Cultivating Shared Sacred Moments: Awe and Wonder in Clinical Care

By
Lenny López
Horace Delisser
October 7, 2026

Journal Of General Internal Medicine

Overview

The article describes “sacred moments” as brief experiences of transcendence, deep connection, and spiritual emotion that can occur in clinician-patient encounters. It presents these moments as culturally shaped and potentially relevant to clinician well-being and therapeutic relationships, while noting barriers such as limited time and training.

Background

Spirituality is described as an evolving dimension of human life involving the search for meaning, purpose, and transcendence, while religion refers to seeking significance through established institutions. The article situates spiritual concerns within healthcare amid evidence reviews, organizational recommendations, and collaborations between health agencies, faith-based organizations, and health systems. It also notes that clinical work involves vulnerability, uncertainty, and intense emotions, and that physicians report experiences that give their work deeper meaning. The authors frame sacred moments as one way to describe such experiences without requiring a specifically religious interpretation.

Data Highlights

Finding	Source detail
Religious identification and belief in an afterlife	Approximately 70% of Americans report both, according to a Pew Research Center survey cited in the article.
Spiritual interpretations of nature	Approximately half of Americans report that aspects of nature, including mountains, rivers, and trees, may possess spirits or spiritual energies.
Cross-cultural familiarity with the term	Almost all Japanese study participants initially said “sacred moments” was unfamiliar in Japanese and English; after clarification, they described experiences including “deep connection” and “fate.”
Factors associated with sacred moments	The framework described by Wong et al. identifies openness and religious/spiritual beliefs as predisposing factors; palliative care and near-death experiences as precipitating factors; and lack of time and training as hindering factors.

Key Findings

The article defines sacred moments as brief experiences involving transcendence, boundlessness, ultimacy, deep interconnectedness, and spiritual emotions.
The authors use “sacred” broadly and non-ontologically, encompassing religious and non-religious meanings; they define spirituality as “the search for the sacred, which includes deeper human experiences and emotions.”
In the Japanese comparison, participants described experiences such as deep connection and fate after interviewers explained the concept, although some participants expressed negative attitudes toward religion and spirituality.
The article reports that sacred moments are associated with reduced stress, better mental health, greater purpose in life, and stronger clinician-patient relational and therapeutic alliance.
Wong et al.’s framework identifies openness and religious/spiritual beliefs as predisposing factors, palliative care or near-death experiences as precipitating factors, and lack of time or training as hindering factors.
The related ASCO meeting abstract concerns a mixed-methods exploratory study of sacred moments in oncology; the supplied context does not provide its results. The related article “From Rush to Ritual” reflects on presence and deliberate care through three clinical experiences.

Clinical Implications

The article presents sacred moments as experiences clinicians may identify, acknowledge, welcome, and contemplate in everyday care, while recognizing that their language and interpretation vary by culture and worldview. The supplied web context notes that the 2024 ASCO palliative care guideline includes spiritual care providers and standardized spirituality assessment, and that WHO palliative care addresses spiritual suffering.

Conclusion

Sacred moments offer a broad, culturally responsive way to describe brief experiences of connection and meaning in clinical care. The article links these experiences with clinician and patient well-being while identifying time and training as potential barriers.