Thoughts on the Ineffability of the Mystical Experience

Ineffability has been proposed as an important feature of the mystical experience. Various psychological processes may contribute to this ineffability, including expansion of awareness from center to margin of the field of consciousness (building on thoughts of William James and Frederic Myers); an...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Braud, William G. (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group 2002
In: The international journal for the psychology of religion
Year: 2002, Volume: 12, Issue: 3, Pages: 141-160
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Parallel Edition:Electronic
Description
Summary:Ineffability has been proposed as an important feature of the mystical experience. Various psychological processes may contribute to this ineffability, including expansion of awareness from center to margin of the field of consciousness (building on thoughts of William James and Frederic Myers); an attentional shift from a discrete figure to a large, complex, novel ground; limitations imposed by the nature of the "object" of the experience and by our vehicles of perception and cognition; difficulties of memory transfer from mystical to ordinary states of consciousness; and constraints imposed by brain structures, culture and tradition, and self-fulfilling prophesies. This focus on the limitations of vehicles of expression does not deny that exposure to a transcendent realm may also account for aspects of ineffability.
ISSN:1532-7582
Contains:Enthalten in: The international journal for the psychology of religion
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1207/S15327582IJPR1203_02