PHL235H1 Chapter Notes - Chapter James: Christian Mysticism, Scholarly Approaches Of Mysticism, Religious Experience
Document Summary
William james: religious experience as the root of religion. Personal religious experience has root in mystical experiences/states of consciousness. Ineffability: too great or extreme to be described in words, no one who has had a mystical experience can transfer/describe it to other accurately. Simple: deepened significance of a maxim/formula/belief: a d j vu feeling, dreamy states, experiences in nature, these all occur sporadically. Buddhism: four stages of dhyanya (higher states of contemplation) Sufism (hindu influenced islam: aims to detach the heart from all that is not god/total absorption of god, purging the heart of everything but god. Intuitions and revelations are only the very beginning. Incommunicable transport: an immediate perception/knowing like touching objects with the hand: what the prophets can achieve. General traits of mystic state of consciousness: pantheistic, opposite of pessimistic - anti naturalistic, harmonizes best with twice bornness and otherworldly states of mind.
