Understanding Spiritual Experiences: Angels, Paranormal, Marian Apparitions, Hallucinogens, Charismatic Movement

Studies indicate that 70 percent of the population have one or more spiritual experiences. They are often not well understood, and experiencers often feel unable to share their experience with anyone for fear of being misunderstood. We will look at a few of the different kinds of experiences, beginning with the experience of angels. Marian Apparitions are associated with locations where people go to be healed. We will briefly examine the similarity between hallucinogens and spiritual experiences, and Houston Smith's warning that the former does not replace religion. Paranormal includes a wide variety of different experiences, less likely to be spiritually transformative, but nevertheless significant. The emphasis is on understanding. This is not a class about dogma or beliefs. We will discuss recent and historical research and the various organizations devoted to studying these and other forms of spiritual experiences. And of course, sharing experiences is an important part of the course.