Types of Religious Experiences Flashcards
Name the 5 types of religious experience
- Conversion
- Prayer
- Numinous
- Mystical experience
- Near death experience (not in spec)
Explain the conversion experience
- offers evidence for the nature of God
- person sees a vision, feeling of awe, wonder and humility before the majesty of God
Example of conversion experience
- Nicky Cruz
- Paul (Saul) on road to Damascus - converted form Judaisms to Christianity
In Christianity what are the 7 types of prayer in the Bible
- Blessing
- Adoration
- Asking forgiveness
- Intercession
- Petition
- Thanksgiving
- Praise
Explain Prayer experience
- in a sense all RE is about Prayer - communication with the divine
- prayer is the conviction that something is genuinely transacted, that things that cannot be realised in any other way come about
Examples of answered prayer, William Temple quote
“when i pray, coincidences happen, and when i don’t, they don’t”
What is the Numinous often described as?
The feeling of being in the presence of something greater than yourself
- an experience of awe and wonder in the presence of an almighty and transcending being (God)
What do many testimonies claim about this type of religious experience (numinous)
sense of being in a presence of an awesome power, yet feeling distinctly separate from it
What did Rudolf OTTO claim the Numinous experiences are?
Key to understanding spirituality in religion
Example of Numinous in the Bible
Moses’ vision of the burning bush
What is a mystical experience
A person experiences the ultimate reality with a sense of unity with the divine, separateness from the divine and dependence from the divine
What are the two types of mystical experiences?
- theistic mysticism
- monistic mysticism
What is theistic mysticism
awareness of God
What is monistic mysticism
awareness of soul, self and conscience
What are the 4 characteristics that William James says are associated with mystic experiences
- ineffability
- noetic quality
- transiency
- passivity
Define ineffability
state of feeling which defines description
Define noetic quality
revelations of universal and eternal truths
define transiency
a brief but profound important experience
define passivity
a feeling of being taken over by a superior authority
Mysticism can be what
2 things
Extrovertive
Introvertive
Define extrovertive
looking outwards to see God in the world
define introvertive
person looks within themselves and see their personal identity being merged with the divine unity
What is a near death experience
When someone dies for a short period of time and is resuscitated before the state becomes irreversible
What do many people claim happens during a near death experience
- claim to have floated out of their bodies
- travelled down a tunnel of light where they have encountered either a dead relative or religious figure form their own tradition
Who discovered many similarities between testimonies of NDE
Raymond Moody
However what problems did Raymond Moody also highlight
- experient could be dreaming
- remembering some lost subconscious memory
- having hallucinations due to lack of oxygen to the brain
What did K. Ring say
“Near death experiences are individually unique, but appear to have a common pattern of ‘core experiences’.”
