Negotiating the Nature of Mystical Experience, Guided by James and Tillich
The nature of mystical experience has been hotly debated. Essentialists divide into two camps: 1) immediate identity beyond any subject-object structure 2) the mystical object maintaining some distinctness at the point of contact. Paul Tillich’s mystical a priori has some affinities with the former,...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Springer Netherlands
2010
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| In: |
Sophia
Year: 2010, Volume: 49, Issue: 3, Pages: 375-392 |
| Further subjects: | B
Edelman
B Transcendence of subject-object structure B Newberg B Shear B William James B Mystical a priori B Mediation B Constructivism B Simoni-Wastila B Damasio B Forman B Brain functioning B Kaplan B Body B Short B Katz B Stace B Brainard B Advaita B Adam B Essentialism B Bracketing question of a common core B Sense of self B Perception B Mystical Experience B Paul Tillich B Journal of the American Academy of Religion |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | The nature of mystical experience has been hotly debated. Essentialists divide into two camps: 1) immediate identity beyond any subject-object structure 2) the mystical object maintaining some distinctness at the point of contact. Paul Tillich’s mystical a priori has some affinities with the former, while William James’ model of religious experience coheres only with the latter. Opposing the essentialists are constructivists. After noting some ironies of the constructivist position, this article elaborates difficulties with 1) the traditional model of pure identity with the divine by certain mystics, 2) the Tillichian universal mystical awareness, and 3) the Jamesian direct perceptual model. Finally, it proposes that the human body and brain mediate mystical experience, which consists of a distinctive sense of bodily harmony conjoined with openness to the potentialities of an integrated environment, involving distinctive neurological processes. |
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| ISSN: | 1873-930X |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Sophia
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1007/s11841-010-0191-7 |