AQA A-Level Religious Studies - Religious Experience

Characteristics of religious experience,Ø Individual/personal, cannot be shared with anyone e.g. Bernadette, "I found myself alone".
Ø Different to other types of experience - may be perceived as supernatural, a glimpse of something other, "perception of the invisible world", unseen dimension of existence, e.g. only ever seeing colour red then suddenly seeing/perceiving other colours.
Ø Subjective, different for everyone, unique.
Ø Direct/inferential (indirect), e.g. Bernadette "The Lady made a sign for me to approach".
Ø Changes outlook/behaviour ("Fruits of Experience - William James), draws people into deeper knowledge/relationship with God, shift from materialism to ethical thinking/living e.g. Gordon Allen - nasty, rich man, had experience, gave away money, became evangelical preacher.

Corporeal visions,Ø Figure/object = present/tangible, seen in same way as ordinary objects.
Ø Can leave something e.g. St Bernadette, spring flowing water.
Ø Key words: present, same way, ordinary.

Imaginative visions,Ø Figure/object seen, not with eyes, seen in mind's eye (imagination e.g. imagining the perfect cake), not seeing because something is there, seeing because the mind is stimulated to see it.
Ø Obviously divine because there is a sense of holiness/religious awe, recipient has no control over content/can't choose to stop seeing, quite short.

Intellectual visions,Ø Figure/object perceived without sensory image.
Ø Two ways this can happen: within sphere of reason - from illumination by God or outside sphere of reason - infused into mind of recipient.
Ø See = come to understand in this case.
Ø Something beyond normal range of understanding (empirical evidence) is understood e.g. nature or God/life after death.
Ø Last for longer time.
Ø Recipient show inclination towards the things of God/divine being.

Way to check if vision = corporeal/imaginative,close eyes, corporeal = vision goes, imaginative = vision stays.

Mystical experience,Ø Individual connection/union with God/universe.

William James,Ø Spiritual recognition of truths beyond normal understanding, "modify inner life of subject".
Ø Religious experience = primary (basis of religion), God different to being described by Judaeo-Christian teaching.
Ø There is spiritual universe, gives meaning to visible world we inhabit, visible world makes sense when we glimpse the spiritual realm during a mystical experience.
Ø True end of humanity is the union with that higher universe.
Ø Prayer/inner communion w/ God works, produces real psychological/material effects - good effects "the fruits of experience".

Four characteristics of mystical experience - William James,Ø Ineffability - undefinable, unutterable, can't put into words, hard to explain, must be experienced to be understood, "He is neither This nor That" - Ruysbroeck, wholly other/unlike anything else.
Ø Noetic Quality - revealed, disclosed, new deep understanding/significance gained, truths revealed, human deduction can't bring this type of understanding.
Ø Transiency - passing, temporary, not permanent/continuous, may feel like a long time but in reality, is only a short time.
Ø Passivity - inextricable, unresisting, individual has no control "the mystic feels…as if he were grasped and held by a superior".

Examples of characteristics of mystical experience,Ø Ineffability: "I cannot even now find words to render intelligible" - J.A Symonds.
Ø Noetic quality: "I awakened to a consciousness that spanned centuries" - Jean Houston.
Ø Transiency: "went on forever, but it was actually about two seconds"- Jean Houston.
Ø Passivity: "Irresistibly it took possession of my mind" - J.A Symonds.

Religious mystics…,Ø Develop mystical consciousness through techniques like fasting/prayer/dance.

Mystical consciousness,Ø Different to normal consciousness.
Ø Normal consciousness lacks deep meaning/cohesion.
Ø Mystical consciousness has superiority understanding/awareness of reality.
Ø Essential feature for James = sudden realisation of the immediate presence of God.

Stages of spiritual growth,Ø The way of purification: inclined to learn true wisdom/purgation of values that aren't truly significant/are too materialistic, mystic might pursue asceticism.
Ø The way of illumination: apprehend true reality, mental/emotional enhancement, not true full experience, only through symbols/symbolic things, Soufi call it "tavern on the way".
Ø The way of union: gaze on truth without any veils of creatures in its pure simplicity, true mystics understand the key to the universe and know how to truly live.

What does James say about mystical experience?,can range from inferential (e.g. goosebumps from music) to direct.

Drug induced mystical experience,Ø Some cultures use drugs to achieve different level of consciousness.
Ø Some might say isn't genuine as the drug brings the state.
Ø James says they are genuine, the subject experiences a different level of consciousness (e.g. drug allows you to drop your scepticism).

Cosmic consciousness,Ø James says it is the realisation that universe = living presence, like Process Theodicy where God exists pantheistically + is soul of the universe e.g. "filled with interwoven presence" - Jean Houston.

