Studying 'Non-Ordinary Realities': A Round-Table Podcast

This discussion was recorded at the BASR (British Association for the Study of Religion) conference at Milton Keynes in September 2014 for the Religious Studies Project.


David G. Robertson recorded and chaired a lively discussion with Bettina Schmidt and David Gordon Wilson (the panel organisers) and two of the contributors, Fiona Bowie and Jonathan Tuckett.


The 40 minute podcast can be played or downloaded:

Alister Hardy Religious Experience Research Centre

On 4th July 2014 I was invited to speak at a relaunch of the Alister Hardy Religious Experience Research Centre in Lampeter. Its always good to  be back in Lampeter, nestled between the Cambrian Mountains and Pembrokeshire Coast in mid-Wales, having taught there from 1993-2002. The day was well-attended, with various MA students at the end of a residential week (which had a real buzz to it), members of the Alister Hardy Trust and family, and various academics and other interested folk from all over the UK. Many thanks to Professor Bettina Schmidt, the new Director of the Religious Experience Research Centre, for organising the conference, and for inviting me.

Jeff Leonardi, Anglican priest, Person-centred counsellor and editor of The Human Being Fully Alive wrote the following review of the conference.

A Response to The Study of Religious Experience conference held at Lampeter on 4th July 2014.

I have recently retired to the Lampeter area and was pleased that this 'relaunch' for the Alister Hardy Centre was to take place just after we moved here. My background is in counselling and ordained ministry and in 2008 I completed doctoral research into the relationship between the spirituality of the Person-centred approach to counselling and Christian spirituality, and the implications for Christian ministry and pastoral practice. I had quoted from David Hay's work in defining spirituality and religious experience, and I was delighted to discover that the Alister Hardy Centre is now based in Lampeter.

The first presentation, by Fiona Bowie on 'How to study religious experience? Methodological reflections on the study of the afterlife and other examples of religious experience', made me realise how oppressed I feel as a British citizen in espousing spiritual and religious experience in the climate of polite scepticism and dismissal that characterises so much of our public discourse. This recognition came in response to Dr Bowie's fearless declaration of her evidence based conviction of the realities underlying so many of the experiences to which she referred.

As the day progressed I perceived there to be an interesting 'fault line' between the academically credible study of such experience, akin to anthropology -  'this is what the natives believe' - but without any claim to affirm the ontological reality of the experiences, on the one hand, and those such as Fiona Bowie, who took the further step of crediting the source of the experiences beyond a simple subjectivism. (She made more than one reference to the difficulty of receiving academic respectability for such views, particularly at early stages of promotion, and suggested that perhaps academic staff only felt 'safe' to hold such views when they had secured a tenured post!).

It seems to me that there is a real challenge here for this area of study. The nature of spiritual and religious experience when experienced at any kind of depth is that it is transformative, life-changing and life-shaping. There could be said to be a danger for the researcher, if he or she maintains the required scientific distance and objectivity, of recording others' accounts of powerful spiritual experience while maintaining a detached and therefore uncommitted attitude towards that to which their accounts refer: an 'out there' reality with the power to change lives for the good.

In saying this I do not mean to suggest that every experience be given equal credibility, or that scientific objectivity is unnecessary or undesirable in such research. But if one engages in some depth with the experience of others with 'a form of cognitive, empathetic engagement (which) implies openness to the other, critical awareness of one's own perspective, and reluctance to move too quickly to explanation' (from Dr Bowie's abstract for her talk), then one may indeed find oneself sufficiently respectful as to accord their experience, when viewed alongside one's own, as suggestive of, at least a shared reality, or even a level of experiential truth, and with 'anthropological wonder' (ibid).

Dr Schmidt's presentation on spirit possession and trance in Brazil was tantalising in just this regard. Her account of being present to such experience, accompanied by visual illustrations, inspired more than one of her audience to try to ask what she had made of it personally and not purely objectively - and indeed whether she had been touched by it in the sense of beginning to experience something subjectively at the time - but she wouldn't be drawn, maintaining an impressively scientific stance towards her subject matter.

Dr Jansen's presentation in relation to Chinese culture was also tantalising in leaving me, at least, wanting to hear much more of substance about his extensive experience of contemporary Chinese culture, behaviour and attitudes in relation to historical perspectives.

Dr Pope's session led into the later one by Dr Williams, in that both were concerned with the place of experience in Christian tradition. His presentation helped explain the almost distrust of personal spiritual and religious experience in relation to the 'surer ground' of systematic theology and scriptural authority. Dr Williams took our focus to Early Christian beliefs in relation to personal religious experience, and in particular St Paul's own accounts of his experience, especially in 2 Corinthians 12, his 'third heaven experience'. It is tempting to interpret Paul's third-party self references: 'I know a man ..' as proceeding from both humility and a diffidence about claiming such experience, a diffidence that could be said to continue today.

