Visions and voices
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- Created by: Abitracey
- Created on: 17-02-13 16:54
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- Visions and voices
- Are visions and voices genuine religious experiences?
- St Teresa of Avila offered two tests to determine whether an experience was genuine.
- Does the experience leave the individual feeling at peace?
- Does it fit in with Christian teaching?
- How do we prove that an experience is from God? Some schizophrenics hear voices that they think is a message from God.
- Some thinkers have observed that experiences such as visions and voices are often linked to physical factors such as fasting.
- St Teresa of Avila offered two tests to determine whether an experience was genuine.
- Visions
- Visions occur in a variety of forms and in various faiths.
- St Teresa's vision
- Had iner visions.
- Some thinkers refer to these as intellectual visions. The vision is not the same as seeing an external object with the eyes.
- It is instead a clear vision in the mind's eye. Religious believers who have these types of vision would argue that they are far too profound to be confused with the imagination.
- Muhammad's vision
- Had a vision of the Angel Jibrel (Gabriel)
- The Angel gave the Prophet messages to recite andproclaim to the people of Makkah.
- This vision gives Muhammad a purpose and calling.
- Voices
- These are usually the voice of God or, in the case of the revelation to Muhammad, the voice of an Angel mediating the words of God.
- Augustine's experience
- In Augustine's case, the voice may have been the natural voice of a child playing.
- Augustine interprets this to be a means of God communicating with him.
- This shows that religious experiences may not always be supernatural. They may be natural events that we interpret as having religious significance.
- Both visions and voices share certain characteristics with other experiences and descritptions overlap.
- Are visions and voices genuine religious experiences?
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