Q: I’ve heard you in a number of interviews discussing the “integration-surplus model” of spirituality. Can you give a brief overview of it? The basic idea is super simple: Spiritual experience is the production of a numinous experiential excess (“surplus coherence”). It is produced by the balanced blending or harmonization of two or more different subsystems of our subjectivity or intelligence. It is analogous to a similar production of interpersonal and inter-genre numinosity that creates the emergent cultural phenomenon of authentic religion. Our capacity for using different interpretive “lenses” allows us to experience the evoked excessive coherence in numerous ways — e.g. a higher/deeper self, a transcendent other, or as an additional transformational energy. Our specific perceptions of this process are framed by our personal psychology and the cultural worldspaces in which we are embedded. Whether this production occurs in temporary moments or is gradually accumulated, it has several secondary effects. These include (a) new energy for mobilization (b) existential satisfaction (c) emergent stylistic idiosyncrasy (d) a new platform for understanding, evaluating & acting in the world. Our “spiritual life” consists of the acts undertaken to produce the experience and to participate in modifications of living based on our relationship to the already successful production of this quality.
The Integration-Surplus Model of Spirituality
The Integration-Surplus Model of Spirituality
The Integration-Surplus Model of Spirituality
Q: I’ve heard you in a number of interviews discussing the “integration-surplus model” of spirituality. Can you give a brief overview of it? The basic idea is super simple: Spiritual experience is the production of a numinous experiential excess (“surplus coherence”). It is produced by the balanced blending or harmonization of two or more different subsystems of our subjectivity or intelligence. It is analogous to a similar production of interpersonal and inter-genre numinosity that creates the emergent cultural phenomenon of authentic religion. Our capacity for using different interpretive “lenses” allows us to experience the evoked excessive coherence in numerous ways — e.g. a higher/deeper self, a transcendent other, or as an additional transformational energy. Our specific perceptions of this process are framed by our personal psychology and the cultural worldspaces in which we are embedded. Whether this production occurs in temporary moments or is gradually accumulated, it has several secondary effects. These include (a) new energy for mobilization (b) existential satisfaction (c) emergent stylistic idiosyncrasy (d) a new platform for understanding, evaluating & acting in the world. Our “spiritual life” consists of the acts undertaken to produce the experience and to participate in modifications of living based on our relationship to the already successful production of this quality.