Outcomes of Information: An Analysis of Spiritual Messages

ABSTRACT

This article explores the outcomes of spiritual information via publications containing such information. Outcome of information is defined as any process that ensues from receiving a message, and the defining feature of spiritual information is that it is perceived as a message originally provided or received by extraphysical means. Finnish publications reportedly produced by means of a spiritual method were sought out. As a result, 109 documents ranging from the 1940s to the 2000s were obtained, processed and analyzed. The qualitative data analysis was carried out inductively, following the tenets of the interpretivist methodology. The data suggested that spiritual information is of great significance in all contexts, especially in everyday life, albeit there were also outcomes that can be regarded as trivial. The main result of the analysis is the discovery of five types of information outcome: processing, dispositions to, communicating, using, and effects of information. These types are also categorized at a general and specific level, yielding more detail about the concepts. The real contribution of this study is that it pulls together a multitude of various outcomes of information, and organizes them into a coherent, holistic typology. In so doing, the conceptual structure simultaneously implies that research areas which have earlier been considered as separate (e.g. information use and information sharing) can in actual fact be connected, if there is just a will to do it.

Keywords:

Outcomes of information, spiritual information, processing information, dispositions to information, communicating information, using information, effects of information.