@Aedes,
Aedes;68939 wrote: If such insight is deemed to provide facts about the world (because it's later corroborated), one can't forget that this insight occurs in people who already have experience of the world, so it's no wonder that it might correspond to reality.
[SIZE="3"]I'll take a shot at this in hopes of open-minded consideration.
I could describe a thing or two learned in the mystical experience about observable reality, but which correspond to little or nothing in "normal" experience. However, in order to avoid a new debate over how real they are, let me describe something that may be more easily believable.
Most everyone has heard the idea of how it is smarter to teach people how to farm, than it is to keep giving them food. That idea expresses the usefulness of learning new skills over just chasing immediate needs. To explain how that's relevant to this discussion, let's say a person is raised, as most of us are, to study and understand how the universe works using our intellect and senses. As we grow and learn, we accumulate knowledge about existence as a human being in a physical universe.
In general, we learn a great many different things about the "parts" of the universe . . . let's say that learning establishes expertise in the
parts-view. Some people are smart enough to grasp principles that connect up a few things, principles that apply more broadly than to just one situation. In some ways these turn out to be the very best sorts of principles to learn because one can best figure out a new situation if he can quickly recognize in what ways familiar principles are at work.
Earlier I quoted a well-known aspect of the mystical experience, that of suddenly being absorbed into a larger realm. This quote of Julian of Norwich (a 14th century monastic) is typical of the report: "And then the Lord opened my ghostly eye and shewed my soul in the midst of my heart. I saw the Soul as it were an endless world, and as it were a blissful kingdom."
Whether or not one really is drawn into "endless world," the experience does leave one with a new awareness of reality: the
whole-view. Now, when added to a well-developed "parts-view" it gives a person a new tool for examining reality. How? The whole-view provides a underlying awareness of unity, and a means for better seeing how all the parts are related to both each other and the whole.
So similar to how giving people seeds and training on how to farm doesn't immediately produce food but does better ensure long-term survival, so too does the mystical experience enhance one's overall ability to acquire knowledge of the world without necessarily providing external "facts" right off the bat.[/SIZE]
