An introduction to religious and spiritual experience

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission
We all require forgiveness from time to time, and also need to show it, 
which is not always easy. In South Africa, after apartheid, Nelson 
Mandela was determined that a way to forgive but not forget had to be 
found, in order that the nation should move forward as a whole. Instead 
of any kind of war crimes tribunal of the former regime, the Truth and 

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Religious and Spiritual Experience
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Reconciliation Commission was set up. As Archbishop Desmond Tutu 
took over the Chairmanship with interfaith support, it acquired a more 
religious character. People would be pardoned, but they were required to 
confess, to tell the truth. What emerged was uncomfortable for both sides, 
and neither the ANC nor the former leaders were happy with the five vol-
umes of findings published in October 1998. But Mandela and Tutu stood 
firm with both black and white South Africans, knowing that without 
reconciliation, the country would have gone up in smoke. Although not 
perfect, this approach was innovative and successful and an important 
feature of building the Rainbow Nation.
This chapter has shown that spiritual experiences have led to some 
very worthwhile projects, movements and initiatives. Although not exclu-
sively the result of particular experiences, the underlying attitudes of 
altruism and forgiveness have their roots in a spiritual approach to life.

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13. Spiritual Experience Research
If we look at spiritual experience as a whole, and think in contemporary 
terms, the question of who has such experiences leads to a rather surpris-
ing answer. Over half of the population of the United Kingdom today 
would consider that they had had what they would describe as a spiritual 
experience of one kind or another. Most people do not talk about these 
things for fear of being thought odd, yet despite that, the experience 
almost always remains clear and meaningful for them, indeed it is often 
the most important event in their lives.