TERMINOLOGY: Religious Experience Flashcards
Supernatural
Beyond the normal forces of nature
Numinous
Relating to the power or presence of a deity
Imaginative Vision
A vision seen in the mind, usually through a dream experience.
Corporeal Vision
A vision that comes through the physical senses (e.g. sight). Relates to the physical body.
Intellectual Vision
A vision without any visual image, where the experience is an “illumination” of the soul.
Transcendent
Concept that God is above the space-time universe; for Otto, he is “wholly other”.
Passivity
The experiencer does not control the experience, but is controlled by it.
Ineffability
The experience cannot be described in words; it has to be directly experienced.
Noetic Quality
Experiences give rise to knowledge, experiencer learns something from it. States of insight
Transiency
Experiences are temporary (under two hours) but the effects are long-lasting.
Introvertive
A religious experience in which sense experience is totally suppressed; there is no sense of “I”.
Extrovertive
A religious experience where sense experience is still active; a “halfway” to introvertive.
Temporary lobe epilepsy
(TLE) People with TLE are sometimes prone to have religious visions and and mystical experiences.
Neurotheology
The attempt to explain religious experience and behaviour in neuroscientific terms/
