (Black, 2024). It was as if Nature had inspired me to write on behalf of the more-than-human and to support others to spiritually connect with Nature too. Perhaps, in speculation, Nature also inspired many other influential or potentially prominent people like poets, filmmakers and writers who could incite mass change in beliefs and behaviours—William Wordsworth and Aldo Leopold spring to mind. Ecopsychologists Freya Harrild and David Luke ascertain that, as an outcome of spiritual experience in Nature, a person’s ‘cognitive and affective state is altered and their perception of themselves and their environment changes, ultimately resulting in a behaviour change’ (2020, p. 5). Besides that, Hedlund-de Witt’s study consisting of twenty-five participants in the Canadian wilds, shared that their spiritual experiences elicited a ‘sense of environmental responsibility’ which led them to act positively upon these feelings to help Nature and the ‘Earth community’ (2013, p. 175). Hedlund-de Witt argues that these results show promise that spiritual experience may enhance a sense of responsibility towards the environment and have evolutionary purpose to elevate kinship ethic with Nature (ibid., pp. 177-178). And thus, the evidence from the fieldwork is clear that spiritual experience can influence principles and these can be pro-environmental. Therefore, they can encourage us to step away from acts of involution incited by past societal shifts, putting us back onto the path of ethical co-evolution with Nature.

Spiritual experiences in Nature, as contended by Harding, can be so powerful that our philosophy and perception of life can be changed permanently (2009, p. 48). Outcomes of research undertaken by anthropologist of religion Bettina Schmidt and Kate Stockly mirror a similar view, by having illustrated the effects or ‘fruits’ of spiritual experience to induce long-term impacts on people’s ethical outlook or moral behaviour (2023, p. 7). In evolutionary terms, prolonged changes in behaviour via natural selection can form physical and organic adaptations, which can expansively spread new behaviours across a species. This is demonstrated in chapter seven of Hardy’s 1984 book Darwin and the Spirit of Man entitled ‘Organic and Behavioural Selection’. Accordingly, spiritual experience is being presented as a credible feature of human evolution with promising widespread consequences that could be the solution to our current ecological crisis. Hereby, spiritual experience could bridge our reconnection with Nature and be the transformative catalyst Earth and humanity so desperately need for co-survival. Perhaps then, it is possible that spiritual experiences have potential to shift entire cultures and religious behaviours for widespread change to aid human existence.

Shifting Cultures and Religious Behaviours

Most leaders of the dominant faiths proclaimed to have had revelatory spiritual experiences (Yaden and Newberg, 2022, p. 339). Murphy contends that spiritual experiences could have even moulded the primary foundations of all civilisations (2010, p. 505). He adds that accounts of spiritual experience can incarnate widespread religious networks, and consequently ‘individuals prone to such experiences may be an intrinsic feature of our species and part of an evolutionary strategy’ (ibid., p. 495). Such compelling and persuasive examples of extrovertive spiritual experience indicate they could indeed be manifesting as part of an evolutionary act to influence group cohesion and adjustments in belief systems of, not only the community, but also the greater societal collective that could lead towards global movements, culture shifts and new religions.

With such potential to generate expansive change, what if a new religion is called for today? Those in existence are not serving humanity and Earth in totality; evident in current environmental destruction and human deprivation. Maybe the religions of yesteryear served people of the past and met their needs, whereas today a drastic behavioural shift is required to raise eco-consciousness. An evolutionary shift that could create a new ‘dark green religion’; a term coined by Taylor that reveres Nature as sacred (2010, p. 10). Taylor’s philosophy is that ‘if there is a sensible post-Darwinian religion, then, there must be a sensory post-Darwinian religion’ (ibid., p. 222). Perhaps then, in the West today, we are sensing the formation of cultural changes like those in our ancient history, evoked through extrovertive spiritual experiences that could incite new faiths to meet our current evolutionary needs for species and Earth survival.

Conclusion

As a consequence of the arrival of monotheist religions our traditional animistic beliefs, and probable ‘supernormal’ natural evolutionary abilities were widely extinguished in the West. Examples of traditional and indigenous wisdom strengthen this conclusion, implying many aspects of spiritual experience to be ordinary and commonplace in humans. The evidence also indicates that, in an earlier time of our human history, we were more connected with Nature on a spiritual level. Profoundly, the investigation illustrated that spiritual experiences have been materialising and influencing entire shifts in cultures and shaping religions for millennia, and still could today.

The arguments, both philosophically and biologically, including those by Hardy, are compelling, yet lack substantial unequivocal proof to conclusively answer whether or not spiritual experience is a feature of human evolution. Concrete evidence of spiritual experience was, however, found to be conceivably counterproductive. Proof could smother the spiritual light that creates the magic and wondrous force of spiritual experiences in the first place, which seem through their mystery to instil hope, solidarity and to encourage human progress for unity and survival during times of despair and difficulty. In addition, there were strong correlations between the perspectives and evidence of scholars, like Hardy, to support the view that spiritual experience could indeed be a characteristic of natural human evolution. And importantly, there was a striking inexistence of contra-evidence to prove the philosophies and biological theories incorrect. Thus, absolutely no proof was detected to show that spiritual experience does not exist and is not a feature of human evolution. Thence, it could be. Additionally, the work of Hardy strengthens the likelihood of spiritual experience being universal and therefore humans could be spiritual by nature. In the modern Western context, the evidence shows such events could be fleeting signs of our once normal capabilities; even Nature communication ability. Thereby, during extrovertive spiritual experiences we could be returning to our roots and re-awakening forgotten senses from their natural torpor for re-communion and connection with Nature, utilising possible quasi-sensory and extra-sensory features like those that were categorised by Hardy and his team at the RERC.

Although the puzzle of evidence is incomplete, the biological proof and fieldwork undertaken to analyse extrovertive spiritual experiences offer scientific clues to substantiate that there is a highly likely, but not definitive link between human evolution and spiritual experience. The strength of such affirmation is particularly evidenced in the ability of these events’ outcomes to influence moral beliefs, principles and pro-environmental behaviour. Furthermore, extrovertive spiritual experiences seem to have genuine purpose to increase our responsibility towards Nature, by perhaps forging behavioural adaptations in an act of evolutionary development to tackle the current ecological crisis for human species’ existence. As survival is a core element of Darwinian natural evolution, presence of these behavioural transformations in the exploration strengthen the likelihood of spiritual experiences being a trait of human evolution. If survival is based upon a desire to live, then spiritual experience has been showcased in this article to be a good contender through its power to inspire, enthuse and motivate. And, as Hardy found, spiritual experience is vast. Henceforth, the arguments are strong that spiritual experience could be a feature of human evolution as supposed by Hardy and thus, humans could indeed be spiritual by nature. Perhaps, the transcendent power of spiritual experience reveals itself as a reminder for what it is we truly live for and who we really are; one with Nature and all that is—our sentient communicative kin. And either we evolve to re-commune and reconnect with the more-than-human world or fade into self-inflicted extinction.  

References

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