PHILOSOPHY (y12) - Religious Experiences

How do ordinary experiences differ to religious ones?

Ordinary are often: explicable, mundane, regular and not always positive

Religious experiences are often: individual, extraordinary, inexplicable, positive

Who explained what the 5 types of religious experiences are?

Richard Swinburne

Name the 5 types of religious experience according to Swinburne with examples

1. A normal, non-religious object or event e.g: childbirth

2. An unusual public object/event e.g: speaking in tongues

3. A private experience describable in normal vocabulary e.g: dreams

4. A private experience not describable by normal vocab e.g: being in love

5. A non-sensory experience e.g: not knowing what to choose then realising God called you to make that decision

What is a vision?

the experience of seeing something that others cannot see

What is a corporeal vision?

the figure is externally present and seen with physical sight.

What is an imaginative vision?

something is seen in the mind like a dream.

What is an intellectual vision?

a vision without any visual image but experienced in the soul.

Who had a corporeal vision and when was it?

• Bernadette, a young 14 year old girl from Lourdes, France

• She was sick with cholera and her family were very poor

• In 1858

What was Bernadette’s vision about?

• She saw the Virgin Mary in a white dress telling her to drink from a spring that was claimed to heal people

• She was also told to eat grass and tell the priests to build a shrine there

• Mary referenced herself as the “Immaculate Conception”

What could have affected the veracity of Bernadette’s vision?

• Could have been bored or wishing to get better

• She was ill, potentially taking medication causing hallucinations

• France is Catholic and Mary plays a big role in Catholicism, could have been influenced by her surroundings

What would cause someone to believe Bernadette?

• That spring water healed many people, giving it credibility

• It coheres with other religious experiences

• She has no reason to lie

• We cannot disprove it

Who had an imaginative vision?

• Padre Pio, who was an Italian priest in the 1900’s

• He was said to be a mystic, able to read people’s souls and heal them

• He had stigmata on his hands - the injuries of Christ

• He claimed to physically fight Satan and be able to communicate with angels

What was Padre Pio’s vision about?

• He was hearing confessions from some boys when he saw a being in his mind

• The being threw a sharp weapon with a flame on the end towards him

• Since then he was in “continual agony”

What could affect the veracity Padre Pio’s vision?

• Could have some mental illness

• Under the influence

• He fasted a lot so could have affected his brain

• Why would God give someone so much pain?

Why might someone believe Padre Pio?

He is devout to his religion as a priest, could be the chosen one.

Who had intellectual visions?

Teresa of Avila

How does Teresa verify if an intellectual vision is authentic?

1. The message is so clear its meaning is unmissable - if it was fake, the message would be less distinct

2. The message comes unexpectedly

3. The soul will hear something rather than hearing what your soul wishes to hear

4. One word will mean a million things that can’t be put into simple language

5. The words will be understood but cannot be explained

Who was William James?

• An American philosopher

• originally trained in medicine, moved onto psychology and philosphy

Give the name of the book William James wrote about religious experience

The Varieties of Religious Experience

Give a quote by William James about feeling and religion

“feeling is the deeper source of religion”

Explain James’ first conclusion from his book

Religious experience is primary and comes from a God which exists

• Organised religion is secondary to experiences as we derived it from the experiences of our ancestors

Explain James’ second conclusion

Religious experiences do not prove a particular God (god of classical theism)

• God isn’t necessarily transcendent and omnipotent, but rather temporal and finite

• He surrounds us and can intervene in our lives, making him a more personal God

• Could even be multiple God-like beings and not one

Explain James’ third conclusion

The religious life involves these three beliefs

• Most important aspect of our world is that its significance is drawn from a spiritual universe ( God’s realm)

• True end of humanity is union with that universe

• Spiritual communion with God shows real effects in this world

Explain James’ fourth conclusion

There are psychological benefits of experiences

• Energetic zest for life

• Desiring doing good deeds

• Assurance of peace, safety and love

Explain James’ fifth conclusion (think PINT and define them)

A personal religious experience has its roots in mystical states of consciousness , “mysticism” defined by:

• Passivity = experient not in control

• Ineffability = experience is not describable

• Noetic quality = experience brings knowledge

• Transient = experience is temporary, often lasting only 30 mins

Which two of the 4 qualities of mysticism are most important according to James?

Ineffability and noetic quality

Explain James’ sixth conclusion

There is a wide range of mystical experiences - not all are wholly religious

Explain James’ 7th conclusion

God meets the individual on the basis of his own concerns

What are the strengths of James’ approach?

• He comes from a scientific background

• His work is based on reports from those who have experienced it, it is evidenced

What are the issues raised from James’ approach?

• Makes following a specific religion difficult

• Pushes pluralism (when you believe all faiths are valid/true)

Who was Walter Stace?

• A British philosopher who focused on mysticism

• Wrote his famous works in 1960’s

• Influenced by his time in Sri Lanka and experiences of Hinduism and Buddhism

• Agreed with James that the goal of religious experiences was mystical union with God

Stace describes mystical experiences as non..? What state are you in?

• Non-sensuous

• This is because in the highest form your senses and reason do not work

• You are in a state of “pure consciousness”

What does Stace think mysticism has nothing to do with?

