Hood

Dimensions of Mystical Experience: Empirical Studies and Psychological Links by Ralph W. Hood Jr. (2002)

Dimensions of Mystical Experience: Empirical Studies and Psychological Links by Ralph W. Hood Jr. (2002)

Hood

Written by a Professor of Psychology, this book is focused solely on the empirical study of mysticism. The author has published numerous articles on the psychology of religion and spirituality in professional journals, is a former editor of the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion (1995–1999), and has been coeditor of The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion.

The book consists of a series of 16 previously published papers that, according to the author himself, “are representative of the scope and range of what amounts to a very narrow methodological perspective for the study of mysticism.” These papers primarily use a measurement approach with three major emphases: 1) mysticism can be measured with the same degree of sophistication and reliability as any other construct of psychology; 2) the fact that the report of mysticism can be measured allows us to correlate this report with other phenomena of interest to psychology of religion; and 3) there exists the possibility of quasi-experimental studies of mysticism.