New Global Research Initiative to Explore "Science of the Soul"

Five-Year PRISM Program, Funded by Templeton Religion Trust, Brings Cross-Disciplinary Rigor to the Study of Mystical Experience

TAMPERE, Finland, October 19, 2026--A groundbreaking international research initiative, the Program in the Study of Mysticism (PRISM) is bringing renewed scholarly attention to one of humanity's most profound yet historically understudied phenomena: mystical experience.

For centuries, mystical experiences — often described as moments of deep unity, transcendence of time and space, or connection to a greater reality — have profoundly influenced religious thought, artistic expression, and social movements. Mysticism can be thought of as the science of the soul, which lies at the heart of spirituality and centers around direct experience with the divine. Yet despite its historical and cultural significance, mysticism has frequently remained at the margins of mainstream academic inquiry.

Funded by Templeton Religion Trust (TRT), PRISM is a five-year, multi-disciplinary research initiative based at Tampere University in Finland that seeks to re-center mysticism within the academic study of religion by applying rigorous, cross-disciplinary methods to examine how mystical experiences shape belief, identity, culture, and community across traditions.

PRISM has now distributed approximately $4.4 million (€3.8 million) across 18 research and communications projects at universities and research teams around the world, with TRT planning an additional approximately $5.6 million (€4.8 million) in funding for the study of mysticism from 2027–2029 making it largest investment ever made in academic research on mysticism.

Together, the projects are examining some of the most enduring questions about mystical experience from its relationship to mystical consciousness and human flourishing to its role in art, peacebuilding and society, and whether there are common threads in mystical expression across the world's major religious traditions.

"PRISM was implemented to address the gap in mysticism studies, as too often, mystical experience has been treated as either purely private or beyond the reach of careful scholarship," said Ali Qadir, Professor of Sociology at Tampere University and Program Director of PRISM. "For thousands of years, the major traditions of the world have believed in an experience of the divine, and many of us in our day-to-day lives believe we have connected with something beyond ourselves.

"But what feels 'beyond us' need not be beyond us, and that's what the PRISM project aims to shed light on. By studying mysticism comparatively and empirically, we can better understand how it shapes individuals and societies – and why it continues to matter in the modern world."