First of all what is a faith. Harmonizing to Immanuel Kant Religion is the acknowledgment of all responsibilities as Godhead bids, non as countenances, i.e. arbitrary and contingent regulations of a foreign will, but as indispensable Torahs of any free will as such “ . Another popular definition is by Karl Marx Religion is the general theory of this universe, its encyclopedic collection, its logic in popular signifier, its religious point d’honneur, its enthusiasm, its moral countenance, its grave complement, and its cosmopolitan footing of solace and justification. I can travel on and on, there are infinite definitions of faith. My personal definition of faith is that it is a province of head in which an person feels a demand to be capable to a superior being, and hence makes these beliefs as a manner of his or her mundane life. They are several types of faith Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hindu, Buddhism, etc. But the major types of faith are Christianity and Islam. Every faith is believed to hold people who have had a religious or spiritual experience. All these faiths have some popular figures that have had an brush with a supernatural being and have told the narrative of this brush which has turned their life ‘s around for the better. They believe that this experience is scared, For illustration they are other popular illustrations of these experiences, in Islam “ the Great Prophet Muhammad was said to be in a cave on Jabal al-Nour, when he received his first disclosure from Allah ( Qur’an 96 ) ” . “ Arjuna was in a chariot on a battleground, when Krishna revealed his deity to him ” . “ Guru Nanak, the laminitis of Sikhism, was bathing in a river when he was taken into the presence of God, and shown that there was one Godhead world behind the universe ( Guru Granth Sahib p.1 ) . ” This examples show that spiritual experiences are really frightened in faith, and play a really of import function in a spiritual person ‘s mundane life.
There are different ways to look at spiritual experiences ; we can look at its catholicity, Diversity and its importance to faith.
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Universality: Its is a cosmopolitan phenomenon, which is anyone at any point in clip could see, for illustration in the bible when Moses was out be givening to his father-in-law ‘s sheep, when he all of a sudden saw a firing shrub from which God spoke to him ( Exodus 3:1-4 ) , he had his experience while be givening to animate beings, which shows it could go on at any point in clip in our mundane lives. From research and surveies it ‘s been proved that religious or spiritual experiences has ever been in our society.
Diverseness: There are different types of spiritual experiences ; merely the same manner there are different types of people and different types of faith, but at the same clip they are besides some similarities which makes spiritual experiences really alone and rare in our society.
Importance: To religion, spiritual experience is has so many importance, it is sometimes a life altering experience for illustration in the bible when Saul was on his manner to Damascus to collar the Christians, Jesus appeared to him in signifier of a bright visible radiation which blinded him for 3 yearss ( Acts ( 9:1-11 ) . After the experience he changed his name to Paul and joined the Christian community. Apart from being a life modifier, spiritual experiences besides alters a individual ‘s outlook, the manner he or she views life, fellow human existences and the environment.
During my research I saw that there could be two versions of spiritual experiences viz. the weak version and the strong version ; in 1896 William James in his “ The Will to Believe ” describes the versions “ as the strong version contends that spiritual experiences are grounds for the being of God or other supernatural existences for everyone, whereas the weak version holds that they are merely grounds for such things for the experiencer. ”
Harmonizing to my category note there are different sorts of spiritual experience which are viz. regenerative, magnetic, and mystical.
Regenerative spiritual: “ is one in which the experiencer undergoes a life transmutation – a transition. Elsewhere this sort of experience is expressed as “ sing faith, ” “ sing redemption, ” or being “ delivered from immorality. ” Through such experiences, persons frequently find their lives to be changed, filled with significance and newness, and full of love, joy, and hope. Along with transition and redemption, another aspect of the regenerative experience is moral transmutation. In this instance, prior to the experience, the person may experience a sense of wickedness, guilt, or the inability to make what he or she knows to be morally appropriate. Upon holding the regenerative spiritual experience, she senses that wickedness and guilt have been removed and a new vision of goodness is seen and sought after ; a new or renewed accent on moral responsibilities ensues in one ‘s life. ” Such illustration of such an experience could be found in the bible when Moses was out be givening to his father-in-law ‘s sheep, when he all of a sudden saw a firing shrub from which God spoke to him ( Exodus 3:1-4 ) . This experience of the combustion shrub ( conversation we God ) changed his life and made him the adult male we all know him as.
Charismatic experience: “ This is a type of experience in which particular abilities, gifts, or approvals are manifested. Prophecy, divinely divine disclosure or reading. Although prognostication is possibly most normally associated with Judaism and Christianity, it is found throughout the faiths of the universe, both antediluvian and modern. In its narrower sense, the term prophesier ( Grecian: prophutus, “ translator, ” “ expounder [ of Godhead will ] ” ) refers to an divine individual who believes that he has been sent by his God with a message to state. In a broader sense, the word can mention to anybody who utters the will of a divinity, frequently ascertained through visions, dreams, or the casting of tonss ; the will of the divinity besides may be spoken in a liturgical scene. The nature of prognostication is twofold: either inspired ( by visions or indicative hearings ) or acquired ( by larning certain techniques ) . In many instances both facets are present. The end of larning certain prophetic techniques is to make an enraptured province in which disclosures can be received. That province might be reached through the usage of music, dancing, membranophones, violent bodily motion, and self-laceration. The enraptured prophesier is regarded as being filled with the Godhead spirit, and in this province the divinity speaks through him. Ecstatic prophets, hence, are by and large delivered by the prophesier in the first-person remarkable pronoun and are spoken in a short, rhythmic manner. ”
Mystic experience: “ which, as described by James, includes four distinguishable features:
1 ) Ineffability: the experience can non be adequately described, if at all.
