Comparison Of Mystical Experience, By William James And Rudolf Otto

William James and Rudolf Otto both have explored mystical experiences. However, they both take entirely different perspectives or approaches to their definitions.

William James, an American psychologist, and philosopher wrote many of these ideas of religious and mystical experiences in his book “varieties of religious experience”. James believed that mystical experiences include an encounter with the reality of the divine.

In his book he articulates his definition of what an experience is, by listing an almost criteria. Firstly, he describes mystical experiences as “passive”. Mystical experiences are often described as happening to the individual rather than being actively sought out. The person feels as though they are being “pulled” by

The “Ineffability of these experiences means that the subject cannot put into words what they just experiences and if they do it may be heavenly metaphorical, or the words may be interpreted wrongly. The ordinary human languages don’t offer enough ways to interpret the fantastical moments of the mysterium. It can be difficult enough for humans to express their everyday emotions clearly as we often loose the full feeling when expressed in words. So, we use labels like “angry”, “happy” which wont work in this context and in these experiences as they are so different.

Thirdly, James illustrates to us that a mystical experience should or usually does give us knowledge after this bring us onto James’ idea of the “noetic”. This quality often means that mystical experiences go beyond just emotion, feeling and the extradition of the senses, but leaves us with a profound amount of knowledge about the self, reality, the divine, or any spiritual knowledge in general. This goes with evidence, many people who have experiences these experiences often report gaining a “deeper understanding” of the

He believes religion has lost its true meaning and has become too empirical and judged on logical reasoning which is not how religion came to be in the first place, Religion is about the experiences that bring you to a deeper union and meaning of God. The reasoning and scripture come second.

Otto’s definition of the experiences can be articulated in Latin as “mysterum tremedum et fascinans”. This can be translated to “the tremendous and fascinating mystery”.

The Numinous: Was a word Otto thought to replace holy. The numinous is a feeling of awe of the divine while encountering it in an experience.

Numinous literally means “in the presence of the divinity”. Derived of the Latin “the divines will”. The numinous is characterised as the feeling of fascination and almost fear and C.S Lewis put it in the presence of the divine.

Mysterium, the numinous is mysterious and beyond full comprehension.

It’s the awe of attraction to the unknown of the numinous that compels us to seek more. It evokes fear and fascination.

Tremendum is the numinous experienced through the overpowering and awe-inspiring, that gives us a feeling of fear and a sense of belittlement. Of which gives us a profound feeling of respect and devotion in the presence of the