Mental health, religious experience and culture: examining the varieties of religious experience

This Special Issue of Mental Health, Religion & Culture entitled Mental Health, Religious Experience and Culture: Examining the Varieties of Religious Experience contains a collection of papers that were originally assembled for the purposes of showcasing the range of research conducted by colleagues from the Alister Hardy Religious Experience Research Centre at Glyndŵr University, Wrexham, Wales.¹ This collection of papers was originally presented at a symposium entitled The Alister Hardy Religious Experience Research Centre at Glyndŵr University Symposium on Religious and Spiritual Experiences at the 4th Annual Conference of the Welsh Branch of the British Psychological Society in September 2015 in Wrexham, Wales. The symposium was Chaired by Professor Christopher Alan Lewis in his role as the Director of the Alister Hardy Religious Experience Research Centre at Glyndŵr University. Although the abstracts of the papers from the symposium were subsequently published in the Proceedings of the British Psychological Society (ap Siôn, 2015; Astley, 2015; Breslin & Lewis, 2015; Francis & Robbins, 2015; Francis & Village, 2015; Kay, 2015; Lewis, 2015; Lewis, Galyautdinova, Filimonova, & Safina, 2015; Robbins, Francis, & Ok, 2015; Williams, 2015), it was felt by the authors that the papers in their entirety deserved wider dissemination and publication, and so the idea for this Special Issue of Mental Health, Religion & Culture on religious experience was proposed.

Following the symposium, each of the authors was given time to reflect on the comments they had received about their paper. As a result of this process, some of the papers were slightly reshaped (e.g., Kay, 2015), while others were removed from the collection (e.g., Francis & Robbins, 2015; Lewis, 2015) and replaced by papers that were thought to provide a broader overview of the type of work undertaken by the Alister Hardy Religious Experience Research Centre at Glyndŵr University (e.g., Astley, 2017a; Crea & Francis, 2017). This revised collection of papers was then subjected to the peer-review process of Mental Health, Religion and Culture, the results of which are the papers presented in this Special Issue on religious experience.

In addition to this Editorial, this Special Issue comprises of two theoretical articles and eight empirical articles. These 10 articles have been divided into four areas. First, two articles are presented that have focused on theoretical and historical issues related to the work of two pioneers in the examination of religious experience. Kay (2017) provides a brief theoretical overview and critique of William James’ Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature (James, 1902/2002). Astley (2017a) provides a brief theoretical overview and critique of John Hick’s contribution to the area of religious experience.

Second, three articles are presented that have focused on the translation and refining of two measures of religious experience, the “Hardy question” (Hardy, 1979) and the “Greer question” (Greer, 1981, 1982) and the analysis of data with them. Lewis, Galyautdinova, Filimonova, and Safina (2017) report from among a sample of 400 online Russians, 15 examples of responses provided to a Russian language version of the Hardy question (Hardy, 1979), to examine the face validity of the measure. Moreover, they also provide a Bashkirian language version of the Hardy question, however, with no supporting data. Ap Siôn (2017) extends her own work (ap Siôn, 2006) among a sample of Northern Irish sixth-form students aged 16–18 years old, by further refining the Greer question and the related response classification system (Greer, 1981, 1982). Astley (2017b) provides a critique and refinement of the work of ap Siôn (2006, 2017), using data from the Alister Hardy Archive (Franklin, 2014; Hardy, 1979).

Third, one article is presented on the religious experiences of one sub-culture. Williams (2017) reports on an online survey among a sample of nearly 2000 members of the vampire sub-culture to explore their religious and spiritual beliefs and experiences.

Fourth, four articles are presented that have focused on the reporting of the association between measures of religious experience and some measures of various individual difference constructs. Francis and Village (2017) report among a sample of 4421 practising Anglican clergy and laity (2586 men and 1835 women) the association between the question, “Have you ever had something you would describe as a ‘religious experience’?” on a four-point scale and the Francis Psychological Type Scales (Francis, 2005). Crea and Francis (2017) report among a sample of 1155 Italians, the association between the revised form of the Francis–Louden Mystical Orientation Scale (Francis & Louden, 2000) and the Francis Psychological Type Scales (Francis, 2005). Breslin and Lewis (2017) report among a sample of 371 Irish adults, the association between the Measure of Prayer Experience (Poloma & Pendleton, 1991), the Mysticism Scale short version (Hood: personal communication, September 2004), the scale is a short version of the Mysticism Scale (Hood, 1975), the Schizotypal Personality Scale and Borderline Personality Scale (Claridge & Broks, 1984). Francis, Ok, and Robbins (2017) report among a sample of 329 state university students in Turkey, the association between the Francis–Louden Mystical Orientation Scale (Francis & Louden, 2000) and the short form of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire-Revised (Eysenck, Eysenck, & Barrett, 1985)

It is worth briefly noting that within the papers presented within this Special Issue, there are a variety of empirical approaches employed, both qualitative and quantitative, each of which operationalises religious experience in different ways. Five papers employed versions of the Hardy question (Hardy, 1979), or the Greer question (Greer, 1981, 1982) (ap Siôn, 2017; Astley, 2017b; Francis & Village, 2017; Lewis et al., 2017) or similar (Francis & Village, 2017). One paper employed an open-ended question about religious experiences (Williams, 2017). One paper employed a short-version of the Mysticism Scale (Hood, 2004) (Breslin & Lewis, 2017). Two papers employed the seven-item abbreviated form of the Francis–Louden Mystical Orientation Scale (Francis & Louden, 2000) (Crea & Francis, 2017; Francis et al., 2017).

It is clearly evident that this Special Issue has illustrated the wide diversity and richness of the contemporary research on religious experience that has been undertaken by the Alister Hardy Religious Experience Research Centre at Glyndŵr University. This collection clearly attests to the ongoing momentum of this specific research Centre, and the research traditions it encapsulates, and serves as a further springboard for future research. Some of this research we hope may be included in future editions of Mental Health, Religion & Culture. One area that seems relatively under-examined is that of comparative cross-cultural studies of religious experiences of different world faiths.

This Special Issue on religious experience would not have been possible without the assistance of a number of people. We wish to acknowledge the authors who provided stimulating articles and efficient revisions, and our reviewers for their judicious and insightful evaluations of the manuscripts submitted. We are particularly grateful to the regular Co-Editors of Mental Health, Religion & Culture for their enthusiasm for this initiative. Finally, we wish to sincerely thank the Alister Hardy Trust for their continued support of the work of the Alister Hardy Religious Experience Research Centre at Glyndŵr University.

Notes

1. The function of the Research Centre at Glyndŵr University is the study of contemporary spiritual and religious experience with particular emphasis on the psychological correlates of religious and spiritual experience. A second Research Centre is located at the University of Wales, Trinity St. David campus in Lampeter, and is focused on the scientific examination of personal accounts of religious or spiritual experiences.