Mysticism and the Explanatory Mode of Inference
Steven Payne
John of the Cross and the Cognitive Value of Mysticism 1990 DOI: 10.1007/978-94-009-2007-1_6 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Mystical experience Mysticism |
| Keywords | Cognitive mode Psychoanalytic theory Spirit possession Explanatory mode |
| Key points | Argues that philosophical objections to mysticism's cognitive value are serious and that mystical experiences, due to their unusual nature, should not be granted a presumption of validity without external corroboration. |
Abstract
Philosophers who doubt the cognitive value of mysticism will perhaps have felt a growing dissatisfaction with the handling of the issues in the previous chapter, and at this point may want to lodge a general protest against the approach taken in the present study. They might charge that the strength of the critic’s case has been seriously underestimated by blithely assuming (according to the all-too-aptly named “principle of credulity”) that there is a presumption in favor of the validity of contemplative awareness, and then proceeding to dismiss the standard objections to mysticism’s cognitive value because they do not conclusively disconfirm the veridicality of these experiences. For surely when the object of a experience is very strange or unusual, as the object of mystical states certainly is, then the assumption in favor of validity is substantially reduced, and the question of what others observe and what tests reveal becomes crucial. In this respect (they might argue), mystical experiences are more appropriately compared with Linus’s reported encounters with the Great Pumpkin (in the comic strip “Peanuts”) than with the perceptions of the wine-connoisseur or chicken-sexer.^1 Like the mystic, Linus has ways of explaining why others fail to have similar experiences (e.g., their pumpkin patches are not “sincere”); yet we would reject his alleged perceptions on the basis of considerations like those considered in the fifth chapter.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on mysticism, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| The mystical mind: probing the biology of religious experience | 2000 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Religious and Mystical Experiences as Artifacts of Temporal Lobe Function: A General Hypothesis | 1983 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| The Problem of Pure Consciousness: Mysticism and Philosophy | 1993 | Edited collection of essays | |
| Irreducible Mind: Toward a Psychology for the 21st Century | 2020 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Mysticism and schizophrenia: A phenomenological exploration of the structure of consciousness in the schizophrenia spectrum disorders. | 2016 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |