RENSEP’s mission is to promote and advance the interdisciplinary and comparative study of esoteric practices from a global perspective, foremost through its online platform that allows theoretical and practical researchers from different backgrounds and disciplines to meet and exchange their analyses and interpretations of esoteric practices from an open-minded, data-based, apolitical, and non-ideological perspective. Besides this online platform, RENSEP provides funds for the study of esoteric practices, e.g., for queries and other forms of data-collection, for building databases, for organising conferences and workshops, for awarding short-term (e.g. travel) grants as well as longer-term PhD fellowships, for supporting related network initiatives, or for financing relevant publication projects. RENSEP’s research agenda is multidisciplinary , yet it has a particular focus on the core disciplines of the history of religion, anthropology, psychology (including the cognitive science of religion as well as neurosciences), and arts.
