The renowned scientist Sir Alister Hardy approached the complex field of religious and spiritual experience in a similar disciplined and scientific manner in wh

How the sciences of the mind can advance the study of religion The essence of religion was once widely thought to be a unique form of experience that could not

Harvard psychologist and philosopher William James' The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature explores the nature of religion and, in James

Technical advances in the life and medical sciences have revolutionised our understanding of the brain, while the emerging disciplines of social, cognitive, and

Many regard religious experience as the essence of religion, arguing that narratives might be created and rituals invented but that these are always secondary t