An introduction to religious and spiritual experience

Partition of India 205
Pascal, Blaise, French mathematical 
genius 173
wager 173
Passover (
Pesach
) 34
patients’ recovery and prayer 60
Peace Medal 40
peace near lake shore 87
peacemaking 189, 190
peak experience, secular 15
Pentateuch 33
Pentecost 36
Pentecostal movement 122
People’s Temple 142
perception of 
invisible
world 12
Persia 30
personal faith 12
physics and Eastern Mysticism 50
Pilgrim’s Way, Winchester to 
Canterbury 72
pilgrimage 71–3
place triggers 78
Plagues of Egypt 34
Plato 196
The Republic
 155, 197
and Christianity 198
Near Death Experience in 
The 
Republic
 198
pupil of Socrates, 
Phaedo
 196, 197
story of Er, in 
The Republic
 198
Plotinus, mystic 172
pluralism 250
Pontius Pilate 36
Poor Clares, founded by St Francis 228
Pope Pius X, cures at Lourdes 112
Pope, world-wide influence 18
positive thinking 106
Post Death Appearances 17, 164–70 
post-traumatic Stress Disorder 244
power of spiritual movements, 
dangerous 141–2
Prabhupada, writer on Vedic 
scriptures 49
prayer, and power of 56–9
prayers of penitence, Christian 
churches 61
predestination 43
presence sensing 133–6
priesthood, calling 76–7
Principle of Credulity 249
Principle of Testimony 249
Prison Ashram Project 225
Prison Phoenix Trust 224
prisoner of conscience, Aung San 
Suu Kyi 216
prisoners, conversion 224–5
protection of all life 31
promise to God 9

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Index
283
prosperity and religion 25
Protestant Christianity 36
Pseudo-Dionysius 173–4
psychical experience 14–15
pyramids 146
Qi (Chi) 33
Quakers 42–3 
Quasi-religions 24–5
Queen Victoria 42
Quimby Phineas, magnetic healer 43
Qur’an (recitation) 37
Arabic from angel Jibril (Gabriel) 20
decorated copies 19
Rabi’a of Basra, prayer 54
racial prejuice in South Africa 205
Radhakrishnan, extrovert 
experience 171
Raja Yoga 40
Ramadan, fasting 38, 73–4
Ramakrishna, ecstasies 172
Ramana Maharshi 48
Rammohun Roy 40
rational analysis 239
Real as unknowable 250–1
Reformation of Manners, 
Wilberforce 202
Reiki healing 104–5
Reincarnation, Buddhist 
belief 147, 213
religion 
based on feeling and intuition 241
as fever 12
as ‘opium of the people’ 25
religions 
of the East 23
proselytizing 99
religious appearances 226
religious belief 2
religious ceremonies 54–5
in Turkey 236
Religious Experience Research 
Centre 3, 4, 231–3
Religious Experience 
Study Project, Tamil Nadu, 
South India 237–8
religious experiences 2, 11
in Glasgow street 6
profound 22
religious fundamentalism 25
religious humanism 25, 26
religious movements 23, 27
religious orders 226–7
Religious Society of Friends 
(of the Truth) 42–3
Renaissance Humanism 25
renunciation 68–9
repentance and forgiveness 228–9
Religious Experience Research 
Centre (RERC) 232–3
archive, religious experiences 94–6, 
108, 140–1, 182–3
Religious Experience Research Unit, 
later RERC 3, 225
revelation of texts 20
reverence for all living beings 18
Ricoeur, Paul, philosopher, on 
Taizé 111
Rig Veda
 28
risk in Bonhoeffer’s life 207
Robben Island imprisonment of 
Nelson Mandela 215
Robinson, Edward
Director of RERO, after 
Hardy 232