Transcendence and Transformation Database

The Transcendence and Transformation Database (TTD) is intended to be the world’s largest resource for all things mystical. Housed within the Center for the Study of World Religions at Harvard Divinity School, the database will include an archive of primary source reports and an encyclopedia. All will be free to the public. 
  
The archive will collate primary source materials from the ancient to the contemporary, global in scope, and ranging from indigenous and world traditions to solitary charismatics. We are especially interested in primary accounts of mystical events, descriptions of practices, and reports of the “fruits” or siddhis of these practices. Each entry will be coded and indexed for comparability. 
  
The archive will be complemented by an online encyclopedia. These encyclopedia entries will help to contextualize, interpret, and theorize the data. Each entry will be written and vetted by specialists. 
  
This wildly ambitious project will be of use to scholars and laypersons alike. For scholars, the database will open new comparative possibilities, uncover previously uncharted influences, and promote large-scale theorization. For those outside the academy, the TTD will be a priceless resource for self-understanding, education, and engaging topics of existential concern with rigor.