Abstract It is commonly observed that many, if not most, seminal religious leaders have undergone some form of mystical experiences. Less commonly known is how surprisingly widespread such experiences are; summarizing several large-scale studies, David Hay, in Religious Experience Today, concludes that nearly half-43 percent of all Americans and 48 percent of all British people-have had one or...
Abstract From where-or Whom-does mysticism come? What causes it? What gives mysticism its peculiar but fascinating shape? Is mystical experience a source of reliable knowledge? Is mysticism the same around the world, or nearly so? Or does mysticism differ among various traditions, cultures, and ages? The twelve authors of this book are responding to the recent “received view” on such questions,...
Abstract In his presentation of the thesis that all experience is, in part, constructed or mediated by the subject’s conceptual system, Jerry Gill points to the purported intentionality of all experience as a fundamental truth. According to him, all human experience is vectorial in nature. That is to say, “[o)ur consciousness is always consciousness of some concrete aspect of the world, of some...