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Let Us Say What We Mean: Towards Operational Definitions for Techno-Spirituality Research

Elizabeth Buie
Elizabeth Buie

This presentation discusses the presence and absence of definitions of terms for spiritual/transcendent experiences in human-computer interaction research, and of citations of relevant literature on the experiences. It speculates about possible reasons for the oversight, proposes some definitions aimed at filling the gap, and suggests an approach to operationalizing some of the proposed definitions. 際際滷 3 is a placeholder for a guided meditation that asks attendees to remember and ponder an occasion on which they felt a connection to something greater than themselves. The paper is at https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=3310426

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Let Us Say What We Mean Elizabeth Buie, PhD Senior UX Consultant, Sigma UK @ebuie Towards Operational De鍖nitions for Techno-Spirituality Research
you should say what you mean, the March Hare went on. I do, Alice hastily replied; at least at least I mean what I say thats the same thing, you know. Not the same thing a bit! said the Hatter. Lewis Carroll, Alices Adventures in Wonderland Illustration of A Mad Tea Party, by John Tenniel. Public domain image. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Teaparty.svg.
Guided meditation
How would you describe your experience? So that 金 Friends and family would know what it was like? 金 Researchers would know what they were studying? 金 Designers would know what they were designing for?
Beyond words?
堰看敬艶厩艶姻
There ARE some common characteristics 金 A sense of deep and intimate connection 金 Something greater than oneself 金 Ineffable, beyond words 金 (and more)
How do we know?
We look at the relevant literature, of course
And the one that started it off (1902)
Transcendent experience (TX) comes in many 鍖avors 金 Spiritual experience 金 Mystical experience 金 Religious experience 金 Peak experience 金 Numinous experience 金 The peace that passes all understanding 金 Samdhi 金 Cosmic Consciousness 金 Satori 金 Flow experience (sometimes) 金 (etc.) Levin, J., & Steele, L. (2005). The transcendent experience: conceptual, theore?cal, and epidemiologic perspec?ves. Explore, 1(2), 89101.
So whats going on with HCI coverage of TXs? HCI research on techno-spirituality has increased dramatically in recent years Some of it covers transcendent experiences Google Scholar search, <techno-spirituality OR self-transcendence OR spiritual experience OR transcendent experience> ACM Digital Library, since 2003
Some works include TX in HCI research De鍖ne experience Cite TX literature Works No No 5 Partial No 6 Yes Yes 3* *from 2005, 2009, and (student research competition) 2017 One of these even develops a measurement instrument without citing any literature They aim to observe, invite, or support transcendent experiences HOWEVER
Two key questions 1. How do the researchers understand the experiences they target? 2. How do they know when and whether they have observed, invited, or supported the experiences they target?
How do they know what they are studying?
A conundrum
HCI is grounded in experimental psychology 金 Experimental psychology is rigorous in de鍖ning its constructs 金 HCI research has provided operational de鍖nitions throughout the decades of its existence 金 HCI research on transcendent user experience (TUX) is not (rigorous), and does not (provide op defs) Is it me, or does anyone else 鍖nd that just a wee bit strange?
Thats what I thought.
Why might we be overlooking it? 金 Do we in HCI think this literature might be unscienti鍖c? Im guessing thats not the reason 金 Do we dismiss such literature for fear the authors might have a religious agenda? This could be a factor 金 Are we unaware of the literature? Most likely! Do we really think that any of these are good excuses?
Some non-HCI works both characterise and cite 金 Six works offer good examples 金 They come from a variety of disciplines ! Museum studies ! Psychology ! Religion
De鍖ning the experiences 金We should not (and possibly cannot) de鍖ne the magic out of these experiences 金We do need to say enough about them that we can make an educated guess about what we are designing for 金And we have to say how we will know when weve seen them 金We need some de鍖nitions 金Including perhaps some operational de鍖nitions?
Some proposed terms to de鍖ne 金 spirituality 金 religion 金 transcendent experience / self-transcendent experience 金 spiritual experience 金 religious experience 金 transcendence / self-transcendence 金 transformative experience 金 transcendent user experience (TUX)
HCI needs to use the TX literature
A TX literature resource for HCI
A TX literature resource 金 The concepts of spirituality and religion, to the extent that the work pertains to transcendent experience 金 The nature of transcendence and transcendent experiences, from phenomenology to neurology 金 Measurement and assessment of transcendent experiences 金 Techno-spirituality the use of technology to support spiritual and religious practices and to facilitate transcendent experiences. From HCI and elsewhere
@ebuie Key points 金 Lets begin a conversation on how we want to de鍖ne the terms we use 金 Lets ensure that we use relevant literature on the experiences we study 金 Ive started a literature resource: transcendhance.wordpress.com

