An introduction to religious and spiritual experience

Concepts of God, Images of the Divine in Five Religious Traditions
(1987, 1998) Oneworld, Oxford.
Ward, Keith 
Religion and Revelation 
(1994) Oxford University Press, Oxford 
and New York.
Ward, Keith 
Is There a Common Core of Religious Experience?
(2005) 2
nd
Series 
Occasional Paper No. 44 RERC, Lampeter.
White, Rhea and Dale, Laura 
Parapsychology: Sources of Information
(1973) 
Scarecrow Pr, USA.
Yao, Xinzhong and Badham, Paul 
Religious Experience in Contemporary China
(2007) University of Wales Press, Cardiff.
Yaran, Cafer 
Muslim Religious Experience
(2004) 2
nd
Series Occasional Paper 
No. 41 RERC, Lampeter. 
Yoganada, Paramahansa 
Autobiography of a Yogi
(1950) (in UK 1969) Rider, 
London.

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275
Index
Abolition of Slavery 202
Abraham 18, 34
and Muhammad 38
Absolute Unitary Being (AUB) 16–17
Abu Bakr 37
accident 80–1
Adams, Douglas, 
Hitchhiker’s Guide 
to the Galaxy
 144
Adi Granth
, holy scripture of Sikhs 39
object of devotion 19
adolescence, conversion 100, 101
Advaita
, doctrine of non-duality 48
African National Congress 215, 230
afterlife 17
Agam Sutras
, Zoroastrian teachings 31
ahimsa
, complete non-violence 31
Gandhi taught 205
Ahura Mazda 30
Aitken, Jonathan, 
Pride and 
Perjury
 109–10
Alister Hardy Research Centre 234
Alister Hardy Society 96, 168–9, 232
Alister Hardy Trust website 6, 7, 114
Allah, merciful creator 37
Allan Sweeney International Reiki and 
Healing and Training Centre 225
Allende, Isabel, 
The Sum of Our 
Days
 132
altered states of consciousness 
(ASC) 127–8
alternative medicine 225
Amesha Spentas 30
Analects
, Confucianism 33
Ananda, Buddha’s cousin 20
ancient burial sites 146
Angel Jibril (Gabriel), vision of 37
angels, visions of 123–5
anger 86
Angra Mainyu 30
Anthroposophists 45–6, 208
apartheid, protest against 215
apology to Iraqi refugee 229
Aranyakas
(hidden teachings) 28
Arnold, Matthew, poem, ‘Dover 
Beach’ 253
ashram
(retreat centre) 47
in Tamil Nadu 188
Atharva
 28
atheism in China 235
atman
, individual soul 28
Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar 196, 
215–17
avatars
(incarnations) 2, 47
awareness of other dimension 8
ayahusca ‘trip’ 132
Ayer, A. J., atheist philosopher 163, 164 
Language, Truth and Logic 246
Near Death Experience 246
Ayurvedic medicine 51
Bab (‘the gate’) 41, 42
Bach, ‘Partita in D Minor’ 88
Baha’i 41
Baha’u’llah (‘The Glory of God’) 41
Bailey, Edward, 
Implicit Religion: an 
Introduction
 252
‘Beatitudes’ 35
Beguines, lay women of charity 228
beliefs, deepening of 102
Benedictine Rule 187–8, 227
Bernadette Soubirous, France 
(St Bernadette) 111–12
Bernini, Gian Lorenzo, 
The Ecstasy of 
Saint Theresa
, sculpture 124

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Index
276
Besant, Annie, Theosophist 45, 193
Bethlehem 71
Bhagavad Gita
(The