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Psychologists have long studied religion and religious practices. Using principles of traditional psychology, researchers try to understand religious experience, including prayer, cults, and mystical experiences. The study of religion and psychology began in the early twentieth century, but faded before it was revived in the 1980s, when the American Psychological Association began to formally investigate aspects of religion in psychology. The only classic text relating to the psychological study of religion, Varieties of Religious Experience, was written by William James in 1902.

Sigmund Freud, who called religion an "illusion," nonetheless studied religion with great interest, and wrote three books...