Mystical encounters with the natural world : experiences and explanations /
This study explores a wide range of mysterious phenomena and the explanations put forward by religious thinkers, philosophers and scientists. He also offers his own perspective on the nature of these experiences.
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| Format: | eBook |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Oxford ; New York :
Oxford University Press,
2005.
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| Series: | Oxford scholarship online.
Oxford scholarship online. Religion module. |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | Connect to the full text of this electronic book |
| Summary: | This study explores a wide range of mysterious phenomena and the explanations put forward by religious thinkers, philosophers and scientists. He also offers his own perspective on the nature of these experiences. Some experiences of the natural world bring a sense of unity, knowledge, self-transcendence, eternity, light, and love. This is the first detailed study of these intriguing phenomena. Paul Marshall explores the circumstances, characteristics, and after-effects of this important but relatively neglected type of mystical experience, and critiques explanations that range from the spiritual and metaphysical to the psychoanalytic, contextual, and neuropsychological. The theorists discussed include R.M. Bucke, Edward Carpenter, W.R. Inge, Evelyn Underhill, Rudolf Otto, Sigmund Freud, Aldous Huxley, R.C. Zaehner, W.T. Stace, Steven Katz, and Robert Forman, as well as contemporary neuroscientists. The book makes a significant contribution to current debates about the nature of mystical experience. |
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| Physical Description: | 1 online resource (ix, 324 pages) |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references (pages 280-308) and index. |
| ISBN: | 1423769740 9781423769743 0199279438 9780199279432 |