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Gathering the Texts of Spiritual Experience

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I’m in the midst of writing a paper I’ve entitled “A New Way of Speaking: The Hermeneutics of Divine Connection” for a directed reading course on mysticism. Because of the course, which is part of my Ph.D. research, I’ve been reading a wealth of books about those ecstatic connections with the divine including classics like The Varieties of Religious Experience by William James, The Idea of the Holy by Rudolph Otto, and Cosmic Consciousness by Richard Maurice Bucke. One of the premises of my paper is that the actual stories of those who have these experiences are like primary texts that we should study. For example, as the Bible is the primary text for Christianity and Judaism, the descriptions of connections with the divine by those who have experienced them are the primary texts of mystical research.

     In the course of my exploration on this topic, I came across a gem of a book, A Sense of Presence, by Timothy Beardsworth, a study based on the religious experiences collected in 1969 and 1970 by Sir Alister Hardy’s Religious Experience Research Unit at Manchester College, Oxford. Since the volume is chock full of examples of these experiences, I decided to check the Internet to see if the Religious Experience Research Unit still exists. It does! The Religious Experience Research Center, as it is now called, along with the Alister Hardy Trust is housed at the University of Wales, Lampeter, and on line at www.lamp.ac.uk/aht/Research/research. A visit to the website reveals an informative collection of personal stories, books, articles, audio cassettes, events—and a place where your own personal account of religious and spiritual experience can be submitted.

     The homepage of the site explains that the function of the Religious Experience Research Centre is the study of contemporary spiritual and religious experience. A separate section of the site is devoted to the Alister Hardy Society, which promotes public awareness of the meaning and value of spiritual experience.

     The “Personal Stories” section of the site is of particular interest. The original stories were collected when Professor Hardy placed a series of classified ads in religious journals, and newspapers like the Guardian, Times and Daily Mail. Here are some of the stories that appear on the website:

     “As far back as I can remember, I have never had a sense of separation from the spiritual force I now choose to call God … From the age of about six to twelve, in places of quiet and desolation, this feeling of ‘oneness’ often passed to a state of ‘listening.’ I mean by ‘listening’ that I was suddenly alerted to something that was going to happen. What followed was a feeling of tremendous exaltation in which time stood still.”

     “I heard nothing, yet it was as if I were surrounded by a golden light and as if I only had to reach out my hand to touch God himself who was surrounding me with his compassion.”

     “I find it difficult to describe my experience, only to say that it seems to be outside of me and enormous, and yet at the same time, I am part of it; everything is. It is purely personal and helps me to live and love others. It is difficult to describe, but in some way, because of this feeling I feel united to all people, to all living things. Of recent years the feeling has become so strong that I am now training to become a social worker because I find that I must help people: in some way I feel their unhappiness as my own.”

     “It seemed to me that, in some way, I was extending into my surroundings and was becoming one with them. At the same time, I felt a sense of lightness, exhilaration and power as if I was beginning to understand the true meaning of the whole Universe.”

     Another interesting section of the site gives the details about getting an M.A. degree in religious and spiritual experiences that is run jointly by the Department of Theology & Religious Studies at the University of Wales, Lampeter, together with the Director of the Religious Experience Research Centre. The description states that the course is intended as a forum to explore and understand religious experience, which takes seriously both insider and outsider accounts, and which questions and examines the categories of spirituality, mysticism and religious experience. It sounds like the whole course is done through distanced-learning. If it is, that means that someone here in the United States could take the coursework for the degree via computer. I think I’ll have to check that one out!

     In the “Tell your story” section, the Centre invites you to send in your own religious experiences, which are handled in strictest confidence. Before you contribute, it is a good idea to visit the “What’s it about” section and get an in-depth idea of the Centre’s broad definition of these experiences. Here are some excerpts from that page:

     “It’s about an aspect of natural human experience. It can come in on us, or arise in us, suddenly, at any time, in any place, and can affect and even change our lives. It can happen to anyone, whether religiously inclined or atheist, spiritually inclined or materialist, and regardless of age, sex, nationality or culture.

     “It is called ‘spiritual’ and ‘religious’ because it is seen as either or both. It can include mystical, transcendental, out-of-body or near-death experiences, or a deep sense of meaning in a place or event. Psychical experiences such as déjà vu, clairaudience, clairvision, telepathy and precognition can be included. It can also include such features as meaningful coincidences, or synchronicities, guidance and answers to prayer or contact with deceased loved ones.

     It can be triggered by music, dance, church or religious architecture, beauty in nature … also by pain, intense suffering and distress. It can sometimes happen through meditation, prayer or other means. It can be immensely beneficial and life-enhancing though some experiences can be negative and distressing.

     “It can raise, in itself, the question ‘what's it about?’ and others, ‘why me?’ and even, “am I odd, or going barmy?” These questions need answering—for the experiencer and for society—for these experiences are important and can have far-reaching consequences. Investigating these experiences is what our work is about.

     Evidence suggests that love, relationship, unity, might be, ultimately, what it is about—light, love, oneness, and bliss are key words; insight, lifting of a veil, altered state of consciousness, reality, the Real, Ultimate Reality, God are other words used. What is your experience?

     Those who submit their experiences are asked to give as much information as possible. That includes what you think might have led to and/or “triggered” the experience(s), when (including date if possible) and where you had the experience(s) and how it/they may have affected you subsequently. Also desired are some personal details like your age at the time, your religious upbringing and affiliation (if any) and anything else that you might think relevant.

     I invite you to share your experiences, not only with the Centre, but with me. Since I’m up to my elbows in this type of research, I’d like to hear your stories. With your permission, I will share some of them (anonymously, of course) in a future column. Please email your experiences to monty764@sbcglobal.net.

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Mary Montgomery is a certified web author and developer. Her company, Montgomery Media Enterprises (“Freelancing with Finesse!”), specializes in public relations, writing projects and web authoring, development and publicity, especially in the non-profit sector.  Ms. Montgomery has a Master’s Degree in religious studies from Chicago Theological Seminary (CTS) and is working on a Ph.D. with a focus on the new scholarship of Unlimited Love and the Other Regarding Virtues. She is also in the process of completing the Morris Pratt Institute Course on Modern Spiritualism. Contact her via email at monty764@sbcglobal.net or at her web site at www.montymedia.com.

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