Abstract
How do we define religious experiences? And what would be the relationship with
spiritual experiences? The author claims that the cognitive turn in science gives us
new opportunities to map the territory of religion and spirituality. In line with other
authors (Taves, Wildman), he proposes a building block approach of cognitive mechanisms
that can deal with questions regarding the specificity, origin, and complexity of
religious experiences. Two concepts are presented that bridge the great divide which
is presumed to exist between sciences that study the brain and humanities, namely
the encultured brain and predictive minds. In section three, six building blocks
of the structure of religious experience are formulated. New in his approach is the
unexpected possible as distinctive ground between normal experiences and what
we consider spiritual and religious experiences. Finally, the author presents a critical
reflection on his proposal and challenges for the road ahead.
