Gender Differences in the Description of Erotic and Mystical Experiences

Abstract

Using three different samples, self reports of sexual and mystical experiences, and forced choice utilization of agentive and receptive words to describe both mystical and erotic experiences, this research offers at least partial support for predicted gender differences in descriptions of erotic and mystical experiences. As predicted, females used receptive language to describe both erotic and mystical experiences. While males, as predicted, used agentive language to describe erotic experiences, they did not use agentive language to describe mystical experiences. The failure of males to use agentive language for mystical experiences is discussed in terms of the historically documented difficulty of males to experie:nce, union, agentively expressed, with a masculine conceptualized god image.