I’m about to record a podcast episode about this question — I’ll post the results in a few hours — because I’ve been reading William James again. Basically, James tries to categorize and formalize the mystical experiences — and he takes examples from all religious traditions. In those examples, he finds enough similarities that he can propose four essential traits, or “marks,” of the authentic mystical experience:
- Ineffability
- Noetic Quality
- Transiency
- Passivity
These are worth looking up, and I’ll make sure to define them carefully on the podcast. But the most important question is always, “do mystical experiences prove the existence of God?” And the answer seems to be, “Yes–for the mystic. But not for anyone else.” Can anyone think of a way to get past that problem? Can we “unlock” the mystical experience so that even those who do not have it for themselves can believe in its reality, and take it as authoritative? Or would that be bad and dangerous?
- Godward - 