Alister Hardy Religious Experience Research Centre

Publications

The Centre's findings are published in books, reports, articles, occasional papers etc. the most important being The Spiritual Nature of Man by Sir Alister Hardy, Exploring Inner Space and Religious Experience Today by David Hay, The Original Vision and Living the Questions by Edward Robinson and A Sense of Presence by Timothy Beardsworth. In addition the Centre published a series of occasional papers which can be downloaded free of charge.

 A new publication on Spirituality and Wellbeing (Equinox 2020, edited by Bettina E. Schmidt and Jeff Leonardi) contains papers of several speakers of our last conferences and seminars. Information are available at: https://www.equinoxpub.com/home/spirituality-wellbeing/

In 2016, the edited volume The Study of Religious Experience – Approaches and Methodologies (Equinox 2016, edited by Bettina E. Schmidt) came out from RERC activities. It contains a revised and expanded text of the first Alister Hardy Lampeter lecture by Fiona Bowie (2014), several other articles by scholars connected to RERC as well as others. It can be ordered online on the website of the publisher: https://www.equinoxpub.com/home/study-religious-experience-bettina-schmidt/

The Faculty celebrated the launch of the book as well as a second book by Prof Bettina Schmidt at a recent event.

In addition, the following publications have come out of the current research projects (however, they are not available at the centre):

Hunter, Jack

• (2018). 'Preliminary Report on Extraordinary Experience in Permaculture: Collapsing the Natural/Supernatural Divide.' Journal of Exceptional Experiences and Psychology, Vol. 6, No. 1, pp. 12-22.
• (2018). 'Reflecting on Edith Turner's Work and Influence.' Journal for the Study of Religious Experience. Vol. 4, No. 1. pp. 102-104.
• 2017). 'Religious Education and the Paranormal: Reflections on Discussing Anomalous Experiences in the Classroom.' Religious Studies News: Spotlight on Teaching, October, pp. 4-8.
• (2016). ‘Engaging the Anomalous: Reflections from the Anthropology of the Paranormal.’ European Journal of Psychotherapy and Counselling, Vol. 18, No. 2, pp. 170-178.
• (2015). ‘"Between Realness and Unrealness”: Anthropology, Parapsychology and the Ontology of Non-Ordinary Realities.’ Diskus: Journal of the British Association for the Study of Religion, Vol. 17, No. 2, pp. 4-20.
• (2015). ‘“Spirits are the Problem”: Anthropology and Conceptualising Spiritual Beings.’ Journal for the Study of Religious Experience, Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 76-86.

Pierini, Emily

• ‘Fieldwork and Embodied Knowledge: Researching upon the Experiences of Spirit Mediums in Brazil’. In Bettina Schmidt (ed.), The Study of Religious Experience: Approaches and Methodologies, London: Equinox, 2016.
• ‘Becoming a Jaguar: Spiritual Routes in the Vale do Amanhecer’. In Bettina Schmidt and Steven Engler (eds). Handbook on Brazilian Religions. Leiden: Brill, 2016.
• ‘Incontri Incorporati: Pratiche Medianiche e Etnografia del Sentire’, In S. Botta and M. Ferrara (eds.), Corpi Sciamanici: La Nozione di Persona nello Studio dello Sciamanesimo, Roma: Nuova Cultura, 2016.
• ‘Becoming a Spirit Medium: Initiatory Learning and the Self in the Vale do Amanhecer’. Ethnos: Journal of Anthropology. 2014. DOI: 10.1080/00141844.2014.929598, pp.1-25.

Schmidt, Bettina E.

• ‘Provincializing Religious Experience: Methodological Challenges to the Study of Religious Experiences; A Brazilian Case Study’. In Bettina Schmidt (Ed.), The Study of Religious Experience: Approaches and Methodologies. Durham: Equinox, 2016.
• Spirit and Trance in Brazil: Anthropology of Religious Experiences. London: Bloomsbury, 2016.
• The Study of Religious Experience: Approaches and Methodologies, ed. by Bettina E. Schmidt. Durham: Equinox, 2016.
• ‘Spirit Mediumship in Brazil: The Controversy about Semi-Conscious Mediums’. DISKUS: The Journal of the British Association for the Study of Religions, Vol. 17 (2), pp. 38-53. DOI
• ‘Spirit Possession in Brazil. The Perception of the (possessed) Body’. Anthropos Vol. 109 (1), 2014. pp. 135-147.

Shushan, Gregory

• ‘Cultural-linguistic constructivism and the challenge of near-death and out-of-body experience.’  In Bettina Schmidt (ed.) The Study of Religious Experience: Approaches and Methodologies.  London: Equinox (2016, in press).
• ‘Extraordinary experiences and religious beliefs: deconstructing some contemporary philosophical axioms.’  Method and Theory in the Study of Religion, vol. 26 (2014) 384-416.