We will now investigate what Glock has termed the experiential dimension in which he includes the feelings or sensations of having communicated with “divine essence”. This definition can be expanded to refer to all of the individual’s subjective involvement with the sacred. Among examples Glock cites as illustrating this dimension are: a feeling that one has been saved; a feeling of deep intimacy with the holy; an experience of having received divine revelation. To this can be added sensing the presence of God, feeling close to a spiritual force beyond one’s self, or experiencing the “gifts of the Holy Spirit” such as speaking in tongues (glossolalia).
Before looking at the results in detail we need to consider some of the inherent problems in using surveys to investigate religious experiences. First, individual religious experiences vary considerably in intensity. They range from a momentary sense of peace and awe to extraordinary mystical experiences. Whether or not such a feeling is acknowledged as an 'experience' by a person depends on both their receptiveness to and perceptiveness of such phenomena.
Secondly, whether or not such an experience is perceived as a 'religious' experience is dependent on the socially acquired beliefs which shape the individual’s interpretation and the language they have to describe it. As Gary Bouma neatly put it in his Religion. Meaning, transcendence and community in Australia (1992) “People do not usually have religious experiences entirely on their own.”(:40). A study by Glock and Stark(1965) shows that whether one has religious experience at all is a product of social context. Different religions place different emphases on religious experience. Whereas most Christian denominations do not actively encourage highly emotive religious experience, in many Pentecostal groups such experiences are seen as central and are eagerly sought. An example Bouma cites is glossolalia which does not happen uniformly throughout churches. It occurs in those social contexts where there is an expectation of such experience and where the expression of beliefs and the rituals encourage and help people to talk in tongues. In fact Black(1991: 117) found that there is an implicit and sometimes explicit claim within Pentecostal groups that those who have not received the baptism of the Holy Spirit as evidenced in glossolalia are second class Christians.
Similarly the designation of a particular experience as “religious” may occur only after association with or membership of a particular group. Robert Towler (1984: 42) reports a study where he interviewed men who were entering Anglican theological colleges about their experience of conversion. Of those entering an Evangelical college, where to be converted was the norm, most but not all said that they had had a conversion experience. When asked the same question after several months in college all reported they had been converted and those who had previously said they had not were able to give precise dates now gave dates that were prior to the first interview.
Also alternate states of consciousness - a situation where the individual’s consciousness is relatively remote from the sphere of everyday reality - may be drug induced.
Another problem in measuring religious experience is inherent in the nature of our society. Overall contemporary Western society does not particularly value special spiritual experience and often ignores or openly discourages such. It could be that religious experience is far more common than generally acknowledged or conversely that in such cultures members neither seek nor recognise them.

