ABSTRACT
The phenomena of conversion are redolent with cognitive and intellectual contents as well as some very important emotions or feelings. Religious conversion involving a spiritual dimension is a complex process of adoption of a new religious identity that touches on social, cultural, psychological/ emotional, phenomenological, and theological issues. Sacred Desire was the winner of the 2014 Eric Hoffer Award in the category of Legacy Nonfiction and integrates psychoanalytic psychology, neuroscience,and spirituality in a developmental approach to mental health. The chapter shows that the conversion experience occurs in a non-pathological but healthy mind and personality. It is an expanding experience enacted in the conflict-free "playful" sphere of the personality. E. D. Starbuck describes what is known as E. Erikson's sociopsychological concept of ego identity that is exhaustively reviewed elsewhere. It is particularly cogent since the ego sector in adolescence, late adolescence, and young adulthood is often enhanced by conversion and entering into religious practices.
