1. Corporate religious experiences
LO: I will know what a corporate religious experience is.

2. What is a corporate religious experience?
One of the most intriguing phenomena in religious experiences is a corporate religious experience that happens simultaneously to a number of people. For example, the Toronto Blessing in 1994, when large numbers of believers reported being affected by the Holy Spirit. Some of the subsequent phenomena in these meetings including uncontrollable weeping, laughing, rolling on the floor and animal noises. Supporters of the blessing took these events as a sign of a ‘new move’ of God.
However sceptics suggested that the explanation was more likely to be mass hysteria.

3. What is a Corporate religious experience?
Corporate experiences may seem more impressive as there are a number of people having the experience. All other experiences are private and impossible to verify. Ultimately such experiences should be judged on what effects are produced. Are the experiences life changing in a positive way?
Critics of corporate experiences such as the Toronto Blessing examine sacred texts such as the Bible and question whether the experiences fit in with what is revealed of God’s nature elsewhere.

4. Our lady of Fatima, Portugal
Midday on Sunday 13 October 1917
Near Fátima, Portugal.
Extra ordinary solar activity
Saw our lady of Fatima
Visions e.g. Jesus
Officially a miracle in 1930