Religious experience and group membership

The relationship between religious experience and group membership is strongly supported in the responses to all the religious experience questions on the 1993 NSSS. For all questions the proportion of those indicating No Religion acknowledging an experience was considerably lower than of those identifying with a religion. Among those claiming a religious denomination the frequency and variety of religious experience was greater for Pentecostals and Baptists.
For example only 10.5% of those with no religion claimed to feel close or very close to God compared with 86% of the Pentecostals and 78% of Baptists. The Orthodox groups with their strong tradition of mysticism also have a high proportion (85%) claiming to feel close to God. In comparison a lower proportion of Anglicans (49%) and Uniting Church members (56%) when compared with other denominations claimed to feel close to God.
Interestingly, and perhaps an indictment on contemporary church services and attendance levels, a lower proportion overall reported that they felt close to God during church services. Only fifty-three per cent of those claiming denominational identification affirmed that church services made them feel closer to God. The Pentecostals (76%), Churches of Christ (71%) and Baptists (69%) were above average in this experience and the Anglicans (44%) and Presbyterians (46%) less so.
The denominations where there are high proportions reporting religious experiences are not surprisingly those who were found to have high proportions of Conversionist when analysed in terms of the typology developed in our Patterns of Faith (Hughes and Blombery, 1990). This is further confirmed in the NSSS answers to questions on both conversion and being 'born again'. Both these experiences as well as those such as 'coming to Christ’, 'saved from sin', 'baptised in the Spirit' as well as expressions which are short biblical quotations such as 'washed in the blood of the Lamb' can be associated with an experience of new beginning and a fairly constant and permanently changed attitude towards life. People in Towler’s analysis (1984: 45) describe the experience in such terms as:
'...I gave myself to God, my life changed. Now I work for my Saviour, praise his name.”
“By the mercy and grace of God, six years ago I was born again. I faced the Truth in a personal confrontation with the Living Lord. I know Him as my personal Saviour and Lord, know that I am cleansed by His Blood and born again of His Spirit,...”
In response to the NSSS question ‘Has there ever been a turning point in your life when you made a new and personal commitment to religion?’, over three quarters of the Pentecostals and nearly 60% of Baptists and Churches of Christ members affirmed such an experience. This compared with less than a third of Uniting Church members, around a quarter of Catholics, and less than a fifth of Anglicans, Lutherans and Presbyterians. Fewer than 7% of those with No Religion acknowledged experiencing a conversion experience at some time in their life.
An even greater distinction between denominations can be seen in responses to the question ‘Would you say you have been “born again” or have had a “born again” experience - that is a turning point in your life when you committed yourself to Christ?’ Ninety-one per cent of Pentecostals, 57% of Baptists and 42% of Churches of Christ adherents affirmed this proposition in comparison with only 13% of Catholics, 11% of Anglicans and fewer than 10% of Orthodox, Presbyterians and Lutherans. Only 3% of those with No Religion claimed to have been 'born again'.
However, it would be false to conclude that these religious groups have totally cornered the market on religious experience. There was no statistically significant difference between religious groups in response to the more general question ‘How often have you felt that you were close to a powerful, spiritual force that seemed to lift you outside yourself?’. Overall 71% claimed they had not had such an experience, ranging from 52% of Pentecostals to 77% of those with No Religion with the majority of denominations clustered around the mean. Of those who acknowledged such an experience, 18% reported having felt it once or twice, 5% several times, and 3% often. There were a higher proportion of Pentecostals (19%) and Baptists (10%) among those who had felt the experience often. These figures are slightly higher than those of Bouma (1992: 102) from the 1983 Australian Values Study Survey. Bouma found a negative response was given by 74%, 8% responded once or twice, 10% several times, and 8% said they often felt close. Again it was the group identified by Bouma as Conservative Evangelical Protestants (CEP), which includes the Pentecostals and Baptists, which claimed more frequently to have had such an experience.
An interesting reversal for Pentecostals occurs in response to the question of feeling ‘really in touch with someone who had died’. Ninety-five per cent of Pentecostals responded negatively to this experience compared with 70% overall and 65-70% of the main denominational groups.

Religious Experience and Other Factors

Denominational allegiance is the dominating factor and because of the differences between the denominations in attendance patterns, age and gender these contributions appear masked. Overall those who attend church more regularly, those who pray more frequently, and those who consider themselves more religious are more likely to have had religious experiences and of a greater frequency.
Age had no significant relationship with the incidence of religious experience except in terms of feeling close to God which was reported more frequently with increasing age. There was an overall tendency for women to report having religious experiences more frequently than men. However, this was significant only in terms of feeling close to God where 55% of women claim to feel close compared with 43% of men and being in touch with someone who has died which is reported by 35% of women and only 22% of men.

The Consequential dimension

In our next issue we will explore what the 1993 National Social Science Survey can tell us about the influence of religious adherence and church attendance on some aspects of everyday life.

References:

Black, Alan W. 1991. Religion in Australia. Sociological perspectives. Allen and Unwin, North Sydney.
Bouma, Gary D. 1992. Religion. Meaning, transcendence and community in Australia. Longman Cheshire, Melbourne.
Glock, Charles Y and Rodney Stark. 1965. Religion and Society in Tension. Rand McNally, Chicago.
Hughes, Philip J and ‘Tricia Blombery. 1990. Patterns of Faith in Australian Churches. Christian Research Association, Melbourne.
Towler, Robert. 1984. The Need for Certainty. A Sociological study of conventional religion. Routledge & Kegan Paul, London

‘Tricia Blombery

Data source: M.Evans and J. Kelly, National Social Science Survey data file, 1993, Canberra, RSSS, ANU.