Religious experience

Religious experience (sometimes known as a spiritual experience, sacred experience, or mystical experience) is a subjective experience where an individual reports contact with a transcendent reality, an encounter or union with the divine.
A religious experience is most commonly known as an occurrence that is uncommon in the sense that it doesn’t fit in with the norm of everyday activities and life experiences, and its connection is with the individual's perception of the divine. Studying religious experience objectively is a difficult task, as it is entirely a subjective phenomenon. However, commonalities and differences between religious experiences have enabled scholars to categorize them for academic study 
Many religious and mystical traditions see religious experiences as real encounters with God or gods, or real contact with other realities,The Argument from Religious Experience http://www.philosophyofreligion.info/?page_id=41 while some hold that religious experience is an evolved feature of the human brain amenable to normal scientific study.
Differing religious traditions have described this fundamental religious experience in different ways:
* Nullification and absorption within God's Infinite Light (Chassidic schools of Judaism)
* Complete detachment from the world (Kaivalya in some schools of Hinduism, including Sankhya and Yoga; Jhana in Buddhism)
* Liberation from the cycles of Karma (Moksha in Sikhism, Jainism and Hinduism, Nirvana In Buddhism)
* Deep intrinsic connection to the world (Satori in Mahayana Buddhism, Te in Taoism)
* Union with God (Henosis in Neoplatonism and Theosis in Christianity, Brahma-Prapti or Brahma-Nirvana in Hinduism)
* Innate Knowledge (Irfan and fitra in Islam)
* Experience of one's true blissful nature (Samadhi or Svarupa-Avirbhava in Hinduism)
== Definitions ==
=== William James' definition ===
Psychologist and Philosopher William James described four characteristics of religious / mystical experience in The Varieties of Religious Experience. According to James, such an experience is:
* Transient -- the experience is temporary; the individual soon returns to a "normal" frame of mind.
* Ineffable -- the experience cannot be adequately put into words.
* Noetic -- the individual feels that he or she has learned something valuable from the experience.
* Passive -- the experience happens to the individual, largely without conscious control. Although there are activities, such as meditation (see below), that can make religious experience more likely, it is not something that can be turned on and off at will.
=== Norman Habel's definition ===
Habel defines religious experiences as the structured way in which a believer enters into a relationship with, or gains an awareness of, the sacred within the context of a particular religious tradition (Habel, O'Donoghue and Maddox: 1993).Religious experiences are by their very nature preternatural; that is, out of the ordinary or beyond the natural order of things. They may be difficult to distinguish observationally from psychopathological states such as psychoses or other forms of altered awareness (Charlesworth: 1988). Not all preternatural experiences are considered to be religious experiences. Following Habel's definition, psychopathological states or drug-induced states of awareness are not considered to be religious experiences because they are mostly not performed within the context of a particular religious tradition.
Moore and Habel identify two classes of religious experiences: the immediate and the mediated religious experience (Moore and Habel: 1982).
* Mediated -- In the mediated experience, the believer experiences the sacred through mediators such as rituals, special persons, religious groups, totemic objects or the natural world (Habel et al.: 1993).
* Immediate -- The immediate experience comes to the believer without any intervening agency or mediator. The deity or divine is experienced directly
=== Richard Swinburne's definition===
In his book Faith and Reason, the philosopher Richard Swinburne formulated five categories into which all religious experiences fall:
* Public -- a believer 'sees God's hand at work', whereas other explanations are possible e.g. looking at a beautiful sunset
* Public -- an unusual event that breaches natural law e.g. walking on water
* Private -- describable using normal language e.g. Jacob's vision of a ladder
* Private -- indescribable using normal language, usually a mystical experience e.g. "white did not cease to be white, nor black cease to be black, but black became white and white became black."
* Private -- a non-specific, general feeling of God working in one's life.
Swinburne also suggested two principles for the assessment of religious experiences:
* Principle of Credulity -- with the absence of any reason to disbelieve it, one should accept what appears to be true e.g. if one sees someone walking on water, one should believe that it is occurring.
* Principle of Testimony -- with the absence of any reason to disbelieve them, one should accept that eyewitnesses or believers are telling the truth when they testify about religious experiences.
