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I just love all the talk of chemically induced experiences! The Spirit
of the Lord is in a bottle? :) n -------- Original Message --------
To put more specifically what I think Clare was implying - Do we *need* to distinguish 'chemically-induced states' from 'genuine experiences of divinity'? Or might experiences sometimes be both chemically induced (externally or internally) and at the same time genuine experiences of divinity. Why posit the question as either/or when it may (at least in some cases) be both/and?
Cheers
Linz
On 29/07/2004, at 9:06, Clare Pascoe Henderson wrote:
>
>
> Greg Crawford wrote:
>
>> ...what I am suggesting is that other substances can produce euphoric
>> states that some would interpret as a religious experience, but which
>> are purely chemical. Not all those chemicals originate outside the
>> body. The release of some into the brain can be induced by particular
>> activities.
>> So the question I am raising is, “how do we distinguish such
>> chemically-induced states from genuine experiences of divinity?”
>
> And I'd like to turn it around and ask "how can we say that genuine
> experiences of divinity (even with content) aren't chemically induced
> anyway?" We can't. Paul's revelations could have been the result of
> hallucinogenic drugs, for all we know. And, according to what you
> said to Leo, content can be purely subjectively assessed ("If you
> experience a “daily self-revelation”, surely that is content?")
>
> In other words, my answer to your original question here:
> > If such psycho-biological experiences are in fact a masking
> themselves
> > as encounters with the divine, how could one identify them? Is the
> > absence of content a clear indicator, or might that just be a symptom
> > of a person’s inability to articulate what they have encountered?
>
> ...is that IMO judging a true religious experience from a biological
> euphoria is so fraught with the potential for MISjudgement that doing
> so poses too great a risk of denying people's valid experiences of
> god.
>
> Clare
> ***************************************************
> Clare Pascoe Henderson
> http://www.clergyabuseaustralia.org
> Clergy Sexual Abuse in Australia
> Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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