Parallelen zwischen Beschreibungen religiösen Erlebens und Ergebnissen der neueren kognitionspsychologischen Forschung
There is a distinction between rational and irrational religious experiences. Irrational experiences can be described as mystical consciousness as well as several kinds of experiences during meditation. In experimental cognitive psychology some phenomena have been shown which have parallels to pheno...
| Published in: | Zeitschrift für Religionswissenschaft |
|---|---|
| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | German |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
|
| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Diagonal-Verlag
2012
|
| In: |
Zeitschrift für Religionswissenschaft
|
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Verlag) |
| Parallel Edition: | Non-electronic
|
| Summary: | There is a distinction between rational and irrational religious experiences. Irrational experiences can be described as mystical consciousness as well as several kinds of experiences during meditation. In experimental cognitive psychology some phenomena have been shown which have parallels to phenomena of religious experience. (1) There have been demonstrated a dissociation between conscious, rational and unconscious human information processing. (2) Repeated exposure of a stimulus to a person leads to a higher familiarity and attractiveness of this stimulus for this person. This phenomenon is discussed in relation to the repetition of a prayer-formula. (3) There has been shown a dissociation between cognitive and affective processing of information. Cognitive corresponds to rational, affective to irrational processing. (4) When a person has to take a decision on the basis of deficient information, using rational strategies for the solution of the task leads to inferior outcomes than not using strategies. This experimental result reminds of the advice of mysticians and teachers of meditation that for having irrational religious experiences, the experiencing person must not have any intention to attain mystical or meditative experiences. Irrational religious experiences seem to be linked to basic cognitive processes which function independent of conceptual knowledge. There is a distinction between rational and irrational religious experiences. Irrational experiences can be described as mystical consciousness as well as several kinds of experiences during meditation. In experimental cognitive psychology some phenomena have been shown which have parallels to phenomena of religious experience. (1) There have been demonstrated a dissociation between conscious, rational and unconscious human information processing. (2) Repeated exposure of a stimulus to a person leads to a higher familiarity and attractiveness of this stimulus for this person. This phenomenon is discussed in relation to the repetition of a prayer-formula. (3) There has been shown a dissociation between cognitive and affective processing of information. Cognitive corresponds to rational, affective to irrational processing. (4) When a person has to take a decision on the basis of deficient information, using rational strategies for the solution of the task leads to inferior outcomes than not using strategies. This experimental result reminds of the advice of mysticians and teachers of meditation that for having irrational religious experiences, the experiencing person must not have any intention to attain mystical or meditative experiences. Irrational religious experiences seem to be linked to basic cognitive processes which function independent of conceptual knowledge. |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 2194-508X |
| Contains: | In: Zeitschrift für Religionswissenschaft
|
| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1515/0021.131 |