Experiencing spiritual aspects outdoors in the winter: a case study from the Czech Republic using the method of systemic constellations

Abstract

The article focuses on spirituality on two semantic levels: the first one analyses participants’ experiences during a winter expeditionary course on snowshoes and considers the question of whether residing in the winter landscape with a community of other people may acquire a spiritual dimension in spite of the non-religious environment. The second level verifies whether the trans-rational method of systemic constellations may be used as a research tool, that is, as a specific source for data collection (different from other sources and methods). The research applied a phenomenological approach to the analysis of unstructured interviews (n = 12) and constellation insights; the result confirmed indisputably that certain kinds of experiences obtained in a completely non-religious environment (namely, during a winter expedition on snowshoes in the mountains) can be considered spiritual. The answer to the second question is also positive, since the application of systemic constellations results in different data in comparison with their verbal acquisition. Symbolic images that point out the system and its unaccepted elements deepen the understanding of both the individual and the nature of their spiritual experience.