In depth exemplar essay graded 18/20 by a teacher. The essay includes many examples to link with Otto’s identification of numinous experiences and also refers to James.
Explain mystical experience with reference to Otto (20 marks)
Otto, in The Idea of the Holy (1917), was concerned with James' notion of religious experiences
being empirical. Instead he developed a new schematisation of religious experiences and
created the category of numinous. Whilst mystical experiences are those where people lose
their sense of self Otto identified five features of numinous (a feeling of something greater than
yourself) experiences. He also recognised the mysterium tremendum and that people were
predisposed to have religious experiences.
Otto identified that numinous religious experiences were beyond the realm of reason and often
defied description. He noted that the participant felt a sense of insignificance which he termed
creature consciousness - being aware of existing yet being of nothing. The numinous
experience was wholly other, nothing like a normal life. The overwhelming sense of fear in the
presence of the divine, a simultaneous love and fascination of God and ultimately a state of
bliss or ecstasy. For example, Prophet Muhammed's Night Journey could be categorised as a
numinous experience as he was transported to the Dome on the Rock and made him feel
insignificant, this was clearly nothing like his existence on earth and he felt the twin fear and
love for Allah. He also was clearly in rapture for his love for God and this manifested itself as an
overwhelming sense of peace.
Otto sought to further describe and explain what numinous religious experiences were
comprised of and he used the term Mysterium tremendum to do this. He identified three more
components which were mysterium - a mystery "wholly other" and beyond human boundaries
such as when Saul was blinded on the road to Damascus. Tremendum - a feeling of awe and
dread such as when the Burning Bush spoke to Moses. Also, fascinans the pull or attraction of
the experience, the inability to pull themselves away for example, when Bernadette had the
vision of Mary at the grotto in Lourdes.
Otto thought that James had not understood why religious experiences occurred and he saw it
that all humans had the ability to have numinous experiences and the spiritual realm. He
believed that these could not be taught and not everyone was equally receptive to receiving
them.
For Otto humans have developed through various stages of spiritual development, for example
primitive humans had daemonic dread - a sense of dread inspired by numinous experiences
and felt today when we hear ghost stories. However, as humans developed we now have
Christianity which is a more sophisticated spirituality such as St Teresa of Avila who had visions
of Christ and then formed her Garden and Mansion analogies to communicate what happened.
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