A LIBRARIAN’S ORIENTATION
What this book explores
David Yaden and Andrew Newberg update William James's classic inquiry with contemporary psychology and neuroscience. They distinguish types of spiritual experience, examine how such experiences arise and affect people, and separate the study of reported experience from conclusions about ultimate reality.
EDITORIAL NOTE
Why it’s in the Library
It gives travelers a careful, current orientation to experiences that may feel spiritually decisive without asking them to dismiss the experience or accept one interpretation of it. Its methodological restraint makes it the strongest evidence-aware center of this shelf.
Good starting place if…
You have had an unusual or profound experience, want to understand the research around spiritual experience, or need language that leaves metaphysical conclusions open.
Know before you begin…
This is a substantial research survey rather than a personal guide for getting through an acute crisis. Neuroscience can study correlates, patterns, and outcomes without proving or disproving the transcendent meaning a person assigns to an experience.