Page No 259-271
Walter Renner Panch. Ramalingam
Pan-European University, Pondicherry University,
Bratislava, Slovak Republic Puducherry, India
Since the turn of the millennium, Western psychology has widened its scope: Although
self-evident experiences like love, hate, empathy, or wisdom are not instantly replicable,
cannot be easily communicated, and are prone to deception, such phenomena have
gradually been accepted as legitimate objects of empirical study. Concurrently, psychology
has abandoned its simplified, merely Western point of view and increasingly attends to
cultural diversity. The present paper focuses on religious or spiritual experiences, which
until now have been largely excluded from psychological studies. First, in an attempt to
link theological consideration and psychological methodology, suggestions are developed
which could enable future researchers to apply Popper’s critical rationalism to the study
of reports of self-evident religious or spiritual experiences. These suggestions are based
on criteria of falsifiability which are derived from theological literature. Secondly, these
suggestions are supported by the Indian point of view on self-evident spiritual experiences.
In this respect, Western scientific methodology is expected to benefit from Eastern
philosophy of science. These aspects will be discussed in the next paper.
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