Religious experiences are an intimate moment of divine realization or revelation.
The nature and influence of religious experience
Is personal testimony or witness enough to support the validity of religious experiences?
Mystical experiences
Mystical experiences involve direct contact or unity with the divine, such as Moses and the Burning
Bush.
Theresa De Avila, for example, had many visions such as a spear on fire piercing her side leaving her
with an immense feeling of elation and love. Julian of Norwich saw visions of Christ bleeding in front
of her and felt an overwhelming sense of God’s unconditional love. Both women experienced
intense illness before their mystical experience.
Some people have mystic experiences whilst watching a beautiful sunset or listening to an emotive
piece of music.
William James describes four common criteria of mystical religious experiences, being:
1. Passivity – the person is not in control. You don’t make it happen; it happens to you.
2. Ineffability – difficult to put into words
3. Noetic quality – the experience was revelatory, providing unknown insight or knowledge.
4. Transience – the experience lasts a short time but has long term effects on the person.
As mystical experiences all share these same four features it suggests there might be a real-life
common basis to them all in the divine.
- Being passive, not desired or expected, it suggests there is something external causing the
encounter. Furthermore, any noetic effect could indicate the divine as they have gained new
knowledge or insight without explanation for it.
James thinks we should judge the value of these experiences by the effects they have on people; the
truth is not fixed and what is true is simply whatever has great value to us. He maintains that
religious experiences are psychological phenomena, but this does not discredit or take away from
them as they can have great, observable changes on people’s entire lives e.g prompting people to
become more compassionate or charitable. Verification of religious experience is not crucial as they
were real for the person and therefore self-authenticating.
- It is possible for a movie or a novel to have a great effect on somebody but that does not
make it real.
He saw that different faiths shared similar experiences but interpreted the same realities in the
context of their own religion e.g feeling the holy spirit if you were a Christian. The plurality of
religious experience point towards a larger power, beyond our conscious self. Anyone can have a
mystical experience, but a non-believer may not interpret the experience as religious.
Conversion experiences
James argues that conversions are perhaps the strongest evidence for the divine due to their
observable and often life-changing effects. James’ studies were based on empiricism and
pragmatism, the practical outcomes seen through someone acted now and in the future. For
The nature and influence of religious experience
Is personal testimony or witness enough to support the validity of religious experiences?
Mystical experiences
Mystical experiences involve direct contact or unity with the divine, such as Moses and the Burning
Bush.
Theresa De Avila, for example, had many visions such as a spear on fire piercing her side leaving her
with an immense feeling of elation and love. Julian of Norwich saw visions of Christ bleeding in front
of her and felt an overwhelming sense of God’s unconditional love. Both women experienced
intense illness before their mystical experience.
Some people have mystic experiences whilst watching a beautiful sunset or listening to an emotive
piece of music.
William James describes four common criteria of mystical religious experiences, being:
1. Passivity – the person is not in control. You don’t make it happen; it happens to you.
2. Ineffability – difficult to put into words
3. Noetic quality – the experience was revelatory, providing unknown insight or knowledge.
4. Transience – the experience lasts a short time but has long term effects on the person.
As mystical experiences all share these same four features it suggests there might be a real-life
common basis to them all in the divine.
- Being passive, not desired or expected, it suggests there is something external causing the
encounter. Furthermore, any noetic effect could indicate the divine as they have gained new
knowledge or insight without explanation for it.
James thinks we should judge the value of these experiences by the effects they have on people; the
truth is not fixed and what is true is simply whatever has great value to us. He maintains that
religious experiences are psychological phenomena, but this does not discredit or take away from
them as they can have great, observable changes on people’s entire lives e.g prompting people to
become more compassionate or charitable. Verification of religious experience is not crucial as they
were real for the person and therefore self-authenticating.
- It is possible for a movie or a novel to have a great effect on somebody but that does not
make it real.
He saw that different faiths shared similar experiences but interpreted the same realities in the
context of their own religion e.g feeling the holy spirit if you were a Christian. The plurality of
religious experience point towards a larger power, beyond our conscious self. Anyone can have a
mystical experience, but a non-believer may not interpret the experience as religious.
Conversion experiences
James argues that conversions are perhaps the strongest evidence for the divine due to their
observable and often life-changing effects. James’ studies were based on empiricism and
pragmatism, the practical outcomes seen through someone acted now and in the future. For
