Religious Experience

Mysticism
1. William James - Four Characteristics
  1. P.I.N.T
    1. Passive/Passivity
      1. Something that happens to you. E.g - Teresa Of Avila
    2. Ineffable
      1. States of feeling that are so unlike anything else that there are not the words to describe it
        William James - Appreciating a symphony when you have no musical ear. You have no reason to believe the magnificence and you have no concept of what it's like
      2. Teresa of Avila
        "The soul is fully awake as regards God, but wholly asleep as regards things of this world...
        God establishes himself in the interior of this soul in such a way that when I return to myself, it is wholly impossible for me to doubt that I have..
        Been in God, and God in me
    3. Noetic
      1. Though ineffable, the mystic experience produces states of insight into the truths unobtainable by intellect alone
        I.e - Revelations, universal and eternal truths
      2. Source of insight and understanding
        "Ability to see truth in a special way"
      3. Knowledge just comes to you in an instant
    4. Transcience
      1. The experience does not last for long (half an hour or so). Though they are remembered, they are imperfectly recalled, but recognised if they occur
      2. If a series of mystic experiences take place, then ususally there is some sort of development of inner richness
      3. Usually leave the participant with a profound sense of the importance of the experience
2. Introvertive/Extrovertive
  1. Outward Looking/Inward Looking
  2. The extrovertive is one where the plurality of objects in the world are transfigured into a single living entity.
    1. Looks outwardly + through senses to external world, transfigured in such a way that unity shines through
  3. The introvertive mystic speaks of losing their identity as a seperate individual and slowly merging into the divine unity
    1. looks inwardly, the purest type
3. Monistic/Theistic
  1. Monistic Mysticism involves experience of own spirit as absolute
    1. E.g. - Atman & Brahman
  2. Theistic mysticism involves union with a personal lord or creator, more related to western traditions with monotheistic faiths
4. Otto
  1. Feeling of Numinous
5. Martin Buber
  1. I-It
    1. When we view people and things as merely phenomena. By probing deeper we can enter the second relationship.
      1. I-Thou
        A relationship with both people and things, such that we can call it a personal relationship.
        "It is here that we encounter a Thou over against out I. And this is the realm where we encounter God"
6. Happold
  1. L.U.T.E
    1. Loss of Self
      1. Whirling Dervishes
        Buddhism - Enlightenment
      2. Moving beyond yourself, asleep to things of the world
    2. Union
      1. Joining something else
      2. Christianity - Holy Spirit
      3. As if a stream enters the sea from which it has no way of seperating itself
    3. Timeless
      1. Narnia
      2. Sufism
      3. Outside of time
    4. Ecstasy
      1. Euphoric feeling
      2. Christianity - Charismatic (Toronto Blessing)
Conversion
1. To change from one thing to another
2. Types of Conversion
  1. Non Volitional / Instant
    1. Non Volitional: Don't choose to change
    2. Changed externally by something else
      1. External agent may be God
    3. Instant: Change happens suddenly
    4. Examples: Umar, St. Paul on the road to Damascus
      1. Umar hated everything that Muhammad stood for, is told to go home by another secret Muslim in his clan
        Hears the Quran and is instantly changed
  2. Volitional / Gradual
    1. Over a period of time
    2. "Growing out of one set of beliefs and into another"
    3. You choose to change
    4. Examples: Cardinal Newman, Yusuf Islam
      1. J.H Newman was CofE and became Catholic
        The beliefs that they change from are just as important as the beliefs that they change to
  3. Crisis / Self Surrender
    1. Change in beliefs is painful
      1. Reach a point of despair and surrender themselves over to something else (God)
        Example: Tolstoy
      2. May be due to a horrible event
3. From one set of beliefs to another set of beliefs
4. One religion to another religion
  1. Sundar Singh (Sikh)
  2. Saul (St. Paul)
5. No faith to having faith
  1. Saint Augustine
    1. Converted to christianity
  2. Yusuf Islam / Cat Stevens
6. Faith to no faith
  1. Freud
7. Faith (believing) to Faith (trusting)
  1. John Wesley - Did not have faith in Christ as a personal saviour as others did
    1. At a meeting of an evangelical society, he had a conversion experience
      1. "I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ"
8. Awareness of the wrongness of current beliefs
  1. Also of positive changes they want to make (gradual or instant)
Visions
1. Religious Places
  1. Guru Nanak (Vision of God's Court)
  2. Knock
  3. Muhammad
  4. Lourdes
2. Fantastic Creatures
  1. Ezekiel
    1. Four faces of four creatures (man, lion, ox, eagle)
3. Religious Figures
  1. Teresa of Avila
4. Messages
  1. Peter
    1. Unclean food, God made it clean
  2. Advice
  3. Revelation
  4. Guidance
  5. Warning
  6. New Knowledge (Gnosis)
    1. Guru Nanak
      1. God told him that there is neither Hindu or Muslim
  7. Hell
5. Future
  1. John's visions of the final judgements (Revelation)
6. Individual Visions
  1. One subject
  2. Most common
  3. Saint Bernadette, Muhammad, Ezekiel
7. Group Visions
  1. More than one subject
  2. More than one person who experiences the vision
  3. Less common
  4. Knock
8. Corporeal
  1. Something external to the subject
  2. Seen with the eyes
    1. Figure really present
    2. Strikes the retina
  3. Agent can manipulate visual organ in such a way to produce a similar sensation as to a physical (external) entity would produce
  4. Most common if prolonged or group
  5. The very substance of object or luminous light
  6. May leave physical traces
    1. Scorch marks on the floor
  7. St Bernadette, Knock
9. Imaginary/Imaginative
  1. Sensible representation of the subject by imagination alone
    1. Doesn't use the eyes
  2. Signs that the image is from God
    1. Vividness
    2. Lights + Graces
    3. The subject has no controi over the vision
  3. Ususally short duration
  4. Often require interpretation
    1. Differentiating between Corporeal and Imaginative can be difficult
  5. Muhammad, St. John, Ezekiel, Moses
10. Intellectual
  1. Subjects percieve the object without sensible image
  2. St. Teresa of Avila

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Religious Experience

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	Created by ebramhall about 11 years ago