Religious experience
- Created by: chloeharmer
- Created on: 24-04-17 09:38
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- Religious Experience
- Visions
- Corporeal
- Empirical, especially vision and hearing
- the eye sees a supernatural vision that is really present and the experiencer can interact with what they see and hear
- E.g Burnadette Soubirous-The 'immaculate conception'
- E.G visions of Joan of Arc at the hundred years war
- the eye sees a supernatural vision that is really present and the experiencer can interact with what they see and hear
- Empirical, especially vision and hearing
- Imaginative
- Seen by the eye of the mind, usually in dreams and out of control of the experiencer
- E.g Pharaohs dream in Genesis 41
- Seen by the eye of the mind, usually in dreams and out of control of the experiencer
- Intellectual
- has no image, but what is experienced is 'what it really is'.
- The 'light' of an intellectual vision is through the illumination of the soul
- E.g Teresa of Avila claimed to have seen Jesus as he really was, not an image but presence
- The 'light' of an intellectual vision is through the illumination of the soul
- has no image, but what is experienced is 'what it really is'.
- Corporeal
- Otto and the Idea of the Holy
- Religious experiences are encounters with the Holy
- as in the call experiences with Moses and Isaiah
- Encounters with the Holy are numinous
- Otto claims is common to all religious experiences regardless of religion and culture
- The numinous is God, God is inherently different from anything and everything
- God is transcendent, beyond the natural world, apprehension and comprehension
- Numinous feelings are not just intense versions of our normal feelings, they are sui generis
- They are a special faculty in our minds that recognises the Holy and responds to it
- Numinous feelings are non-rational, they are a mysterium tremendum et fascinans
- Before this mystery, we finite creatures feel nothingness when faced with the utter transcendence of God
- Religious experiences are encounters with the Holy
- William James: mystical experiences
- For James the object of mystical experiences is union with God
- He claims that religious experiences are primary and organised religion is secondary
- God exists factually but is probably finite and may even exist as a collection of God-like selves
- Experience teaches us:
- this world draws its significance from a more spiritual universe (the realm of God)
- the true end of humanity is union with the higher realm
- the true end of humanity is union with the higher realm
- Prayer/ communication with the the higher realm has positive effects in this world
- E.g an energetic zest for life
- this world draws its significance from a more spiritual universe (the realm of God)
- He claims that religious experiences are primary and organised religion is secondary
- Personal religious experience has its root and centre in mystical states of consciousness
- there are 4 criteria to make the common core of mystical experiences
- ineffable
- These experiences range from experiences with little religious significance (poetry) to cosmic consciousness and union with the divine.
- The point is that each experience is God, the divine, meeting each individual on the basis of their conerns
- E.g 'sick souls' , or , 'healthy minds'
- The point is that each experience is God, the divine, meeting each individual on the basis of their conerns
- These experiences range from experiences with little religious significance (poetry) to cosmic consciousness and union with the divine.
- noetic
- These experiences range from experiences with little religious significance (poetry) to cosmic consciousness and union with the divine.
- The point is that each experience is God, the divine, meeting each individual on the basis of their conerns
- E.g 'sick souls' , or , 'healthy minds'
- The point is that each experience is God, the divine, meeting each individual on the basis of their conerns
- These experiences range from experiences with little religious significance (poetry) to cosmic consciousness and union with the divine.
- transient
- passive
- ineffable
- there are 4 criteria to make the common core of mystical experiences
- For James the object of mystical experiences is union with God
- Walter Stace
- He defines mysticism as non-sensuous and non-intellectual with the divine
- Non-sensuous because the senses no longer work at this level
- Non-intellectual because the normal conscious 'I' of the intellect is replaced by 'Pure consciousness'
- A mystic is someone who has had a religious experience, visions and voices are not mystical experiences
- There are 2 types of mystical experience: Extrovertive and introvertive
- Extrovertive-sense experience, sees the non-sensuous unity that shines through normal objects
- Introvertive-no sense experience, the conscious 'I' ceases to exist and replaced by pure consciousness
- He defines mysticism as non-sensuous and non-intellectual with the divine
- Visions
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