Examine the Characteristics of Mystical and Conversion Experiences Essay

wo well-known categories of religious draw be diversity and cabalistic features. Throughout history in that respect ache been many reports of people having these religious experiences, and non entirely of the recipients be necessarily Christian in belief. celebrated employ ments of regeneration experiences include St capital of Minnesota on the avenue to Damascus, and an simulation of a mystical experience could be the story of Theresa of Avila.Firstly I am acquittance to look at the characteristics of mystical experiences, followed by an practice of a mystical experience that I shall tumble beforehand moving on to doing the equivalent for conversion experiences.A philosopher called William James has designed a serial publication of tests to see if a mystical experience conforms to a pattern that has arisen through the history of these experiences. William James verbalise that the receiver of the religious experience should be passive, i.e. does not go out of his or her way to instauration the experience, it happens to them without their provoking it. The experience should be ineffable in that in the aftermath the receiver finds it really intemperate to describe what had happened and how they had felt in normal communication, third that there is a noetic quality to these experiences, center that some truth or great fact is revealed to the recipient of the experience. Finally the experience should be transient, this meat that the actual experience should not wages very(prenominal) farseeing at all, perhaps a fewer hours, precisely afterwards it has a very long, if not lifelong continue on the person who had the experience. Mystical experiences oft study an example of the defying of the laws of nature and physics, for example the hearing of verbalizes or seeing of tidy sums, or receiving of the wounds of Christ, the Stigmata, that came from nowhere and endure no rational explanation. An example of a mystical experience, as I mentioned earlier, is the story of Theresa of Avila. Theresa was a Carmelite nun who had been raised as macrocosm deeply religious when her mother died she turned to the everlasting(a) Mary and became a nun. Throughout her life she was often seriously ill and during these bouts of illness she claimed to have experience religious ecstasy, in which she saw a cherub repeatedly stabbing her in the stomach with a fucking(a) spear, and where he stab bum her she felt bliss and pain equally. In one bout of sickness she lost the employment of her legs for ternary years, and during this time she stopped praying until she was convinced by a priest to start again.Not long after she began praying again she experienced holy de exculpateds from God, which were moments when her senses were overwhelmed by the presence of God. Alongside this she experienced the levitation, meaning that she claimed to have had her body raised off of the ground by the devoted Spirit. The levitation is the briny mystical experience of Theresas life this is a very clear example of how the laws of nature are defied by the power of God. The experience is passive as she was ill in bed at the time, it wasnt ineffable however as she could cl archaean explain what had happened, however the experiences of having her senses overwhelmed by the Holy Spirit that accompany the levitation certainly were ineffable. There was no great truth revealed directly precisely there is a lesson in her story. And that is that the Lord will trip up over and take care of us when we are sick. It is hard to tell whether or not the experience was transient, as while the levitation took place over just a few minutes, we cigaretnot know how deep an impact it had on Theresa, as she was already deeply religious, we cannot good see how she transferd as a person. Now we motility onto conversion experiences, the approximately key characteristic of a conversion experience is that the recipient of the experience has a c omplete switch just about of their religious beliefs, they are converted. This conversion stays in place for the balance of the experiencers life, the religious experience is transient. Conversion experiences can be either gradual or sudden, meaning that a persons beliefs can change over time due to different stimuli or events, or they can change swiftly as a result of an undeniably holy action.An grievous fact to remember when discussing conversion experiences is that they can overstep not just in regards to an individuals religious beliefs, they can also impact on political and social ideals as well, and these kinds of conversions follow the same pattern as that of religious experiences. The example of a conversion experience I am way out to talk about is the conversion of St capital of Minnesota on the road to Damascus. Before his conversion Paul, or capital of Minnesota as he was known, was a Pharisee who harshly persecuted the early Christians and was not in any way prepa red to believe in the teachings of Jesus. One day Paul was riding slew the road to Damascus, as he drew near to the city a light shone down from heaven and Paul was cast down to the ground, then he heard a utterance saying Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? The voice identified itself as Jesus and instructed Paul to go to the city where he will be instructed further. The men accompanying Paul were amazed, as they had heard the voice, but had seen no man or any vision as Paul had. Paul opened his eyes, but found that he had been blinded, perhaps by the smart light, his men led him to the city and there he stayed, blind, not eating or drinking for three days. After the three days his sight returned, and he was convinced that he had seen the resurrected Christ. After the experience Paul could be found in the company of the disciples that were in Damascus, which shows a very large turn around in his ideals, because before the experience he would have arrested and persecuted those m en. This story is a good example of a conversion experience as it shows a very big contrast in the subject before and after the experience, which is as I said previously, the main characteristic of a religious experience. To conclude the evidence I would just like to summarise the characteristics of both(prenominal) mystical and conversion experiences, mystical experiences are most easily identified when evidence of supernatural events take place, such as the levitation, while conversion experiences are clearly shown in the change of the recipients religious or political ideals.