Internal Interactions with God

Abstract

A sample of seminarians and spiritual directors was interviewed about their internal interactions with God, and a small comparison sample of psychologist who had been in therapy was interviewed about their internal interactions with a personal therapist. All but one respondent could recall internal interactions with seemingly vivid detail. There were similarities between internal interactions with God and internal interactions with a therapist in their privacy, psychological importance and psychological functions. But there were also striking differences. Interactions with God were experienced as real, not imagined, and God was perceived as all knowing. This made it unnecessary to use internal interactions to rehearse future encounters with God or to explain personal actions and motivations to God. In addition, God was generally experienced by spiritual directors as part of self, not a separate entity, whereas psychologists rarely if ever experienced the therapist as part of self.