===Classical definitions===
Numinous -- The German thinker Rudolf Otto (1869-1937) argues that there is one common factor to all religious experience, independent of the cultural background. In his book The Idea of the Holy (1923) he identifies this factor as the numinous. The “numinous” experience has two aspects: mysterium tremendum, which is the tendency to invoke fear and trembling; and mysterium fascinas, the tendency to attract, fascinate and compel. The numinous experience also has a personal quality to it, in that the person feels to be in communion with a wholly other. Otto sees the numinous as the only possible religious experience. He states: "There is no religion in which it [the numinous] does not live as the real innermost core and without it no religion would be worthy of the name" (Otto: 1972). Otto does not take any other kind of religious experience such as ecstasy and enthusiasm seriously and is of the opinion that they belong to the 'vestibule of religion'.
Ecstasy -- In ecstasy the believer is understood to have a soul or spirit which can leave the body. In ecstasy the focus is on the soul leaving the body and to experience transcendental realities. This type of religious experience is characteristic for the shaman.
Enthusiasm --In enthusiasm - or possession - God is understood to be outside, other than or beyond the believer. A sacred power, being or will enters the body or mind of an individual and possesses it. A person capable of being possessed is sometimes called a medium. The deity, spirit or power uses such a person to communicate to the immanent world. Lewis argues that ecstasy and possession are basically one and the same experience, ecstasy being merely one form which possession may take. The outward manifestation of the phenomenon is the same in that shamans appear to be possessed by spirits, act as their mediums, and even though they claim to have mastery over them, can lose that mastery (Lewis: 1986).
Mystical -- Mystical experiences are in many ways the opposite of numinous experiences. In the mystical experience, all 'otherness' disappear and the believer becomes one with the transcendent. The believer discovers that he or she is not distinct from the cosmos, the deity or the other reality, but one with it. Zaehner has identified two distinctively different mystical experiences: natural and religious mystical experiences (Charlesworth: 1988). Natural mystical experiences are, for example, experiences of the 'deeper self' or experiences of oneness with nature. Zaehner argues that the experiences typical of 'natural mysticism' are quite different from the experiences typical of religious mysticism (Charlesworth: 1988). Natural mystical experiences are not considered to be religious experiences because they are not linked to a particular tradition, but natural mystical experiences are spiritual experiences that can have a profound effect on the individual. 
Spiritual awakening -- A spiritual awakening is a Religious experience involving a realization or opening to a sacred dimension of reality. Often a spiritual awakening has lasting effects upon one's life. The term "spiritual awakening" may be used to refer to any of a wide range of experiences including being born again, near-death experiences, and mystical experiences such as liberation and enlightenment.
== Explanations of religious experience ==
=== Religious and mystical points of view ===
==== Sufism ====
While all Muslims believe that they are on the pathway to God and will become close to God in Paradise — after death and after the "Final Judgment" — Sufis believe that it is possible to become close to God and to experience this closeness while one is alive.Sufism, Sufis, and Sufi Orders: Sufism's Many Paths 
Sufis believe in a tripartite way to God as explained by a tradition attributed to the Prophet,"The Shariah are my words (aqwal), the tariqa are my actions (amal), and the haqiqa is my interior states (ahwal)". Shariah, tariqa and haqiqa are mutually interdependent. 
The tariqa, the ‘path’ on which the mystics walk, has been defined as ‘the path which comes out of the Shariah, for the main road is called shar, the path, tariq.’ No mystical experience can be realized if the binding injunctions of the Shariah are not followed faithfully first. The path, tariqa, however, is narrower and more difficult to walk. It leads the adept, called salik (wayfarer), in his suluk (wandering), through different stations (maqam) until he reaches his goal, the perfect tauhid, the existential confession that God is One.Annemarie Schimmel, Mystical Dimensions of Islam (1975) pg.99
==== Christian mysticism ====
left|thumb|Three early Methodist leaders, Charles Wesley, John Wesley, and Francis Asbury, portrayed in stained glass at the Memorial Chapel, Lake Junaluska, North Carolina
Christian doctrine generally maintains that God dwells in all Christians and that they can experience God directly through belief in Jesus,John 7:16–39 Christian mysticism aspires to apprehend spiritual truths inaccessible through intellectual means, typically by emulation of Christ. William Inge divides this scala perfectionis into three stages: the "purgative" or ascetic stage, the "illuminative" or contemplative stage, and the third, "unitive" stage, in which God may be beheld "face to face."Christian Mysticism (1899 Bampton Lectures)
The third stage, usually called contemplation in the Western tradition, refers to the experience of oneself as united with God in some way. The experience of union varies, but it is first and foremost always associated with a reuniting with Divine love. The underlying theme here is that God, the perfect goodness,Theologia Germanica, public domain is known or experienced at least as much by the heart as by the intellect since, in the words of 1 John 4:16: "God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God and God in him." Some approaches to classical mysticism would consider the first two phases as preparatory to the third, explicitly mystical experience; but others state that these three phases overlap and intertwine.
