Medjugorje and the supernatural: science, mysticism, and extraordinary religious experience

Description

In June 1981, six young Croatians in the village of Medjugorje, in the former Yugoslavia, reported that the Virgin Mary had appeared to them. The Medjugorje visionaries say that the Virgin Mary has returned every day since then, bringing them important messages from heaven to convey to the world. Over the past three decades the Medjugorje visionaries have been subjected to extensive medical, psychological, and scientific examination, even while undergoing their visionary experiences. The author argues that the case of Medjugorje affords a rare opportunity to understand a deeper dimension of extraordinary religious phenomena. He concludes that the scientific studies in Medjugorje make a significant contribution in challenging a history of reductionism in scholarship on extraordinary religious experiences, the science pointing to something 'more' in the experiences of the visionaries.