2 ) Intellectual quality: the experiencer believes that she has learned something of import from the experience.
3 ) Transience: the experience is impermanent and the experiencer shortly returns to a “ normal ” province of head.
4 ) Passivity: the experience occurs without witting determination or control and it can non be brought to go on at will.
Some people claim to hold experienced God in such an intense manner, that they have literally been in the presence of God. Some people besides believe they have become one with God at certain times. Peoples who claim to hold such experiences are frequently called Mystics. It is common for Mystics to utilize a assortment of religious techniques, such as speculation, to come into the presence of God in this particular manner. Mystic experiences take different signifiers, but a common subject among many of them is individuality or brotherhood with God in Western faith, or with Absolute Reality – Brahman or enlightenment or the dao – in Eastern faith. A description of a mystical experience within the Advaita VedA?nta school of Hinduism is given by Shankara ” .
In my research I found more sorts of spiritual experience, foremost.
Numinous: “ The German mind Rudolf Otto ( 1869-1937 ) argues that there is one common factor to all spiritual experience, independent of the cultural background. In his book The Idea of the Holy ( 1923 ) he identifies this factor as the numinous. ” Harmonizing to him the numinous has two facets viz. “ mysterium tremendum ” he explains this as holding the inclination to set fright into the host, and the 2nd is “ mysterium fascinas ” this has the antonym, which is the inclination to intrigue and pull. The numinous experience is said to depict the feeling that God is really different and superior to us. Rudolf Otto sees the numinous as the lone sort spiritual experience. He states: “ There is no faith in which it [ the numinous ] does non populate as the existent innermost nucleus and without it no faith would be worthy of the name ” ( Otto: 1972 )
Miracles: “ This is normally said to go on when God acts in a particular manner in the universe, which go against the Torahs of nature ” . In the bible Jesus the boy of God exhibited tonss of miracle ; the bible says “ miracles could go on through any medium. ” And the Bible besides says that “ God works in cryptic ways ” . So hence miracles every bit far as faith is consigned are really important particularly in Christianity.
Ecstasy: this is the sort of experience where by the experiencer ‘s spirit lives the organic structure, to travel and pass on with the higher existences. This sort of spiritual experience is really similar to that which a priest-doctor experiences.
Enthusiasm: This the sort of experience whereby a frightened power or being enters into the organic structure or head of a individual and uses the organic structure to attest supernatural characteristics such as miracles, etc and besides uses the individual to pass on its message to the universe. The individual who is used is called a “ medium ” . This sort of spiritual experience reminds me of the term we used in category “ Avatara ” the similarity is that the being enters in to a human organic structure.
Now let ‘s look at how the scientific discipline worldviews and translates spiritual experiences, harmonizing to in category picture shown by my teacher scientific discipline has explains spiritual experience as an epilepsy of the temporal lobe which causes the host to come in a enchantment and could do him or her believe that they merely had an brush with a supernatural being. It besides showed that electronic devices could besides do an person with a sensitive encephalon to hallucinate doing them see and believe in things that are non really at that place. Harmonizing to the neurotheologist Andrew B. Newberg, “ neurological procedures which are driven by the repetitive, rhythmic stimulation which is typical of human ritual, and which contributes to the bringing of nonnatural feelings of connexion to a cosmopolitan integrity. However, that physical stimulation entirely is non sufficient to bring forth nonnatural unitive experiences. For this to happen they say there must be a blending of the rhythmic stimulation with thoughts. Once this occurs “ aˆ¦ritual turns a meaningful thought into a splanchnic experience. ” Furthermore they say that worlds are compelled to move out myths by the biological operations of the encephalon due to what they call the “ built-in inclination of the encephalon to turn ideas into actions ” . The scientists have been able to besides demo that faith and its beliefs are natural, that adult male ever feels the demand to believe in something, a higher and superior being. So hence scientific discipline explains spiritual experiences in another manner and gives us all another point of position.
In decision Religion experience from my point of position and experience is that they are existent, they are really instances where a being has manifested itself to a human being and besides there instances where people have lied about these experiences, which has besides put doubt the heads of some people that spiritual experiences do non be, but because of my belief ‘s as a practicing Christian I believe that God could pass on with human existences thru different mediums.
Work Citied.
hypertext transfer protocol: //www.thatreligiousstudieswebsite.com/Religious_Studies/Phil_of_Rel/God/religious_experience_intro.php
hypertext transfer protocol: //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_experience
hypertext transfer protocol: //atheism.about.com/od/argumentsforgod/a/religexperience.htm
The Holy Bible ( Authorized King James Version )
Comparative faith slides
