Religious and Spiritual Experiences

by Wesley J. Wildman

What is the value of religious and spiritual experiences within human life? Are we evolutionarily programmed to have such experiences? How will emerging technologies change such experiences in the future? Wesley Wildman addresses these key intellectual questions and more, offering a spiritually evocative naturalist interpretation of the diverse variety of religious and spiritual experiences. He describes these experiences, from the common to the exceptional, and offers innovative classifications for them based on their neurological features and internal qualities. His account avoids reductionalistic oversimplifications and instead synthesizes perspectives from many disciplines, including philosophy and natural sciences, into a compelling account of the meaning and value of religious and spiritual experiences in human life. The resulting interpretation does not assume a supernatural worldview nor does it reject such experiences as positive affirmation of this-worldly existence.

Genres: Religion

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

Wesley J. Wildman was raised in a quiet corner of Australia, fell in love with universities, and became a professor in the United States. Dr. Wildman has been writing about philosophy, religion, and spirituality for thirty years. He is Professor of Philosophy, Theology, and Ethics and of Computing and Data Sciences at Boston University, as well as Professor II in the Institute for Global Development and Planning at the University of Agder in Norway. He is also executive director of Just Horizons Alliance and Chief Scientist of the Center for Mind and Culture, a nonprofit organization dedicated to non-partisan research on such complex social problems as social integration of immigrants and refugees, religious self-radicalization, spiraling suicide rates, and illegal child trafficking. Dr. Wildman is a well-published nonfiction writer, with titles such as Spirit Tech: The Brave New World of Consciousness Hacking and Enlightenment Engineering (with Kate Stockly; St. Martin’s Press, 2021) and Effing the Ineffable: Existential Mumblings at the Limits of Language (SUNY Press, 2018). The Winding Way Home (Wildhouse Publications, 2023), is his first novel.