People who feel strongly connected to something larger than themselves tend to tell life stories centered on themes of closure, interconnectedness, lifelong learning, secure attachment, self-actualization, and spiritual pluralism—a pattern called a 'humanistic growth story.' In a sample of 144 Black and White men and women in late-midlife (average age 56.4), qualitative analysis identified these six narrative themes. A second quantitative study of 125 participants (average age 60.4) found that four of these themes predicted self-transcendence scores with effect sizes from β = .26 to .47. Highly self-transcendent individuals narrated their lives as spiritual journeys of humanistic growth, suggesting one path of personality development in late-midlife.
Dissociative absorption—a tendency to become deeply immersed in an experience while losing awareness of one's surroundings—is linked to reduced electrical connectivity in the brain. In 84 healthy Israeli soldiers, resting-state EEG showed that those with higher dissociative absorption had decreased coherence (a measure of connectivity) between frontal and occipital regions, and between central and parietal regions. These effects were strongest in the left hemisphere and in slow-wave brain rhythms (theta and delta). The findings suggest that dissociative absorption reflects less integrated cortical activity, offering insight into the neural basis of consciousness and personality.