The Holy Light of Cyberspace: Spiritual Experience in a Virtual Church

Abstract

Digital technology became a substantial component of daily life activities where people grew less dependent on the constraints of the physical world. Recent developments of new media platforms have led to important changes in religious practices, resulting in digital religion. However, there is a lack of empirical research assessing the effect on the spiritual experience. Some elements of sacred architecture, light for instance, influence the perception and experience of space. Light is a symbol of the sacred as it uplifts the worshiper’s soul and contributes to the transcendental experience. This paper proposes an analysis of a contemporary space, cyberspace, in framing the sacred experience. The focus is on light and its effect on the spiritual experience in a virtual church. The method employs an empirical approach, adapted from the social sciences scholarship, to examine the extent of the spiritual experience(s) manifested by the participants as emotional responses to the sacred space. The findings highlight people’s experiences of the cyber-sacred space and offer insights into the design of those spaces. This spiritual event could be considered a spiritual appreciation of architectural elements translated as subjective emotional responses to virtual sacred architecture. Such study bridges the research of architecture and social sciences in creating a platform for the empirical exploration of virtual ‘built’ environments. It provides a quantitative approach to a phenomenological concept of digital religion and the future of spiritual practices related to virtual sacred architecture. The importance of the study lies on the designed methodology to assess the effect of light on the spiritual experience in virtual sacred architecture.

Náboženstvo v kyberpriestore

“…Znamená to hľadať niečo, čo môže človeku pomôcť dosiahnuť plnosť jeho života, nájsť odpovede na svoje základné otázky a zmysel svojho života a realizovať ho v plnosti svojich schopností (Platovnjak 2017). Taktiež spiritualitu možno definovať podľa odborníkov ako nepretržitú ľudskú túžbu po niečom väčšom ako ego, alebo vnútornú skúsenosť či skúsenosť transcendentna bez ohľadu na náboženské presvedčenie (Mansour 2022). Avšak môžeme chápať, a aj tradične chápeme spiritualitu práve v spojení s náboženstvom, ktorá sa vzťahuje na osobne prežívanú vieru, resp.…”

“…spiritualitu. Táto je jeho "srdcom", skutočným centrom, ktoré sa vyznačuje najmä náboženskou a mystickou skúsenosťou (Platovnjak 2017;Mansour 2022).…”

“…Možno skonštatovať, že spiritualita, resp. spirituálna skúsenosť, jej zážitky, majú tendenciu sa presúvať do digitálnych priestorov v podobe virtuálnych svetov, rôznych fór, diskusných miestností, hier a sociálnych médií... (Campbell 2005a;Campbell 2012a;Ilnicki 2015;Mansour 2022). Napríklad spisovateľka vedy Margaret Wertheim opisuje vývoj v kyberpriestore ako techno-náboženský fenomén.…”

Virtual Worship and Spiritual Growth in Digital Church Era

“…The results of other studies try to design church architecture in a virtual form that provides an authentic experience in three virtual dimensions, especially moving towards the metaverse, which represents a virtual reality version [18]. The reality is that the congregation can experience spiritual sensations from a personal point of view.…”