Making the Unseen Seen

Exploring real stories of spiritual experience through photography, reflection, and education.

Expanding on Dr Marianne Rankin’s research, this project transforms decades of observation, analysis and insight into a visually immersive study, featuring a Book, Website, and Workshops.

Contemporary Religious & Spiritual Experience: An Illustrated Guide

is an exciting new project that brings to light the deeply personal, often hidden stories of spiritual transformation.

Through powerful imagery captured by photographer Eleanor Dailey this work will explore the rich diversity of faith groups across the UK.

Academic analysis of a comprehensive scope of experience enables an understanding of encounters with a deeper dimension - the sacred - whether triggered by religious or non-religious thoughts or situations. The effects of these spiritual experiences will be explored.

In addition to the book, a multi-week photo series, workshops, and a website will promote interfaith dialogue and enhance understanding of the role of spirituality in communities.

The Project

We tell real stories of spiritual experience—and create a book and website to enable deep and respectful reflection on them.

Our work lives at the intersection of education, faith, art, and lived experience.

Over the next 18 months, Contemporary Religious & Spiritual Experience: An Illustrated Guide will document powerful personal accounts of spiritual transformation across Britain. These range from near-death experiences and awakenings to visions and moments of deep connection, both within and beyond organised religion.

Through photography, testimony, and reflective commentary, we aim to bring these hidden stories into public view and educational spaces, sparking inclusive dialogue around meaning, identity, and belief.

Led by photographer Eleanor Dailey and scholar Dr Marianne Rankin, the project will culminate in a photo-text book, a publicly accessible digital archive, and one-day workshops for schools.

Grounded in research and shaped by community partnerships, the project offers tools for reflection, empathy, and spiritual literacy—across generations and worldviews.

  • Our flagship publication brings together evocative photography and personal testimony to document the diversity and depth of spiritual experience in the UK today.

    From quiet moments of prayer or meditation to ecstatic dance, the images offer the chance to share in the experience.

    Subsequent reflection enables readers to understand the encounter with something intimate, human and often life-changing

    This book is not about doctrine - it’s about encounter.

    A resource for classrooms, libraries, churches, and home study groups alike, it offers thematic prompts and reflective questions for deeper engagement.

  • Accessible. Searchable. Open to all.
    Our digital archive is a growing, living collection of stories and portraits. Each one is tagged by theme (e.g. “NDE” “loss,” “awakening,” “grace,” “fear,” “calling”). It’s designed as a dynamic tool for RE teachers, youth workers, and the spiritually curious.

  • We offer one-day workshops for secondary schools that blend storytelling, visual prompts, discussion, and reflective exercises.

    Created in collaboration with teachers, these sessions help pupils to engage with spiritual experiences safely and sensitively. We look at faith traditions, secular perspectives, and the grey areas in between.

    The workshops are aligned with the Religion and Worldviews approach and the RE/PSHE curriculum. They’re especially valuable for exploring identity, interfaith understanding, death and dying, and the nature of belief.

Dr Marianne Rankin
Author, Speaker, Researcher in Spiritual Experience

Dr Marianne Rankin is a leading voice in the study of religious and spiritual experience. She is the author of An Introduction to Religious and Spiritual Experience 2008 (Continuum/Bloomsbury), a widely respected text used by students, teachers, and researchers across the UK and beyond. Her PhD explored the long-term personal, moral, and psychological impact of spiritual experience as transformation, particularly how such experiences shape identity, values, and worldview.

For over a decade, Dr Rankin served as Director of Communications for the Alister Hardy Trust, where she worked closely with educators, interfaith communities, and researchers to advance the understanding of personal spiritual experience across traditions. She regularly speaks on the intersection of science, faith, and human consciousness.

Marianne brings academic rigour and pastoral sensitivity to the project, ensuring that each story is treated with respect, care, and contextual understanding.

Eleanor Dailey
Documentary Photographer, Educator, Artist

Eleanor Dailey is a documentary photographer with over 25 years of experience in more than 50 countries. Her work spans portraiture, social justice, education, and spirituality—always driven by a desire to reveal truth and tenderness through the lens.

Eleanor has lived and worked extensively in the Middle East, where she developed a deep appreciation for the spiritual and cultural depth of Islamic traditions. She was born and raised in Singapore so her formative years were immersed in diverse cultures and religious traditions across Asia.

In Contemporary Religious & Spiritual Experience, Eleanor brings artistic vision, technical expertise, and a deep commitment to spiritual literacy through lived stories and powerful images.

Contact Us

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