Religious Experience Essay

Religious experience is seen as a non-empirical occurrence which means it does not depend or can be verified through observation or examination. Majority of people believe it’s supernatural. It is also seen as an experience to make a person aware. Certain religious people believe who have had the experience has drawn them into a deeper knowledge/ awareness of god. Most importantly it is seen as the experience itself is not a substitute for the divine but a vehicle that is used to bring people closer to the divine. It is also known as unique and cannot be shared with anyone. 3 Types of characteristics of religious experience * Vision * Conversion * Mystical experiences Visions: is when an individual believes they’ve seen or heard something supernatural. There are three ways in which an individual can experience this. An intellectual vision brings knowledge and understanding such as a revelation from the almighty god. An imaginary vision is where something that strengthens the faith is seen with the mind eye. Corporeal vision is where the figure is externally present. Examples of this is st Bernadette who was 14 years old, who had a few visions but the visions started off her seeing a figure which didn’t speak to her but then later on the figure begun to speak which was known as virgin Mary gave her a set of instructions saying that the spring water at Lourdes had healing power and that a chapel was to be built on the site. Numinosity : this word was given to describe the sense of a an awesome power, but feeling very distinctly separate from it. Rudolph otto used this so called term