This article proposes an analytical model for research on religion, based on elucidation of three aspects of religious phenomena: institutional, organisational and experiential. Those three aspects transform each other: religious experiences can lead to establishment of religious institutions, while religious organisations can initiate and manage religious experiences. Theoretical inspirations are taken from works that combine philosophy and anthropology with cognitive approaches. Ethnographic examples are based on fi eld research in the Republic of Altai (Russian Federation) on cult of nature and activities of shamans and in the Transcarpathian Ukraine among adherents of the Catholic Church of Byzantine Rite.