An Introduction to Religious and Spiritual Experience

Marianne Rankin is Chair of the Alister Hardy Society, with which many readers will be familiar. Sir Alister Hardy, FRS (1896-1985) was professor of zoology at Oxford and was advised by his FRS father-in-law early in his career (I remember him telling this story) not to pursue his interest in spiritual and religious experience until he had established his scientific reputation. Accordingly, having given the Gifford Lectures during the 1960s, he retired from Oxford in 1969 and set up the Religious Experience Research Unit, now a centre in the University of Wales, Lampeter, with records of over 6,000 experiences. Marianne draws on these and many other sources in this extraordinarily wide-ranging study. Hardy himself defined religious experience as 'a deep awareness of a benevolent non-physical power which appears to be partly or wholly beyond, and far greater than, the individual self.' The 'Hardy question' put out to newspapers was: 'Have you ever been aware of or influenced by a presence or power, whether you call it God or not, which is different from your everyday self?' He himself had experiences where he 'was overcome with the glory of the natural scene' and falls on his knees in a prayer of gratitude.

The point of these experiences lies in their implications for our understanding of the nature of consciousness and human life. Many people, including myself and the author of this book, take them as an indication of transcendent levels of reality, and it is certainly true to say that whatever the interpretation, 'for those who have them, their experiences serve to deepen their apprehension of the mystery of life and intensify their appreciation of its intricate complexity.' (p. 256) They also strengthen the case for belief in the Divine without of course offering conclusive proof.

A notable feature of the book is its comprehensive and systematic coverage of the field. It begins with an overview of terminology ranging through religious, spiritual, paranormal, NDEs, OBEs and more specialised terms associated with particular individuals such as Exceptional Human Experience (Rhea White) and Peak Experience (Abraham Maslow). It then covers spiritual experiences in relation to religions, including new religious movements and even quasi-religions like Marxism. Two chapters on experiences of founders of religions follow, the first on major religious traditions and the second on less well-known traditions including the Brahma Kumaris, Baha'is, Theosophists and various gurus such as Sai Baba, Ramana Maharshi, Mother Meera and even Neale Donald Walsch and Deepak Chopra. This range of coverage is both refreshing and stimulating (and could have included Peter Deunov).

Next come chapters on religious and non-religious triggers of spiritual experience such as prayer, meditation, silence, darshan, pilgrimage and fasting, then places, illness, accidents, depression, nature and music. All these are illustrated with fascinating first-hand accounts, as are the descriptions of types of spiritual experience such as light and love, which will be familiar to researchers in mystical and near-death experiences. Negative spiritual experiences and the dangerous aspects of spiritual movements are also covered. There is a separate section on death and dying, then accounts from well-known mystics and spiritual and mystical experiences of well-known people; occasionally, these put more emphasis on the life than the experience, and include Jung, Wilberforce, Gandhi, Bonhoeffer, Chad Varah (Founder of the Samaritans), Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, Cicely Saunders, the Dalai Lama and Aung San Suu Kyi. Some fruits of spiritual experience are described – orphanages, the Prison Phoenix Trust, religious orders and the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

The final chapters survey contemporary spiritual experience research and interpretations of spiritual, religious and mystical experience from Schleiermacher to the present day. Many names will be familiar such as William James, Ninian Smart, Aldous Huxley, John Hick and Keith Ward, but there are also sections on A.J. Ayer, Don Cupitt, Daniel Dennett and Richard Dawkins. This serves to convey what I said at the beginning of the review, namely that this is a book of unusual scope, providing a kaleidoscope of material and an eclectic range of sources. As such it is a primer for the beginner as well as a mind-stretcher for those more familiar with the field. The message is one of depth and transformation: we live within deeper orders of reality of which we occasionally become aware, but the experiences of others, as set out in this book, can serve as powerful reminders of an underlying purpose and meaning in our lives.