Religious experiences

In terms of the psychology of religion, many thinkers have commented about the origins of religious belief. Some of these support these religious beliefs, some don’t. However it is first appropriate to establish whether or not they are actually making a valid comment on the subject of religion or not. Georg Hegel (1770–1831) was the initial scholar to step foot into this field. He redefined God by creating a character he often named ‘Spirit’. He attempted to make "God" sound theistic by giving God

College. Heatedly, they scream at the pedestrians and students and faculty and anyone with hearing intact of the wickedness of the onlookers’ ways and the eternal damnation to which their current life leads them. As obviously necessitated by their religious beliefs, these kind folk attempt to carry out a principle mandate set forth by their God, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ: to convert, and therefore save, the sinners of this world. Walking away, though, one must wonder if there is not a more

She was found guilty and banished from the colony. In 1775, Freeborn Garrettson had a similar mystical experience. “In the night I went to bed as usual, and slept till day break: just as I awoke, I was alarmed by an awful voice, ‘Awake, sinner, for you are not prepared to die.’ This was strongly impressed on my mind, as if it had been a human voice

The mental health field has a heritage of 100 years of ignoring and pathologizing spiritual experiences and religion (Lukoff, 2000). In 1994, a new diagnostic category called “Religious or Spiritual Problem” was introduced in the DSM–IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association). For the first time, there is acknowledgement of distressing religious and spiritual experiences as nonpathological problems. As a co-author of the new category, Lukoff and Turner (1995) indicated

In the various novels “The Portrait as a Young Man”, “ Candide”, “ Crime and Punishment” and “ Native Son” the authors use the common theme religion to change and form the main characters of their novel by changing society, themselves and their religious

told of a radical devotee in The Book of Margery Kempe provides insight to the highly intense version of medieval paths of approaching Christ. Another medieval religious text, The Cloud of Unknowing, provides a record of approaching the same Christ. I will explore the consistencies and inconsistencies of both ways to approach Christ and religious fulfillment during the Middle Ages combined with the motivations to do so on the basis of both texts. A central

The play is a monologue based on the legend of Veeranna who belongs to the chitradurga region of Karnataka. Before its theatrical effectiveness in the play the legend is incorporated from Kannada writer, T.R. Subbanna’s (Knows as TaRaSu) novel, Hamsageethe (Swan Song) Published in 1952. The title of the novel literally means the ‘swan song’ of the protagonist, Venkatasubbayya whom Subbanna inserts in the tale of Veeranna, the archaka of the Hidambeshwara temple. About the legend narrated in Subbanna’s

mystical experience such as sense of unity or totality, sense of sacredness, sense of timelessness, and not being able to describe the richness of that experience. In everyday life in regular basis we as humans undergo such experiences but we forget them, we feel there is something or someone with us who is helping us in keeping our hopes up, in difficult tasks we are not able to do alone, or in decisions we are not able to make alone. William James the writer of “Varieties of Religious Experience” popularised

A conversion is a religious experience that changes a persons beliefs from one religion to another, there are three types of conversion with characteristics varying among them. Mystical experience however is a more extreme form of experience, which is not just seeing hearing or feeling someone but a deeper union with god. Non-volitional is a non voluntary conversion which is forced on someone. This usually means that the person is hostile to the belief they later come to hold, as it is forced

Christian souls” (Salzman, 2000, p.77). This reaches greater complexity when considering the impact of neuropsychology on the Christian faith. People experience God in a plethora of ways, but what about seemingly brain induced experiences? Salzman (2000) describes the journey of Sister John, a nun at the Carmelite convent in Los Angeles. She experiences headaches that develop into deep spiritual episodes, which her doctor later informs her, are the symptoms of her recurring seizures. Sister John has