Non-Ordinary & Spiritual Experiences - Interview with Professor Bettina Schmidt

Mind Mirror Talks: Non-Ordinary & Spiritual Experience. Conversations at the intersection of neuroscience, spirituality, and consciousness.

Exploring Spiritual Experience: A Conversation with Prof. Bettina Schmidt

We are honoured to welcome Professor Bettina Schmidt, one of the world’s leading scholars in the field of religious experience and the anthropology of consciousness. As Director of the renowned Alister Hardy Religious Experience Research Centre and Professor at the University of Wales – Trinity Saint David, she brings a rare depth of insight into trance, healing, and spiritual wellbeing across cultures.

In this event, we invite you on a journey into the space where spirituality and neuroscience meet. Alongside Professor Bettina E. Schmidt, we’ll explore how trance, healing, and extraordinary states are lived and understood across cultures — from the ritual traditions of Brazil to contemporary practices in the UK.

We’ll dive into her latest research on non-ordinary experiences during the pandemic, uncovering stories of deepened intuition, near-death encounters, and personal transformation. Drawing on the insights of William James, we’ll reflect on why the meaning and impact of such experiences matter as much as their origins.

Finally, we’ll look at how EEG and brainwave models, including the Awakened Mind pattern, can offer a bridge between subjective spiritual states and objective data — opening new pathways for mental health, spiritual growth, and conscious living.