Walter Stace,Ø Visions = visual experience that include colour/shape.
Ø Mystical experience = non sensuous, no shape/colour/smell/sound.
Ø Mystical experience = different to any other experience, includes apprehension of non-sensual unity in all things, entirely transcends human sensory/intellectual consciousness.
Ø Extrovertive experiences = still see world of normal objects, non-sensuous unity shines through the objects though.
Ø Introvertive experiences = total suppression in senses, awareness of world = obliterated completely and purely felt e.g. Only ever seeing something in 2D then seeing it in 3D.
Ø Characteristics of introvertive experiences: unitary/pure consciousness, nontemporal/spatial, sense of reality, blessedness/peace, feeling of the divine, paradoxicality (seeming to be self-contradictory), allegedly ineffable.

Numinous experiences - Rudolf Otto,Ø Otto says during religious experience you encounter something wholly other/transcendent - experience of the numinous.
Ø Defined as "mysterium, tremendum et fascinans".
Ø Numinous = like no other experience humans have, encounter something wholly other which cannot be understood.
Ø Feelings during this encounter are "sui generis" = of their own kind/unique/beyond rational description/hard to communicate to others/not just more intense version of normal feeling e.g. (really exciting).

Key characteristics of numinous experiences,Ø Mysterium: experiencing something wholly other, "creaturely feeling" - experiencing the one that created you, something fundamentally different.
Ø Fascinans: feeling of fascination/wonder.
Ø Tremendum: sense of awe/majesty - overpowering urgency/importance of situation/energy, close to fear/trembling.

Influence of religious experiences: foundational,Ø Caused the founding of several religions, basis of faith/organised religion/religious practice e.g. Qur'an contains direct revelations Muhammad received from angel Jibril such as there only being one God.

Influence of religious experiences: inspirational,Ø Can inspire people to enter religious order such as the Beguines - lay women who devoted themselves to care for others like the sick/poor.
Ø Can inspire people to action e.g. The Prison Phoenix Trust.
Ø The heart of pilgrimage which leads to an inner transformation (draw closer to God).

Influence of religious experiences: life changing,Ø Referred to as "fruits of the experience", being less materialistic/selfish and more selfless.

Influence of religious experiences: faith confirming,Ø Confirm/generates faith.
Ø Self-authenticating - person experiencing has no doubt that they encountered God.
Ø Problematic because confirms faith in God for the believer's God e.g. Allah/Brahman/God.

Why is it difficult to prove that religious experiences are true?,Ø There are scientific and psychological explanations for them (TLE/entheogens).
Ø They are subjective/private - recollection might be inaccurate, one person's interpretation may differ from another depending on world view/blik.
Response: mind retains experience that we've already had/encountered, religious experience = wholly other, mind can't make it up, feelings/dreams = hard to prove true but we still believe others when they describe them.
Ø They are ineffable - non empirical so no evidence, can't fully describe using everyday words, reliant on individual interpretation/description, stops us from evaluating whether it is a genuine description of God.
Response: lots of encounters are hard to explain doesn't mean they aren't real e.g. colour.
Ø There are contradictory religious experiences, can't all be true - people experiencing different Gods e.g. Allah vs Christian.
Response: God uses symbols most suited to the individual/individuals see the same thing, interpret it using their world view which causes the differences.
Ø Can be brought about by unconscious mind, hallucinations brought by fear of inner turmoil e.g. Saul may have known the persecution of Christians was wrong subconsciously that's why he went on to be the leader of the early Christian church.
Response: God keeps epistemic distance + mind can generate/interact w/God.

Temporal Lobe Epilepsy,Ø Temporal lobes = part of brain that registers special/time awareness.
Ø TLE = abnormal electromagnetic activity in temporal lobes.
Ø Electromagnetic activity = stimulates sense of tremendum when felt in temporal lobes.
Ø Can cause hallucinations/feeling of close presence/hearing voices/seeing things - could be explanation for religious experience.
Ø Doesn't prove religious experiences aren't genuine experiences of God as people without TLE have religious experiences and it shares some features with religious experience (feeling a presence) but not all (no noetic quality).
Ø Dr Persinger's experiment - take subjects into dark room, send electromagnetic pulses to brain (creates electromagnetic fields), creates feeling of genuine religious experience by stimulating parts of brain e.g. sensing a presence bigger than you (creaturely feeling), however no sense of union with divine felt.
Ø Shows brain = involved w/ religious experience but not that religious experience isn't caused by God, all experience goes through brain anyway - God maybe communicated through the brain and created the brain to function that way because he is a personal God.

