An introduction to religious and spiritual experience

2. Terminology
There have been many attempts to define just what is understood by 
religious and spiritual experience. Experience itself may be considered a 
modification of consciousness and the great variety of spiritual experi-
ences, their varying intensity and the wide range of interpretation is 
reflected in the different terms given to them. It may be helpful to think of 
a continuum of different types of awareness, ranging from a momentary 
experience of awe or an awareness of ‘Something Beyond’ right across the 
spectrum to perhaps the most intense form of all, the mystical experience. 
Religious Experience
This
 
is a particularly appropriate term for experiences which either con-
firm or conform to the tenets of a religious tradition or which take place 
during religious observance or practice or are the result of lengthy prepa-
ration or devotion, of mental training, prayer or fasting. Such experiences 
may be communal, taking place within a setting of worship or ritual or 
may be solitary. 
Religious Experience was the term used by William James (1842–1907) 
in his Gifford Lectures on Natural Religion of 1901 and 1902, sub-
sequently published as 
The Varieties of Religious Experience
. From the 
perspective of a psychologist, he looked at the religious propensities of 
individuals for whom religion exists not as a dull habit, but as an acute 
fever rather.
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He calls such people ‘geniuses’ in the religious line, unusual folk who 
have traits often considered pathological. James divides religion into two 
main categories: the institutional – including church, theology and 
worship; and the personal, experiential side. It is the latter which con-
cerns him in his lectures:
. . . the feelings, acts, and experiences of individual men in their solitude, 
so far as they apprehend themselves to stand in relation to whatever 
they may consider the divine.
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Religious and Spiritual Experience
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In 
The Meaning and End of Religion
, Wilfred Cantwell Smith (1916–
2000) proposes that we reconsider the definition of religion.
The proposal I am putting forward can, at one level, be formulated 
quite simply. It is that what men have tended to conceive as a religion, 
can more rewardingly, more truly, be conceived in terms of two 
factors, different in kind, both dynamic: a historical ‘cumulative tradi-
tion’, and the personal faith of men and women.
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It is that personal aspect which is the subject of this study.
Ninian Smart (1927–2001) viewed religion as composed of seven dif-
ferent dimensions, one of which was the Experiential and Emotional 
Dimension. This was exemplified in the experiences of people such as 
Muhammad and the Buddha and also in the feelings of practitioners of 
religion. According to Smart, the experiential dimension brings life and 
emotional enhancement to the other dimensions: ritual, doctrinal, narra-
tive, ethical, material and social.
A religious experience involves some kind of ‘perception’ of the
invisible
world, or involves a perception that some visible person or thing is a 
manifestation of the invisible world.
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Another perspective is that of finding a deeper significance in life, as 
expressed by the former Director of the RERC, Peggy Morgan,
. . . religious experience . . . is ‘ordinary, everyday experience in 
depth’
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Most religious people experience the reality of their beliefs through 
their practice and in their daily lives. Many feel that they are in a relation-
ship with the divine. Without this, the doctrines would be empty and 
have no lasting effect. For a religion to thrive, more than formulae and 
historical tradition is necessary. The on-going experience of worship, 
meditation or living a life in harmony with others generally gives comfort 
and stability, but more importantly, it often leads to a more selfless way 
of life. 
It must not be forgotten, however, that some religious practitioners are 
wary of or even condemn extraordinary experiences as misleading or 
even dangerous and in many traditions it is made clear that they are not 
to be sought and should even be ignored. In fact it is important that the 
focus is not so much on the experience per se, but on its meaning and 
effects. The value of religious experience is in the response and transfor-
mation of the individual – a process however it is brought about, which 

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Terminology
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is essential for spiritual growth. The results of the experience are what 
matter and the guiding principle to tell false from genuine religious 
manifestations is given by Jesus in his Sermon on the Mount, 
. . . you will know them by their fruits. (Matthew 7:20)