Helen Holt holds, PhDs in plasma physics (University of St Andrews, 1992) and Quaker Studies (University of Edinburgh, 2019). She is an independent scholar interested in Quaker approaches to science in the 20th century.

In Mysticism and the Inner Light, Helen Holt analyses how Rufus Jones drew on his own Quaker experience, idealism, and the psychology of William James to formulate a novel and influential interpretation of the Inner Light and Quaker mysticism.