This chapter begins with a brief review of descriptions and definitions of mystical-type experiences and the historical connection between classic hallucinogens and mystical experiences. The chapter then explores the empirical literature on experiences with classic hallucinogens in which claims about mystical or religious experiences have been made. A psychometrically validated questionnaire is...

This paper critically examines whether, and how, mystical insights can be conveyed in language. First, the problem of mystical ineffability is briefly presented: how, if at all, is it possible to express the supposedly transrational and transconceptual (non-dualistic) mystical experience in rational and conceptual (dualistic) linguistic terms? Second, drawing on the Wittgensteinian distinction ...

For those with true near-death experiences (NDEs), Greyson's (1983, 1990) NDE Scale satisfactorily fits the Rasch rating scale model, thus yielding a unidimensional measure with interval-level scaling properties. With increasing intensity, NDEs reflect peace, joy and harmony, followed by insight and mystical or religious experiences, while the most intense NDEs involve an awareness of things oc...

Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend... 'But', He said, 'you cannot see my face; for man shall not see me and live'. Ex. 33:11 & 20 Religious apologetics is perennially attracted to the idea that religious beliefs are arrived at in ways that are fundamentally on all fours with the procedures by means of which more mundane beliefs are generated and jus...

Kenneth Grahame’s masterpiece, The wind in the willows, contains a classic description of a religious experience as Ratty and Mole come face-to-face with the Piper at the Gates of Dawn. This chapter draws on Happold’s identification of seven characteristics of mystical experience, as amplified by the Francis-Louden Mystical Orientation Scale, to test whether Ratty and Mole’s experience can be p...