About the Journal

The Journal of Exceptional Experiences and Health (JEEH) is a peer-reviewed, open-access, free-to-publish and fully indexed scientific journal dedicated to the interface between exceptional experiences and health.

Exceptional experiences are those that appear to the percipient to be incompatible with (and potentially inexplicable in terms of) current scientific understanding. Such phenomena may be variously termed ‘psychical’, ‘death related’, ‘mystical’, ‘spiritual’, ‘transpersonal’, and so on. With reference to the foundational work of Rhea White (1931-2007), conditions for something to be considered an exceptional human experience include experiencing a spontaneous and unexpected event; feeling as if the moment is meaningful; an inability to ascribe a normal explanation to the event; accepting that the event was genuine; incorporating the event into one’s life story; a shifted perspective or worldview; and feeling more connected with all other life and the cosmos.

Although many of the exceptional experiences which are the focus of this publication have traditionally been studied by parapsychology, the journal does not have a corporate stance on the ontological nature of such experiences. It is grounded in professional-ethical principles, including theoretical openness, worldview neutrality, and respect for the plurality of interpretive frameworks. Inspired by the WHO definition, health is understood as physical, mental and social well-being, with no reference to any specific disease or infirmity.

The relationship between exceptional experiences (hereafter ExE) and health is understood to be multi-dimensional. The scope of the journal, therefore, is relatively broad. A major focus of the publication is the area often referred to as clinical parapsychology, which is the provision of expert counselling to people who are somehow disturbed by ExE and seek to understand and integrate them. The scope of the journal also includes ExE which are known to have powerfully adaptive after-effects, such as in the case of, for instance, near-death experiences or after-death communication. The journal also deals with what seems to be an association between certain health conditions and higher prevalence of ExE (e.g. reports of apparent telepathy in autism; paradoxical lucidity in patients with severely compromised brains). Finally, there are empirically validated examples in which ExE are explicitly used for therapeutic purposes (e.g. Induced After Death Communication; spiritual healing) or at least with a therapeutic intent (e.g. evidential mediumship).

Reflecting its broad scope, the journal is intended to be a resource for both researchers and clinicians/practitioners. It publishes original research as well as case studies, personal accounts of experiences, reviews of relevant material published elsewhere in journals and books, and theoretical reflection.