Religious Experience

Religious Experience

1. Mysticism

   • William James - Four Characteristics
     • P.I.N.T
       • Passive/Passivity
         • Something that happens to you. E.g - Teresa Of Avila
       • Ineffable
         • States of feeling that are so unlike anything else that there are not the words to describe it
           • William James - Appreciating a symphony when you have no musical ear. You have no reason to believe the magnificence and you have no concept of what it's like
         • Teresa of Avila
           • "The soul is fully awake as regards God, but wholly asleep as regards things of this world...
             • God establishes himself in the interior of this soul in such a way that when I return to myself, it is wholly impossible for me to doubt that I have..
               • Been in God, and God in me
       • Noetic
         • Though ineffable, the mystic experience produces states of insight into the truths unobtainable by intellect alone
           • I.e - Revelations, universal and eternal truths
         • Source of insight and understanding
           • "Ability to see truth in a special way"
         • Knowledge just comes to you in an instant
       • Transcience
         • The experience does not last for long (half an hour or so). Though they are remembered, they are imperfectly recalled, but recognised if they occur
         • If a series of mystic experiences take place, then ususally there is some sort of development of inner richness
         • Usually leave the participant with a profound sense of the importance of the experience
   • Introvertive/Extrovertive
     • Outward Looking/Inward Looking
     • The extrovertive is one where the plurality of objects in the world are transfigured into a single living entity.
       • Looks outwardly + through senses to external world, transfigured in such a way that unity shines through
     • The introvertive mystic speaks of losing their identity as a seperate individual and slowly merging into the divine unity
       • looks inwardly, the purest type
   • Monistic/Theistic
     • Monistic Mysticism involves experience of own spirit as absolute
       • E.g. - Atman & Brahman
     • Theistic mysticism involves union with a personal lord or creator, more related to western traditions with monotheistic faiths
   • Otto
     • Feeling of Numinous
   • Martin Buber
     • I-It
       • When we view people and things as merely phenomena. By probing deeper we can enter the second relationship.
         • I-Thou
           • A relationship with both people and things, such that we can call it a personal relationship.
             • "It is here that we encounter a Thou over against out I. And this is the realm where we encounter God"
   • Happold
     • L.U.T.E
       • Loss of Self
         • Whirling Dervishes
           • Buddhism - Enlightenment
         • Moving beyond yourself, asleep to things of the world
       • Union
         • Joining something else
         • Christianity - Holy Spirit
         • As if a stream enters the sea from which it has no way of seperating itself
       • Timeless
         • Narnia
         • Sufism
         • Outside of time
       • Ecstasy
         • Euphoric feeling
         • Christianity - Charismatic (Toronto Blessing)

2. Conversion

   • To change from one thing to another
   • Types of Conversion
     • Non Volitional / Instant
       • Non Volitional: Don't choose to change
       • Changed externally by something else
         • External agent may be God
       • Instant: Change happens suddenly
       • Examples: Umar, St. Paul on the road to Damascus
         • Umar hated everything that Muhammad stood for, is told to go home by another secret Muslim in his clan
           • Hears the Quran and is instantly changed
     • Volitional / Gradual
       • Over a period of time
       • "Growing out of one set of beliefs and into another"
       • You choose to change
       • Examples: Cardinal Newman, Yusuf Islam
         • J.H Newman was CofE and became Catholic
           • The beliefs that they change from are just as important as the beliefs that they change to
     • Crisis / Self Surrender
       • Change in beliefs is painful
         • Reach a point of despair and surrender themselves over to something else (God)
           • Example: Tolstoy
         • May be due to a horrible event
   • From one set of beliefs to another set of beliefs
   • One religion to another religion
     • Sundar Singh (Sikh)
     • Saul (St. Paul)
   • No faith to having faith
     • Saint Augustine
       • Converted to christianity
     • Yusuf Islam / Cat Stevens
   • Faith to no faith
     • Freud
   • Faith (believing) to Faith (trusting)
     • John Wesley - Did not have faith in Christ as a personal saviour as others did
       • At a meeting of an evangelical society, he had a conversion experience
         • "I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ"
   • Awareness of the wrongness of current beliefs
     • Also of positive changes they want to make (gradual or instant)

3. Visions

   • Religious Places
     • Guru Nanak (Vision of God's Court)
     • Knock
     • Muhammad
     • Lourdes
   • Fantastic Creatures
     • Ezekiel
       • Four faces of four creatures (man, lion, ox, eagle)
   • Religious Figures
     • Teresa of Avila
   • Messages
     • Peter
       • Unclean food, God made it clean
     • Advice
     • Revelation
     • Guidance
     • Warning
     • New Knowledge (Gnosis)
       • Guru Nanak
         • God told him that there is neither Hindu or Muslim
     • Hell
   • Future
     • John's visions of the final judgements (Revelation)
   • Individual Visions
     • One subject
     • Most common
     • Saint Bernadette, Muhammad, Ezekiel
   • Group Visions
     • More than one subject
     • More than one person who experiences the vision
     • Less common
     • Knock
   • Corporeal
     • Something external to the subject
     • Seen with the eyes
       • Figure really present
       • Strikes the retina
     • Agent can manipulate visual organ in such a way to produce a similar sensation as to a physical (external) entity would produce
     • Most common if prolonged or group
     • The very substance of object or luminous light
     • May leave physical traces
       • Scorch marks on the floor
     • St Bernadette, Knock
   • Imaginary/Imaginative
     • Sensible representation of the subject by imagination alone
       • Doesn't use the eyes
     • Signs that the image is from God
       • Vividness
       • Lights + Graces
       • The subject has no controi over the vision
     • Ususally short duration
     • Often require interpretation
       • Differentiating between Corporeal and Imaginative can be difficult
     • Muhammad, St. John, Ezekiel, Moses
   • Intellectual
     • Subjects percieve the object without sensible image
     • St. Teresa of Avila