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Seeing Things theme:mysticism |
although this is called an essay, in no way it is meant to state a convincing view.
the main goal is to raise questions, more than giving answers; more important is questioning the interpretation of visions, without questioning the authenticity of the visions itself.
proposition:
visions and out-of-the-ordinary-experiences are phenomena that are known to mankind for centuries, possibly from the beginning of mankind, but the interpretations of the phenomena differ from era to era and from culture to culture.
the vision itself is an extremely individual experience that has significance in the life of the person that has this vision/experience.
views on visions:
experiences that are out-of-the-ordinary are in the first place individual and nondescript. they can be described, but description takes to the second place.
the interpretation is always within cultural boundaries.
experiences are interpreted as looking like images/stories that are know in that certain culture. the individual character of the vision is mainly discarded.
vision / hallucination:
the question of interpretation is made difficult because of the meaning that is given to the words ‘vision’ and ‘hallucination’. ‘vision’ is used also for a view on a certain subject. ‘hallucination’ is used either pathological (psychiatric), or drug-related (hallucinogens/ psychedelics).
so if a person who has this experience and wants to be taken seriously, shall probably speak of ‘vision’ rather than ‘hallucination’. when a hallucinogen caused the experience, you can always blame or praise the ‘drug’.
mind / brain:
do you believe in a spirit or soul or do you think every spiritual or psychological phenomenon is based on chemical processes of the brain?
C.G. Jung considered the latter to be a expression of extreme materialism, denying the possibility of life being a force itself.
(1)
the concept of the brain being the apparatus that brings forth psychological phenomenon (psychological phenomenon being chemical processes) started at the end of the 19th century and at the beginning of psychiatry (which developed from neurology).
(2)
some examples of categories in which visions / experiences can be seen, as far as categories are appropriate in this subject:
the appearance of gods, angels and holy ones:
in cultures based on catholicism, visions of holy ones and angels are more likely to be described than ufo-sightings or abduction-experiences. accounts of which come merely from people in technocratic cultures, were science-fiction can be seen as myths.
cross reference: chapter 1 of ezekiel in the bible: just google your way to people who tell you this story is an early account of ufo-sighting; which is the best example of interpretation from a certain point of view (from a culture in which technology is most important). Ezekiel interpreted his vision as a close encounter with what he considered to be almighty YHVH (four animals, four elements), an account coming from a culture that is at the beginning of trying to rule the forces of nature and moving towards emphasizing the spiritual.
light-beings, elves
encounters with elves / light beings or even elementals are usually described by people who are closer to nature or whose cultural background has traces of the ‘faery tradition’ (pagan, heathen). satyrs and nymphs appear when marshes and woodlands ensnare the senses...
extra-terrestrial beings and vehicles.
experiments were taken with subjects in total isolation; no light, no tactile or aural influences. these people experienced sensations that looked familiar with accounts of people that experienced close encounters.
no input.
visions are more likely to occur, when the senses have less or nothing to do; at night, in the fog, in the dessert (cross-reference is again the bible; prophets without exception deliberately went into the desert, away from everyday-life, to be more receptive to visions.) experiments indicate that the mind (or the brain); when not given input by the senses, starts to produce it‘s own.
for instance; the visual part of migraine produces a sort of geometrical shapes in the person’s sight. In the 12th century the mystic Hildegard Von Bingen describes visions that in the 20th century are described as caused by migraine.
Oliver Sacks calls these visual symptoms of migraine ‘dreams of the visual cortex’, which is a sort of scientific-poetic interpretation of the phenomenon.
(3)
call it daydreaming; in the meaning of dreaming while awake, beyond daydreaming; in trance to be more precise.
this was what prophets were doing all day; having as less input as possible to have the inner world to speak; the inner world in a higher state of consciousness.
Hildegard Von Bingen
(1)>see C.G. Jung – Dreams -link
(2)>see T. S. Szasz – The Myth Of Mental Illness -link
(3)>see Oliver Sacks – Migraine -link
