Hi Bob

Yes. Likewise I have occasionally had what I would perhaps describe as "spiritual experiences" - though the term seems loaded to me. In my case, the only authors I know who speak of anything that seems similar are the French writers Eugene Ionesco and Andre Malraux (neither of whom were religious) . I do not doubt that many people have at some time had an experience they might broadly term "spiritual" (again, a very unsatisfactory term in my view).  

But where does this take us re the matter under discussion - as I put it in my last, the idea that "one can boil down religions to a few basic concepts and regard that as a satisfactory understanding of them"?

DA.