From Suffering to Salvation: Making Sense of Religious Experiences

Abstract

ABSTRACT The diverse nature of religious and spiritual experiences (RSEs) eludes easy comparison or conceptualization. Here we explore the phenomenological, situational and conceptual principles that connect eighty-two diverse RSE reports from the Hardy Database (https://alisterhardytrust.uwtsd.ac.uk/). We tentatively suggest that in addition to being unexpectedly significant and imbued with social percepts, messages and emotions, a variety of diverse RSEs might share a temporal trajectory; namely, a sudden, unexpected or drastic shift from a negative to a positive cognitive-emotional state. This transition can reflect an actual sequence of unexpected and meaningful events, or the trajectory of an altered state of consciousness (ASC) catalyzed by stress, fatigue or other triggers that promote shifts in focus. The cognitive-emotional trajectory of RSEs maps onto the trajectory of psychedelic and certain psychotic-like experiences, and fits conceptually with religious notions of miracles, salvation and revelation.