Religious experience - A visions

• A vision is where a person sees an object, sound or figure that is not part of normal reality (not seen in our everyday lives) but the person believes they have a religious origin.

  A vision has a sensory aspect i.e. it appears before the recipient, therefore they are sometimes known as sensory vision Visions can have an intellectual quality i.e. the person receives a message of insight or instruction.
• Sensory Visions: Group. visions are seen by more than one person, for example, Toronto blessing
• • Sensory Visions: Individual - Dream Based: individual visions seen by only one person. Individual visions are often dream based. For example, Joseph vision when engaged to Mary, about her pregnancy.
• • Sensory Visions: Individual - Corporeal: the individual sensory vision can be corporeal i.e. a physical body can be seen in the real world. However, it is only visible to that person, for example, the appearances of angels e.g. the shepherds when Jesus was born.
• • Sensory Visions: Intellectual - visions can also bring a message e.g. when the wise men were warned in a dream not to return to King Herod, God warning Abraham (Matthew 2:12).
• Content of visions


  Can be very varied e.g. there could be an image in which there is a message
• Content of visions


  • Prophet moses receiving oral Torah sermon on the mount
• Religious figure in visions


  A vision could contain religious figures
• Religious figure in visions


  • St Teresa of Avila had a vision of an angel holding a long spear that pierced her heart several times
• Place in visions


  The vision experience could also be of a place of significance
• abraham visioned a new nation of Jews - travelled from ur to cannan
• a genuine experience of god is self-authenticating - William Craig
• visions engage with spiritual realism
• • The word 'conversion means a process of change that alters a person's view of the world, in a religious sense.
  • Conversions can be a personal experience but not always. For example, in 'Acts of the Apostles' the disciples jointly received the Holy Spirit.
• Philosopher William James (1842-1910) outlined several key features of a conversion
• Conversion


  • Can be passive (the experience comes upon them someone unexpectedly without them seeing it)
  • Can be active (a person specifically seeks a spiritual experience, at a service like the Toronto Blessing)
  • Can be transforming (the person is like a 'new person' - often more spiritual and/or ethical)
  • Can be slow or fast
  • Can be involuntary (the conversion might involve the giving up of the personal will maybe after an internal battle)
• William James (1842-1910): 'Outlined several key features of a conversion'
• different types of conversions -

  atheist to faith - C.S Lewis moved from being atheist to faith and is now a long life Christian

  faith to faith - can be from another religion

  deepening of faith - interlectual belief in Gof, conversion, faith comes from their heart

  moral - conversion in moral standing - cat stevens gave up alcohol when converting to Islam
• Mystical experience


  A religious experience that is about the feeling a union with God. The experience can be powerful, but the person finds it hard to explain the experience.
• Common features of a mystical experience


  • Transcendent
  • Ineffable
  • Noetic
  • Ecstatic
  • Unitive
• Transcendent


  The experience tends to be short/fleeting in nature. However, the experience, despite its brevity, maybe very intense and have long lasting consequences for the recipient e.g. they become more religious.
• Ineffable


  The mystical experience is not easily expressible/explained in language
• Noetic


  The mystical experience conveys a deep truth.
• Ecstatic


  It fills the soul with bliss and/or peace
• Unitive


  Uniting our spiritual soul with reality
• Types of mystical experiences


  • Unitive
  • Transcendent
  • Ecstatic
• Mystical experiences: Unitive


  Involves the removal of the separation between the individual and God. Many religious mystics have claimed such experiences, including St. Paul on the road to Damascus (Acts 22)
• Mystical experiences: Transcendent


  Associated with the mystical experiences that takes the person 'beyond' the realm of everyday experiences. Transcendental realities are often described as 'other worldly' or other vague descriptions of experiencing something beyond this world. Most religious traditions have aspects of transcendental mysticism within them e.g. Sufism is based on focusing on a union with Allah through meditation.
• Mystical experiences: Ecstatic


  The belief that the mystical experience gives you a feeling of powerful joy. Many believe an ecstatic mystical experience is the closest a person can get to the feeling of what it must be like to be in the presence of God. In Toronto Blessing services some people uncontrollably laugh
• Prayer


  The activity of speaking to God
• Teresa's view of the human soul


  Like a castle that contains suites or mansions
• Teresa's approach to religious experience


  • Through her four stages of prayer (though she refers to them as 7 mansions, the first 3 are often discounted)
  • True union with God can only be achieved by intense concentration and disciplining oneself through a life of prayer that would, by a series of stages, allow a person to reach that union
• Teresa's four stages of prayer


  1. Stage 1 - Prayer of consolations (Prayer of Quiet)

  2. Stage 2 - Prayer of simple union

  3. Stage 3 - Spiritual marriage
• Stage 1 - Prayer of consolations (Prayer of Quiet)


  • The human will is completely captivated by God's Love
  • Individuals experience peace and spiritual fulfilment
  • The experience can be intense, and some individuals can faint
  • Referred to as a 'sleep of the faculties'
• Stage 2 - Prayer of simple union


  • God places himself in the interior of the person's soul
  • The experience is so powerful they cannot possibly doubt that God has been in the experience
• Stage 3 - Spiritual marriage


  Main experiences can include feelings of painful longing, spiritual happiness and visions