P1: KEF

Pastoral Psychology [pspy]

PH279-pasp-489800

August 19, 2004

15:29

Style file version Nov 28th, 2002

C 2004)
Pastoral Psychology, Vol. 53, No. 1, September 2004 (

A Short Index of Mystical Orientation (SIMO):

A Study Among Roman Catholic Priests
Leslie J. Francis1,3 and Stephen H. Louden2

The internal consistency reliability and concurrent validity of the 9-item Short
Index of Mystical Orientation (SIMO) are established in relation with the parent 21item Mystical Orientation Scale (MOS) among a sample of 1,468 Roman Catholic
priests
KEY WORDS: Mystical Orientation Scale (MOS); Short Index of Mystical Orientation (SIMO);
mystical experiences of Roman Catholic priests.

INTRODUCTION
Francis and Louden (2000a) proposed a 21-item Mystical Orientation Scale
(MOS). This instrument is distinguished from Hoods well-established Mysticism
Scale (see Hood et al., 2001) in three important ways. First, Hoods instrument
was designed as a measure of reported mystical experience (Hood, 1975, p. 29).
Francis and Loudens instrument was designed as a measure of how important
aspects of mystical experience are to the individuals faith. Second, Hoods major
concern was with an instrument which could explore the structure of religious
experiences across individuals nurtured in different religious or secular traditions.
Francis and Loudens major concern was with an instrument which could distinguish between different spiritual orientations within the Christian community.
Third, Hood constructed his instrument on the basis of the eight characteristic components of mysticism defined by Stace (1960). Francis and Louden constructed
1 The Revd. Professor Leslie J. Francis is Director, Welsh National Centre for Religious Education, and

Professor of Practical Theology, University of Wales, Bangor, UK.

Right Revd. Monsignor Dr. Stephen Louden is Research Associate, Centre for Ministry Studies,
University of Wales, Bangor, UK.
3 Address correspondence to Leslie J. Francis, Welsh National Centre for Religious Education,
University of Wales, Bangor, Normal Site, Bangor, Gwynedd, LL57 2PX, Wales UK; e-mail:
L.J.Francis@Bangor.ac.uk.
2 The

49
C 2004 Springer Science+Business Media, Inc.
0031-2789/04/0900-0049/0 

P1: KEF
Pastoral Psychology [pspy]

PH279-pasp-489800

August 19, 2004

50

15:29

Style file version Nov 28th, 2002

Francis and Louden

their instrument on the basis of the seven characteristic components of mysticism

defined by Happold (1963) in his elaboration of the four characteristics defined by
James (1982) at the beginning of the twentieth century.
Francis and Loudens Mystical Orientation Scale was constructed to comprise
three items operationalizing each of Happolds seven defining characteristics of
mysticism, namely ineffability, noesis, transiency, passivity, oneness, timelessness,
and true ego. In their foundation study, Francis and Louden (2000a) found that all
21 items cohered to produce a undimensional scale, producing an alpha coefficient
(Cronbach, 1951) of 0.94. The first factor of the unrotated solution of principal
component analysis explained 45.1% of the variance, while the second factor
explained only 7.3% of the variance.
The strength of the 21-item scale is that the full set of items properly reflects
a comprehensive and balanced definition of mysticism. There may, however, be
occasions when there are significant practical advantages in a shorter instrument.
The aim of the present study, therefore, is to examine the extent to which scores
generated by the nine-item Short Index of Mystical Orientation (SIMO), previously
derived from the Francis-Louden Mystical Orientation Scale (MOS) by Francis and
Thomas (1996) and Francis and Louden (2000b), correlate with scores generated
by the parent instrument.

METHOD
The full 21-item Mystical Orientation Scale (MOS) proposed by Francis and
Louden (2000a) was completed by a sample of 1,468 Roman Catholic priests. Of
those who participated in the project, 15% were under the age of forty, 20% were
in their forties, 25% were in their fifties, 26% were in their sixties, 12% were in
their seventies, and 2% were in their eighties. The data were analysed by means
of the SPSS statistical package (SPSS Inc., 1988), using the frequency, reliability,
and correlation routines.

RESULTS
The nine-item Short Index of Mystical Orientation produced an alpha coefficient of 0.86, compared with the alpha coefficient of 0.94 generated by the
parent scale. This finding is consistent with the general theory of test construction
which associates greater reliability with longer instruments. Nonetheless, an alpha
coefficient of 0.86 is highly acceptable for the reliability of a short scale of only
nine items and well above Klines (1993) minium criterion of 0.70. The concurrent
validity of the SIMO is demonstrated by a correlation of +0.97 with the MOS. The
nine items of the SIMO are presented in Table 1, together with the correlations
between the individual items and the sum total of the other eight items.

P1: KEF
Pastoral Psychology [pspy]

PH279-pasp-489800

August 19, 2004

15:29

Style file version Nov 28th, 2002

A Study Among Roman Catholic Priests

51

Table 1. Short Index of Mystical Orientation: Correlation Coefficients

for Each Item with the Rest of Scale
item

Experiencing something I could not put into words

Sensing God in the beauty of nature
Knowing I was surrounded by a presence
Feeling at one with the universe
Being in a state of mystery outside my body
Feeling moved by a power beyond description
Being overwhelmed with a sense of wonder
Losing a sense of time, place and person
Hearing God speak to me

0.5817
0.4056
0.6564
0.6006
0.5674
0.6699
0.6628
0.6263
0.5332

CONCLUSION
This study has explored the reliability and validity of the nine-item SIMO
against the parent 21-item MOS among a sample of 1,468 Catholic priests. The
data demonstrate the internal consistency reliability and concurrent validity of the
shorter instrument. While the longer MOS is conceptually richer and empirically
more robust, the reliability and validity of the shorter SIMO clearly commends
this instrument for further use.

REFERENCES
Cronbach, L. J. (1951). Coefficient alpha and the internal structure of tests. Psychometrika, 16, 297334.
Francis, L. J., & Louden, S. H. (2000a). The Francis-Louden Mystical Orientation Scale (MOS): A
study among Roman Catholic priests. Research in the Social Scientific Study of Religion, 11,
99116.
Francis, L. J., & Louden, S. H. (2000b). Mystical orientation and psychological type: A study among
student and adult churchgoers. Transpersonal Psychology Review, 4(1), 3642.
Francis, L. J., & Thomas, T. H. (1996). Mystical orientation and personality among Anglican clergy.
Pastoral Psychology, 45, 99105.
Happold, F. C. (1963). Mysticism: A study and an anthology. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Hood, R. W. (1975). The construction and preliminary validation of a measure of reported mystical
experience. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 14, 2941.
Hood, R. W., Jr., Ghorbani, N., Watson, P. J., Ghramaleki, A. F., Bing, M. N., Davison, H. K., et al.
(2001). Dimensions of the Mysticism Scale: Confirming the three-factor structure in the United
States and Iran. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 40, 691705.
James, W. (1982). The varieties of religious experience. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Kline, P. (1993). The handbook of psychological testing. London: Routledge.
SPSS Inc. (1988). SPSSX users guide. New York: McGrawHill.
Stace, W. T. (1960). Mysticism and philosophy. Philadelphia: Lippincott.