SOME IMPORTANT RESOURCES
Alister Hardy, a zoologist undertook research on the subject
of religious experience in the 50's in England - founding the
Alister Hardy Research Centre for the study of
Religious Experience at Oxford University. The
website for the Alister Hardy Trust is http://www.alisterhardytrust.org.uk .
 He wrote several books on the subject eg The Divine Flame :
An Essay towards a natural history of religion. (1966) London:
Collins and The Spiritual Nature of Man:A Study of contemporary
 religious experience.(1979) Oxford University Press. Hardy amassed
 over 3000 personal accounts of varieties of religious experience
( you're probably familiar with the seminal book on the topic by William James )
 
David Hay took up Hardy's work in the 80's and did further research
into the topic - both men were trained scientists and so were determined
to conduct the research properly but they both believed that - in modern
 parlance - human beings were 'wired for God'. Hay has also written a
number of books eg Exploring Inner Space: Scientists and Religious
Experience (1987) London: Mowbray, and Religious Experience
Today: studying the facts  (1990) London: Mowbray.
 
You can read an interesting paper by David Hay on the website:
 http://www.martynmission.cam.ac.uk/BIAMSHay.htm  in which
he writes about the spirituality of the unchurched, spiritual experience etc.
 
You might also be interested to make contact with the Metanexus
 organisation whose details I am pasting below in red.
The contact email is to WIliam Grassie <grassie@metanexus.net>
URL:   <http://www.metanexus.net>

The Metanexus Institute advances research, education and outreach
on the constructive engagement of science and religion.  Metanexus
 is part of a growing network of individuals and groups exploring the
dynamic interface between cosmos, nature and culture in communities
and campuses throughout the world.  Metanexus sponsors public
 lectures, faculty trainings, workshops for congregations, research
seminars, course development grants, Internet publications, and
community events.  Metanexus also hosts an online magazine and
discussion forum with over 10,000 weekly page views and 7000 regular
subscribers in 57 different countries.
 
Paul Hawker is a New Zealander who has written two books on the
subject of spiritual experience. The first 'Soul Survivor- a spiritual quest ... '
 ( Northstone, Canada, 1998) is an account of his 40 day pilgrimage into
 the Tararua ranges in NZ and his encounters with the divine during that
period in the late 90's. His experiences led him to research other people's
 experience of God and he discoverd Hardy and Hay's material. This led
 Hawker to investigate people's spiritual experience for himself and the
results are published in his second book, Secret affairs of the Soul
(Northstone, Canada, 2000)
 
Sue Pickering