Religious Experience

I don't know if you are an NPR crazy like me, but I listen to way too much radio. I don't even really listen to it. I just have it on. I like the sound in the background. But there are a few radio shows that I really do actually listen to. One of them is Radiolab. It's a super fun show. At it's heart it is interested in science, and big questions. I encourage you to check them out here! You can listen to their episodes on the website. Anyhow- the most recent episode is called "Bliss" and is about attaining happiness or ideals. To be very honest, I am not this show really held together thematically or scientifically--but I am not reviewing their radio show. At the end of the program there is a story about students at Harvard Divinity School in the 60s who took part in psilocybin drug studies. The students who took the drugs (not surprisingly) had religious experiences while on the drugs (and while at Chapel!). Regardless of what one might think about drugs, or psilocybin in particular, what you might find interesting is that the nature of the religious experience was to feel that that they were a part of something larger. The students described understanding the oneness of creation, but also their small part in that oneness. They felt very connected to this larger oneness. While I don't think we need drugs to do that, I think there is something very true about religious experience that those studies showed. Religious experience as the realization that you are a small part of a larger unity feels really right to me. And in theory, when we do it well and right, that should be what we are doing in church.