• Monthly Study Group

  Tanya Luhrmann and cognitive approaches

  Posted by AmaNesciri on 18/01/2025 à 21:24

  Hi, I wanted to share a paper that pertains to the discussions around the book “How God Becomes Real”. The paper is called “Explaining the Esoteric Imagination:
  Towards a Theory of Kataphatic Practice” by Egil Asprem. It attempts to relate the forms/contents of inner sense cultivation practices to their cognitive effects. Here is the link: https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1073535/FULLTEXT01.pdf

  What interests me about Luhrmann’s work and such cognitive science approaches more generally is that they defend spiritual experiences from allegations of being made up, i.e., people do in fact have spiritual experiences and we have some theories about their occurrence. Moreover—and this is especially inspiring to me as a materialist—is that we can then take the principles behind the induction of spiritual experiences and strip them to their bare essentials, removing some—to curious materialists—undesirable elements that hinder the suspension of disbelief and trust in a ritual’s efficacy. A disbeliever might be hampered by religiously-colored language or certain worldviews. Other, more palatable rituals might thus be constructed. Luhrmann shows us that our phenomenology is to a certain extent reconfigurable. Armed with this “spiritual toolbox”, a new phenomenological space can be carved out. An autonomous space, unbothered by scientific findings that could challenge its ontology. Just as friendship hasn’t disappeared with attempts at evolutionary explanations, so needn’t the spiritual domain be excluded from our psyche, though it may need to be recontextualized.

  • Cette discussion a été modifiée Il y a 3 jours, 8 heures par  AmaNesciri.
  • Cette discussion a été modifiée Il y a 3 jours, 8 heures par  AmaNesciri.

  AmaNesciri replied Il y a 3 jours, 8 heures 1 Member · 0 Replies
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