In the question time following her presentation I asked about the dividing line between scripture and later Christian experience. I have long been intrigued by the question of why the NT ends where it does in Acts. In an obvious sense Acts is 'The Acts of the Apostles', and when they died out their acts were over, but I believe there is some merit in considering whether there might not have been continuing acts by their successors which could have been deemed worthy of record? In this sense my question was simply about the closure of the Canon.

But in the context of the conference theme, I think it might be argued that by enshrining only the foundational documents and accounts in the Canon, and making no equivalent space for continuing revelation and testimony, the early Church made inevitable the separation of doctrine from ongoing experience, and the longer the time lapse the greater the potential discrepancy between teaching and experience. In this way one might argue that the attempt to affirm the value of researching religious experience is in conflict with the legacy and modality of tradition.

In conclusion I should like to make one further observation. It seems to me that a great deal of the study of religious experience is formulated in terms of individual experience. The particular focus of my research has been into the spirituality of therapeutic experience, that is when two or more persons are engaging at relational depth. I would be interested to develop this perspective further in the context of the Alister Hardy Centre's explorations.

(Rev Dr) Jeff Leonardi

Creativity and Thought Forms

Have you ever wondered why people come up with the same or similar ideas independently at the same time? One can suppose that there is a foundation of knowledge or events that predispose people working in a similar area to reach similar conclusions. Arguments as to who came up with an idea first, such as that between Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace in respect of the natural selection of species, are all too common. It is almost inevitable that once someone has made a discovery, or had an original idea, someone else will have the same or a very similar idea at the same time.

Rupert Sheldrake discusses this phenomenon in terms of morphic resonance, the idea that the ‘laws of nature’ are a habit, and evolution a process involving ‘morphic fields’ that hold and transmit memory from the past to the present. Twin studies are used as another example of connectivity to a field or grid. Sheldrake argues that they have failed to explain similarities and mutual sensibility in terms of memory traces inside the brain. The idea of morphic resonance enables the brain to be seen as more like a TV reciever than a recording system. Memories are not stored in the brain: the brain tunes into them (2011:6). This notion of a ‘field’ is more closely related to string theory and entanglement than to Newtonian physics. A further example sometimes quoted is that of the gregarious blue tit learning to pierce the aluminium tops of milk bottles in the early 1950s. While this can be seen as an example of evolution in process, there is also a suggestion that once blue tits in one area had learnt the trick, those in another area learnt it more quickly. Imitation alone could not explain the speed at which this ability spread throughout the blue tit population. Once someone has had an idea, or practiced a skill, it seems to be easier for others, even distant and unconnected others, to do the same. This is a contraversial idea, and while backed up by anecdotal evidence is could be tested using conventional scientific methods.

Perhaps harder to test scientifically is the assertion from those who claim to transmit information from the astral planes that creativity and thought are very closely linked. The phenomenon of simultaneous discovery and rapid learning at a distance can be explained by the creation of thought forms that take shape in the astral or mental planes (which make up part of the being of all humans, along with the energetic or etheric and physical/material planes), which are then are picked up by those who are receptive to them. People on the material plane may receive an idea or impression in a dream, as a sudden inspiration, or seemingly from some higher part of themselves (imagination, muse, creative impulse). Typical of such discoveries or ideas is that they give the impression of arriving fully formed, almost independent of the recipient, or as the result of a ‘request’ to a higher power.

Bruce Moen, using a form of ‘tuneing in’ to different vibrational frequences through manipulation of brain waves, a technique developed and taught by The Monroe Institute, describes this creative process in some detail. He leans that everything capable of conscious awareness is connected to a Grid, and that there exists what he calls a Planning Centre with conduits of awareness connecting inventions/ideas/prototypes deposited there with people on earth who are receptive, or who are looking for a solution to a problem. One of the easiest ways to transferr the idea to the physical world is via a dream, but it still has to be made conscious, perhaps through the use of memory triggers. The person looking for something might see it themselves while asleep and travelling in their astral body, and be reminded of it by particular events when conscious. The reason so many inventors come up with the same thing at the same time becomes apparent. As Moen’s guide explained, For critical inventions we arrange cross-over points to transmit the idea to as many people in physical reality as we can find who have the capacity to receive it and to be a part of bringing it through’  (1999:115).

