Mapping the Boundaries between Science and Religion

Transpersonal Psychology, particularly the work of psychiatrist and LSD researcher Stanislav Grof, illustrates how psychological and therapeutic discourses intersect with religious ones. This paper examines psychological approaches to Near-Death Experiences (NDE) and how they generate religious imagery. It argues that the boundaries between science and religion are fluid rather than fixed, using scholarly approaches to NDEs within Transpersonal Psychology as a case study.

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Abstract

In contemporary religious landscapes, entanglements between the field of religion and the field of psychology and psychiatry are manifold.In this paper, the psychological school of "Transpersonal Psychology" (TP) and specifically the work of the psychiatrist and LSD researcher Stanislav Grof is introduced in order to illuminate the interferences between psychological or therapeutic discourses and religious discourses.Of particular interest are psychological approaches to Near-Death Experiences (NDE) and the way in which they become productive of religious imaginary.In this way, this paper will outline the boundaries between science and religion, or rather the fluidity of such boundaries, using the example of a specific discourse as manifested in scholarly approaches to Near-Death Experiences in Transpersonal Psychology.