Religious experiences encyclopedia topics

Definitions

William James' Definitions

Psychologist and Philosopher William James described four characteristics of religious / mystical experience in The Varieties of Religious Experience. According to James, such an experience is:

Transient -- the experience is temporary; the individual soon returns to a "normal" frame of mind.
Ineffible -- the experience cannot be adequately put into words.
Noetic -- the individual feels that he or she has learned something valuable from the experience.
Passive -- the experience happens to the individual, largely without conscious control. Although there are activities, such as meditation (see below), that can make religious experience more likely, it is not something that can be turned on and off at will.

Norman Habel's Definitions

Habel defines religious experiences as the structured way in which a believer enters into a relationship with, or gains an awareness of, the sacred within the context of a particular religious tradition (Habel, O'Donoghue and Maddox: 1993).Religious experiences are by their very nature preternatural; that is, out of the ordinary or beyond the natural order of things. They may be difficult to distinguish observationally from psychopathological states such as psychoses or other forms of altered awareness (Charlesworth: 1988). Not all preternatural experiences are considered to be religious experiences. Following Habel's definition, psychopathological states or drug-induced states of awareness are not considered to be religious experiences because they are mostly not performed within the context of a particular religious tradition. Moore and Habel identify two classes of religious experiences: the immediate and the mediated religious experience (Moore and Habel: 1982).

Mediated -- In the mediated experience, the believer experiences the sacred through mediators such as rituals, special persons, religious groups, totemic objects or the natural world (Habel et al: 1993).
Immediate -- The immediate experience comes to the believer without any intervening agency or mediator. The deity or divine is experienced directly (Habel et al: 1993).

Richard Swinburne's Definitions

In his book Faith and Reason, the philosopher Richard Swinburne formulated five categories into which all religious experiences fall:

Public -- a believer 'sees God's hand at work', whereas other explanations are possible e.g. looking at a beautiful sunset
Public -- an unusual event that breaches natural law e.g. walking on water
Private -- describable using normal language e.g. Jacob's vision of a ladder
Private -- indescribable using normal language, usually a mystical experience e.g. "white did not cease to be white, nor black cease to be black, but black became white and white became black."
Private -- a non-specific, general feeling of God working in one's life.

Swinburne also suggested two principles for the assessment of religious experiences:

Principle of Credulity -- with the absence of any reason to disbelieve it, one should accept what appears to be true e.g. if one sees someone walking on water, one should believe that it is occurring, unless one has recently ingested hallucinogenic drugs.
Principle of Testimony -- with the absence of any reason to disbelieve them, one should accept that eye-witnesses or believers are telling the truth when they testify about religious experiences.

Classical Definitions

Numinous -- The German thinker Rudolf Otto (1869-1937) argues that there is one common factor to all religious experience, independent of the cultural background. He identifies this experience as the numinous in his book The Idea of the Holy (1923). Otto, not be strictly defined since the numinous is that in which all religious experiences are defined. The numinous can only be evoked or awakened in the mind. The numinous is a realm or dimension of reality, which is mysterious, awe-inspiring and fascinating. Otto states that the best expression for the numinous is the Latin phrase 'mysterium tremendum' - a magnificent mystery. The mystery is the 'Wholly Other', beyond apprehension and comprehension. It is expressed in the idea of 'the wrath of God' in the Old Testament and is connected with the consciousness of the absolute superiority and supremacy of a power other than oneself. Otto sees the numinous as the only possible religious experience. He states: "There is no religion in which it [the numinous] does not live as the real innermost core and without it no religion would be worthy of the name" (Otto: 1972). Otto describes in his convoluted style one form of religious experience, but he does not succeed in characterising the essence of all religious experience. Otto does not take any other kind of religious experience such as ecstasy and enthusiasm seriously and is of the opinion that they belong to the 'vestibule of religion'.

Ecstasy -- In ecstasy the believer is understood to have a soul or spirit which can leave the body. In ecstasy the focus is on the soul leaving the body and to experience transcendental realities. This type of religious experience is characteristic for the shaman.

Enthusiasm --In enthusiasm - or possession - God is understood to be outside, other than or beyond the believer. A sacred power, being or will enters the body or mind of an individual and possesses it. A person capable of being possessed is sometimes called a medium. The deity, spirit or power uses such a person to communicate to the immanent world. Lewis argues that ecstasy and possession are basically one and the same experience, ecstasy being merely one form which possession may take. The outward manifestation of the phenomenon is the same in that shamans appear to be possessed by spirits, act as their mediums, and even though they claim to have mastery over them, can lose that mastery (Lewis: 1986).

