Qualia of God: Phenomenological Materiality in Introspection, with a Reference to Advaita Vedanta

Applying Michel Henry’s philosophical framework to the phenomenological analysis of religious experience, the author introduces a concept of material introspection and a new theory of the constitution of religious experience in phenomenologically material interiority. As opposed to ordinary mental s...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Louchakova-Schwartz, Olga (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: De Gruyter 2017
In: Open theology
Year: 2017, Volume: 3, Issue: 1, Pages: 257-273
Further subjects:B Phenomenology
B Self-awareness
B Religious Experience
B Intentionality
B Subjectivity
B Christian Mysticism
B Michel Henry
B self-inquiry
B Embodiment
B Introspection
B comparative philosophy of religion
B Vedanta
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Summary:Applying Michel Henry’s philosophical framework to the phenomenological analysis of religious experience, the author introduces a concept of material introspection and a new theory of the constitution of religious experience in phenomenologically material interiority. As opposed to ordinary mental self-scrutiny, material introspection happens when the usual outgoing attention is reverted onto embodied self-awareness in search of mystical self-knowledge or union with God. Such reversal posits the internal field of consciousness with the self-disclosure of phenomenological materiality. As shown by the example of Vedantic self-inquiry, material introspection is conditioned on the attitude ‘I "see" myself’ and employs reductions which relieve phenomenological materiality from the structuring influence of intentionality; the telos of material introspection is expressed by the inward self-transcendence of intentional consciousness into purified phenomenological materiality. Experience in material introspection is constituted by the self-affection and self-luminosity of phenomenological materiality; experience is recognized as religious due to such essential properties as the capacity of being self-fulfilled, and specific qualitative "what it’s like"(s). Drawing on more than 5000 live accounts of internal religious experience, it is shown that introspective attention can have different trajectories, producing, within a temporal extension of material introspection, different spatial modifications of embodied self-awareness and a variety of corresponding religious experiences.
ISSN:2300-6579
Contains:Enthalten in: Open theology
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1515/opth-2017-0021