Fits, trances, visions, speaking in tongues, clairvoyance, out-of-body experiences, possession. Believers have long viewed these and similar involuntary experie

A leading scholar sheds critical light on the seemingly revelatory events behind new religions and spiritual movements Unseen presences. Apparitions. Hearing vo

How the sciences of the mind can advance the study of religion The essence of religion was once widely thought to be a unique form of experience that could not

First published in 1902, William James's Varieties of Religious Experience is considered a classic in religious studies and the psychology of religion. But how

as manifestations of God, the spirits, or the Christ within. Skeptics, on the other hand, have understood them as symptoms of physical disease, mental disorder,