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 is a multimedia project that brings to light the deeply personal, often hidden stories of spiritual transformation

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

With academic analysis and a comprehensive scope , the book explores spiritual experience through various personal encounters with the divine, transcendent, or sacred, shaped by religious and non-religious triggers, with diverse interpretations across different traditions and research.

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 tools to help others reflect on them deeply and respectfully.

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

Over the next 18 months, Contemporary Religious & Spiritual Experience will document powerful personal accounts of spiritual transformation across Britain 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 to near-death experiences and transformative insight, each story invites readers to encounter 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 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 engage with spiritual experiences safely and sensitively—whether from faith traditions, secular perspectives, or 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
Researcher, Author, Spiritual Experience Scholar

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 (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 Society, 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 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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