Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-gb8f7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-30T15:30:08.420Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Scientific Explanations of Mystical Experiences, Part I: The Case of St Teresa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2008

Evan Fales
Evan Fales
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa 52242
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Several writers have argued for the implausibility of there being naturalistic explanations of mystical experience. These writers recognize that the evidential significance of mystical experiences for theism depends upon whether explanations that exclude supernatural agency can be discounted; but they seem unaware of some of the best scientific work done in this area. Part I of the present paper introduces the theory of I. M. Lewis, an anthropologist, and tests it against the case of St Teresa. I use Teresa because of her prominence, and because we have considerable biographical data for her. I conclude that Lewis's approach, suitably supplemented, is strikingly successful in explaining this case.

Type
Research Article
Information
Religious Studies , Volume 32 , Issue 2 , June 1996 , pp. 143 - 163
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Alston, William P. (1991). Perceiving God: The Epistemology of Religious Experience. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Alston, (1964). ‘Psychoanalytic Theory and Theistic Belief’, in John, Hick, ed., Faith and the Philosophers. New York: St. Martin's Press, 63–102.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bell, Rudolph M. (1985). Holy Anorexia. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bourguignon, Erika, etc. (1973). Religion, Altered States of Consciousness, and Social Change. Columbus, OH: Ohio State University Press.Google Scholar
Bell, (1976). Possession. San Francisco: Chandler and Sharp.Google Scholar
Brown, Judith C. (1986). Immodest Acts: The Life of a Lesbian Nun in Renaissance Italy. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Bynum, Caroline W. (1987). Holy Feast and Holy Fast: The Religious Significance of Food to Medieval Women. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Christian, William A. (1981). Apparitions in Late Medieval and Renaissance Spain. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clissold, Stephen (1979). St. Teresa of Avila. London: Sheldon Press.Google Scholar
Crapanzano, Vincent and Garrison, Vivian, eds. (1977). Case Studies in Spirit Possession. New York: John Wiley & Sons.Google Scholar
Eaton, John (1986). Kingship and the Psalms, 2nd ed.Sheffield, England: JSOT Press.Google Scholar
Fales, Evan (1996). ‘Mystical Experience as Evidence.’ International Journal for the Philosophy of Religion, XXXII.Google Scholar
Fox, Robin (1967). ‘Totem and Taboo Reconsidered’, in Leach, Edmund, ed., The Structural Study of Myth and Totemism. A.S.A. Monographs 5. London: Tavistock Publications: 161–178.Google Scholar
SirFrazer, James G. (1922). The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion. Abridged edition. New York: MacMillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Freud, Sigmund (1939). Moses and Monotheism. Jones, Katherine, transl. New York: A. A. Knopf.Google Scholar
Freud, Sigmund (1960) [1946]. Totem and Taboo. New York: Random House.Google Scholar
Freud, Sigmund (1975) [1928]. The Future of an Illusion. New York: Norton.Google Scholar
Gale, Richard M. (1991). On the Nature and Existence of God. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Gale, Richard M. (1994). ‘Why Alston's Mystical Doxastic Practise is Subjective’, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, LIV, 869–875.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ginzburg, Carlo (1983) [1966]. The Night Battles: Witchcraft & Agrarian Cults in the Sixteenth & Seventeenth Centuries. John, and Tedeschi, Anne, transl. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Ginzburg, Carlo (1991) [1989]. Ecstasies: Deciphering the Witches' Sabbath. Rosenthal, Raymond, transl. New York: Pantheon Books.Google Scholar
Goodman, Felicitas D. (1972). Speaking in Tongues: A Cross Cultural Study of Glossolalia. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Goodman, Felicitas D. (Felicitas, D.). The Exorcism of Anneliese Michel. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday.Google Scholar
Kagan, Richard (1990). Lucretia's Dreams. Berkeley: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harris, Marvin (1989) [1974]. Cows, Pigs, Wars and Witches: The Riddles of Culture. New York: Vintage Books.Google Scholar
Lea, Henry Charles (1967) [1890]. Chapters from the Religious History of Spain. New York: Burt Franklin.Google Scholar
Lea, Henry Charles (1922) [1907]. A History of the Inquisition of Spain, vols. i–iv. New York: MacMillan.Google Scholar
Levi-Strauss, Claude (1967). ‘The Sorcerer and His Magic’, in Structural Anthropology. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 161–180.Google Scholar
Lewis, I. M. (1989) [1971]. Ecstatic Religion, 2nd ed.London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Lienhardt, R. Godfrey (1961). Divinity and Experience: the Religion of the Dinka. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Malinowski, Bronislaw (1927). Sex and Repression in Savage Society. New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co.Google Scholar
Maslow, Abraham H. (Abraham, H.) [1964]. Religions, Values, and Peak-Experiences. New York: Penguin Books.Google Scholar
Mowinckel, Sigmund (1962). The Psalms in Israel's Worship, vol. I. Ap-Thomas, D. R., transl. New York: Abington.Google Scholar
Pike, Nelson (1992). Mystic Union: An Essay in the Phenomenology of Mysticism. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Poulain, Anton (1978) [1901]. The Graces of Interior Prayer: A Treatise on Mystical Theology, 6th ed., Smith, Leonora Yorke, transl. Westminster, VT: Celtic Cross Books.Google Scholar
Shanks, Hersel, Deaver, William G., Halpern, Baruch and McCarter, P. Kyle (1992). The Rise of Ancient Israel. Washington, D.C.: Biblical Archaeology Society.Google Scholar
Sharot, Stephen (1982). Messianism, Mysticism, and Magic: A Sociological Analysis of Jewish Religious Movements. Chapel Hill, N.C.: The University of North Carolina Press.Google Scholar
Stace, W. T. (1960). Mysticism and Philosophy. New York: J. B. Lippincott Co.Google Scholar
Teresa, of Avila, St. (1980). The Collected Works of St. Teresa of Avila, vol. 1–2. Kavanaugh, Kieran and Rodriguez, Otilio, transl. Washington, D.C.: ICS Publications.Google Scholar
Turner, Victor W. (Victor, W.). The Forest of Symbols: Aspects of Ndembu Ritual. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Turner, Victor W. (1969). The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure. Chicago: Aldine.Google Scholar
Turner, Victor W. (1975). Revelation and Divination in Ndembu Ritual. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wainwright, William J. (William, J.). Mysticism: A Study of its Nature, Cognitive Value and Moral Implications. Madison, WI: The University of Wisconsin Press.Google Scholar
Williams, Rowan (1991). Teresa of Avila. London: Geoffrey Chapman.CrossRefGoogle Scholar