Version 1.0 · For trained practitioners. Not a self-help resource.
© 2026 Widdows Consulting Ltd
Secular and Naturalistic Mysticism
The study of non-religious and post-religious transcendent experience, from James's Varieties (1902) and Maslow's peak experiences (1964) through the Alister Hardy archive of ordinary religious experience to contemporary research on awe and psychedelic mystical experience. This is the background of most UK coaching clients, and the page gives such experiences a home without a theology.
Global & contemporary · Status: Open
Draft — pending editor review · added beyond the first .pdf edition; orientation page. Correspondences are exploratory, not validated.
I · Overview & core concepts
A naturalistic vocabulary for profound experience has been under construction for over a century. William James (1902) catalogued the varieties of religious experience, including in the healthy-minded and the sick soul; Maslow (1964) named the peak experience as a psychological category; Csikszentmihalyi named flow — absorbed, self-forgetting functioning; and Keltner (2023) gives awe its modern research program. The Mystical Experience Questionnaire (MEQ) measures psychedelic mystical experience as a construct; ego dissolution is its well-studied cousin. “Spiritual but not religious” is now a majority identity among UK clients with profound experiences; Harris (2014) and Wright argue for contemplative practice without metaphysics; and the Alister Hardy Archive collects accounts of ordinary religious experience at scale. Evans (2017) and Rankin (2008) give accessible entry points. This continuum is probably where most UK coaching clients actually live. [EDITOR TO ADD: cross-link to the Core Manual neuroscience section once its slug is confirmed.]
II · Transpersonal Diagnostics mapping
| Territory | Exploratory source correspondence |
|---|---|
| 1 · Consensus Reality | Ordinary secular life. |
| 2 · Personal Narrative | Flow, awe and nature-triggered openings — the first self-transcending moments. |
| 3 · Adjusted Cognition | Existential crisis; loss of meaning. |
| 4 · Imaginal / Transcendent Visualisation | Drug- and dream-state imagery, held without a religious frame. |
| 5 · Oneness / Union with Source | “Oceanic” unity, reported and studied without theology. |
| 6 · Ego Death / Dissolution | Ego dissolution as a measured construct. |
| 7 · Integration / Return | Post-experience meaning-making, values change and prosocial shift. |
III · Practitioner notes
Recognise. This is probably the majority background of UK coaching clients; this page gives a home for experiences the client will not call spiritual — awe, flow, peak moments, psychedelics framed “scientifically”.
Caution. A secular frame does not reduce risk: ego-dissolution experiences can destabilise regardless of vocabulary. Treat intensity and distress, not metaphysics, as the signs.
Refer. Distress, destabilisation or risk go to clinical care, whatever the framing.
IV · Further reading
James, W. (1902). The varieties of religious experience. Longmans, Green.
Maslow, A. H. (1964). Religions, values, and peak-experiences. Ohio State University Press.
Keltner, D. (2023). Awe. Penguin.
Harris, S. (2014). Waking up. Simon & Schuster.
Evans, J. (2017). The art of losing control. Canongate.
Rankin, M. (2008). An introduction to religious and spiritual experience. Continuum.