Religious Experience

• Mystical Experience

  Experiences of God or of the supernatural which go beyond everyday sense experience.
• Conversion Experience

  An experience which produces a radical change in someone's belief system.
• Numinous Experience

  An indescribable experience which invokes feelings of awe, worship & fascination.
• Principle of credulity

  Swinburne's principle that we should usually believe what our senses tell us we are perceiving.
• Principle of Testimony

  Swinburne's principle that we should usually trust that other people are telling us the truth.
• Naturalistic explanation

  An explanation referring to natural rather than supernatural causes.
• Neurophysiology

  An area of science which studies the brain & nervous system
• 'The essence of religion is based in personal experience.' - Scheiermacher
• Shleiermacher - RE

  RE - heart of faith.

  Every person has a consciousness of the divine, but in many people it is obscured by other concerns.

  RE is 'self-authenticating' - requires no other testing.

  Doctrines such as 'creed' were attempts by individuals to understand their RE, which went against the thinking that experience had to be seen within framework of existing doctrine.
• Schleiermacher

  • Called religion ' a sense & taste for the infinite' and also 'the feeling of absolute dependance.'
• Schleiermacher - belief in God

  • Individual's RE was based on senses of being wholly dependent.
  • RE could take place in different forms & in different cultures = different religions.
  • Believed Christianity was highest of religions, but not the only true one.
  • Christianity - highest = Jesus Christ, only one example of someone with complete 'God-consciousness', totally unobscured.
• Criticism of Schleiermacher

  • He put too much emphasis on the subjective, reducing religion to emotion & removing possibility of showing religious claims are based on fact.
  • Some argued there should be possibility of testing RE against Bible & Church, otherwise any experience could be claimed as valid, even hallucinations caused by drugs.
• WJ - 4 qualities of RE

  1. Ineffability - Impossible to express in normal language.
  2. Noetic - Knowledge gained of truth that cannot be reached through reason alone.
  3. Transcience - Experience doesn't last long but effect could last a lifetime.
  4. Passivity - Person is being controlled from outside themselves.
• William James argued that religious experience could be tested for validity: a valid religious experience brings about a lasting positive effect in the individual.
• James concluded that RE doesn't give proof of anything, it is reasonable to believe there is a personal God who is interested in the world & in individuals.
• WJ said RE is 'as convincing to those who have them as any direct sensible experience can be, and they are, as a rule, much more convincing than results established by mere logic ever are.'
• Strengths of WJ

  • Psychologist = doesn't come from a aethiest/religious bias.
  • Collected testimonies of self authenticated beliefs.
  • Analysed effects
  • Pragmatic approach, not a super natural speculation.
• Why is it important that WJ analysed effects?

  • Pragmatic approach.
  • he couldn't study their RE - personal.
  • Concluded that effects have a profound, life transforming impact.
  • Even if experience isn't real, effect is good.
  • Happier outlook on life - Nicky Cruz went from gangster to living good life.
• Conclusions of William James

  1. Effects are real = real cause (If God is the cause=God exists)
  2. Real & true = positive effects.
  3. Positive effects = source (God) is likely true & real.
• WJ said that RE on its own doesn't demonstrate God'e existence although they can suggest something higher exists.
• 3 qualities of Divine - Otto

  1. Mystery - God is incomprehensible; He can be met & His work can be seen & yet God cannot be captured, fully understood or described.
  2. God has ultimate importance.
  3. The feeling that God cannot be controlled but at the same time, the person feels a sense of privilege during religious experience.
• Otto & 'numinous'

  • Created the word 'numinous' - describes the feeling of awe-inspiring holiness.
  • Ordinary language can't do justice to RE, because its an experience unlike others within normal sense-experience.
• What did Otto argue RE was?

  • Argued RE was a 'schema'
  • An attempt to find clusters of words which approach the idea being expressed, although the idea in itself in inexpressible.
  • All the person does is try to explain his/her feelings.
• What do people feel when they have mystical experiences?

  • They feel they have reached an understanding of spiritual truth which cannot be accessed through the use of reason & 'normal' sense experience alone.
• Ppl in Christian tradition regarded as 'mystics'

  • John of the Cross
  • Teresa of Avila
  • Julian Norwich
• What did Victorian missionaries use mystical experience for?

