What is Religious Experience? Lesson 1 [aka Mysticism, Prayer.Conversion, Vision]

An introduciton to Religious Experience.

22 Highly engaging slides of content.

Often this subject is taught in such a dull way when it ought to be EXCITING and appealing. I have designed this lesson to be scholarly, interactive and engaging:

(a) ~Post-it starter - if this is the answer what is the question
(b) Scholarly definitions of Religious experience from Otto, James and Scheirmacher
© Discussion - have you ever had one?
(d) Introduce ‘The Hardy Question’ - this gets students really ENGAGEG
(e) Case study - i have drawn an actual case study from the Hardy Research Centre into religious experience - students annotating the source asking ‘what are the features of this religious exp’ - i.e. they DISCOVER them before being taught them
(f) Consolidate - the main features:
Indescribable
They bring an inner certainty
They bring insight into the Divine
They are often fleeting/Passing/Transitory
The effects of Rel. Exp are often life-long
Likely to spring from a context of religious expectancy
Often bring a conviction that is ‘life changing’
THE Most real experience for the recipient
Subjective and therefore open to interpretation
(g)More sholarly terminology with an engagement task:
Rhea White, an American parapsychologist calls them ‘Exceptional Human Experience’
Abraham Maslow (a humanist) calls them, ‘Peak-Experience: an understanding of ultimate unity of all things’
Andrew Greeley coins the term ‘limit experience’
Marghanita Laski writes of them as instances of ‘ecstasy’
‘Cosmic consciousness’ is how R.M. Bucke refers to them.
(h) Brief taste of William James and pointer to classification of Rel Exp.

I am planning these lessons in next week so watch out for Lesson 2, 3 and 4