Discuss the ways in which Religious Experience can be distinguished from ordinary experience.
Religious experience is the self witness or experience of God's Holy Spirit, or other mystical experiences. It is a non empirical occurrence and may be super natural. It can be an experience such as a phenomenon or a sense of mystery of a divine power.
It is argued as direct evidence of an individual's relationship with God. It can also be described as a mental event which is undergone by an individual. Such an experience can be spontaneous or can be brought about as a result of intensive training and self discipline. Recipients of a religious experience usually have a deeper knowledge of God. .
There are many types of religious experience;.
• Prayer - the individuals feeling of a divine presence whilst praying and the relationship that seems to grow between the individual and the Divine through prayer. .
• Conversion - This involves changing from one set of beliefs to another. Leo Tolstoy, for example had explained his conversion to Christianity when he was in a state of long-term depression when he thought there was no point in living. .
• Vocation - is a term the experiences many people feel of being "called" to a special task or job. This is not only true of religious people such as priests, nuns and missionaries but of doctors and teachers and others too.
• Healing is another religious experience. Many people give testimony to miraculous healings which they claim come from God or from some divine power.
• Mysticism - a mystical experience is an encounter with the divine source both of all existence and of human salvation. Mystics are people who maintain direct intercourse with the divine spirit and have knowledge of phenomena's that can't be explained.
• Visions and voices - .
• Corporate Religious experience - this experience results in a sense of the divine spirit in our presence.