Spiritual experience is learned through attending to the mind in specific trained ways

Evidence

As Luhrmann (2012) writes in her study of West Coast evangelicals, “I would describe what I saw as a theory of attentional learning—that. . .people learn specific ways of attending to their minds and their emotions to find evidence of God, and that both what they attend to and how they attend changes their experience of their minds and that as a result, they begin to experience a real, external, interacting living presence” (p. xxi). As indicated by the term “attentional learning,” Luhrmann and her colleagues’ (e.g., Cassaniti & Luhrmann 2014, Corwin & Erickson-David 2020) work is an apt case of attentional techniques in our sense. — Annual Review of Anthropology contributors (⚠ verify author line), The Political Economy of Attention, 55

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines ‘attentional learning’ — a key concept distinguishing this approach from pure cognitive-manipulation accounts.
• SEED: Angle: attention as trained skill rather than captured resource — how spiritual discipline and platform algorithms invert each other.
• XREF: Luhrmann’s trained-attention account stands against Liénard & Boyer’s automatic-capture account — a live theoretical tension. — connects to: Embodied practice constitutes a precondition for religious experience; Mystical experience presupposes learned bodily techniques, not just belief. — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular:…, 1214; Mindfulness allows for nonjudgmental observation of thoughts. — Dan Harris, 10 percent Happier, 513 (+1 more)

Related

• Mystical experience presupposes learned bodily techniques, not just belief. (similarity 0.81)

Broader Connections

• Mystical experience presupposes learned bodily techniques, not just belief. #corroborates (0.88) — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular, 1214
• Embodied practice constitutes a precondition for religious experience #corroborates (0.85)
• Mindfulness involves being aware without judgment. #expands (0.85) — Dan Harris, 10 percent Happier, 1130
• Mindfulness allows for nonjudgmental observation of thoughts. #expands (0.82) — Dan Harris, 10 percent Happier, 513