One of the things that I like about this chapter is that kind of it isn't tied that much to any religion. The fact that you have all these people across thousands of years from very different traditions that there's some common aspects to this kind of experience is of scientific interest. It does remind me a little bit of perinesse when they're trying to get to the other world. Like one guy can just do it by remembering what it was to be a child, but the other guy has to go through this elaborate ritual. But even in more dualistic Christian traditions and stuff like that, you do still get, you're right, this kind of, it's all God's love
David and Tamler talk about William James’ chapter on mysticism from his book "Varieties of Religious Experience." What defines a mystical experience? Why do they defy expression and yet feel like a state of knowledge, a glimpse into the window of some undiscovered aspect of reality? Is Tamler right that David has a little mystic inside of him just waiting to burst forth from his breast?
Plus – another edition of VBW does conceptual analysis and we’re sticking with ‘c’ words – this time the definitive theory of ‘creepy.’
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