2. Homework Review
The Gita is a dialogue between the avatar of Vishnu, Krishna and a Prince, Arjuna.
In Chapter 11, the numinous is clear.

3. The Nature of Mystical Experiences
Lesson Objective: to explore the nature of mystical experiences.

4. Mystical Experiences: a direct and intimate experience of God
Mystical Experiences: a direct and intimate experience of God. Often the recipient will feel a sense of union with the divine.
* These are in contrast to numinous experiences, where the experiencer experiences God as ‘wholly other.’

5. William James 1842-1910 American philosopher and psychologist
The Varieties of Religious Experience (1902)

6. The Ideas of William James
Religious experience is primary, organised religion is secondary. James suggests that organised religion is a response to religious experience.
Religion has positive psychological benefits for James. He suggests it can give a zest for life and an assurance of safety, peace and loving affection.
Prayer/inner communion with God works, it produces positive psychological and material effects of the world.
For James, God is does not have to be the God of Classical Theism, but God could be a collection of god-like selves. He suggests God is temporal, existing in time and doesn’t know the future.

7. William James and Mystical Experiences
James, writes: [I] propose to you four marks which, when an experience has them, may justify us in calling it mystical...:
Passivity
Ineffable
Noetic
Transiency
These features can be remembered using the acronym PINT. However, Ineffability and Noetic are most important, try to use PINT IN The Pub.

8. Passivity Ineffable Noetic Transiency
TASK: label the image in your booklet to explain James’ four features of a mystical experience. Use the summarises below to help.
The experience is beyond the experiencers control, even if the experience is invited by the experiencer. Once initiated, the experience controls the mystic.
Passivity
Ineffable
Noetic
Transiency
They cannot be sustained for a long period of time, they typically last between half an hour to two hours. Although if a further experience is undergone, the experiencer becomes conscious of previous feelings.
This means the experience cannot be described in words. It has to be directly experienced, without experiencing one cannot fully understand it.
This means that they give rise to new knowledge. The experiences are states in which new truths are realised. This results in the experiencer carrying a sense of authority which affects them thereafter.

9. Example: St Teresa of Avila
TASK: read the summarises of Teresa’s experience. Can you identify and explain what characteristic is being described.
Characteristic
Example
Explanation
In the experience of St Teresa of Avila, she describes how the “angel appears to her, plunging a spear into her heart.”
In the experience of St Teresa of Avila, she attempts to recount her experience, but suggests: I wish I could give a description of at least the smallest part of what I learned, but, when I try to discover a way of doing so, I find it impossible.
In the experience of St Teresa of Avila, she gained a personal and deep knowledge of God.
It is thought that the experience of St Teresa of Avila was short-lived.

10. Example: St Teresa of Avila
TASK: read the summarises of Teresa’s experience. Can you identify and explain what characteristic is being described.
Characteristic
Example
Explanation
Passivity
In the experience of St Teresa of Avila, she describes how the “angel appears to her, plunging a spear into her heart.”
 Ineffability
In the experience of St Teresa of Avila, she attempts to recount her experience, but suggests: I wish I could give a description of at least the smallest part of what I learned, but, when I try to discover a way of doing so, I find it impossible.
Noetic
In the experience of St Teresa of Avila, she gained a personal and deep knowledge of God.
Transiency
It is thought that the experience of St Teresa of Avila was short-lived.

11. Points to Consider/Question
James categorises mystical experiences as ‘ineffable’ – is James making a contradiction in terms using the term ‘ineffable’ to describe the experience?
How can two scholars categorise religious experiences so differently? For Otto, religious experiences concern the ‘wholly other’ whilst for James, they a union with God/the Divine?

12. Walter Terence Stace 1886-1967 British philosopher
Mysticism and Philosophy and The Teachings of the Mystics (1960)

13. Walter Terence Stace
a mystical experience is a non-sensuous and non- intellectual union with the divine.
In its highest form, the senses cease to work, and the rational intellect (the conscious ‘I’) ceases too. It is replaced by pure consciousness.

15. Examine the nature of mystical experiences. (10)
Assessment Focus
Examine the nature of mystical experiences. (10)