Can psychic and/or spirit experiences create meanings that foster the spiritual development of world religions? Throughout this exploration, I am assuming that all world religions are parts of an ever expanding whole. Steven Hawking (1990) hypothesized that the universe is always expanding, and for me, this opens the question of an ultimate knowing, possibilities or impossibilities.

Svoboda (1967), in his essay entitled "Parapsychology", provides the reader with a developmental history of paranormal phenomena and their levels of acceptance by institutions, especially world religions. The author explains that "for many centuries paranormal phenomena were considered the work of some dismembered ghost or supernatural force working through a 'crossed' human agent" (Svoboda, 1967, p. 995).In most early religions, especially the Christian religion, the paranormal was debated and often considered the work of Satan, and the church disavowed their experience.