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Summary Religious Experience Notes
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Religious experience notes OCR RS Alevel
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Religious Experience NotesReligious experience – are these individual experiences in themselves convincing or not.
Most are said to be mystical which means a person feels a sense of union with the divine.
(Narcissism?)
As human beings we have a psychological need to feel loved and connected. As tiny babies
are vulnerable, we need caregivers. As adults we still have that deep rooted need,
projection of an idea of God could be produced through a psychological need to not be
alone.
Dreams being interpreted as a religious experience
Visions – seeing religious figure appear before them
Seeing God – visions
Pentecostal (domination of Christianity) more of an emphasis on holy spirit. – lively.
Speaking in tongues.
Catholics going to lords and being healed in water (miracles) – someone saw the
virgin, Mary. – bathing in water, healed from all kinds of conditions.
Bread, and turning water into wine, Jesus’s resurrection, and parting of the sea.
In death –
Ayahuasca – burning man festival – religious experience. which acts on specific
subtypes of serotonin receptors – not actually religious experience.
Religious experience research unit was founded in 1969 by sir Alister hardy to discover more
about religious experience.
For those who have religious experiences, these phenomena have authority and convince
them that their religious beliefs are true, in some cases.
Terry Virgo – Christian, speaking in tongues – speaking in hidden languages that God
understands but we don’t. Speaking another language that we don’t know. – close to God.
The fact that religious people see visions within the religion you know – it is psychological,
our psychology trying to prove something.
Various types of religious experiences =
Indirect
Direct
ineffable
Mystical experience: Experience where the recipient feels a sense of union with the divine.
Mysticism involved the spiritual recognition of truths beyond normal understanding.
, Ineffable experience – The experience of God goes far beyond the human powers of
description. The person is unable to describe the experience or not do it justice.
Noetic – The person receives knowledge of the divine which is not otherwise available. The
experience is therefore a direct revelation from God.
Conversion – The adoption of a new religious belief that differs from a previously held belief.
The effects of religious experience are lifechanging
Vision – A religious vision occurs when an individual believes they have seen or heard
something supernatural or a supernatural being.
Corporate experiences – when a group of people have the same or very similar experiences
at the same place, at the same time.
Neurotheology
St Paul – Road to Domascus – similar to the thing you here from patients of temporal lobe
epilepsy. Seizures that predisposed them to these beliefs. But this is impossible to know.
Experiment - Compared brains of people with or without temporal lobe epilepsy.
Found neutral words produced less emotions. Sweating was higher with biblical/religious
words – linked to activity in temporal lobe of the brain. Temporal lobes are key in
experiencing religious belief.
DR PERSINGER:
Don Hill Experience – rushes of energy, feeling of malaise. Could not get rid of the feeling
that there was something there, something was coming from behind. Paranoia. The sensed
Prescence. When the machine was on 80% sensed a Prescence.
Girl was being haunted. Girls’ hallucinations would be caused by hidden or fluctuating
magnetic fields. Clock has an unusual pattern. Same pattern they were using to create sense
in laboratory. The clock was removed and the haunted ended.
Dr Persinger planned to apply a range of magnetic fields across Richard Dawkins brain. He
just felt relaxed. Dr Persinger believes it didn’t work as his Temporal lobe sensitivity is very
low that’s why it didn’t work.
Area of parietal lobe had less blood in them in peak of meditation process, parietal lobe
gives us a sense of time and place. Buddhists seek a feeling of oneness with the earth.
Catholics search for uno mystica.
Furthermore, Franciscan nuns – decrease of blood in parietal lobe at prayer. Is this an
argument for pluralism?
Belief in religion as a form of survival Evolution: Studies have shown believers live longer
and have lower rates of cancer. Survival value of religious belief. Survival value of the kind of
brain that manifests itself in religious belief. Ties in well with Freuds Idea that religious belief
is coping mechanism.
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