What does it mean to say that a religious or mystical experience is veridical? are religious experiences veridical. when people say they have had direct religious experience they mean that they have experienced God or divine in some way; they are not saying it seemed like god but was something else. Click to see full answer.
What is the difference between a mystical and religious experience?
A religious experience (sometimes known as a spiritual experience, sacred experience, or mystical experience) is a subjective experience which is interpreted within a religious framework. The concept originated in the 19th century, as a defense against the growing rationalism of Western society. Secondly, what are William James criteria for a religious experience?
When is it reasonable to conclude that mystical experiences are veridical?
Oct 15, 2015 · Extrovertive Mystical ReligiousExtrovertive Mystical Religious ExperienceExperience • Mystical experiences are typically divided into two types, extrovertive and introvertive. • An extrovertive mystical religious experience is one in which the external world is presented to the mystic (through the 5 senses) in a divine way.
What is mysticism?
Jun 14, 2017 · William Alston explored the fact that many people had religious experiences & believed that they were completely veridical; Alston argued that rejecting religious experiences on their basis in faith was hypocritical; He compared religious experiences to other empirical ones, such as “today I saw a red car”
What is the epistemic value of religious experience?
when people say they have had direct religious experience they mean that they have experienced God or divine in some way; they are not saying it seemed like god but was something else. issue for many philosophers; are religious experiences veridical? this means we can actually demonstrate religious experiences of people are what they seem to be e.g. experiences of god …
What is a mystical experience in religion?
A religious experience (sometimes known as a spiritual experience, sacred experience, or mystical experience) is a subjective experience which is interpreted within a religious framework. The concept originated in the 19th century, as a defense against the growing rationalism of Western society.
What does the claim that genuine religious experiences are ineffable mean?
1. ineffable - direct experience of god goes beyond human powers of description. 2. noetic - refers to fact that mystics receive knowledge of god that is not otherwise available. in sense religious experiences are direct revelations from god.
What is a mystical experience according to William James?
William James on Mysticism 1. Ineffability. A mystical experience defies expression and words cannot fully relate it to others. It must be experienced directly to be fully understood, and the mystical experience cannot be directly transferred to others.
What is monistic mystical experience?
monistic mystics. Common mystical means, along with the cessation of. normal categories of interpretation during the experiences, suggest that. mystics interpret a singular experience type according to their particular. theological or philosophical background.
What are the characteristics of mystical experience?
According to James, mystical experiences have four defining qualities:Ineffability. According to James the mystical experience "defies expression, that no adequate report of its content can be given in words".Noetic quality. ... Transiency. ... Passivity.
What are examples of spiritual experiences?
Music, art, literature, nature, religious worship, prayer and meditation, psychosis, sex, stress, alcohol, and drugs have all been shown to trigger transcendent spiritual episodes (27).May 4, 2017
What does William James say about religious experience?
William James believed that individual religious experiences, rather than the precepts of organized religions, were the backbone of the world's religious life. His discussions of conversion, repentance, mysticism and saintliness, and his observations on actual, personal religious experiences – all support this thesis.
What did William James believe about religious experience?
James believed that all religious experiences indicated the probability of God, although as a pluralist, James does not directly speak of God but of the 'spiritual' and the 'higher aspects' of the world and the self.
What is religious experience philosophy?
A religious experience is when someone feels they have had a direct or personal experience of God. It is argued that if someone feels they have experienced God, this will be the most convincing proof of God's existence because they have personally experienced or felt God for themselves.
What does it mean to be a mystic in the Catholic Church?
In a 2013 interview about Christian mysticism, professor and Roman Catholic theologian Bernard McGinn said that "a mystical person would be someone who's committed to the search for a deeper contact with God." A mystic, by his definition, who has "achieved that in a very supreme way."Jun 17, 2019
What happens during a mystical experience?
Mystical experiences are moments of higher consciousness that carry tremendous personal insight. Science has shown they have the ability to rewrite someone's brain chemistry. While the circumstances of each experience varies, they seem to correlate with: A feeling of surrender.Aug 14, 2020
What religion believes in mysticism?
This aspect of mysticism is found in religions such as: Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and Hinduism. All of these religions believe in 'GOD'-an Ultimate Divine entity. perceptions, but can arise only through the cooperation of the peculiar spiritual organism of man. Such feelings may be termed mystical.
What is the form of meditation that arises from this line of thought?
The form of meditation that arises from this line of thought (“quiet sitting” or “sitting and forgetting”) are very like Buddhist vipassana meditation, but there is no value placed on any particular insight gained, though one can experience the principle of unity ( li) behind the world.
What does it mean when a subject feels happiness?
If a subject feels a general feeling of happiness, not on account of anything in particular, and later comes to believe the feeling was caused by the presence of a particular person, that fact does not transform the feeling of happiness into a perception of the person. Just as a mental event, to be a perception of an object, ...
What is the principle of Antony Flew?
For example, Antony Flew (Flew and MacIntyre, 1955) relies on a principle to the effect that if a claim is not falsifiable, it is somehow illegitimate.
What are the different types of religious experiences?
Reports of religious experiences reveal a variety of different kinds. Perhaps most are visual or auditory presentations (visions and auditions), but not through the physical eyes or ears. Subjects report “seeing” or “hearing,” but quickly disavow any claim to seeing or hearing with bodily sense organs.
What is the purpose of mysticism?
But in its common, non-technical sense, mysticism is a specific religious system or practice, deliberately undertaken in order to come to some realization or insight, to come to unity with the divine, or to experience the ultimate reality directly.