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Let Us Say What We Mean: Towards Operational Definitions for Techno-Spirituality Research

  • 1. Let Us Say What We Mean Elizabeth Buie, PhD Senior UX Consultant, Sigma UK @ebuie Towards Operational De鍖nitions for Techno-Spirituality Research
  • 2. you should say what you mean, the March Hare went on. I do, Alice hastily replied; at least at least I mean what I say thats the same thing, you know. Not the same thing a bit! said the Hatter. Lewis Carroll, Alices Adventures in Wonderland Illustration of A Mad Tea Party, by John Tenniel. Public domain image. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Teaparty.svg.
  • 4. How would you describe your experience? So that 金 Friends and family would know what it was like? 金 Researchers would know what they were studying? 金 Designers would know what they were designing for?
  • 7. There ARE some common characteristics 金 A sense of deep and intimate connection 金 Something greater than oneself 金 Ineffable, beyond words 金 (and more)
  • 8. How do we know?
  • 9. We look at the relevant literature, of course
  • 10. And the one that started it off (1902)
  • 11. Transcendent experience (TX) comes in many 鍖avors 金 Spiritual experience 金 Mystical experience 金 Religious experience 金 Peak experience 金 Numinous experience 金 The peace that passes all understanding 金 Samdhi 金 Cosmic Consciousness 金 Satori 金 Flow experience (sometimes) 金 (etc.) Levin, J., & Steele, L. (2005). The transcendent experience: conceptual, theore?cal, and epidemiologic perspec?ves. Explore, 1(2), 89101.
  • 12. So whats going on with HCI coverage of TXs? HCI research on techno-spirituality has increased dramatically in recent years Some of it covers transcendent experiences Google Scholar search, <techno-spirituality OR self-transcendence OR spiritual experience OR transcendent experience> ACM Digital Library, since 2003
  • 13. Some works include TX in HCI research De鍖ne experience Cite TX literature Works No No 5 Partial No 6 Yes Yes 3* *from 2005, 2009, and (student research competition) 2017 One of these even develops a measurement instrument without citing any literature They aim to observe, invite, or support transcendent experiences HOWEVER
  • 14. Two key questions 1. How do the researchers understand the experiences they target? 2. How do they know when and whether they have observed, invited, or supported the experiences they target?
  • 15. How do they know what they are studying?
  • 17. HCI is grounded in experimental psychology 金 Experimental psychology is rigorous in de鍖ning its constructs 金 HCI research has provided operational de鍖nitions throughout the decades of its existence 金 HCI research on transcendent user experience (TUX) is not (rigorous), and does not (provide op defs) Is it me, or does anyone else 鍖nd that just a wee bit strange?
  • 18. Thats what I thought.
  • 19. Why might we be overlooking it? 金 Do we in HCI think this literature might be unscienti鍖c? Im guessing thats not the reason 金 Do we dismiss such literature for fear the authors might have a religious agenda? This could be a factor 金 Are we unaware of the literature? Most likely! Do we really think that any of these are good excuses?
  • 20. Some non-HCI works both characterise and cite 金 Six works offer good examples 金 They come from a variety of disciplines ! Museum studies ! Psychology ! Religion
  • 21. De鍖ning the experiences 金We should not (and possibly cannot) de鍖ne the magic out of these experiences 金We do need to say enough about them that we can make an educated guess about what we are designing for 金And we have to say how we will know when weve seen them 金We need some de鍖nitions 金Including perhaps some operational de鍖nitions?
  • 22. Some proposed terms to de鍖ne 金 spirituality 金 religion 金 transcendent experience / self-transcendent experience 金 spiritual experience 金 religious experience 金 transcendence / self-transcendence 金 transformative experience 金 transcendent user experience (TUX)
  • 23. HCI needs to use the TX literature
  • 24. A TX literature resource for HCI
  • 25. A TX literature resource 金 The concepts of spirituality and religion, to the extent that the work pertains to transcendent experience 金 The nature of transcendence and transcendent experiences, from phenomenology to neurology 金 Measurement and assessment of transcendent experiences 金 Techno-spirituality the use of technology to support spiritual and religious practices and to facilitate transcendent experiences. From HCI and elsewhere
  • 26. @ebuie Key points 金 Lets begin a conversation on how we want to de鍖ne the terms we use 金 Lets ensure that we use relevant literature on the experiences we study 金 Ive started a literature resource: transcendhance.wordpress.com