Ralph W. Hood

Ralph W. Hood, PhD
Born	18 July 1942 Denver, Colorado, USA
Nationality	United States
Fields	Psychology of Religion
Institutions	University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
Alma mater	University of Nevada, Reno (PhD)
Doctoral advisor	Paul Secord
Known for	Psychology of mysticism

Ralph Wilbur Hood (born 1942) is a professor of psychology at University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.

Hood was born on 18 July 1942 in Denver, Colorado.

Hood received his BS at University of California, Los Angeles, an MS at California State College at Los Angeles (1966), and a PhD at University of Nevada, Reno (1968).

Hood is a former editor of the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion (1995–1999), and has been coeditor of The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion (1992–1995) and Archiv für Religionpsychologie (2005–).

Hood's "Mysticism scale," based on Walter Stace's distinction between "introverted" and "extroverted" mysticism, was developed in the 1970s, and is a well-known research instrument for mystical experiences.

Hood is also well known for researching snake handling in the Appalachian Mountains.

Stace's work in mystical experience has received strong criticisms, for its lack of methodological rigueur and its perennialist pre-assumptions. Major criticism came from Steven T. Katz in his influential series of publications on mysticism and philosophy, and from Wayne Proudfoot in his Religious experience (1985).

In defense of Stace, Hood (2001) cites Forman, who argues that introverted mysticism is correctly conceptualized as a common core, since it lacks all content, and is the correct basis for a perennial philosophy. Hood notes that Stace's work is a conceptual approach, based on textual studies. He posits his own work as a parallel approach, based on an empirical approach, thereby placing the conceptual claims in an empirical framework, assuming that Stace is correct in his approach.

...
Wikipedia