Religious Experiences Across Different Faiths

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Bernadette’s experience reflects both types of Saint Teresa’s religious experience. It was a real vision where the beautiful woman could not only be seen with the eyes but also felt beside her. The religious experience of Bernadette also coincides with several of William James’ marks of a mystical experience. Her experience possesses noetic quality because she was presented with the knowledge of how to repent and how to build the chapel, which was something practical and necessary. Also, Bernadette actively went to the grotto calling for the visions and was being superiorly controlled while digging the stream, which suggests that she was in suspension of her actions in the experience and leads to fulfilling the passivity mark of William James’ mystical experiences.

Non-western religious experiences are slightly different than western religious experiences. For example, Buddhist mysticism focuses on examination and perspectives rather than receiving an experience from a being of higher power. In the case of Buddha, he departed from his home in search for answers when experiencing unhappiness with the general state of the public. Buddha experienced an unexpected enlightenment one day while seated beneath a tree that permitted Buddha to view life in a new light. Buddha then became the Enlightened One and went on to be a world teacher, which brought about the start of Buddhism.

The enlightenment of Buddha possesses William James’ mark of noetic quality for Buddha learned something that brought great value to his life and changed his way of life for the better. Since he didn’t remain in this mystical state for very long, the enlightenment had a transient quality to it. In addition to its transiency and noetic quality, Buddha’s experience possesses a sense of ineffability because it defied expression since he was unable to express the experience in adequate terms.

With the existence of the multitude of religions, comes the inability to pinpoint an exact definition of what a religious experience is. There will always be opposing interpretations amidst significances of an experience. However, similarities can be drawn between completely different sectors of religion, including both western and non-western religions. The four marks of William James provide an opportunity to compare religious experiences across a broad spectrum, even though there is diversity in the definitions of mystical experiences throughout many religions.

Bibliography

Peterson, Michael, William Hasker, Bruce Reichenbach, and David Basinger. Philosophy of

Religion. 4th ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010.

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