Mystical -- Mystical experiences are in many ways the opposite of numinous experiences. In the mystical experience, all 'otherness' disappear and the believer becomes one with the transcendent. The believer discovers that he or she is not distinct from the cosmos, the deity or the other reality, but one with it. Zaehner has identified two distinctively different mystical experiences: natural and religious mystical experiences (Charlesworth: 1988). Natural mystical experiences are, for example, experiences of the 'deeper self' or experiences of oneness with nature. Zaehner argues that the experiences typical of 'natural mysticism' are quite different from the experiences typical of religious mysticism (Charlesworth: 1988). Natural mystical experiences are not considered to be religious experiences because they are not linked to a particular tradition, but natural mystical experiences are spiritual experiences that can have a profound effect on the individual.

Spiritual awakening -- A spiritual awakening is a Religious experience involving a realization or opening to a sacred dimension of reality. Often a spiritual awakening has lasting effects upon one's life. The term "spiritual awakening" may be used to refer to any of a wide range of experiences including being born again, near-death experiences, and mystical experiences such as liberation and enlightenment.

Explanations of religious experience

Religious and mystical points of view

Sufism

While all Muslims believe that they are on the pathway to God and will become close to God in Paradise — after death and after the "Final Judgment" — Sufis believe as well that it is possible to become close to God and to experience this closeness while one is alive. Sufis believe in a tripartite way to God as explained by a tradition attributed to the Prophet,"The Shariah are my words (aqwal), the tariqa are my actions (amal), and the haqiqa is my interior states (ahwal)". Shariah, tariqa and haqiqa are mutually interdependent. The tariqa, the ‘path’ on which the mystics walk, has been defined as ‘the path which comes out of the Shariah, for the main road is called shar, the path, tariq.’ No mystical experience can be realized if the binding injunctions of the Shariah are not followed faithfully first. The path, tariqa, however, is narrower and more difficult to walk. It leads the adept, called salik (wayfarer), in his suluk (wandering), through different stations (maqam) until he reaches his goal, the perfect tauhid, the existential confession that God is One.

Christian mysticism

Christian doctrine generally maintains that God dwells in all Christians and that they can experience God directly through belief in Jesus, Christian mysticism aspires to apprehend spiritual truths inaccessible through intellectual means, typically by emulation of Christ. William Inge divides this scala perfectionis into three stages: the "purgative" or ascetic stage, the "illuminative" or contemplative stage, and the third, "unitive" stage, in which God may be beheld "face to face."

The third stage, usually called contemplation in the Western tradition, refers to the experience of oneself as united with God in some way. The experience of union varies, but it is first and foremost always associated with a reuniting with Divine love. The underlying theme here is that God, the perfect goodness, is known or experienced at least as much by the heart as by the intellect since, in the words of 1 John 4:16: "God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God and God in him." Some approaches to classical mysticism would consider the first two phases as preparatory to the third, explicitly mystical experience; but others state that these three phases overlap and intertwine.

Philosophical and theological points of view

In the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries, several historical figures put forth very influential views that religion and its beliefs can be grounded in experience itself. While Kant held that moral experience justified religious beliefs, John Wesley in addition to stressing individual moral exertion thought that the religious experiences in the Methodist movement (paralleling the Romantic Movement) were foundational to religious commitment as a way of life. In the 19th century, Friedrich Schleiermacher and Albert Ritschl continued and extended this view that human (moral and religious) experience justifies religious beliefs. Such religious empericism would be later seen as highly problematic and was--during the period in-between world wars--famously rejected by Karl Barth. In the 20th century, religious as well as moral experience as justification for religious beliefs still holds sway. Some influential modern scholars holding this liberal theological view are Charles Raven and the Oxford physicist/theologian Charles Coulson.

Carl Jung

Carl Jung's work on himself and his patients convinced him that life has a spiritual purpose beyond material goals. Our main task, he believed, is to discover and fulfil our deep innate potential, much as the acorn contains the potential to become the oak, or the caterpillar to become the butterfly. Based on his study of Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, Gnosticism, Taoism, and other traditions, Jung perceived that this journey of transformation is at the mystical heart of all religions. It is a journey to meet the self and at the same time to meet the Divine. Unlike Sigmund Freud, Jung thought spiritual experience was essential to our well-being.

