Article written by Anne Watkins from the Alister Hardy Archive:

"Sir Alister Hardy was born in 1896. He was a believer in the Theory of Evolution, which was revolutionary at that time and in apparent contradiction to the teaching of the Church. Yet Hardy was also awed by the presence of God in nature. He vowed, when called from his studies at Oxford to serve in the First World War, that if he were to survive he would devote the rest of his life to trying to resolve the paradox.

However, on Hardy's return to academia his father-in-law-to-be, perhaps concerned for the welfare of his daughter, suggested that Hardy establish himself in a proper career so as not to earn himself the reputation of being a crank!

Hardy became an eminent marine biologist and was knighted for his services to oceanography. Eventually, in 1969 Sir Alister established the Religious Experience Research Unit in Oxford. It was housed firstly in Harris Manchester College and later in Westminster College. During recent changes at Oxford Brookes University, Lampeter was successful in bringing the Religious Experience Research Centre (RERC) to Wales.

Since 2002 the RERC has been housed in the Department of Theology, Religious and Islamic Studies. There is a small specialist library of 2,500 books and a unique collection of 6,000 accounts of people's spiritual or paranormal experiences.

The question that inspires these stories is: 'Have you ever had an awareness of a power or presence different from every day life?'

As well as being an invaluable resource for students on the Religious Experience Masters Degree, the Library and Archive are used by members of the Alister Hardy Society and by researchers who travel here from all over the world.

The long term plan is to broaden the scope of the archive of accounts of experiences which currently reflects mainly British culture and religions. A Chinese research team is in the final stages of collecting data in China. The analysis of this information should be complete by 2007. Research is already underway with Muslims in Turkey and into Death Bed Experiences in Iran. A project with Pure Land Buddhists in Japan is in its early stages and we are hoping to investigate the experiences of Indians focusing on Christians in Kerala and Hindus in Tamil Nadu.

You are most welcome to visit the Research Centre on the top floor of the Sheikh Khalifa building in College Street, Lampeter."