Religious experiences

• what is a public realm?

  1)You see ‘God’s action’ in a public object or scene.2)A breach of natural law
• what is private realm?


  3)A personal experience mostly possible to describe through normal language4)A personal experience which cannot be described in normal language5)No specific experience, but more of a constant, regular feeling that ‘God’ is simply there.
• •Most are said to be mystical. This means the person feels a sense of ‘union’ with the divine.
• •Many are classified as ‘prayer’ experiences. This usually refers to experiences brought about by meditation and reflection.
• •The effects can sometimes be permanent and life changing. These are often classified as conversion experiences.
• How did Swinburne separate different types of religious experiences?

  He separated them into 2 categories: private and public experience.
• What is an example of a private experience?


  1.Describable in ordinary language – Experiences such as dreams and visions (Joseph’s dream in the Bible)

  2.Non-describable experiences – Direct experiences of God in which God/ the wholly other/the divine is revealed to people. These experiences go beyond human powers of description (ineffable).

  3.Non-specific experiences – looking at the world from a religious perspective. E.g. Looking back on past events, a believer might say ‘God’s hand guided me.’
• what is an example of public experiences?

  1.Ordinary Experiences – experiences where a person interprets a natural event as having religious significance (the beauty of nature or the natural world).

  2.Extraordinary Experiences – Experiences that seem to violate normal understanding of the workings of nature. (Jesus turning water into wine
• what are the types of private experiences?

  Describable

  Non describable

  non-specific
• what are the types of private experiences?

  ordinary

  extraordinary
• what is a numinous experience?


  Numinous religious experiences are experiences of awe and wonder in the presence of an almighty and transcendent God. It is an awareness of human nothingness when faced with a holy and powerful being.
• what did Otto the numinous argue?


  Otto argued that all religious experiences are of a numinous nature.
• It is an experience of being acted upon by something outside of ourselves, a ‘wholly Other’.  It makes us aware that we are creature of an almighty God.  This contrasts with a ‘mystical experience’ which tends to seek the unity of all things.- Otto
• what is a mysterious tremendum?


  It is both awe-inspiring to the point of producing fear, and also strangely fascinating, we are drawn into the experience.
• Otto argues religious experiences are

  emotional. Believers interpret the world

  through the experience and the beliefs attached

  to it.
• For Otto God is ‘wholly Other’.  He is a being that is completely different and distinct to human beings. 

  We are unable to know God unless he chooses to reveal himself. 

  God reveals himself and his revelation felt on an emotional level.
• It is the emotion of a creature submerged and overwhelmed by its own nothingness.  In contrast to that which is supreme above all creatures.
• what was St Teresa's vision?

  Inner vision- I saw Christ at my side – or, to put it better, I was conscious of Him, for neither with the eyes of the body or of the soul did I see anything’.       
• what is a religious experience?


  It occurs when an individual believes that they have seen or heard something supernatural or a supernatural being.
• what is one ways in which individuals may experience a vision?

  an intellectual vision brings foreknowledge and understanding as a revelation from god?
• what is one ways in which individuals may experience a vision?

  An imagery vision where something strengthens faith is seen with the mind's eye such as Jacobs vision of a ladder to heaven (Genesis 28: 10-22)
• what is one ways in which individuals may experience a vision?

  A corporeal vision is where the figure is externally present such as St Bernadette's visions of the Virgin Mary.
• what are the 3 aspects of voices?


  1 .Revelatory – the voice reveals something about God.

  ●2.Authoritative – to those who have the experience the message communicated has God’s authority and gives instruction.

  ●3.Disembodied – the voice appears to come from no particular body.
• William James argued that, as with all religious experience, its truth was to be found in the results. Hence dramatic changes in the character and lifestyle of an individual does count as empirical evidence in favour of spiritual claims
• the inner experience is not empirically detectable, the resulting changes in behaviour are something that can be empirically observed
• what are psychological views on conversion?


  Transformations in terms of our priorities and ideas do occur for all of us as we go through life. The changes are usually gradual. Sometimes ‘crisis’ type events can cause rapid transformation, so conversion could be seen in the same psychological light.
• Most religious conversions occur to people between the ages of 15 and 24. However what is worth noting in Starbuck’s study is that non-religious adolescents appear to go through similar stages of anxiety and depression before finding ‘happy relief’ and a sense of identity.
• Counter argument: The ‘passivity’ element. Believers speak of a sense that someone or something is acting upon them. 
• the Toronto Blessing in 1994, when large numbers of believers reported being affected by the Holy Spirit. Some of the subsequent phenomena in these meetings including uncontrollable weeping, laughing, rolling on the floor and animal noises. Supporters of the blessing took these events as a sign of a ‘new move’ of God.
• What is a contradiction of the Toronto blessing?

  may be mass hysteria.
• who was William james?


  1842 – 1910: American~}•Philosopher, and psychologist
• what are William James 4 criteria's?


  •Ineffability:•Mysticism, like love, needs to be directly experienced in order to be fully understood

  •Transiency:•Mystical experiences last for a short time but ‘modify the inner life of the subject between the times of their occurrence’

  •Noetic Quality:•Mystics speak of revelations and illuminations which are held to provide knowledge and transcend rational categories Passivity:•Where the experience is beyond the individual’s control and cannot be obtained by effort; it is a gift.
• •Weight of accumulated empirical evidence – global and historical – he was a scientist and not a theologian Plurality of experiences – across all cultures, religions and eras Pragmatically: judge the experience by its ‘fruits’> Does it have a profoundly positive and long lasting impact
• what did freud argue?


  Religion is just wishful thinking.

  Religion is a form of neurotic illness arising out of the unconscious mind. Neuroses arouse repressed memories that re-emerge into the conscious mind.

  Religion provides a sort of ‘security blanket’
• Conversion may meet the psychological needs of people.

  We feel helpless and seek a father figure, thus we create a God to satisfy our needs.
• Rationalism


  Knowledge from logical reasoning
• Types of religious experiences

  • Visions
  • Conversion
  • Voices
  • Epiphany
  • Miracles
• Visions


  Visually experiencing the supernatural
• Conversion


  Change in someone's beliefs/connection with God
• Voices


  Disembodied religious experiences