Religious Experience and Mystical Intuition Structurally Compared

Integrated Inquiry : Mystical Intuition and Research 1

The purpose of this paper is to initiate a broader dialogue on the use of integrated intelligence (or INI) in formal research. The application of INI in research is referred to as integrated inquiry. The idea of integrated intelligence, and its specific applications, can be viewed as genuine cognitive processes, or for the more skeptical, as provocations to inspire the researcher toward greater...

Mystical Experience

Mystical experiences represent a fundamental dimension of human existence. These experiences are commonly reported across all cultures. A mystical experience subjectively is characterized by encountering the divine in a way that disrupts the normal sense of self . The definitions of mystical experience used in research and clinical publications vary considerably, ranging from "upheaval of the t...

Mystical Experience and Metaphysics

In Chapter 2 of Beyond Physicalism, I suggest that mystical experience, if a source of genuine metaphysical insight, can shed light on a variety of extraordinary phenomena, including psi and near-death experience, as well as the mystery that is ordinary consciousness. It is striking that mystics are often left with the conviction that they came into contact with deeper realities during their ex...

Mystical experience as evidence

Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend... 'But', He said, 'you cannot see my face; for man shall not see me and live'. Ex. 33:11 & 20 Religious apologetics is perennially attracted to the idea that religious beliefs are arrived at in ways that are fundamentally on all fours with the procedures by means of which more mundane beliefs are generated and jus...

Metaphor, Religious Language and Religious Experience

Is it possible to talk about God without either misrepresentation or failing to assert anything of significance? The article begins by reviewing how, in attempting to answer this question, traditional theories of religious language have failed to sidestep both potential pitfalls adequately. After arguing that recently developed theories of metaphor seem better able to shed light on the nature o...

Psychedelics and Religious Experience