==== Hesychasm ====
Based on Christ's injunction in the Gospel of Matthew to "go into your closet to pray",Matthew 6:5–6 (King James Version) hesychasm in tradition has been the process of retiring inward by ceasing to register the senses, in order to achieve an experiential knowledge of God (see theoria).
The highest goal of the hesychast is the experiential knowledge of God. In the 14th Century, the possibility of this experiential knowledge of God was challenged by a Calabrian monk, Barlaam, who, although he was formally a member of the Orthodox Church, had been trained in Western Scholastic theology. Barlaam asserted that our knowledge of God can only be propositional. The practice of the hesychasts was defended by St. Gregory Palamas. 
In solitude and retirement the hesychast repeats the Jesus Prayer, "Lord Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner."He considers bare repetition of the Jesus Prayer as a mere string of syllables, perhaps with a 'mystical' inner meaning beyond the overt verbal meaning, to be worthless or even dangerous. 
==== Neoplatonism ====
Neoplatonism is the modern term for a school of religious and mystical philosophy that took shape in the 3rd century AD, founded by Plotinus and based on the teachings of Plato and earlier Platonists.
Neoplatonism teaches that along the same road by which it descended the soul must retrace its steps back to the supreme Good. It must first of all return to itself. This is accomplished by the practice of virtue, which aims at likeness to God, and leads up to God. By means of ascetic observances the human becomes once more a spiritual and enduring being, free from all sin. But there is still a higher attainment; it is not enough to be sinless, one must become "God", (henosis). This is reached through contemplation of the primeval Being, the One - in other words, through an ecstatic approach to it.
It is only in a state of perfect passivity and repose that the soul can recognize and touch the primeval Being. Hence the soul must first pass through a spiritual curriculum. Beginning with the contemplation of corporeal things in their multiplicity and harmony, it then retires upon itself and withdraws into the depths of its own being, rising thence to the nous, the world of ideas. But even there it does not find the Highest, the One; it still hears a voice saying, "not we have made ourselves." The last stage is reached when, in the highest tension and concentration, beholding in silence and utter forgetfulness of all things, it is able as it were to lose itself. Then it may see God, the foundation of life, the source of being, the origin of all good, the root of the soul. In that moment it enjoys the highest indescribable bliss; it is as it were swallowed up of divinity, bathed in the light of eternity. Porphyry tells us that on four occasions during the six years of their intercourse Plotinus attained to this ecstatic union with God.
=== History of modern science and religion view ===
In the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries, several historical figures put forth very influential views that religion and its beliefs can be grounded in experience itself. While Kant held that moral experience justified religious beliefs, John Wesley in addition to stressing individual moral exertion thought that the religious experiences in the Methodist movement (paralleling the Romantic Movement) were foundational to religious commitment as a way of life.Issues in Science and Religion, Ian Barbour, Prentice-Hall, 1966, page 68, 79 In the 19th century, Friedrich Schleiermacher and Albert Ritschl continued and extended this view that human (moral and religious) experience justifies religious beliefs.
Such religious empiricism would be later seen as highly problematic and was—during the period in-between world wars—famously rejected by Karl Barth.Issues in Science and Religion, Ian Barbour, Prentice-Hall, 1966, page 114, 116-119 In the 20th century, religious as well as moral experience as justification for religious beliefs still holds sway. Some influential modern scholars holding this liberal theological view are Charles Raven and the Oxford physicist/theologian Charles Coulson.Issues in Science and Religion, Ian Barbour, Prentice-Hall, 1966, p. 126-127
== Scientific studies on religious experience ==
There are many areas of science that explore the religious experience like Neurotheology, Transpersonal psychology, Psychology of religion, and Genetics
===Psychology===
====Transpersonal psychology====
Transpersonal psychology is a school of psychology that studies the transpersonal, self-transcendent or spiritual aspects of the human experience. The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology describes transpersonal psychology as "the study of humanity’s highest potential, and with the recognition, understanding, and realization of unitive, spiritual, and transcendent states of consciousness" (Lajoie and Shapiro, 1992:91). Issues considered in transpersonal psychology include spiritual self-development, peak experiences, mystical experiences, systemic trance and other metaphysical experiences of living.