Judge Hatch (1846-1912)

The Honorable Judge David Patteson Hatch, writing through the hand of medium Elsa Barker shortly after his arrival on the astral plane, is one of many such communicators to describe the power of thought. Whether he had been aware of Theosophist writings on Thought-Forms published in the early Twentieth Century I don’t know, but his post-mortem view is certainly very similar to that expressed by other explorers of this esoteric world, both then and now. Imagination has great power. If you make a picture in your mind, the vibrations of the body may adjust to it if the will is directed that way, as in thoughts of health or sickness he advises (Barker 2004:24-5). In the astral world both movement and physical creation are through thought, although people often choose to walk from one place to another, and to speak rather than communicate telepathically, at least for a while, out of habit. Judge Hatch decided that he wanted to wear a toga rather than the clothes he arrived in, and was shown by his Teacher how to, create garments such as I desired: To fix the pattern and shape clearly in my mind, to vizualize it, and then by power of desire to draw the subtle matter of the thought-world round the pattern, so as actually to form the garment (p.43). He also discovered that some objects have considerably more solidity and tenacity than others, depending it seems upon the skill of the creator, the matter from which they are constructed and the intention of the creator or creators. The inhabitants of the astral plane (or earth bound travellers such as Moen) learn to create houses, scenery and other objects that can either endure after they have moved on for others to enjoy, or be dissolved at will.

The astral plane on which Judge Hatch found himself was, he was sure,  a place in space. Like other such communicators he understood the astral planes as a sphere surrounding the earth, interpenetrating it but of a finer vibrational frequency. When one sleeps one can come out into this finer world of the mind and imagination and see things that exist, or have existed, in the material world also (p.24). The lower planes appear to contain replicas of everything that exists on earth, or rather vice versa as it is the astral world that appears the more real and solid, and which precedes the material. On finer strata is the world of patterns (the Focus Level 15 described by Moen, on which he discovered the Planning Centre), the paradigms - if that is the word - of things which are to be on earth (p.31). Judge Hatch found here future inventions – in advance of what exists on earth, but as we can see with the advantage of time, not so far in advance as to be of no use to those on earth. Gradual discovery and development evidently continues on the astral planes much as it does on the material level: I saw forms of things which, so far as I know, have not existed on your planet – inventions, for example. I saw wings that man could adjust to himself. I saw also new forms of flying-machines. I saw model cities, and towers with strange winglike projections on them, of which I could not imagine the use. The progress of mechanical invention is evidently only begun (p.31).

Wings of Love (peace and protection) Besant and Leadbeater 1925

A final thought on thought: There was a discussion on BBC Radio 4's 'Word of Mouth' on 30^th April on the process of simultaneous interpretation. One interpreter commented on how much easier it was to follow an extemporaneous talk than a prepared lecture. In the former case she could pick up the thoughts as they were forming in the speaker's mind, whereas with a written text, orally delivered, the thinking had already been done, and it was therefore harder to pick up the thoughts of the speaker. It was not a matter of the language or register but of the immediacy of the thought. To Theosophist writers Annie Besant and Charles Leadbeater this would have been self evident, as they were well aware of the materiality of thought and its transmission and reception. It is a consistent message that what we think is not a private matter, it communicates to those around us whether we are aware of it or not. Interesting!

Another version of this blog exists at: http://exploringtheafterlife.blogspot.com/

(I accidentally erased this version, rewrote it with slightly different material and then managed to recover the older version. The joys of computers!).

References

There are numerous accounts of post-mortem adventures communicated telepathically, or by other means, such as automatic writing, to those still living on earth, from the earliest historical records to the present. Their message is perhaps surprisingly consistent – allowing for the fact that differences are often accounted for by the fact that each one inhabits a different sphere according to their level of development, and that the power of thought and expectation enables people, at least initially, to create the afterlife world they expect to find on passing over. Judge Hatch’s experiences are taken from Elsa Barker, Letters from the Afterlife: A Guide to the Other Side, (Beyond Words: Hillsboro, Oregon, 2004. Originally published as Letters from a Living Dead Man, Rider, 1914).

The idea of thought having a physical form, visible in the astral world and to clairvoyants on earth, is often found in channelled and esoteric literature. One of the most succinct expressions of this idea is by the Theosophist writers Annie Besant and C.W. Leadbeater, in Thought-Forms (with colour and black and white illustrations). (A Quest Book, Theosophical Publishing House: Wheaton, Ill., Madras, London, 1980. Originally published in Adyar, 1925).

Bruce Moen was deeply influenced by the pioneer of conscious astral exploration, Robert Monroe. He has published a series of books on his travels to different zones or planes of consciousness in his Exploring the Afterlife Series. The passage referred to is from Vol. 3, Voyages into the Afterlife: Charting Unknown Territory (Hampton Roads: Charlottesville, Virginia, 1999).

Descriptions of morphic resonance and possible explanations for the phenomenon are given in Rupert Sheldrake, The Presence of the Past: Morphic Resonance and the Habits of Nature  (Icon Books: London, 2011) as well as elsewhere in Sheldrake's work.