摘要：
This article explores the outcomes of spiritual information via
publications containing such information. Outcome of information
is defined as any process that ensues from receiving a message,
and the defining feature of spiritual information is that it is
perceived as a message originally provided or received by extraphysical
means. Finnish publications reportedly produced by means of a spiritual
method were sought out. As a result, 109 documents ranging from
the 1940s to the 2000s were obtained, processed and analyzed. The
qualitative data analysis was carried out inductively, following
the tenets of the interpretivist methodology. The data suggested
that spiritual information is of great significance in all contexts,
especially in everyday life, albeit there were also outcomes that
can be regarded as trivial. The main result of the analysis is the
discovery of five types of information outcome: processing, dispositions
to, communicating, using, and effects of information. These types
are also categorized at a general and specific level, yielding more
detail about the concepts. The real contribution of this study is
that it pulls together a multitude of various outcomes of information,
and organizes them into a coherent, holistic typology. In so doing,
the conceptual structure simultaneously implies that research areas
which have earlier been considered as separate (e.g. information
use and information sharing) can in actual fact be connected, if
there is just a will to do it.
