Research Approaches in Esoteric Psychology: A Sevenfold Taxonomy and the Case for First-Person Phenomenology
Open MIND June 16, 2026 Jan Keppel Hesselink
The academic study of Western esotericism has developed six research approaches over the past three decades, but a seventh—phenomenological-neurophenomenological—remains underdeveloped. This method brackets cultural and cosmological frameworks to produce a structural description of inner life. The paper proposes a sevenfold taxonomy, argues that the phenomenological approach best conveys a rigorous, first-person, cross-traditionally triangulated account of inner depth, and positions this method relative to Jacob Taubes's theological-hermeneutic reading, Gershom Scholem's decision to study mysticism without practicing it, and Wouter Hanegraaff's empirical-historical approach, each of which reaches a limit the phenomenological method is designed to cross.