Religious Experiences

Question 1

monist experience

Answer 1

union with a divine spirit, sense of oneness with this divine spirit and with all things e.g. meditation

Question 2

theist experience

Answer 2

God is felt as wholly other to the experiencer. Sense of distance and unworthiness in relation to God e.g. numinous

Question 3

broad terms of mystical experiences

Answer 3

o More to reality than the physical
o Human condition allows for an intuitive understanding of the Divine
o Two distance natures: ego (conscious self) and spiritual eternal self (spark of divinity)
o Purpose is to discover your spiritual eternal self and unite with ‘Divine Ground’.
o Christian tradition of mystics: seeking an encounter with God through prayer. There is recognition that God will always remain unknowable.

Question 4

visions and numinous

Answer 4

• Visions and Voices
o It is not always clear whether there is actual seeing/hearing
o There is difficult describing and interpreting
• Numinous
o Hard to define - sense of awe, wonder

Question 5

f. c. happold and re experiences

Answer 5

o 1960s, people looking outside the authority of the traditional Xian Church to find meaning and truth
o Personal belief is the key focus
o Happold recognised mysticism as an underlying, universal aspect in all religions, with key dependence on intuition, rather than rational understanding.
o ‘A release of latent powers and a widening of vision, so that aspects of truth unplumbed by the rational intellect are revealed to him’.

Question 6

teresa of avila

Answer 6

o Raised as a pious child
o Religious ecstasy through book ‘Third Spiritual Alphabet’ when ascetic works such as the Spiritual Exercises
o Often experienced a ‘blessing of tears’ when undertaking devotion, came to terms with her sin and absolute subjection to God.
o Deemed diabolical, starting inflicting pain on herself
o Began visions of JC, bodily form but invisible. A Seraph also drove the fiery point of a golden lance repeatedly through her heart = spiritual-bodily pain
o ‘He seemed to draw them out also, and to leave me all on fire with a great love of God’. Painful yet ‘sweet’ experience.
o Inspired herself and others, ‘lord, either let me suffer or let me die’
o Influenced other theologians e.g. Francis of Sales, Fénelon and the Port-Royalists

Question 7

stages of conversion

Answer 7

o Individual dissatisfied with current situation
o Searching for truth
o Turmoil followed by clarity
o Sharing and enjoying new found peace and contentment
o A new direction towards a radical long term change in behaviour and attitude
o E.g. Conversion of Saul in Acts

Question 8

william james background and example

Answer 8

o Background
• Attempted to be objective in his study of the psychology of religious experience.
• Pragmatic - tried to deal with things sensibly and realistically in a way that is based on practical rather than theoretical considerations.
o Gives the example of a man called S.H. Hadley, a drunk who felt a presence greater than him.
• After listening to testimonies of others, he converted to Christianity and felt he went from ‘indescribable doom’ to ‘glorious brightness’.
• He gave up alcohol and helped others do the same.
• An example of pragmatism - consequences of experiences can validate them for the experiencer.

Question 9

william james and conversion

Answer 9

o Included a huge variety of different types of religious experience, including first hand accounts.
o He treated religious experiences sensitively and scientifically.
o Concluded that religious experiences have a ‘common core’, which transcends all experiences and cultures.
o Uses a posteriori reasoning, depends on inductive reasoning and whether the conclusion is the most plausible option.

Question 10

james: ineffability

Answer 10

• Experience is impossible to describe in everyday language.
• This is because it induces feelings, which seem so different to normal ones.
• ‘The attempt to demonstrate by purely intellectual processes the truth of the deliverance of direct religious experience is absolutely hopeless’

Question 11

james: noetic quality

Answer 11

• Revelation of knowledge such as depths of truths, which are inaccessible by reason alone.
• ‘States of insight into depths of truth unplumbed by the discursive intellect’

Question 12

james: transience

Answer 12

• The experience itself is relatively short (no more than 2 hours approximately)
• The effects can last a lifetime and even the recollection of the experience allows for a continual development of the inner richness and importance.

Question 13

james: passivity

Answer 13

• The experiences feel passive and thus the experience is happening to them - they are the recipient rather than the instigator.

