My Research.

I have undertaken academic research into the psychology of spiritual crisis in applied practise, and religious and spiritual experience. I have a particular interest in Western Esotericism and the pre-Christian religions of the British Isles.

I am a Trustee of the Alister Hardy Trust (AHT), which supports the work of the Religious Experience Research Centre (RERC) at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David.

A number of my articles have been published in peer-reviewed academic journals.

My PhD Research

Spiritual Crisis: Empirical Assessments of Peer-Support & Grounding in Integration
Canterbury Christ Church University supported by the Professional Development Foundation & the Alef Trust.

My literature review sought to ascertain the empirical evidence-base for interventions in spiritual crisis.

I then performed a service evaluation of the UK Spiritual Crisis Network (SCN) before undertaking an IPA study of the meaning and lived-experience of grounding in spiritual crisis.

Finally, I wrote a case study that utilised the Hero's Journey as a framework for a narrative analysis of one person's path from spiritual crisis to applied practice in the form of peer-support.

My PhD was supervised by Prof. Les Lancaster, Dr David Lukoff, and Prof. David Lane.

My MA Research

The Esoteric Experience: Positive Experential Spirituality or Negative Spiritual Experience?
University of Wales, Lampeter

During my MA I studied the neuropsychology of religious experience and topics related to Western Esotericism, including Ancient Mystery Cults and Jewish Mysticism.

For my dissertation, I undertook a thematic analysis of accounts of spiritual experience from 20th century occultism. I focused on three traditions: Helena Blavatsky's Theosophy, GI Gurdjieff's Fourth Way, and the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. I analysed accounts from the literature, contemporary practitioners, and from the archive of the Religious Experience Research Centre.

My MA thesis was supervised by Dr Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke and Dr Sarah Jane Boss.

The SCN Research Group

I run a monthly online research group for the Spiritual Crisis Network (SCN).

We welcome anyone interested in the research into spiritual crisis, whether they are a researcher or not.

The group is currently attended by researchers, students, and experiencers, from the UK, US, Canada, Greece, and Sweden.

We present our research and are also collaborating on activities to disseminate research findings, such as SCN statistics and helpful grounding practices.

For more info please see the group's page on the SCN website here.

Networking

If you are intrested in the research into spiritual crisis, please feel free to contact me.