  • Used as an attempt to show how at most personal level, there is a single truth which God reveals to people, regardless of their religious tradition, in whichever way they will be most likely to recognise it from their own cultural perspectives.
• Happold's conclusions from study of mysticism

  • The mystic understands that physical, material world is only a part of reality & it comes from a 'Divine Ground'.
  • Human nature = ppl can know Divine Ground, through intuition.
  • People have 2 distinct natures : the ego (part of which we are always conscious) & spiritual eternal self, the spark of divinity within himself.
  • Purpose of humanity is to discover this 'eternal self' & to unite with the 'Divine Ground'.
• Mystical experiences are reliable

  • JW - They have similar features, many have all 4 core that James identified. Similarities point to a common source; the Divine.
  • Mystical exp = passive - not desired or expected. So there must be something external that acts on & encounters someone in a personal way.
  • Noetic effect = indicate presence of Divine as it is difficult to explain gaining new knowledge/insight.
  • Mystical exp = ineffable - unlike normal experiences.
  • Transciency shows reliability as they only last short time but have long lasting effect.
  • Schleiermacher - we need to stop & reflect on our possibility to encounter the other.
  • Deep seated sense of divine is also argued by Calvin (sensus divinitas)
• Mystical experiences not reliable

  • Could be all in the mind - common features are evident as they stem from the psyche (human mind).
  • Passivity could be unconscious mind mind deluding the conscious self.
  • Participants in Pinker's God Helmet had feelings of smthng beyond themselves but this was the product of electromagnetic fields, not God.
  • Psychologists don't understand it completely.
  • Ineffable = unreliable. This could be lack of language rather than a similarity.
  • Change in perspective & character could be due to several factors or non-religious influences.
  • Unconscious, irrational & subjective exp cannot be empirically tested or fully understood by another person.
• Julian of Norwich saw a vision of Christ bleeding in front of her but experienced an overwhelming sense of God's unconditional love.

  For her time, she used language of love & motherhood to describe Jesus.
• Teresa of Avila saw a vision of a spear, its golden tip on fire, piercing her side & leaving her with an immense feeling of elation & love.
• Teresa & Julian struggled to explain their feelings & experiences (ineffable), although they were able to reflect on them in writings later. RE were passive & gave them new insights into faith (noetic) as well as being short-lived but with lasting impact (transient).
• Numinous experiences

  • difficult to define.
  • Some classify them as a subset of mystical experiences.
  • Experience itself, fleeting but results are lasting.
• St Bernadette

  • Had a vision of St Mary at Lourdes - could describe what Mary was wearing & recorded the words spoken to her.
• Basic pattern of conversion experiences

  • individual is dissatisfied with their current 'system of ideas'.
  • Person searches, both intellectually & emotionally to make a decision.
  • Point of crisis, time of intense emotions. - Described as a sense of the presence of God, sense of sin & repentance.
  • Followed by sense of joy, peace & loss of worry. Desire to share new faith with others.
  • Longer term - convert experiences change of direction, new sense of purpose, complete change of career.
• Although conversion exp are dramatic & life-changing for those who have them, it could be argued they are the result of social & psychological factors rather than the result of the activity of God.
• A religious conversion can change a person's outlook on life.

  WJ said that if person is happier, kinder, more loving & more positive, then it is enough evidence to suggest that conversion experience was valid.
• Saul to St Paul.

  • Saul to St Paul
  • Saul's job was to seek out Christians & bring them to justice
  • He encountered God through a voice, 'Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?'
  • He became blind for 3 days
  • Healed by Ananias, who God talked to in a vision.
  • Changed name to Paul & proclaimed about God to Gentiles.
• JW - 2 types of conversion exp

  • Volitional - gradual change & slow development of new moral & spiritual habits.
  • Self-surrender - A sudden, pivotal or crisis experience (physical & emotional) followed by change; the subject ceases struggling against & surrenders to new psychological centre.
• W James suggested that Conversion exp is strongest evidence of the Divine because of observable effects.