Triggered to Thinking

Dale Allison’s book Encountering Mystery: Religious Experience in a Secular Age is a fascinating book. This relatively short book documents experiences that different individuals have had that could be considered spiritual or religious. In a way, this book builds on some ideas expressed in his book Night Comes. While Allison is primarily a New Testament scholar, his ability to analyze sources and provide information makes this a fascinating and worthy book to reflect on. This book is an excellent starting guide for anyone looking to study religious and mystical experiences.

The only mystical experience I can remember came when I was a freshman in college. My dad had bought me a Renaissance CD years prior when he visited Europe. This was when musical CDs were still played on computers. The CD had opera singing and medieval-style music. I woke up after listening to the CD, and I felt almost as if I was stoned. However, I wasn’t, and I felt incredibly calm, and my body felt lucid, almost as if I was being comforted by an invisible or supernatural being. I felt a bodily presence that I never experienced again, and this was in 2007. I don’t know what to make of this experience, but nevertheless it was intriguing.

Chapter 1: Stars Descending

Allison begins this book by describing his own experience that he described as “a calm ecstasy” (Allison, 2022, p. 2). He begins to describe three of his own personal and ecstatic experiences that he had in his life. Regardless of what led to these experiences, the effect that these events had on Allison is undeniable (Allison, 2022, p. 6).

Chapter 2: Behind the Scenes

Sir Aleister Hardy, founder of the Religious Experience Research Centre (RERC), called on the public in the UK in the form of print for evidence of religious experiences in 1969. The responses revealed that many ordinary UK citizens experienced mystical patterns, saw apparitions, felt the presence of the dead, and heard guiding voices (Allison, 2022, p. 9). Hardy has since passed, but his work is continued by others, and data is gathered and archived at the University of Wales. Allison also explores how the failure to speak about remarkable or unusual events is a well-attested motif in the relevant literature (Allison, 2022, p. 10). David Hay and Ann Morisy, while gathering data on religious experiences in Nottingham in the 1980s, discovered that 40% of respondents did not confide in anybody about what happened to them. A wide variety of people, religious or not, do have experiences (Allison, 2022, p. 16). This chapter discusses polls of Americans and lists the statistics for those who have claimed to have a religious experience (Allison, 2022, p. 21). From 1962 to the present, the numbers have increased.

Chapter 3: Bliss from Somewhere, Terror from Nowhere

This chapter examines the work of Alister Hardy and Weatherhead and their data gathered about personal religious experiences. These experiences included feelings of love and deep contentment. The recipients gathered by these researchers described their experience as an intense and emotional experience (Allison, 2022, p. 31). This chapter also discusses mystical experiences that were not as pleasant and caused feelings of terror. Allison gives the example of Robert Harner and his experience of unexpected terror (Allison, 2022, p. 39). The rest of the chapter gives a brief survey of people claiming to experience the presence of evil spirits and Satan.

Chapter 4: The Hidden World of Prayer

Allison gives some examples and thoughts on prayer. He admits to providing anecdotal thoughts on prayer in this chapter but bases his claims on his inquiries (Allison, 2022, p. 53). Later in the chapter, Allison gives an example of atheists in 12-step programs praying and finding solace in this practice. Allison provides an example of a close friend dying due to a car accident and his own reflection on prayer (Allison, 2022, p. 58). He also includes a personal story about being close to his death and reflects on how prayer acts in the world (Allison, 2022, p. 65). He concludes the chapter with a thoughtful discussion on how more screen time and technology can cause people to be distracted and pray less (Allison, 2022, pp. 70–71).

Chapter 5: The Lore of Angels

This chapter starts with Mickey Rooney recounting a story of speaking to what he perceived as an angel. Allison gives an overview of AIW (Angel in White) spiritual experiences in this chapter. He relates angelic visions to biblical events and also relates these to the Zoroastrian tradition (Allison, 2022, pp. 85–86). He notes, “Recent authorities do not regard having a vision as either a symptom of schizophrenia or the product of delirium, drugs, alcohol, or brain lesions” (Allison, 2022, p. 91). These experiences of seeing angels are not limited to Christian adherents. Allison notes that Emma Heathcote-James’s book Seeing Angels: True Contemporary Accounts of Angelic Experiences found that Jewish, Muslim, and agnostic individuals reported visions of angels (Allison, 2022, p. 92).

Chapter 6: Approaching Death

Allison discusses terminal lucidity in this chapter, where he examines the literature related to the desires people have expressed before death. He also discusses deathbed visions (DBV) and explains how the literature on the subject is vast (Allison, 2022, p. 109). A hospice unit in Buffalo, New York interviewed fifty-nine people, and 88% of the interviewees reported end-of-life dreams (Allison, 2022, p. 110). He notes that these visions can be labeled into different categories. Allison writes, “The first involves seeing someone who died recently. The second involves seeing someone who died some time ago. The third involves seeing someone the visionary had never known” (Allison, 2022, p. 114). I have always had a fond liking of the Desert Fathers, so I greatly appreciated his mention of how the Desert Fathers responded to the death of Sisoes (Allison, 2022, p. 117). A 2000 study of end-of-life caregivers in England and the Netherlands found that a third of the caregivers reported seeing a “light surrounding or emanating from a dying body” (Allison, 2022, p. 120).

Chapter 7: Death from Within

This chapter contains a discussion and examples of changed lives due to near-death experiences (NDEs). Allison notes that “almost all NDEs report that during the experience, their thinking was clearer, faster, and more logical than ever before” (Allison, 2022, p. 131). Many who have experienced NDEs claim to have seen things they normally would not have been able to see. He provides similarities and patterns among reported NDEs.

Chapter 8: Rational Analysis

This chapter is a skeptical overview and cross-examination of many of the spiritual and religious experiences covered in the book. Allison covers many topics in this chapter and also examines the literature related to neuroscience. He is known for being skeptical in many things, in particular the resurrection; however, he does not outright dismiss the stories of others in this chapter. He ends the chapter by stating, “We should not shrink experience to fit our understanding but enlarge our understanding to take in experience” (Allison, 2022, p. 171).

Chapter 9: Some Theological Issues

This chapter contains an overview of some of Allison’s theological thoughts related to the content of the book.

Chapter 10: The Pastoral Imperative

Allison concludes the book by giving some suggestions and thoughts on the content of the book.

Works Cited

Allison, D. C. (2022). Encountering mystery: Religious experience in a Secular Age. Eerdmans.