• Mystery

• The supernatural

• Parapsychological phenomena e.g: telekinisis, telepathy etc

Why does Stace not think visions/voices are mystical experiences?

Because a genuine mystical experience is non-sensuous and visions/voices use the senses

What is the most important characteristic of mystical experiences according to Stace?

They involve the feeling of a non-sensuous unity, a oneness which cannot be explained

What is an extrovertive mystical experience?

• When we see things in our physical world/ are aware of our surroundings but they are altered such that the unity is shown in all of them

• We become at one with the world

What is an introvertive mystical experience?

• All senses are suppressed and acknowledgement of the outside world is lost

• Ordinary consciousness is replaced by mystical consciousness

What quote summarises extrovertive experiences?

“here all blades of grass, wood and stone, all things are One” - Eckhart

What quote summarises introvertive experiences?

“Then there was no river, and no I” - Koestler

List the 7 key elements of an introvertive experience

1. Unitary consciousness

2. Non-spatial & non-temporal

3. Objectivity (sense of reality)

4. Blessedness

5. Holy

6. Paradoxicality

7. Ineffable

Who introduced the idea of The Numinous?

Rudolf Otto (1869-1937)

What does the latin word “numinous” mean?

Holy/divine, and involves the sense of being in the presence of an awesome power but feeling distinctly separate from it.

Which latin phrase did Otto use to explain The Numinous?

mysterium tremendum et fascinans

What did each word in the latin phrase mean?

mysterium: wholly other

tremendum: inspires awe and fear, overpowers us, enthuses us

fascinans: fascinating/attractive

Give two examples of The Numinous

“and Moses hid his face for he was afraid to look at God” - Exodus

“Holy, holy, holy is the lord of hosts” - Isiah 6:3

Summarise Otto’s argument

• Emphasises difference between experiencer and the deity

• Focuses on dependency on the external

• Often sudden, unprepared for but totally captivating

Otto says The Numinous brings two specific feelings - give them and their definitions

Sui generis - of their own kind, unique

Non-rational - Can’t give an intellectual, rational answer

What is Temporal Lobe Epilepsy and who experienced it?

• It causes visions, hearing voices, falling and temporary blindness

• St Paul suffered from it causing him to convert from Judaism to Christianity

• However this could just have been an epileptic fit with no religious ties

How could someone counter the argument on Temporal Lobe Epilepsy?

This could be a supernatural experience given by God to talk to you

What is neurotheology and who is associated with it?

• It suggests an awareness of the supernatural is due to hyper-sensitive temporal lobes

• Those who are more sensitive are more likely to have rel.exp.

• Persinger influenced the God Helmet which stimulates the lobes

• Implies these experiences are just states of the brain, not God.

How could one counter the argument on neurotheology?

Some of us may just be more tuned into God than others

How do drugs affect the veracity of religious experiences?

• Drugs like LSD (entheogens) give similar feelings to those describing rel. exp.

• Walter Pahnke did a study showing that those who took Psilocybin experienced those feelings

How could someone counter the use of drugs as an argument against religious experiences?

God could be using them as a way of getting through to us

How does deprivation affect the veracity of religious experiences?

• When deprived of food/sleep one is more likely to hallucinate

• E.g: a 75 yr old retired clergyman had a history of Parkinson’s and claimed to see deceased relatives/ parishioners

How could someone counter deprivation as an argument against religious experiences?

The clergyman could’ve been chosen by God to experience this as a reward for his devotion

Who is Richard Dawkins and why didn’t the God Helmet work on him?

• He is a militant atheist

• This means he has low temporal lobe sensitivity and this is why the God Helmet did not work

What was Feuerbach’s argument about religious experiences?

• Said God is a projection of ourselves

• I.e: we all want to be powerful and all-knowing so we created a being that has it all

• We are not created in God’s image, He is created in ours

• We invented him to make ourselves feel better

• This is a psychological conclusion

What was Freud’s argument about religious experiences?

• Said religion is a collective, universal neurosis

• Religion is an illusion and we follow it as a ritual to make us feel better

• Mentions the Oedipus Complex

Give some challenges to those who disregard religious experiences

1. Freud’s theory is a hypothesis that can’t be evidenced, doesn’t prov rel. exp is fake

2. Any methods of having an experience involve the brain but if God has to communicate it must be through the brain somehow

3. Believers have no issue accepting that the mind can interact with God as he is personal

Explain the Two Models of Interaction and how they support religious experiences’ veracity

1. Downward model - God gives us the experience e.g: Bernadette, Moses etc

2. Interaction model - we can approach God or encounter him in nature/ higher consciousness e.g: Teresa

What is Swinburne’ principle of Credulity?

• When we perceive something, we should assume the event truly happened unless we have evidence to suggest otherwise

• If someone claims to have experienced God, we should generally believe them, unless we have reason to doubt their sincerity or the nature of the experience.

What is Swinburne’s principle of Testimony?

• When someone tells us they have experienced something, we should generally believe THEM, unless we have reason to question their testimony

• This is particularly relevant when discussing religious experiences, as many people report having had personal encounters with the divine.