Religious Experience Essay

It is hard to define religious experience as a large part of it is subjective. By their very nature religious experiences are incredibly personal and differ wildly from individual to individual. Everyone is going to react to a religious experience differently; some will dismiss it, others will take it to heart and it can change their lives. Religious experiences can happen from almost anywhere, from the beauty of being out in nature or in the middle of a church service. How one interprets a religious experience is largely “depends on the culture, ideas, and language of that particular time and place” (Thompson, 7).

When I was about sixteen I went to visit my grandpa by myself for the first time. My grandpa owns and operates a large cattle ranch in the central valley. It is very much way out in the middle of nowhere. The closest house is over a mile away and his ranch is made up of beautiful rolling grassland. One summer night while I was up there I went outside to look at the stars. I was taken aback by how many there were and how beautiful they all were. I decided that I wanted to sleep outside and watch the stars all night. As I laid there and stared at the millions of stars before me I thought about how many different solar systems and galaxies there were attached to them and how small we are. As I pondered this I felt a growing sense of

In the book Understanding the Philosophy of Religion the author states that “[the experience] points to the unification of the self, the sense that there is a higher controlling power, and the loss of cares as a result of it” (Thompson, 11). James does not argue that this implies a supernatural reason, just that the experience itself brings about these feelings. He states that it is a shift from feelings of “tenseness, self-responsibility and worry” to feelings of “equanimity, receptivity, and peace” (Thompson,