The Spirit of the Appalachian Trail: Community, Environment, and Belief

Conclusion : Gains in Four Spiritual Domains

concluSion gAinS in four SpiriTuAl doMAinS Gains and Interactions Other studies have confirmed that wilderness recreation has positive correlations to self-actualization, self-esteem, emotional or psychological healing, building teamwork, and reducing antisocial behaviors.1 The AT surveys verified that the trail filled a remarkable range of individual needs for change and life reorientation and provided benefits in all four spiritual domains, particularly in cases where time to gain perspective was likely to be effective. Probable contributing factors were physical exercise, simple lifestyle, peer feedback, and support offered by other hikers.2 The most widely shared outcomes of the AT hike were thosethatconcernedthephysicalandsocialenvironmentoftheATitself,including making new friends, experiencing natural beauty, and acclimating to physical stresses of the trail. Statements with 70 percent and greater “true” or “very true” ratings had low dependence on individual issues, personal circumstances, or religious background. The transcendent domain was the least evident and most particular to a subgroup of hikers, with 62 percent reporting some level of spiritual or religious experience, and maximum “weighted percentages” of 40 percent of hikers rating statements concerning the transcendent as true or very true. A significant minority of respondents, however, believed they were greatly increasing the depth of their relationship with God or the transcendent. A pivotal question is: do all the spiritual domains equally influence each other? In table 10.1 the personal domain is divided into three subcategories: personal concerns and problem solving (such as managing a life transition), personal health, and self-perception, including feelings of achievement and inner peace. The responses to the questions reflecting the communal domain actually had the weakest relationship to the other two domains, with the exception of its conclusion 196 high correlation with personal interior or self-perception. In other words, how well one was building relationships with others was strongly related to one’s feelings of inner peace or of achievement. The weaker communal correlations with personal problem solving may owe to the universal importance of building friendships, while other communal variables were more particular to individual circumstances. Environmental perceptions were moderately correlated to all other domains and subdomains, with the exception of personal “interior,” where the degree of correlation was elevated. Environmental satisfaction and coping were therefore closely related to self-image and self-perception. The personal domains displayed high correlations to each other, with the exception of personal health, which again was more likely to be linked to individual circumstances. So what, in practical terms, do these results mean? First, the way hikers related to other people (communal) was, with the exception of making new friends, particular—individual hikers were experiencing their relationships with old friends, their significant other, and their family differentially. Some thruhikers were finding the trip had a much greater impact on their family relationships than others, owing to their personal circumstances. How hikers felt about themselves was related to a combination of the other domains: environmental, communal, and personal. Although it was difficult to distinguish cause and effect , a marked interior experience and a very intense environmental experience Table 10.1 The percentage of variables showing significant correlations among the domains Communal Environment Personal health Personal concerns Personal interior Communal Very Low 18% Moderate 42% Low 29% Low 23% High 50% Environment Moderate 42% Moderate 43% Moderate 39% Moderate 33% High 62% Personal health Low 29% Moderate 39% High 60% High 60% Moderate 35% Personal concerns Low 23% Moderate 33% High 60% Very high 70% Very high 73% Personal interior High 50% High 62% Moderate 35% Very high 73% Very high 80% gains in four Spiritual domains 197 tended to co-occur. Hikers who were having a strongly positive experience in terms of feeling inner peace or self-worth were also likely to feel they were working out their personal problems and improving their lives for the better. Though the frequency of prayer was not significantly correlated to the perception of nature , both enjoyment of nature and prayer were correlated to feelings of inner peace, suggesting a synergistic effect between the two. The surveys provided some surprises. Gender was less important than age to perceived benefits from the journey. The AT thru- and section hikers were tolerant of the high traffic on the trail, probably because of their enjoyment of the interpersonal and communal aspects. Perhaps the most unexpected result was that higher frequencies of prayer and meditation prior to the initiation of the trip improved personal interior and communal outcomes...