Religous Experience - Educas (Philosophy of Religion)

Types of Religious Experience

Visions

Conversions

Mysticism

Prayer

Religious Experience Cannot be...

Verified or empirical

Religious Experiences Are...

Interpretive

Different Types of Visions

Sensory Visions (Bernadette at Lourdes)

Intellectual Visions (Shepherds of Fatima)

Dreams (Genesis 28: 10-17, Jacob's Ladder)

(Not mutually exclusive)

Sensory Visions

An external event, where the person having the vision is fully conscious. These could be individual or communal, as well as being corporeal.

Intellectual Visions

These will bring knowledge and understanding, weather that be about life or religion specifically. These do not necessarily have to be seen, but are instead understood, and will bring insight/instruction/inspiration.

Dreams

These are usually individual and will occur while asleep or meditating. These could be part of a series or narrative, making them recurring.

Bernadette at Lourdes

Bernadette, a 14 year old girl, saw a vision of Mary carrying a rosary (though she did not know who it was). She told her family, but was beaten for it. She kept having these visions and told educated men of the church. On her 16th time of seeing Mary, she gave her name as the "immaculate conception", and a priest was able to figure out who it was.

Three Shepherds at Fatima

Three shepherds in Portugal, Fatima saw a vision of Mary, where she appeared brighter than the sun and told them not to be afraid. She told them to pray and return in six months. She told them the future and the shepherds became good. She returned six times, and on the final appearance more than 70,000 people gathered. It rained all night, and in the morning the clouds parted, the sun danced, some then saw it come towards them, some saw multicolour lights, but then everyone became dry.

Jacobs Ladder - Genesis 28:10-17

Jacob had a dream where he saw a stairway from the earth to heaven, with God and all the angles going up and down it. God said that Jacob would spread his family all over the land and then come back to this land. When Jacob woke, he was afraid and in awe of where he stood, claiming it as the gate of heaven. He built an altar and dedicated the place to God.

Conversion

Could be a conversion from one religion to another, or from belief (eg. Muslim to Agnostic/Atheist) to unbelief or visa versa. Could also simply strengthen existing faith.

Could be communal/individual

Stages of Conversion - William James Quote

Conversions lead someone from a "sick soul" to "healthy-mindedness"

Stages of Conversion - William James Stages

- Loss of pleasure/a divided self

- Develop a desperate desire for relief

- Through conversion, will experience self-surrender/breakthrough

Sudden vs Gradual Conversion

Sudden Conversion:

Specific moment of self-surrender, unconscious, involuntary, unexpected and spontaneous.

Gradual Conversion:

Not a specific moment to pin point, involves conscious effort, and generally a voluntary process that takes time.

Features of a Conversion - William James

A Process

Gradual or Sudden

Divided becomes unified

Offering of Will

Passive or active

Transforming

C.S Lewis conversion

A very reluctant convert, he described himself as "the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England", as well as saying that he was "kicking, struggling, resentful and darting his eyes in every direction for a chance to escape", while converting to Christianity. Demonstrates a gradual and passive conversion which is, clearly, reluctant.

Ninian Smart - Second Dimension of Religion

Experiential/emotional part of religion, stated it was central to every single religion.

Gives religion its impact and meaning, provides power and light to dimensions which could be otherwise less engaging/insperational.

Four types of Mysticism

Introvertive (Inward looking - W T Stace)

Extroversive (Outward looking - W T Stace)

Theurgic (Induced through rituals)

Non-Theurgic (Passively received)

Five features of Mysticism - Ed Miller

Transcendent

Ineffable

Noetic

Ecstatic

Unitive

Transcendent

Experience of something beyond the empirical world. (Ed Miller)

Ineffable

Cannot be described with ordinary language, using analogies and symbols rather than simply description.(Ed Miller)

Noetic

Provides knowledge which cannot be gained by any other sources - only available through these experiences of religion. (Ed Miller)

Ecstatic

Consists of a heightened emotional state of euphoria. (Ed Miller)

Unitive

Subject experiences a state oneness with the divine. (Ed Miller)

Mystical experiences

Non-rational, removal of ego, spotaneous/non-vollenatry or enduced through ritual, dificult to define, beyond empirical world

Features of Mystical Experience - William James

PINT

Passive

Ineffable

Noetic

Transient

Passive

The divine is in control of the experience, not the subject - this is good!

Could be accompanied by "gifts" outside the person's own skill set.

The experience is received. (William James)

Innefible

Indescribable, often resort to termenology or analogies to explain - impossible to do so with regular/normal language - usually relates to a state of feeling rather than intelect. (William James)

Noetic

Provides knowledge which cannot be gained by any other source.

Information is significant/important. (William James)

Transient

State will pass

Could be effected by the experience for rest of life, but experience itself will end. (William James)

Otto - the numinous

Used term "numinous" as the term holy had been lost (schematized).

Numinous experiences' are non-intelectual - not irational, but without reason - experience is the only avenue through which the numinous can be understood.

Rudolf Otto quote

"Orthadoxy found in the construction of dogma and doctrine is no way to do justice to the non-rational aspect of its subject"

Parts of a numinous experience

- Creature consciousness

- Feeling presence of something "wholly other"

- Awe/dread

- Fascination and attraction towards the numinous - fear and love of God different side of same coin

- Rapture/ecstasy

- Could be experienced by any faith (Christianity is best however)

Creature consciousness - Quote

"submergence into nothingness before an overpowering absolute might"

Creature consciousness - definition

Describes how people become highly aware that they are not independent and have been created - Otto, numinous experience

Otto - Latin Phrase

Mysterium Tremendum et Fascinands

A mystery that is both awe inspiring and fascinating at the same time, an unknowable awesome amount of power.

Numinous Experience - C S Lewis

Described Mysterium Tremendum et Fascinands

Liened fear of a numinous experience to the fear of a ghost, which is uncany and combines fear with wonder, wheras normal fear is more akin to the fear of a tiger, which has reason and evidence.

Otto - religious development

Described the development of human spirituality, from daemon worship, to polytheism, to a single God, and then the superior God, being the Christian God. As we progressed, our expression of the numinous progressed from being projected onto the world of magic or fear of the dead, to now being associated with God.

Prayer

Prayer is also a religous experience due to the comunication with the divine envolved in praying.

Garden Analogy

Analogy used by Teresa of Avila to represent the different phases of prayer and the journy with God that acompanies them.

Garden Analogy - Stages

Bucket - long and exhaustive process

Windlass - still demanding, but less so, quicker and more familiar.

River - little effort required.

Rain - nothing really to be done, union of the soul with the divine is achieved.

The Interior Castle

The work in which St Teresa of Avila compared the soul to a castle, using seven "mansions" which lead to the centre of the building.

The seven mansions analogy

The first mansion is cold and there are many descriptions by the horrible creatures outside the castle - this is difficult.

As you get closer to the centre, the distractions lesson and the mansions become warmer, you can also now communicate with and be influenced by God.

The sixth, penultimate mansion, is at a point where you no longer wish to turn back.

In the seventh, final mansion, you have now achieved mystical marriage with God, complete union.