Religious Experience
● Illumination - When the Biblical writers wrote their books, the Holy Spirit illuminated their minds with the
truth - in intellectual visions, the vision illuminates the soul without a visual image.
● Supernatural - ‘Beyond the forces of nature’
● Mysticism - A religious tendency and desire of the human soul towards an intimate union with the Divinity
(Catholic Encyclopaedia).
● Dogma - A belief/set of beliefs accepted by the members of a group without being questioned/doubted.
● Creed - A brief authoritative formula of religious belief, e.g., the Nicene Creed.
● Non-sensuous - Not involving the senses.
● Non-intellectual - The ‘I’ of the rational intellect is replaced by ‘pure consciousness’.
● Proviso - A condition/qualification attached to an agreement or statement.
● Onus - Something that is one's duty or responsibility.
● Third-person public - Someone else can confirm your claims as to what you see and hear.
● Covenant - An agreement.
● Quantum mechanics - The science of the interactions between sub-atomic particles.
Nature of Religious Experience: Visions
Corporeal Visions:
These are a form of empirical religious experience (an experience had via the five senses). One of the most common
forms of religious experience is that of seeing God via nature, e.g., via a beautiful sunset or mountain scenery - God is
seen through or by means of the object. Corporeal visions come through the physical sense of light as the experiencer
sees a supernatural vision of an object that is really present. Light from the object strikes the retina, and the object is
seen as one would see a chair or tree.
Bernadette Soubirous -
● Had 18 visions in total, in the course of which she experienced a vision of a ‘small young lady’ dressed in white
and a blue waist belt, who identified herself as the ‘Immaculate Conception’ (the Virgin Mary).
● The visions were accompanied by the appearance of a spring of water, which has been the source of 69
documented ‘miracles’, for which it is claimed there are no scientific explanations.
● The vision was:
○ Corporeal - Visual as she saw the physical body of Mary, and auditory as Mary said to her, ‘I am the
Immaculate Conception’.
○ Private - She was the only one who saw the vision despite her sister and friend being nearby and not
having seen anything.
○ Religiously significant - The figure identified themselves as the Virgin Mary and gave Bernadette
instructions to wash in the spring and to build a chapel there. Lourdes has become an international
pilgrimage site with millions of pilgrims each year.
○ Similarities with other visions - Similar with other visions, e.g., Joan of Arc as both visions were
accompanied by voices and visions of light.
Joan of Arc -
● From age 12, she experienced visions of angels, saints, and voices which led her to bring renewal to the
French nation. She then led the French to victory in the Hundred Years War.
● At trial for heresy and for wearing male military clothing, she said her visions were as real as seeing an actual
person with her ‘bodily eyes’.
● The visions were often accompanied by heavenly light.
Imaginative Visions:
These are where the experiencer has no power to direct the experience, which is a sign that it comes from God. This
is different to corporeal visions where the experiencer can interact with what is seen/heard. The imaginative vision is
given to the experiencer without being perceived by the normal processes of sight. They occur most frequently in
dreams, where the experience is ‘seen’ or imagined with the ‘eye of the mind’, and what is seen is completely beyond
the individual’s control.
, Pharaoh’s Dream (Genesis 41) -
● The Pharaoh receives two dream visions neither him, his magicians, nor his wise men can interpret - one
where 7 thin cows devour 7 fat cows, and another where seven withered ears of grain devour seven fat ears.
● However, Joseph, a young Hebrew in prison who was sold into slavery, can interpret dreams, and he tells
Pharaoh the vision is a warning from God that the seven years of plenty will be followed by seven years of
famine, so Pharaoh should store surplus grain.
● The vision…
○ Was a dream experience - A vision beyond the Pharaoh’s control, seen with the eye of the mind.
○ Was vivid and had a dramatic effect on Pharaoh - Pharaoh was well aware the dream was not an
ordinary one, so he knew it needed to be interpreted.
○ Entered Pharaoh’s imagination via God’s agency - Therefore, Jospeh tells him that God revealed to
him what He is about to do. The Pharaoh also recognises that Joseph is directed by the ‘Spirit of God’,
which is the source of Joseph’s illumination and intellectual power.
○ Allowed Pharaoh to avoid starvation - By God’s power, Pharaoh was able to save Egypt from
starvation by storing the surplus grain. He places Joseph in charge of Egyptian land, and he is
eventually reunited with his family from which he was separated when he was sold into slavery.
Joseph’s Dream (Matthew 2:13-15) -
● An angel appears to Joseph in a dream and tells him to take Mary and Jesus to Egypt because King Herod is
searching for Jesus to kill him. Joseph obeys, staying in Egypt until the death of Herod. Matthew also adds that
the effect of the vision is to fulfil the ancient prophecy of Hosea 11:1.
● Joseph’s dream is similar to that of Pharaoh’s:
○ The vision of the angel appears as a dream in Joseph’s mind.
○ The effect is dramatic as he instantly arises and takes Mary and Jesus to Egypt.
○ The vision is from God, by the agency of the angel.
○ The result is that Jesus is taken out of harm’s way, and the prophecy is fulfilled.
Intellectual Visions:
Corporeal visions are seen by the eyes, imaginative visions are seen by the eye of the mind - intellectual visions have
no image. However, those who experience these visions claim to ‘see’ things as they really are. The experience of
intellectual visions are an ‘illumination’ of the soul. These are mystical visions, and those who have them claim they
cannot be described as using ordinary language.
Teresa of Avila -
● While praying, Teresa felt Christ by her. She saw nothing with her ‘eyes of the body’ or ‘eyes of the soul’ (so
the vision was not corporeal), and she believed He was near and speaking to her. She was very afraid at first,
and did nothing but cry, but when he spoke a word, she was comforted. She had a distinct feeling that Jesus
was on her right-hand side. She saw Jesus as he really was: not as an image, but as a ‘presence’.
● Teresa described the ‘light’ of an intellectual vision is an ‘illumination’ of the understanding of the soul. Such
visions give spiritual illumination, so they can be about the world of the Holy Spirit, God, the Trinity, and in
particular for Teresa, the awareness of the presence of Jesus. To Teresa, they represent the highest level of
mystical union with God, and they reflect the desire to contemplate God as He really is.
Nature of Religious Experience: Numinous Experiences (Otto)
Religious experiences are encounters with the Holy, as in the call experiences of Moses (where God called Moses
from the Burning Bush) and Isaiah (where he sees God in the Jerusalem Temple with seraphim who call to each other
‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts…’ - the repetition is the strongest form of emphasis used in Old Testament
Hebrew, highlighting how God’s essence is holiness). Otto doesn’t focus on ‘holy’ in the moral sense, but in the sense
of God being ‘transcendent’ and ‘numinous’.
‘Numinous’ relates to the power/presence of a deity - Otto argues the numinous is common to all religious
experience, regardless of religion or culture. Otto defines numinous experiences as non-rational, non-sensory
experiences or feelings whose primary and immediate object is outside the self.
Religious experience itself is of God as the wholly other, and God is inherently different from anything and everything
else, and is beyond the natural world. The wholly other is beyond apprehension or comprehension - it cannot be
grasped or perceived. The numinous is God or the wholly other.
