• Explain The Difference Between Numinous Experience And Mystical Experience

To explain whether a person can show evidence of their religious experience, one needs to explain the differences between a numinous experience and a mystical experience. A numinous experience is “the feeling that mortal flesh is somehow despicable in the face of eternal majesty” (Davis 171). In other words, a numinous experience is a feeling of the divine right in front of a person. It is describing what is happening to a person within the religious experience. A mystic experience is broken into two parts of consciousness: the monistic and theistic. The monistic mystical consciousness does not have the distinction between object and self, it is objectless (like, for example, in Hinduism where Brahman is indistinguishable between the person’s soul and the world soul). Theistic mystical consciousness has an
Step one would be the “given.” The “given” is the raw sensations from the senses (hearing, sight, touch, etc.). The second step is the “presentational object” or the thing itself. The shape-like surface of an object, the color, or the things that are happening around it. The third step is to go into detail of the object (the apparent object). Trying to define the elements of what they felt, saw, heard, and noticed around and within them. The last step is to own the experience, to set the self and object connected to a claim. For example, a person is having the raw sensation of intense power (the given). Having this surge of energy, they see smooth surfaces, and a variety of colors around them. These surround them in a sense of motion (presentational object). Then they see a statue of a man raising his left hand and his eyes half closed in a lotus position surrounded by hundreds of people giving flowers, and gifts towards him (apparent object). They relate this experience of vigor to the festival that they are undergoing, and feeling connected to the statue, the people, and the