Introduction

Welcome

Unusual experiences come in many shapes and forms and the reasons for them are just as varied. As a society we can be quick to label unusual experiences as pathological and something that requires treatment. However, there are other ways to interpret some of these experiences. Rather than choosing here to define for a person what their experience means, within this course we explore multiple explanations to aide people in making sense of their experiences for themselves. There isn’t a right or wrong way of doing this and people may not find what makes sense to them within this course, however, it may give them a place to start thinking about it in different ways and from different perspectives.

This topic can be controversial; there are many ideas around what is happening for a person who is having unusual experiences. This course will explore the main viewpoints of this society as well as other viewpoints including evolutionary, philosophical, spiritual and influencing factors as explanations.

'It feels like being dropped into a maze and having to find your way out.’

Anonymous

Aims

We hope by the end of this course you will have:

• Considered some misconceptions around unusual experiences.
• Learned about what unusual experiences are.
• Considered a variety of explanations (perspectives and theories) for why unusual experiences occur.