Esoteric Experiences
This section of my website presents the results of my dissertation for the MA in Religious Experience at the University of Wales, Lampeter. The question I asked was whether spiritual experiences in occultism were positive or negative. I looked at three esoteric traditions: Madame Blavatsky's Theosophy, G.I. Gurdjieff's Fourth Way, and S.L.M. Mather's Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. Drawing on three sources; the published literature, the RERC archives, and contemporary esotericists, I collected accounts of such experiences. A summary of my findings can be found on the following pages.
I took a phenomenological approach to spiritual experience. This approach is represented by writers such as William James, Rudolf Otto, Schleiermacher, and Sir Alister Hardy, amongst others. The accounts of spiritual experiences were collected from three different sources: the Religious Experience Research Centre (RERC) archive, the published esoteric literature and from present day esotericists. I collected about 200 accounts of which those below are just a small selection. I hope to add more in the future. Many thanks to all those who responded and granted me permission to publish their accounts here.
To read the accounts of spiritual experiences please click on the links below. I have divided the experiences by tradition but it is important to remember that often the experiences cannot be divided up in such a clear-cut way. Sometimes an experiencer can belong to more than one tradition or may talk about experiences that happened at different times of their lives. The accounts are listed in no particular order.
I took a phenomenological approach to spiritual experience. This approach is represented by writers such as William James, Rudolf Otto, Schleiermacher, and Sir Alister Hardy, amongst others. The accounts of spiritual experiences were collected from three different sources: the Religious Experience Research Centre (RERC) archive, the published esoteric literature and from present day esotericists. I collected about 200 accounts of which those below are just a small selection. I hope to add more in the future. Many thanks to all those who responded and granted me permission to publish their accounts here.
To read the accounts of spiritual experiences please click on the links below. I have divided the experiences by tradition but it is important to remember that often the experiences cannot be divided up in such a clear-cut way. Sometimes an experiencer can belong to more than one tradition or may talk about experiences that happened at different times of their lives. The accounts are listed in no particular order.
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