U.S. psychologist and philosopher William James (1842-1910) is regarded by most psychologists of religion as the founder of the field. His Varieties of Religious Experience is considered to be the classic work in the field, and references to James' ideas are common at professional conferences. 
James distinguished between institutional religion and personal religion. Institutional religion refers to the religious group or organization, and plays an important part in a society's culture. Personal religion, in which the individual has mystical experience, can be experienced regardless of the culture. 
==== Psychology of religion ====
Psychology of religion is the psychological study of religious experiences, beliefs, and activities.
===== Carl Jung =====
Carl Jung's work on himself and his patients convinced him that life has a spiritual purpose beyond material goals. Our main task, he believed, is to discover and fulfil our deep innate potential, much as the acorn contains the potential to become the oak, or the caterpillar to become the butterfly. Based on his study of Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, Gnosticism, Taoism, and other traditions, Jung perceived that this journey of transformation is at the mystical heart of all religions. It is a journey to meet the self and at the same time to meet the Divine. Unlike Sigmund Freud, Jung thought spiritual experience was essential to our well-being.
The notion of the numinous was an important concept in the writings of Carl Jung. Jung regarded numinous experiences as fundamental to an understanding of the individuation process because of their association with experiences of synchronicity in which the presence of archetypes is felt 
===Neuroscience===
====Neurotheology====
Neurotheology, also known as biotheology or spiritual neuroscience, is the study of correlations of neural phenomena with subjective experiences of spirituality and hypotheses to explain these phenomena. Proponents of neurotheology claim that there is a neurological and evolutionary basis for subjective experiences traditionally categorized as spiritual or religious.
According to the neurotheologist Andrew B. Newberg, neurological processes which are driven by the repetitive, rhythmic stimulation which is typical of human ritual, and which contribute to the delivery of transcendental feelings of connection to a universal unity. They posit, however, that physical stimulation alone is not sufficient to generate transcendental unitive experiences. For this to occur they say there must be a blending of the rhythmic stimulation with ideas. Once this occurs "…ritual turns a meaningful idea into a visceral experience." Moreover, they say that humans are compelled to act out myths by the biological operations of the brain due to what they call the "inbuilt tendency of the brain to turn thoughts into actions".
==== Studies of the brain and religious experience ====
Early studies in the 1950s and 1960s attempted to use EEGs to study brain wave patterns correlated with "spiritual" states. During the 1980s Dr. Michael Persinger stimulated the temporal lobes of human subjects "'God on the Brain?" BBC with a weak magnetic field. His subjects claimed to have a sensation of "an ethereal presence in the room."."'This Is Your Brain on God" Wired Some current studies use neuroimaging to localize brain regions active, or differentially active, during religious experiences."'Neural correlates of religious experience." NCBI"' From Brain Imaging Religious Experience to Explaining Religion: A Critique." Ingenta Connect"' The new science of neurotheology." Wordpress
=== Genetic studies ===
The God gene hypothesis states that some human beings bear a gene which gives them a predisposition to episodes interpreted by some as religious revelation. According to this hypothesis, the God gene (VMAT2), is not an encoding for the belief in God Him self, but a physiological arrangement that produces the sensations associated, by some, with the presence of God or other mystical experiences, or more specifically spirituality as a state of mind. Simply put, the gene is involved in the breakdown of monoamines, a class of neurotransmitters which contribute to an individual's emotional sensitivity. The loose interpretation is that monoamines correlate with a personality trait called self-transcendence. Composed of three sub-sets, self-transcendence is composed of "self-forgetfulness" (as in the tendency to become totally absorbed in some activity, such as reading); "transpersonal identification" (a feeling of connectedness to a larger universe); and "mysticism" (an openness to believe things not literally provable, such as ESP)."'Nature Magazine Book Review - The God Gene: How Faith is Hardwired Into Our Genes" Nature Magazine"'Is God in Our Genes?" Time Magazine
== Causes of religious experiences ==