What is religious experience?
Religious experiences can be characterized generally as experiences that seem to the person having them to be of some objective reality and to have some religious import. That reality can be an individual, a state of affairs, a fact, or even an absence, depending on the religious tradition the experience is a part of.
Can religious experiences necessitate belief?
Some (see Oakes 1976, for example) have claimed that religious experiences epistemically can necessitate belief; that is, anyone who has the experience and doesn’t form the corresponding belief is making an epistemic mistake, much like a person who, in normal conditions, refuses to believe his or her eyes.
What is Swinburne's analogy of the telephone?
– If someone grew up without ever being taught what a telephone was, then they would not recognise one & not do anything when it rings.
What are the two principles that Richard Swinburne suggested?
Richard Swinburne suggested two principles which can be used to assess claims about religious experience, his principles of credulity and testimony. Credulity argues that “ we ought to believe that things are as they seem to be, unless and until we have evidence that they are mistaken “.
Why do we have grounds to disbelieve evidence?
Swinburne gives three reasons why we would have grounds to disbelieve evidence; – There may be reason to believe the person was mistaken, such as they were under the influence of drugs. – If we have “strong” reasons to believe God does not exist that goes against religious experiences.
Do religious experiences happen to all people?
Religious experiences happen to people in all walks of life – it is mostly religious believers however who recognise them for what they are as they know what to look out for. Swinburne also suggests that, taken with other evidence & the multiple accounts of religious experiences, these suggest that God exists.
Who argued that rejecting religious experiences on their basis in faith was hypocritical?
William Alston. William Alston explored the fact that many people had religious experiences & believed that they were completely veridical. Alston argued that rejecting religious experiences on their basis in faith was hypocritical. He compared religious experiences to other empirical ones, such as “today I saw a red car”.
What is mystical experience?
For instance, an experience of the oneness of all things. That concept -- that there can be an experience of the one ness of all things -- seems to transcend all religions, rather than be specific to any one religion. That is, it is not only found in many or most religions, but is also found outside of any religion.
What does it mean when you see Siva without knowing anything?
....or one can see a picture of Siva without knowing anything about Him, see the image as being larger than life and kinda go 'Oh my dear God' and mean that both figuratively and literally, then drown in a pool of tears....but it doesn't happen all that often.
What is spiritual experience?
A spiritual experience is in many ways a branch of the mystical experience, and can be seen as a more specific experience involving the individual’s “spirit” or “soul.” Whereas mystical experiences can involve wider concepts such as nature or universal reality, spiritual experiences may involve a connection to some kind of divine being, and could have a religious element.
What is spiritual awakening?
A spiritual awakening is the feeling of realization or awareness that a person gains after a mystical or spiritual experience. It could also be called spiritual enlightenment, in a more religious context.
Can mystical experiences be spontaneous?
Although mystical experiences can be spontaneous, or the result of secular practice, a large portion of mystical experiences probably occur as the result of religious practice. Most religions have space for mystical experiences in their teachings; although to different degrees.
Perceptual Practices
- Alston’s defence (a practice of forming certain kinds of beliefs under certain sorts of conditions where the content of the beliefs is a function of those conditions e.g. memory and sense perception.) A. Doxastic (belief) or Perceptual Practices (Alston and Wainwright): these are practices of forming certain kinds of beliefs under certain sorts of conditions where the content …
Objections to Alston’s Type of Argument
- 1. Dissimilarities with Sense Perception : a. Problem: incorrigibility distinguish ‘I see the hat on the table’ from ‘I seem to be seeing a hat on the table.’ [‘Corrigible’ refers to statements about which one can be mistaken, while ‘incorrigible’ refers to statements about which one cannot be mistaken.] Perceptual claims differ from first person reports. The former make public statement…
IV. Natural Explanations For Religious Experience
- a. Problems: 1. Religious experiences are produced by natural causes. Thus these experiences are unreliable. An experience of x is veridical (true, valid) only if x is one of its causes. For example the experience of a miracle is valid only if it can be established the miracle actually happened. 2. If there’s a scientific explanation for religious ...
Types of Religious Experience
- Reports of religious experiences reveal a variety of differentkinds. Perhaps most are visual or auditory presentations (visions andauditions), but not through the physical eyes or ears. Subjects report“seeing” or “hearing,” but quickly disavow anyclaim to seeing or hearing with bodily sense organs. Such experiencesare easy to dismiss as hallucinati...
Language and Experience
- Many have thought that there is some special problem with religiouslanguage, that it can’t be meaningful in the same way thatordinary language is. The Logical Positivists claimed thatlanguage is meaningful only insofar as it is moored in our experiencesof the physical world. Since we can’t account for religiouslanguage by linking it to experiences of the physical world, s…
Epistemological Issues
- Since the subjects of religious experiences tend to take them to bereal experiences of some external reality, we may ask what reason thereis to think they are right. That is to say, do religious experiencesamount to good reasons for religious belief? One answer to thatquestion is what is often called the Argument from ReligiousExperience: Religious experiences are in all relevant res…
The Diverse Objects of Religious Experience
- Just as there are a variety of religions, each with its own claimsabout the nature of reality, there are a variety of objects and statesof affairs that the subjects of these experiences claim to be awareof. Much analytic philosophy of religion has been done in Europe andthe nations descended from Europe, so much of the discussion has beenin terms of God as conceived of in the Jewish, …