A stabilized spiritual state is considered in many religious traditions the "holy grail" of spiritual search, practice and life. It is called samādhi or moksha in Hinduism, devekut in Judaism, nirvāṇa or bodhi in Buddhism, daigo or satori in Zen, theosis or "union with God" in Christianity, and enlightenment, awakening or self-realization in the modern East-meets-West spirituality. Maslow (1969) called such a state "high plateau" and described it as living "at a constantly high level in the sense of illumination or awakening."

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In my PhD research, titled Living Transcendence, I conducted multiple Zoom interviews with 32 spiritual exemplars (defined as individuals who are perceived by experts in the religious-spiritual field as personifying Living Transcendence) of different traditions and spiritual paths. With a group of research collaborators we analyzed the interviews in light of the question, how is Living Transcendence experienced by spiritual exemplars? We found that characteristics of their experience were its constancy over time, amid and through the fluctuations of normal life; its association with a will to surrender to, obey or be in service of a "higher calling;" and its multifacetedness, i.e., its various qualities appearing to be facets of one essence. We concluded that the experience of Living Transcendence was described by the interviewees as constantly and consistently unitive, connective and supremely positive.

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Several papers and a book chapter have come out of this research:

• Freimann, A., Mayseless, O., Hart, T., & Johnson, A. (2024). Living transcendence: A phenomenological study of spiritual exemplars. The Humanistic Psychologist. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/hum0000359

• Freimann, A., Berkovich-Ohana, A. (2024). Enligthened joy and love, selflessness and beyond. In Happiness and the Psychology of Enlightenment (Editor: Patrick Jones). IntechOpen. doi: 10.5772/intechopen.1007429

• Freimann, A., Mayseless, O., Hart, T., & Johnson, A. (2025). Self-transformative research: Effects on researchers of a holistic collaborative study of spiritual exemplars. In Journal of Contemplative Studies no. 02 (2025): 1-1–31. https://doi.org/10.57010/TIWG2652