RENSEP (Research Network for the Study of Esoteric Practices) is a unincorporated association whose mission is to promote and advance the interdisciplinary and comparative study of esoteric practices from a global perspective. RENSEP’s ambition is to organise and structure a stimulating intellectual and methodological environment that allows researchers from different backgrounds and disciplines to meet and exchange their analyses and interpretations of esoteric practices from an open-minded, data-based, non-ideological and apolitical perspective. RENSEP’s unique approach is to provide a shared cognitive and interactional space – the RENSEP website – that transcends traditional academic boundaries by supporting the participation and encounter of both scholars and practitioners of esoteric practices.
RENSEP is aware that we live in a historical period of political and epistemological tensions, and that esoteric practices can be instrumentalised and politicised in multiple ways. It should be taken for granted that doing research on the practices of right or left wing esoteric movements, which is absolutely necessary from a scholarly viewpoint, neither legitimises these movements, nor should scholars who study these movements be suspected – through rhetorics of ‘guilt of association’ or so-called ‘contact guilt’ – to automatically share their ideologies. RENSEP is a politically neutral research network, hence it will take all measures necessary to ensure that its online platform will not be abused for political statements or agendas.
RENSEP has a limited yearly budget for promoting the study of esoteric practices beyond established channels of academic funding. All fund requests are decided upon by RENSEP’s scientific committee.
RENSEP is a privately funded unincorporated association based in the UK. RENSEP is financed by private donations as well as by the subscriptions of its affiliate members.