Question 14

criticisms of james

Answer 14

• Logical positivism undermined most of James’ conclusions. Independent testing with empirical senses is essential for something to be true.
• James’ understanding of re experience is very subjectivist. He cares about the specific cases, rather than whether it shows a God who exists in the world for everyone.

Question 15

swinburne credulity

Answer 15

o Our way of understanding the world and our own experiences.
o We must trust our own experiences, as they are usually reliable.
o Even though experiences can be misleading, the balance of probability suggests we are usually correct in our understanding. If we didn’t we’d live in an ‘epistemological queer street’.
o Therefore, should trust re experiences as we trust our own.

Question 16

swinburne testimony

Answer 16

o Just as we accept accounts of others of their everyday experiences, we should also accept their accounts of re experiences, unless we have good reason not to do so.

Question 17

mackie criticism of swinburne

Answer 17

• Balance of probability for re experiences is actually the opposite of normal, everyday experiences. The probability of re experiences are lower, people may be mistaken.

Cultural conditioning – we believe that we are seeing/experiencing what we have been taught and told. In ‘Christian countries,’ Christian figures appear e.g. Mary, Jesus and God, but in ‘Hindu countries,’ Hindu religious figures appear to people who have religious experiences.

Question 18

martin criticism of swinburne

Answer 18

• If we follow these principles, could lead us to conclusion that God does not exist. Atheists do not experience God and so if we accept their experience, God does not exist.
• However…
• Swinburne replies saying the principle is not applicable to negative experiences i.e. a lack of experience does not equate with absence of existence e.g. high frequency sounds.

Question 19

caroline franks davis criticism of swinburne

Answer 19

• We accept certain experiences on face value, but we do not with experiences of ultimate importance e.g. crime scene investigation.
• Re experiences are of ultimate important, cannot accept without further investigation.

Question 20

richard gale criticism of swinburne

Answer 20

• Re experiences are not the same as everyday experiences and so we cannot apply the same principles e.g. dreams about monsters.
• Criticises Swinburne’s assumption that we believe the most probable thing. In fact, we believe what we want, not always weighed up against probability e.g. supporting a football team.

Question 21

corporate experiences

Answer 21

• Several/many people sharing the same experience
• E.g. Pentecost, disciples speaking in ‘tongues’, shared language to aid communal understanding from God via the Holy Spirit.

Question 22

solar miracle of fatima - more credible?

Answer 22

o Does the fact that we have cumulative evidence increase the credibility of the experience?
o More people = more witnesses, therefore increased weight in truth. In science, we take increased peer review as firmer truth, less subjective arguably?
o However, group hysteria and the issues with human psychological conformity.
o Must look at the credibility of the witnesses e.g. children may lie.

In his book, Nickell suggested that the crowd saw a sundog, a patch of light that sometimes appears beside the sun.

• Dawkins, why didn’t the rest of the world see it?

Question 23

feuerbach re experiences as psychological

Answer 23

o Argued that humans have invented God to satisfy their psychological needs.
o The origins of re belief and experiences come from within the human mind.
o These are then projected outside the self and are held up as something to be worshipped.
o E.g. compassion, creativity are elements of human nature which we project onto a divine figure to achieve a sense of purpose.

Question 24

freud re experiences as psychological

Answer 24

o Argued that re experiences are delusions based on humans’ need for a parent figure to look after them.
o Psyche has 3 layers: id, ego and superego.
o Superego is an inner moral voice telling us what is right/wrong, comes from society.
o When we are unable to cope with adult life, we mistake our superego for God in order to help us cope with our infantile neurosis.
- God is seen to be a father figure that is cushioning us from reality.

Question 25

winnicott re experiences as psychological

Answer 25

o Re experiences are illusions, which enable us to cope and make sense of the world around us.
o Humans have a need for comfort, we often develop attachments to transitional objects that help us cope e.g. cuddly toys
o This continues into adulthood where we invent God as a comforting crutch to help us cope with the world
o Those who cannot distinguish between delusion and reality have traits of madness
o Illusion is ok when it is comforting but not when it goes too far and is imposed on others.

