According to the reviews:
Based on more than 250 occurrences and extraordinary experiences that have served to lift believers out of the mundane world and place them in contact with a transcendental reality, The Encyclopedia of Religious Phenomena explores unusual and unexplained physical events, apparitions, and other phenomena rooted in religious beliefs. Alphabetically arranged, Religious Phenomena includes more than 100 illustrations.
Well-known religion expert, J. Gordon Melton takes readers on a tour that includes visits with angels, Marian apparitions (including Guadeloupe, 1531; Lourdes, 1858; and Fatima, 1917), and religious figures such as Jesus, the Buddha, Mohammad, and Tao Tzu. Melton reports on dreams and near-death experiences; feng shui and labyrinths; statues that bleed, drink milk, weep, and move; snake handling, speaking in tongues, and stigmata; relics, including the spear of Longinus and the Shroud of Turin; and sacred locales such as Easter Island, the Glastonbury Tor, the Great Pyramid, Mecca, and Sedona.
From sacred mountains, shrines and places of pilgrimage to visions, out-of-body travel, and holy laughter, The Encyclopedia of Religious Phenomena offers a balanced presentation of otherworldly phenomena: each entry includes a description of the particular phenomenon and the religious claims being made for it as well as a discussion of what a scientist might have to say about it. Transcending the mundane, the entries take no sides and make no arguments: the journey is the experience and the experience is the journey.
