An introduction to religious and spiritual experience

3. Spiritual Experience and Religions
Spiritual experiences can lead to a perspective that life is set within the 
context of a greater reality. This may well imply an underlying moral 
order entailing reverence for all living beings, in particular love of one’s 
neighbour, expressed in the Golden Rule of ‘do as you would be done by’. 
There is frequently an emphasis on inner peace and perhaps meditation. 
It will be obvious that many of these attitudes can also be found at the 
heart of the world’s religious traditions. While religions are composites 
which include doctrines, practices and communities, here our concern 
will be with the foundational experience and the resulting texts. 
Founders/Messengers
Although not true in every case, many religious traditions trace their 
origins to the experiences of a remarkable individual. As William James 
put it, although referring to ‘churches’, the same may be taken to apply to 
religions other than Christianity,
Churches, when once established, live at secondhand upon tradition; 
but the 
founders 
of every church owed their power originally to the 
fact of their direct personal communion with the divine.
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The Buddha, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Muhammad and Guru Nanak 
began movements of followers which have stood the test of time, although 
inevitably changing over the years. Within religious traditions, certain 
individuals have stood out such as Francis of Assisi or Mahatma Gandhi. 
Gurus, or teachers, also inspire followers, like Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, 
who started the Transcendental Meditation or TM movement, which 
made meditation known to vast numbers in the West. His best-known 
disciples were the Beatles. Other spiritual leaders such as the Pope or the 
Tibetan Buddhist leader, the Dalai Lama, have world-wide influence. 
Much can be learned from their spiritual experiences.

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Spiritual Experience and Religions
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Traditions have grown out of personal experience and faith in various 
ways. In Judaism it was in the form of the giving of a law and initiation 
of a covenant. Islam was the result of the giving of the message of the 
Qur’an. In Christianity the revelation came in the form of the incarnation 
in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. These experiences of 
revelation have led to the establishment of major religions. Other reli-
gious revelations have come in the form of prophecy or communication 
from the divine, miracles, visions or voices. 
Individuals whose message has had this kind of transformative effect 
are sometimes called founders but other terms are often used. John 
Macquarrie’s book 
The Mediators
takes nine such figures who have 
‘brought that conception of God to the people’.
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 He has taken the term 
from the eighteenth-century German theologian Schleiermacher, whose 
Speeches on Religion to its Cultured Despisers
strongly advocates an 
experiential approach to religion. In 
Six Religions in the Twenty-First
Century
by W. Owen Cole and Peggy Morgan, these key figures are not 
seen as founders, as the foundation for most religions is considered to be 
transcendent rather than human, so they use the term messengers.
Texts
Sacred texts are treated with respect within places of worship and some 
of the most beautiful books ever made are of religious writings: scrolls of 
the Torah, illuminated Gospels and intricately decorated copies of the 
Qur’an. The production and care of these texts were acts undertaken with 
reverence. The scriptures contain the teachings on which the religious tra-
ditions are based, and are consulted for inspiration and also for practical 
advice on how to live. 
Sikhs revere their holy book, the Adi Granth, as a teacher, for it replaced 
the power inherent in the line of Gurus, to mediate between human and 
divine. The book is an object of devotion in the Sikh gurdwara (temple), 
kept on a raised platform and covered when not being used. If kept at 
home, the book must have a special room to itself. Problems can be solved 
or strength given to face them through consultation of the book.
We would go to a person, actually, or seek the guidance of the Guru 
Granth Sahib. We do that because it’s a book full of all sorts of infor-
mation; and then, if sometimes you cannot read, then you ask a gran-
thi or a priest who will help. What happens is that they open the book 
at random and read what is on that page: specially sometimes there are 
some solutions.
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Religious and Spiritual Experience
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Some revelatory experiences have taken the form of instructions to 
write, leading to texts which are then respected as special teachings or 
even revered as holy writ. According to Muslims, Muhammad was 
instructed to read or recite, which is what 
Qur’an 
means. What he recited 
was not written down until some years later. 
Alone in the cave of Hira, Muhammad continued to search for truth 
and meaning. Then the Angel Gabriel suddenly appeared to him and 
ordered: ‘Read!’ Muhammad answered: ‘I am not of those who read.’
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In an entirely different situation, in 1976, a militant atheist, Dr. Helen 
Schucman, was extremely unhappy to receive instructions to take down 
material which continued to be given over a seven-year period. This inner 
dictation led to the composition of