Scientific points of view

Studies of the brain and religious experience

Early studies in the 1950s and 1960s attempted to use EEGs to study brain wave patterns correlated with "spiritual" states. During the 1980s Dr. Michael Persinger stimulated the temporal lobes of human subjects with a weak magnetic field. His subjects claimed to have a sensation of "an ethereal presence in the room.. Some current studies use neuroimaging to localize brain regions active, or differentially active, during religious experiences. Andrew Newberg describes neurological processes which are driven by the repetitive, rhythmic stimulation which is typical of human ritual, and which contribute to the delivery of transcendental feelings of connection to a universal unity. They posit, however, that physical stimulation alone is not sufficient to generate transcendental unitive experiences. For this to occur they say there must be a blending of the rhythmic stimulation with ideas. Once this occurs "…ritual turns a meaningful idea into a visceral experience.

Genetic studies

The God gene hypothesis states that some human beings bear a gene which gives them a predisposition to episodes interpreted by some as religious revelation. According to this hypothesis, the God gene (VMAT2), is not an encoding for the belief in God itself but a physiological arrangement that produces the sensations associated, by some, with the presence of God or other mystical experiences, or more specifically spirituality as a state of mind. Simply put, the gene is involved in the breakdown of monoamines, a class of neurotransmitters which contribute to an individual's emotional sensitivity. The loose interpretation is that monoamines correlate with a personality trait called self-transcendence. Composed of three sub-sets, self-transcendence is composed of "self-forgetfulness" (as in the tendency to become totally absorbed in some activity, such as reading); "transpersonal identification" (a feeling of connectedness to a larger universe); and "mysticism" (an openness to believe things not literally provable, such as ESP).

Causes of religious experiences

Sufi whirling

Chanting of mantras or holy names.
Worship
Dhikr
Mortification of the flesh
Asceticism
Profound sexual activity, or sexual practises such as:

Use of Entheogens, such as:

Stimulation of the brain with magnetic fields (see God helmet)
Psychological or neurophysiological anomalies, such as:

Near-death experience

External links

" A Mystical Union." Exploring the neurology of the religious experience. [Only available to subscribers to The Economist]
The Spiritual Law A work by contemporary mystics related to St. Teresa’s Internal Castle.
A course outline An academic course outline with plenty of thoughtful links to other website sources on Religious experience
My Stroke of Insight Neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor describes her experience of having a stroke.
Peru: Hell and Back National Geographic explores the uses of Ayahuasca in Shamanic healing
My Awakening experienced and written by OSHO

References

Charlesworth, Max (1988). Religious experience. Unit A. Study guide 2 (Deakin University).
Habel, Norman, O'Donoghue, Michael and Maddox, Marion (1993). 'Religious experience'. In: Myth, ritual and the sacred. Introducing the phenomena of religion (Underdale: University of South Australia).
Lewis, Ioan M (1986). Religion in context: cults and charisma (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
Moore, B and Habel N (1982). Appendix 1. In: When religion goes to school (Adelaide: SACAE), pages 184-218.
Otto, Rudolf (1972). Chapters 2-5. In: The idea of the holy (London: Oxford University Press), pages 5-30. [Originally published in 1923].
Prevos, Peter (1998). Omgaan met het transcendente (Dealing with the transcendent). Open University of the Netherlands.
Moody, Raymond. Life After Life ISBN 0-06-251739-2
Deida, David. Finding God Through Sex ISBN 1-59179-273-8
Katie, Byron. Loving What Is page xi ISBN 1-4000-4537-1
Roberts, T. B. (editor) (2001). Psychoactive Sacramentals: Essays on Entheogens and Religion. San Francosco: Council on Spiritual Practices.
Roberts, T. B., and Hruby, P. J. (1995-2002). Religion and Psychoactive Sacraments An Entheogen Chrestomathy. Online archive.
Roberts, T. B. "Chemical Input—Religious Output: Entheogens." Chapter 10 in Where God and Science Meet: Vol. 3: The Psychology of Religious Experience Robert McNamara (editor)(2006). Westport, CT: Praeger/Greenwood.