I haven't read this whole thread, which Littlestone just pointed out to me, but I think I'll jump in here since some of the questions PeterH has posed here are exactly the ones the study is meant to address.
For one thing, there is no doubt that one can have this experience whether or not you have embraced a religion or even believe in any kind of invisible force, spirit or divinity. It is likely that it can happen to adherents of any religion, too, and because of its nature, they are likely to experience it as proof of their particular faith.
My greatest interest in the topic concerns such experiences in childhood. A remarkable number of people, as Rupert Sheldrake points out in Rebirth of Nature, trace important choices like choice of career back to these experiences, no doubt because of the compelling nature of what happens in those timeless moments. For some people it becomes a center toward which much of their lives tip, even if they don't consciously acknowledge it.
Some become attached to the place where it happened. Some seek signs of similar experience in writings, art, or music of others, some seek to express it through artistic means.
I find it remarkable that in our culture this remarkable experience is not much discussed. (Deja vu, much less compelling, is discussed far more.)Many, many people have had some version of it. For most of us, it reaches us in a very personal way, a way that makes it seem private and unique to us. And, in fact, from those I"ve been able to question it seems that although the experiences have many points in common, there's always an element that is unique to the person who receives it.
People who have had this experience show consistent signs. Since I started looking into this some years ago, I've been discussing it with my teenage son. He will now tell me when he's met "one" as he puts it, and suggests I send the survey to someone he's met at college who exhibits the signs.
If you examine the writings of people like Thom Hartman, Rupert Sheldrake, Thomas Berry, you find they were so struck by these childhood experiences that they wrote about them. There are many others. Van Morrison seems to try to paint the feeling again and again . . . It is a phenomenon, I believe, that has had a tremendous impact on Western culture. It has left its tracks all over. I'm looking into it, and I have some ideas about it.
