Transcendent experience in forest environments

Abstract

People who visit, work or live in forests (n = 131) described a transcendent moment in a forest, providing written responses to open ended questions regarding the cause, thoughts, and behaviour associated with the event. Participants also rated the episode on a number of scales measuring characteristics of transcendence such as sense of union and timelessness, and broader appraisal dimensions such as complexity, novelty and causality. Appraisal patterns, identified through principal components analysis, suggest that transcendence in forests varies on three major dimensions: fascination, novelty and compatibility. The paper discusses broad classifications of transcendent experience in forest ..