Summary: People who hold a strong sense of “oneness” — the belief that everything is connected and interdependent — report higher life satisfaction, regardless of their religious affiliation.
Source: APA
New research from the American Psychological Association indicates that belief in oneness — the idea that the world, life, and people are interconnected — is associated with greater life satisfaction, independent of traditional religious beliefs.
Laura Marie Edinger-Schons, PhD, of the University of Mannheim, led the research and explained that experiences of being “at one” with life, a divine source, nature, other people or activities appear in many religious traditions and scientific discussions. Her findings show that a general belief in oneness has a clear, positive association with how satisfied people feel with their lives, even after accounting for religious belief and affiliation.
The research was published in the journal Psychology of Religion and Spirituality.
Edinger-Schons carried out two large surveys in Germany, together totaling nearly 75,000 participants. In the first study, more than 7,000 people completed items designed to measure belief in oneness (for example: “I believe that everything in the world is based on a common principle” and “Everything in the world is interdependent and influenced by each other”). The survey also assessed related feelings such as social connectedness, connectedness to nature, empathy and overall life satisfaction.
Analysis showed the oneness scale correlated strongly with related concepts, supporting the measure’s validity. More importantly, higher scores on the oneness scale were consistently linked with greater reported life satisfaction. To test whether these beliefs were stable, the same participants repeated the survey six weeks later. More than 3,000 completed the follow-up, and results indicated only minimal change in oneness scores, suggesting this belief may be relatively stable over short time frames.
Edinger-Schons emphasized that the connection between oneness and life satisfaction appeared robust. People who reported a stronger sense of unity with life tended to describe greater satisfaction with life overall — a benefit that research associates with other positive outcomes such as better health in later life and higher academic achievement among younger people.
In the second and much larger survey — more than 67,000 participants — the study examined whether oneness beliefs explain life satisfaction beyond the influence of religious affiliation. Prior research has repeatedly linked religious involvement with higher life satisfaction, but the author wondered whether the core idea of oneness, which appears in many spiritual and secular practices, might be the more direct driver of well-being.
Respondents represented a range of religious backgrounds, including Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu and Buddhist traditions; more than a quarter identified as atheist. While average oneness scores did vary by group (Muslim participants had the highest median oneness score in this sample and atheists the lowest), oneness beliefs proved to be stronger predictors of life satisfaction than religious affiliation itself. When oneness was included in analyses, some of the associations between religious affiliation and life satisfaction became statistically insignificant.
The study highlights that many contemporary practices — yoga, meditation, immersive sports, creative flow and other activities — aim to produce experiences described as oneness or flow. Strengthening a general belief in the interdependence of life and a sense of connectedness may therefore have the potential to enhance well-being, possibly even offering benefits beyond traditional religious practice.
Edinger-Schons notes an important limitation: all participants were from Germany, so it is not yet clear whether the same patterns hold in other cultural or national contexts. She recommends further research in different countries and cultures to test the generalizability of the findings and to explore how oneness beliefs develop and whether they can be cultivated through interventions or practice.
Source:
APA
Media Contacts:
Laura Marie Edinger-Schons – APA
Image Source:
The image is in the public domain.
Original Research: Closed access.
“Oneness beliefs and their effect on life satisfaction.” Edinger-Schons, Laura Marie.
Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, Apr 11, 2019. DOI: 10.1037/rel0000259
Abstract
Oneness beliefs and their effect on life satisfaction
The notion of being at one with a divine principle, life, the world, other persons, or even activities has been discussed across many scientific disciplines. This article aims to capture oneness beliefs as a stable individual characteristic and to examine their consequences. Two large-scale nonstudent samples (N1 = 7,137; N2 = 67,562) demonstrate that the oneness beliefs scale has solid psychometric properties and correlates with related constructs while remaining distinct from them. Repeated measurement of oneness beliefs showed high stability over a six-week interval. Cross-lagged analyses support a directional, positive effect of oneness beliefs on life satisfaction. In addition, the larger sample indicates that oneness beliefs predict life satisfaction even when controlling for religious affiliation, sometimes reducing or eliminating apparent positive effects associated with particular religious groups.