The Religious Experience Research Centre was founded by the distinguished marine biologist Professor

Alister Hardy Sir Alister Clavering Hardy (10 February 1896 – 22 May 1985) was an English marine biologist, an expert on marine ecosystems spanning organisms from zooplankton to whales. He had the artistic skill to illustrate his books with his own drawing ...

FRS in 1969 as The Religious Experience Research Unit. He and his co-researchers began to gather a unique archive of accounts of

religious experience A religious experience (sometimes known as a spiritual experience, sacred experience, or mystical experience) is a subjective experience which is interpreted within a religious framework. The concept originated in the 19th century, as a defense ...

and to publish research into the area. The maintenance of both the archives and the research and publications have continued. The centre organises conferences and produces both books and a series of Occasional Papers on religious experience and spirituality. Sir Alister was awarded the ''

Templeton Prize The Templeton Prize is an annual award granted to a living person, in the estimation of the judges, "whose exemplary achievements advance Sir John Templeton's philanthropic vision: harnessing the power of the sciences to explore the deepest quest ...

for Progress In Religion'' in 1985 and the centre has since received a grant from the

Templeton Foundation The John Templeton Foundation (Templeton Foundation) is a Philanthropy, philanthropic organization that reflects the ideas of its founder, John Templeton, who became wealthy via a career as a Contrarian investing, contrarian investor, and wanted ...

for the computerisation of the archives. The centre was located at

Manchester College, Oxford Harris Manchester College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It was founded in Warrington in 1757 as a college for Unitarian students and moved to Oxford in 1893. It became a full college of th ...

, from 1969 to 1989 and from 1989 to 1999 at

Westminster College, Oxford Westminster College was a teacher training college and college of higher education in England. The college was founded in London in 1851 as a training institute for teachers for Wesleyan Methodist schools, but moved to Oxford in 1959. Before t ...

. In 2000 the centre moved to the

University of Wales, Lampeter University of Wales, Lampeter ( cy, Prifysgol Cymru, Llanbedr Pont Steffan) was a university in Lampeter, Wales. Founded in 1822, and incorporated by royal charter in 1828, it was the oldest degree awarding institution in Wales, with limited ...

(presently

University of Wales, Trinity Saint David , image = Crest of TSD.png , image_size = 200px , caption = Coat of armsUniversity of Wales Trinity Saint David , established = 2010 (Saint David's College, Lampeter founded 1822 and opened 1827; royal charter 1828) , ...

). The directors of the centre are currently Greg Barker, Bettina Schmidt and Sally Wilkinson.

References

External links

Religious Experience Research Centre
1969 establishments in the United Kingdom Harris Manchester College, Oxford University of Wales, Lampeter Religious practices Schools of religion {{Reli-studies-stub