Entheogens,Ø Chemicals that can directly affect mental states e.g. Ritalin reduces effect of ADHD + ADD - violent uncontrollable behaviour to calmer/more focused or Valium reducing state of depression

Similarities between religious experience and effects of drugs: Nitrous oxide - William James 1979,Ø "Stimulate mystical consciousness to extraordinary degree" - extrovertive experience.
Ø "Sense of profound meaning having been there persists, wrote furiously "meaningless drivel" to sober reader but had "fire of infinite rationality" when writing it - noetic quality.

Similarities between religious experience and effects of drugs: LSD - Ray Jordan 50s and 60s,Ø "There is a more fundamental self which is everything including Ray Jordan" - extrovertive experience, union of self and ultimate reality, interact interdependently.

Arguments against entheogens,Ø Individual/state of mind brings the experience not God, drugs are a sin in Western religions.
Response: God uses entheogens as a vehicle to get to people because he must keep
epistemic distance.
Ø People go into the high thinking they will experience God, may cause the experience.
Response: their mind is more open than before to God so he can finally come in.
Ø Some can recall/retell accounts, goes against characteristics of religious experience.
Response: Swinburne's principle of Credulity
Ø Supports claim that religious experiences are true/show that God exists.
Ø If there a no reasons to indicate otherwise, we should believe what people tell us, should trust their interpretation of their sensory experiences.
Ø "Reasons to indicate otherwise" AKA defeating conditions.

Swinburne's Principle of Credulity - Defeating conditions,Ø Claim can be accounted for in other ways (e.g. religious experience caused by TLE).
Ø Difficulty showing God was present in the experience (God is nothing like anything else, no explanation in observable world, counter argument - God is everywhere).
Ø Truth of claim, perceptual claim (not able to interpret experience accurately/if someone is adamant they will experience God then they will assume they have).
Ø Unreliable source (e.g. someone who has frequent hallucinations).

How is Swinburne's principle of Credulity used to support claim that religious experiences are true/show that God exists?,Ø Religious experiences are like sense experiences.
Ø In ordinary experience, object of experience = cause of experience.
Ø If religious experiences are likely sense experiences then the object of religious experience must be the cause of the experience.
Ø The object of religious experience is believed to be God.
Ø Since the object of the experience = the cause, religious experience is an experience of God.
Ø Since normal experiences = reliable, religious experience = reliable evidence for existence of God.

Are religious experiences analogous with ordinary sensory experience?,Feature of ordinary sensory experience
There are ways of checking e.g. getting someone else to check/touching to back up evidence given by eyes.
Is this a feature religious experience?
No, religious experiences = personal/subjective/internal, no two people perceive them in the same way.

Feature of ordinary sensory experience
Continuous/regular whilst awake.
Is this a feature religious experience?
No, religious experiences = transient.

Feature of ordinary sensory experience
Every human has the capacity to perceive public objects (trees/buildings), deviations from this such as blindness/lack of smell can be readily/uncontroversial explained.
Is this a feature religious experience?
No, not everyone can perceive them.
Yes, people have the ability for mystical consciousness.

Feature of ordinary sensory experience
All normal humans in all cultures can see public objects in the same way.
Is this a feature religious experience?
No, everyone perceives religious experiences differently bas on world view - blik.

Do the disanalogies between ordinary sensory and religious experience matter?,Traditional belief about God
God = very different from created beings.
How might this explain why religious experience doesn't have the features of ordinary sensory experience?
God = wholly other, explains why we can't discover regularities regarding him like we would w/ worldly objects or why he is perceived differently in each experience.

Traditional belief about God
Can only attain vague idea of what God is like.
How might this explain why religious experience doesn't have the features of ordinary sensory experience?
Impossible for humans to comprehend God, explains as above.

Traditional belief about God
God keeps epistemic distance, can only perceive him in special/difficult conditions.
How might this explain why religious experience doesn't have the features of ordinary sensory experience?
Explains why not all people experience God/why experience w/ God = transient, see box 3/5 of above table.

Doesn't necessarily prove that God, the object of the experience, isn't the cause of the experience.

What happens to people who believe they've had a genuine experience of God?,They have measurable difference in their lifestyles e.g. more selfless/spiritual/compassionate, shows something significant did happen, unusual to have sudden change in your blik.

How might religious experiences affect the faith of those who have them?,Bring about/convert/strengthen someone's faith, give more ethical outlook on life, gives true understanding.

Do religious experiences only have value for those who experience them?,No, can confirm faith of another believer/secondary effect - others benefitting from fruits of experience e.g. receiving donated money/experiencing kindness.