Religious Experience: OCR Religious Studies

[@Evelyn_rose_234]

Not sure whether this helps anybody, but I remember William James' criteria for religious experience as PINT , so in order for something to classify as a RE according to James, they have to drink the whole PINT. Thank you for the awesome video !

[@IThinkThereforeITeach]

Great tip, thanks 😃

[@dudleychaplin3020]

This was super useful, thank you! I find the whole of philosophy really challenging within this A level, it is nice to have your videos to jump back to if I'm every feeling a bit lost.

[@IThinkThereforeITeach]

Yes it is a very challenging course so I am really pleased my videos are helping :)

[@victoriabaker2662]

hi, if there was a question about whether religious experiences are simply a psychological or physiological effect would you still have to talk about all the different kinds of religious experience first (mystical, nominous, corperate, conversion) or not? im just a bit confused what you would write about for the A01? thank youu

[@IThinkThereforeITeach]

If the question is on psychological or physiological you need to focus on Freud/ Feuerbach and WJ for Psychological then the how different religious experiences might be explained through body (physiological) not God. I would not go through all the other areas unless you can directly link ot the question. Go over my teach along ppt as there are a lot of slides on there specific to these areas :)

[@hh-bb2zw]

Hi there, could you help me with this question: How successful are the views and main conclusions of William James? As there is not that much material just on William James, would it be wise to do a paragraph on each of the four qualities he claims is present in mystical experiences and then evaluate to what extent each one is true, using examples which perhaps contradict the said quality? Thank you

[@IThinkThereforeITeach]

That would work but you also can discuss his approach, his aims and the other conclusions drawn such as 'sick soul'. Critique using another psychologist maybe and link James' points to different religious experiences would work well. If you are still unsure send me an email through the blog and I can send you an essay (I'm sure I have one) :)

[@hh-bb2zw]

Thank you so much! Yes, I would love to see the essay, will be emailing! @@IThinkThereforeITeach

[@afsx0n]

thanks so much! just had a question- if i got a question on comparing individual and corporate experiences, could i discredit both and say they are both weak? as long as i give their strengths and conclude with why they're unreliable at the end of each paragraph?

[@IThinkThereforeITeach]

Absolutely, that would work well. To fully extend your evaluation, I would say 'to an extent' and then which one is marginally better for a full comparison but you can argue both don't work :)

[@Rua1557]

I'm a bit confused about Happold’s ideas on the types of mysticism. Are these just his ideas on the function of religious experiences and how do we actually link it to other ideas such as James’ criteria?

[@IThinkThereforeITeach]

Great question. Happold is just an extra name for essay development and you could link to WJ e.g he talks about knowledge and understanding links to Noetic quality or love and union could link to James' ideas of 'something larger'. Also his ideas of nature mysticism is similar to numinous so lots of links you could make :)

[@iqrajannat354]

how about near death experiences? how would you argue that they aren't religious experiences, but can be scientifically explained?

[@IThinkThereforeITeach]

Great question. Some would argue that the common feelings (e.g calm, happiness, floating) is the body sending out chemicals/hormones as you die. Another question might be that if they do exist why God? Why does it only happen to some and not others? And why always happy, maybe only heaven exists? :)

[@Emma-bj2wj]

Where do we find the teach along?

[@IThinkThereforeITeach]

This should be the teach along :)

[@Emma-bj2wj]

Ahh hahah thank you!!🤦‍♀️

[@lilyholland5748]

Hi i’m a bit confused between mystical experiences and mysticism, i thought mystical experiences were supernatural such as St Teresa of Avalia but im now second guessing 😅

[@IThinkThereforeITeach]

Aren't all religious experiences supernatural in some way? Well maybe not numinous but mysticism pretty much just means Religious experiences. Mystical experiences are experiences of mysticism so they are the same thing. Hope this sheds a bit of light :)