One of the books that introduced 'spirituality as distinct from religion' was The Idea of the Holy by Rudolf Otto. Worth reading an abstract of it. Another would be William James Varieties of Religious Experience. Studies of mysticism by the likes of Evelyn Underhill and Dean Inge also tended to differentiate 'spirituality' from 'religious belief' in that the former were characterised more by 'experiences' than collective worship and community behaviours. Alan Watts was also a pioneer in this area.

Jebediah's reference to 'elevation' is I am sure a common factor in spiritual experiences. Speaking from my experience, others include empathy, a sense of inter-connectedness with everyone/thing and spontaneous feelings of bliss (to which one should not become attached for fear of becoming a 'bliss ninny':-).

These kinds of experiences are what you might call 'inter-subjective' in that they are subjective, but also experienced (and documented) across a wide variety of subjects and cultures). So they are not merely subjective. They betoken a larger realm of experience than the merely personal.

I personally don't think spirituality is anything real. The reason I say this is because it can be faked. If you can fake spirituality then what is it that actually happens to the person if it can't be out right noticed? Absolutely nothing, except perhaps a change in mindset to a more abstract form of thinking. This is why spirituality is not easy to define nor is it easy to determine what characteristics make up a spiritual person. Since it is this way, I make the claim that spirituality is just a made up term. It is a useful tool to help to sell religion. Without it, religion has very little to offer a follower.

yeah you can fake love too:-)

Yep it can, I don't think love is anything substantial either while you mention it.

that explains a lot

love , true love is substantial , actually

through experience