The Role of Experience in the Origin and Development of Religion

On 1st November 2014 the Scientific and Medical Network are holding a conference in London on the theme, Frontiers of Science and Spirituality: The SCM Approach to Holistic Education. Around 24 speakers have been invited to give short (10 minute) presentations which will be filmed and distributed for educational purposes. I was invited to speak on the theme of 'The Role of Experience in the Origin and Development of Religion'. I chose to focus on Near-death Experiences and Afterlife narratives as examples of human experience that have almost certainly impacted on the origin and development of religion. One could have added dreams, out-of-body experience, mediumship and shamanic activity, possession, reincarnation narratives, forms of ESP, after-death contact, and ghost sightings, among other areas in which universal themes seem to emerge irrespective of time or culture. The slides and text of my presentation are available on Scribd as a PDF file here.