Biel fans, jubilant after their team briefly levels the score against Basel in the 2025 Swiss Cup Final. | Photo: Alessandro della Valle / Keystone

Being at one with the universe, losing yourself in the greater whole – mystical experiences like this are rare, and often occur in religious contexts. But quasi-mystical moments also happen in everyday life, as researchers from the University of Geneva have now shown. They asked more than 400 people about situations in which they lose themselves, or feel part of something bigger.

This was often the case during group activities such as team sports or attending a concert. “Experiences like this are precursors to mystical experience, and probably trigger feelings of happiness through similar psychological mechanisms”, says the philosopher Florian Cova.

F. Cova and A. G. Abatista: From self-transcendent emotions to transcendent experiences: an exploratory study in the continuity between everyday and mystical experiences (2025)