Primary religious experience is found at the heart of all the world's wisdom traditions. Many people who have had such direct perception of spirit appear to lead lives of greater understanding, virtue, and joy as a result. CSP's Primary Religious Experience Project is focused on these phenomena with the hope of understanding practices that can be beneficial to individuals and to their communities. Our studies address the following questions:

How can primary religious experience contribute to an individual's growth?

What conditions (beliefs, preparation, ritual, community, and continuing practice) allow for more helpful primary religious experiences, and how can the benefits be carried into daily life?

What risks are associated with primary religious experience, and how do they vary with circumstances?

How can primary religious experience be made more, and more safely, available?

Writings

Dimensions of the Mysticism Scale: Confirming the Three-Factor Structure in the United States and Iran abstract of paper by Ralph W. Hood, Jr.,et al.

The Varieties of Religious Experience by William James

The Mystical Core of Organized Religion by David Steindl-Rast

Characteristics of Extrovertive Mystical States by W. T. Stace

Harvard Divinity School Address (1838) by Ralph Waldo Emerson

The Psychology of Religious Experience a Huston Smith Interview *

States of Unitive Consciousness summary of research on effects of primary religious experience

Peak and Non-peak Experiences in Response to DPT by Bill Richards

Noetic Gnosis: Cosmic Consciousness by Beatrix Murrell

Transpersonal Realities or Neurophysiological Illusions by Charles T. Tart

Mysticism as the Crossing of Ultimate Boundaries by Wayne Teasdale

The Interspiritual Age: Practical Mysticism for the Third Millennium by Wayne Teasdale

The Two Sources of Morality and Religion by Henri Bergson

Recommended Readings (click here)

Links

The Archives of Scientist's Transcendent Experiences The Exceptional Human Experience Network