Saturated Phenomena and Their Relationship To ‘Extreme Experiences’: A Phenomenological Comparison Between Mystical Experiences and Psychotic and Depressive Experiences Based on Jean-Luc Marion’s Philosophy
Georgia Feliou
Existential Analysis: Journal of the Society for Existential Analysis 2016 DOI: 10.65828/zs2eb207 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Mystical experience |
| Key points | Argues that spiritual and mystical experiences are a legitimate functional form of human experience, and proposes phenomenological criteria, based on Jean-Luc Marion's phenomenology and Anthony Steinbock's analysis, for distinguishing mystical experiences from psychotic episodes and the Dark Night of the Soul from depressive episodes, rather than relying on the obscure criterion of 'functionality'. |
Abstract
In this paper, the nature of spiritual or mystical experiences is discussed. An effort to sketch phenomenological criteria for differentiating these experiences from psychotic and depressive episodes is also provided, based on Jean-Luc Marion’s phenomenology and on Anthony Steinbock’s analysis. Key words Spiritual or mystical experiences, Dark Night of the Soul, mysticism, schizophrenia, depression, phenomenology, saturated phenomena, giveness. The worth of a man does not consist in the truth he possesses or thinks he possesses, but in the pains he has taken to attain that truth. For his powers are extended not through possession but through the search for truth. In this alone his ever-growing perfection consists. Possession makes him lazy, indolent, and proud. Gotthold Lessing When it comes to spiritual and in particular mystical experiences, psychologists and psychotherapists are trying to understand their nature and causes, and while doing this, it seems that they encounter cases of a ‘gray area’ which lead to a comparison: a comparison between a mystical experience and a psychotic episode or between a state of a Dark Night of the Soul and a depressive episode. Both types of experience seem to be extreme compared to the spectrum of ordinary human experiences and this, along with the peculiarity and complexity of their nature, has often led some scientists and philosophers to the conclusion that there is an eidetic similarity between these two kinds. The only way to ‘solve the problem’, to make a differentiation, seems to be the obscure criterion of ‘functionality’. In this paper, I will discuss the nature of spiritual or mystical experiences 122 and their right to exist as a legitimate functional human experience, based on Jean-Luc Marion’s phenomenology. I will further try to sketch phenomenological criteria for differentiating mystical experiences from psychotic and depressive episodes. This is an attempt to offer an additional angle with a view to hopefully enriching this complicated, on-going issue.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on mystical experience, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Religious and Mystical Experiences as Artifacts of Temporal Lobe Function: A General Hypothesis | 1983 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| The Psychedelic Mystical Experience in the Human Encounter with Death | 1969 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Vectorial Cerebral Hemisphericity as Differential Sources for the Sensed Presence, Mystical Experiences and Religious Conversions | 1993 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| The epistemic innocence of psychedelic states. | 2016 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Mystical Experience and Religious Doctrine | 1982 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |