Types of religious experiences

• What are some different types of religious experiences?

  • visions
  • mystical experiences
  • numinous
  • dreams
  • feeling a sense of calling
  • Answering of prayers
  • hearing voices
  • near death experiences
• Who came up with the five types of religious experiences?

  Richard Swinburne
• What did Richard Swinburne say are the five types of religious experiences?

  • a normal, non-religious object or event

  . e.g. light, child birth, etc

  • an unusual public object or event

  . e.g. speak in tongues -> speaking in a language that one has never learnt

  • a private experience describable by normal vocabulary

  . e.g. a dream

  • a private experience not describable by normal vocabulary

  . e.g. mystical experiences, love

  • non-sensory experience
• What did Swinburne believe?

  That all religious experiences could be classified as one of the five types.
• What are possible criticisms of religious experiences?

  . imagination only

  . under the influence of drugs & alcohol

  . could just be a dream

  . wishful filment - anxiety

  . manifesting

  . want to feel part of a community

  . memorised wrong - interpret in a way you want to interpret based on the current views of the world

  . mental/physical illness