thumb|200px|Sufi whirling
* Meditation"'Divining the brain" Salon.com (URL accessed on September 20, 2006)
* Praying "'Exploring the biology of religious experience" NRC online
* Music "'The Emotional Effects of Music on Religious Experience: A Study of the Pentecostal-Charismatic Style of Music and Worship " Sage Journals
* Dance, such as:
** Sufi whirling"'ufis seek ultimate religious experience through mystic trances or altered states of consciousness, often induced through twirling dances " Sufism: New Age Spirituality Dictionary
* Extreme pain, such as:
** Mortification of the flesh"'Self-inflicted Pain in Religious Experience " www.faithfaq.com (URL accessed on July 11, 2006)
* Profound sexual activity,*Deida, David. Finding God Through Sex ISBN 1-59179-273-8 
* Use of Entheogens, such as:
** Ayahuasca (Dimethyltryptamine) "'Psychedelics and Religious Experience " Alan Watts http://deoxy.org/ (URL accessed on July 11, 2006)
** Salvia divinorum (Salvinorin A) "'Those who think of the salvia experience in religious, spiritual, or mystical terms may speak of such things as enlightenment, satori, and "cleansing the doors of perception." " sagewisdom.org (URL accessed on August 26, 2007)
** Peyote (Mescaline) "'A Note on the Safety of Peyote when Used Religiously. " www.csp.org Council on Spiritual Practices (URL accessed on July 11, 2006)
** Psilocybe cubensis (Psilocybin) "'Drug's Mystical Properties Confirmed " www.washingtonpost.com (URL accessed on July 11, 2006)
** Amanita muscaria (Muscimol)"'The Psychology of Religion: An Empirical Approach. " Conuncil on Spiritual Practices (URL accessed on July 11, 2006)
* Psychological or neurophysiological anomalies, such as:
** Profound depressionKatie, Byron. Loving What Is page xi ISBN 1-4000-4537-1 or schizophrenia
** Temporal lobe epilepsy"'God on the Brain " http://news.bbc.co.uk (URL accessed on March 20, 2003)
** Stroke"My Stroke of Insight" http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_stroke_of_insight.html (URL accessed on July 2, 2008)
* Near-death experienceMoody, Raymond. Life After Life ISBN 0-06-251739-2
* The influence of God / supreme being
== See also ==
* Religious ecstasy
* Argument from religious experience
* Cognitive science of religion
* Enlightenment (spiritual)
* Entheogens
* Higher consciousness
* Kundalini
* Neurotheology
* Nirvana
* Numinosum
* Mysticism
* Psychology of religion
* Religious Experience Research Centre‎
* Religious revival
* Samadhi
* Self-knowledge
* Spiritual crisis
* The Varieties of Religious Experience
* Transcendence (religion)
* Transpersonal psychology
* Turiya
==Notes==
==References==
* Charlesworth, Max (1988). Religious experience. Unit A. Study guide 2 (Deakin University).
* Habel, Norman, O'Donoghue, Michael and Maddox, Marion (1993). 'Religious experience'. In: Myth, ritual and the sacred. Introducing the phenomena of religion (Underdale: University of South Australia).
* Lewis, Ioan M (1986). Religion in context: cults and charisma (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
* Moore, B and Habel N (1982). Appendix 1. In: When religion goes to school (Adelaide: SACAE), pages 184-218.
* Otto, Rudolf (1972). Chapters 2-5. In: The idea of the holy (London: Oxford University Press), pages 5–30. [Originally published in 1923].
* Prevos, Peter (1998). Omgaan met het transcendente (Dealing with the transcendent). Open University of the Netherlands.
* Moody, Raymond. Life After Life ISBN 0-06-251739-2
* 
* Deida, David. Finding God Through Sex ISBN 1-59179-273-8
* Katie, Byron. Loving What Is page xi ISBN 1-4000-4537-1
* Roberts, T. B. (editor) (2001). Psychoactive Sacramentals: Essays on Entheogens and Religion. San Francosco: Council on Spiritual Practices. 
* Roberts, T. B., and Hruby, P. J. (1995-2002). Religion and Psychoactive Sacraments An Entheogen Chrestomathy. Online archive. 
* Roberts, T. B. "Chemical Input—Religious Output: Entheogens." Chapter 10 in Where God and Science Meet: Vol. 3: The Psychology of Religious Experience Robert McNamara (editor)(2006). Westport, CT: Praeger/Greenwood.
==Further reading==
*Batson, C. D., & Ventis, W. L. (1982). The religious experience: A social-psychological perspective. New York: Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-503030-2
*Main, R. (2007). Revelations of chance: Synchronicity as spiritual experience. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, ISBN 0791470245
*Sacco, R. G. (2009). Mystical experience: A psychological perspective. BookSurge Publishing, ISBN 978-1-4392-1629-3
== External links ==
* Peru: Hell and Back National Geographic explores the uses of Ayahuasca in Shamanic healing
* Is This Your Brain On God? (May 2009 week long NPR series)
 
Category:Mysticism
Category:Spirituality
Category:Religion and science
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pt:Experiência religiosa