Flashcards
Mystical experiences
Cards in this deck (11)
- 1Which philosophers wrote their approaches to the mystical experiences?William James and Walter Stace.
- 2How did their ideas differ to Rudolf Otto's 'numinous' experiences?Numinous experiences are, as Otto described, experiences of a God who is 'wholly other'. Mystical experiences however are experiences with union with God.
- 3How did William James describe God's existence?Factually existing, but not necessarily in the way that Judeo-Christian doctrine explains him.
- 4What criteria can we judge someone for having a mystical experience?- Ineffability (it can't be described in words)
- Noetic quality (the experience gives rise to knowledge)
- Transiency (it doesn't really last long)
- Passivity (it controls the experiencer and not the other way around) - 5What does it feel like to have a mystical experience?Like you're motivated. Full of zest for life and as if everything you see has meaning.
Much like the effects of Prozac. - 6What did William James say the true purpose of humanity is?Union with the higher universe (of God) that gives this universe its significance.
- 7What did Walter Stace compare trying to prove the existence of God with?Trying to prove the existence of beauty - it is pointless because you can't
- 8What was mysticism according to Walter Stace?A genuine mystical experience is non-sensuous, having no form, shape, colour, smell or sound (it isn't like a vision). It is like an integrated part of reality that you experience motivation flourishing in.
- 9What is an extrovertive mystical experience?Seeing the world of normal objects, but they are transfigured so that the non-sensuous unity shines through them. Everything begins to appear to have meaning and be as one.
- 10What is an introvertive mystical experience?total suppression of sense -experience in which awareness of the world is completely obliterated. You feel as if you have dissolved into one with the collective universal pool of everything.
- 11What are Stace's accounts of characteristics of an introvertive mystical experience?- Unitary consciousness; the one the void; pure consciousness
- Nonspatial, nontemporal
- Sense of objectivity or reality
- Blessedness, peace
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- A level Philosophy and Ethics (Religious Experience) Flashcards on Mystical experiences, created by Jack Lynch on 16/12/2019.
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- Jack Lynch
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