Question 26

physiology

Answer 26

o An area of science which studies the brain and the nervous system
o Provides understanding of human consciousness e.g. memory, cognitive thought and emotion

Question 27

persinger and the god helmet - re experience as physiological

Answer 27

o Studying relationship between brain and re experience i.e. feeling of wonder
o Volunteers wore helmet which transmitted weak magnetic signals through brain.
o Subjects told they were going to participate in a relaxation exercise. They do not tell them what is going to happen.
o Lots felt similar feelings to those in RE experiences.
♣ A dark, ominous force looming right above the person (as if it was going to descend).
♣ A feeling of suffocation or pressure on the chest.
♣ Religious figures, images of “priests,” and, human skeletons, occurred as “flickering” but repeated phenomena.
o Experiment could prove that some magnetic fields/natural causes could explain RE experiences.
o Thus far, about 20 or so people have reported feeling the presence of Christ or even seeing him in the chamber (The acoustic chamber where the experimental sessions took place). Most of these people used Christ and God interchangeably. Most of these individuals were older (30 years or more) and religious (Roman Catholic). One male, age about 35 years old (alleged atheist but early childhood RC (Roman Catholic) training), saw a clear apparition (shoulders and head) of Christ staring him in the face. He was quite “shaken” by the experience.
o I suspect most people would call the “vague, all-around-me” sensations “God” but they are reluctant to employ the label in a laboratory. The implicit is obvious. If the equipment and the experiment produced the presence that was God, then the extrapersonal, unreachable and independent characteristics of the god definition might be challenged.

Question 28

Near death experiences as proof for God

Answer 28

o 3% of US think they’ve had a NDE
NDEs are sometimes recorded by those whose hearts have stopped beating - they describe a sensation of having left their own bodies, being able to look down on the scene as if from a height, and feeling a loving presence.
As many as a fifth of people who survive cardiac arrests report having had an other-worldly experience while being “clinically” dead.
o The experience includes the feeling of being able to see a bright light ahead, which suggests there could be real hope of LAD in the presence of God, since the Bible often describes the divine light of God in heaven. o The experience includes the feeling of being able to see a bright light ahead, which suggests there could be real hope of LAD in the presence of God, since the Bible often describes the divine light of God in heaven. (Gen 1:14-18 “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens”)
o E.g. Eben Alexander, writes in his book Proof of Heaven about his NDE during a meningitis induced coma. When asked how he could remember his experience if as he said his ‘cortex was shut down’, he responded with his belief that the mind can exist separately to the body.

Question 29

• Physiological studies into near death experiences

Answer 29

o However… physiological studies by Mobbs and Watt suggest the experiences can be explained biologically

1. Through the observation of the parietal and pre-frontal cortices of the brain
2. By measuring the release of the emotion altering hormones such as dopamine in the body at the time of stress
3. The medication used to treat patients suffering from trauma could explain sensations felt in NDEs.
4. tunnel vision can occur when blood and oxygen flow is depleted to the eye, as can happen with the extreme fear and oxygen loss that are both common to dying.

However… just because we can observe this internal effect does not mean it does not come from an external source.

Question 30

strengths of argument from re experience

Answer 30

• In line with visible, infallible word of God.
• Pattern of similarity over time and across the world. (James)
• God speaks to you in a way you understand i.e. the experience matches the religion you come from.
• Conversion - pragmatic idea of dramatic consequences.
• Cumulative evidence in corporate = greater credibility

Question 31

Weaknesses of arguments from re experience

Answer 31

• In line with Biblical theology, either a presupposed belief in God or preconceived of what religious experiences are like makes people more likely to label an ordinary experience as religious.
• Religious experiences matching of religion they come from shows the culture you live in influences your idea of God. (Freud manifestation of your own psychology)
• Happen to people with a previous knowledge of religion, using their preconceived ideas and wish fulfillment.
• Individual experience is subjective, cannot be assessed objectively, ineffability.

Question 32

re experiences in acts

Answer 32

o Acts 2:1-13 - Pentecost, disciples speak in tongues

o Acts 9:1-18 - Conversion of Saul to Paul, vision of God and miracle of curing his blindness

Question 33

muslim example of re experience

Answer 33

o Prophet Muhammad and the Night of power - in cave, could not write. ANgel Gabriel spoke words he was thinking, imprinted on heart, recited Qu’ran despite being illiterate.

