Objectives. This study aims to better understand peak experience and their varieties (PEV), as a key concept in understanding positive human experience, in the context of a specific adventurous recreational pursuit. Sample and settings. Interviews with the 14 crew members of the historical sailing vessel Oesterscheldewere held at the end of a 38-day crossing of the Indian Ocean. A rigorous qualitative hermeneutical – narrative approach in analysing interviews was utilised. Results. The results were based on a qualitatively different cross�section of PEV that could be seen as a mixture of already thematised varieties of peak experience. The PEV were presented on three levels: the level of action, the level of feeling and the level of reflection; as such, they consisted of the interplay between specific challenges (situations) and responses (reactions). Alongside original methodology and analysis, the authors suggested the importance of studying the participant’s response to PEV. The response to PEV is seen as a crucial component in this study and to PEV itself. Finally, it was suggested that PEV could be projected into the future as a private and useful model of participation in life. Limitations. The study has a number of limitations commonly connected to the qualitative approach: a small number of participants, language bias (all interviews were held in English), the bias of question structure (“what did you feel?”), the participation of a researcher on the voyage, and the professionalism of the main crew that could bias the interviews.
CS
Cílem této studie bylo lépe porozumět vrchol-ným zážitkům a jejich variacím (PEV), jakožto klíčovému konceptu pro pochopení pozitivních lidských prožitků, v kontextu specifického dob-rodružného rekreačního vyžití. Rozhovory se 14 členy posádky historické plachetnice Oester-schelde se uskutečnily na konci 38denní plav-by přes Indický oceán a k jejich analýze autoři využili kvalitativní hermeneuticko-narativní přístup. Výsledky vycházely z kvalitativně odlišného průřezu PEV, který lze považovat za směs již te-matizovaných variací vrcholného zážitku. PEV byly prezentovány ve třech rovinách: v rovině jednání, v rovině pocitů a v rovině reflexe; jako takové se skládaly ze souhry konkrétních výzev (situací) a reakcí (odpovědí). Kromě originální metodiky a analýzy autoři zdůrazňují význam studování odpovědí účastníků na PEV. Reakci na PEV považují za klíčovou složku této studie i PEV samotné.Studie má řadu omezení běžně spojených s kvalitativním přístupem: malý počet účastníků, jazykové zkreslení (všechny rozhovory probíha-ly v angličtině), zkreslení dané strukturou otá-zek rozhovoru a také faktem, že tazatel se také účastnil plavby.
The huge number of interpretations and approaches to religious experiences makes discourse in the scientific studies of religion on the scope and significance of these phenomena extremely difficult. Especially misleading is the identification of them with mystical experiences, as well as attempts to depreciate these types of experience that are alien to researchers. A possible solution is the introduction of a differentiated scale of religious experiences in which mystical experiences constitute their “climactic”, emotionally and cognitively most intensive form. Acknowledging Otto’s definition of sensus numinis, the content of the experience and its cognitive, motivational and physiological components become a problem. In this situation most promising is on the one hand the classical conception of Joachim Wach, which orders the discourse and proposes recognising research on religious experiences with one of the main disciplines of religious studies, and on the other Abraham Maslow’s concept of “peak experiences” and “plateau experiences”. Therefore, (1) religious experience is graded; (2) it is not exclusively the sense itself (sensus numinis), since it brings cognitive and volitional effects, (3) it need not have a personal character and (4) experiencing it usually leads to various, more or less successful attempts to express it, and this then happens by means of symbols and is organised in the form of myths.
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