Most U.S. adults do not regularly visit places or spaces that they consider transcendent or spiritual, according to a Barna Group report published November 2.
The survey asked respondents to indicate whether they frequently found themselves in “a physical place that brings you closer to experiencing connection with something beyond the physical world.”
A majority (55%) of all adults said “no,” with 31% saying “yes” and 14% not sure.
“A sense of peace or calm” was the most common response when asked what makes a space feel transcendent or spiritual, with 51% of respondents agreeing. By comparison, 33% say “an awareness of a greater power,” followed by “a sense of belonging” (30%), “a sense of connectedness to the divine” (26%) and “a sense of connectedness to nature” (23%).
Nature (70%) was the place considered transcendent by U.S. adults, followed by Christian churches (62%), memorial sites (56%), cathedrals (55%), spaces in the respondent’s home (51%) and cemeteries (51%). The other eight possible sites included in the survey had less than half say they considered them to be transcendent.
The full report is available here. The margin of error is plus or minus two percentage points.