Religious Experience (RE)
There are many different types of RE, including:
- Conversion experiences
- Miraculous healings
- Crisis apparitions
- Mystical experiences
- Glossolalia (speaking in tongues)
- Near-death experiences
- Dream experiences
- Stigmata (body marks, sores or sensations of pain in locations corresponding to
the crucifixion wounds of Jesus)
St. Augustine of Hippo divided visions into 3 types:
Corporeal Visions:
= Comes through the physical sense of sight
- Corporeal visions are a form of empirical religious experience
- One of the most common forms of RE is that of seeing God through nature/the
natural world (e.g. through the glory of a beautiful sunset or the grandeur of
mountain scenery).
- The experiencer sees a supernatural vision of an object that is really present
(supernatural = ‘beyond the normal forces of nature’)
- E.g. Joan of Arc (c. 1412-1431):
From the age of 12, she experienced visions of angels and saints, accompanied
by voices that told her to bring renewal to the French nation. After experiencing
these visions, she led the French to victory in battle against the English in the
Hundred Year War. At her trial, she said her visions were as real to her as seeing
an actual person with her ‘bodily eyes’. The visions were often accompanied by
heavenly light.
- E.g. Bernadette Soubirous (1844-1879) at Lourdes:
Bernadette was the first-born daughter of a miller from Lourdes. While
collecting firewood near the Massabielle Grotto with her sister Marie and a
friend, she experienced a vision of a ‘small young lady’ dressed in white with a
blue waist-belt. She claimed to have experienced 18 visions in total, in the course
of which the lady identified herself as the ‘Immaculate Conception’ (meaning the
Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus). The visions were accompanied by the
appearance of spring water, which has since been the source of around 69
documented ‘miracles’ for which it is claimed there are no scientific explanations
The visionary experience was corporeal, since Bernadette saw the physical
body of Mary
The vision was also private, as her sister and friend claimed to have seen
nothing
There are many different types of RE, including:
- Conversion experiences
- Miraculous healings
- Crisis apparitions
- Mystical experiences
- Glossolalia (speaking in tongues)
- Near-death experiences
- Dream experiences
- Stigmata (body marks, sores or sensations of pain in locations corresponding to
the crucifixion wounds of Jesus)
St. Augustine of Hippo divided visions into 3 types:
Corporeal Visions:
= Comes through the physical sense of sight
- Corporeal visions are a form of empirical religious experience
- One of the most common forms of RE is that of seeing God through nature/the
natural world (e.g. through the glory of a beautiful sunset or the grandeur of
mountain scenery).
- The experiencer sees a supernatural vision of an object that is really present
(supernatural = ‘beyond the normal forces of nature’)
- E.g. Joan of Arc (c. 1412-1431):
From the age of 12, she experienced visions of angels and saints, accompanied
by voices that told her to bring renewal to the French nation. After experiencing
these visions, she led the French to victory in battle against the English in the
Hundred Year War. At her trial, she said her visions were as real to her as seeing
an actual person with her ‘bodily eyes’. The visions were often accompanied by
heavenly light.
- E.g. Bernadette Soubirous (1844-1879) at Lourdes:
Bernadette was the first-born daughter of a miller from Lourdes. While
collecting firewood near the Massabielle Grotto with her sister Marie and a
friend, she experienced a vision of a ‘small young lady’ dressed in white with a
blue waist-belt. She claimed to have experienced 18 visions in total, in the course
of which the lady identified herself as the ‘Immaculate Conception’ (meaning the
Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus). The visions were accompanied by the
appearance of spring water, which has since been the source of around 69
documented ‘miracles’ for which it is claimed there are no scientific explanations
The visionary experience was corporeal, since Bernadette saw the physical
body of Mary
The vision was also private, as her sister and friend claimed to have seen
nothing