Question 34

attempts at defining re experience

Answer 34

• Caveat - there are problems with any definition of religious experience
• The RERU set up at Oxford in 1968. In 1987, Inner Space claimed that 25-40% of UK population ‘had been aware of a presence or power beyond themselves’
• Inner Space describes RE experiences as:
o Experience is ‘quite different’ and ‘usually induces in the person concerned a conviction that the everyday world is not the whole of reality’ with the ‘awareness of its presence affecting the person’s view of the world, it alters behaviour and changes attitudes’

Question 35

schleiermacher view on re experience

Answer 35

o Claimed the essence of religion was based on personal experience, not reason
o Everyone has sense of divine, but in many people it is obscured by other concerns (Descartes)
o Re experience is ‘self authenticating’ that requires no justification
o The experiences should have priority and the statement of belief should be formulated to fit them e.g. the Creeds in the RCC
o Called religion ‘a sense and taste for the infinite’ and also the feeling of ‘absolute dependence’. Thus an individuals’ religious experience was based on the sense of being wholly dependent.
o Viewed Christianity as highest of the religions but not the only one. JC is only person to have complete ‘God consciousness’ which was totally unobscured
o However…
• Too much emphasis on the subjective, reducing religion to emotions. Takes away possibility that religious claims are based on facts.
• Some argue there has to be possibility of testing experiences against Bible and Church to be valid, otherwise caused by drugs/hallucination.

Question 36

rudolph otto view

Answer 36

o Aim to identify what it was about religion that made it religious
o Believed in awe and mystery (key term he used was numinous)
o People should have a sense of an encounter with natural forces
o God’s qualities
1. Quality of mystery: can never be fully described, incomprehensible
2. God is of ultimate importance
3. God is both attractive and dangerous, can’t comprehend what’s happening in re, but have sense of privilege

Question 37

criticisms of god helmet

Answer 37

♣ Not convincing data produced when experiment repeated
♣ Only 1% of subjects ‘saw God’.
• But 80% felt a presence of some kind, but did not call it God – fear/embarrassment probably impacted results

Question 38

oliver sacks criticism of NDE

Answer 38

o Migraine headaches also produce hallucinations, which Sacks himself has experienced as a longtime sufferer, including a “shimmering light” that was “dazzlingly bright”:
The reason hallucinations seem so real “is that they deploy the very same systems in the brain that actual perceptions do.” Sacks concludes that “the one most plausible hypothesis in Dr. Alexander’s case, then, is that his NDE occurred not during his coma, but as he was surfacing from the coma and his cortex was returning to full function. It is curious that he does not allow this obvious and natural explanation, but instead insists on a supernatural one.”

Question 39

solar miracle of fatima

Answer 39

The story of a famous miracle in Fátima, Portugal, began in May 1917, when three children (ages 7, 9, and 10) claimed to have encountered the Virgin Mary on their way home from tending a flock of sheep. The oldest girl, Lucia, was the only one to speak to her, and Mary told the children that she would reappear to them on the thirteenth day of the next six months. She then vanished.

It was Mary’s final appearance, on Oct. 13, 1917, that became the most famous. Estimated 70,000 people.

Thereupon Lucia exclaimed, ‘The sun!’ As everyone gazed upward, and saw that a silvery disc had emerged from behind clouds, they experienced what is known [as] a ‘sun miracle’.”

Not everyone reported the same thing; some present claimed they saw the sun dance around the heavens; others said the sun zoomed toward Earth in a zigzag motion that caused them to fear that it might collide with our planet (or, more likely, burn it up). Some people reported seeing brilliant colors spin out of the sun in a psychedelic, pinwheel pattern, and thousands of others present didn’t see anything unusual at all.

Question 40

flew criticism

Answer 40

10 leaky buckets – 10 flawed arguments doesn’t make one strong, convincing one. So 10 flawed arguments for God’s existence doesn’t produce a strong, convincing argument for the existence of God.