The fantastic or bizarre content of reported experiences is not sufficient indication that a person is psychotic" (Stahlman, 1992). .
Historically in the West, such experiences were considered signs of possession by spirits who were sometimes beneficent and other times not (Rosen, 1968). In contemporary western society the widely accepted cultural model for explaining such an unusual experience as mysticism is mental illness. In the sight of the public, non-consensual experiences such as seeing visions or hearing voices are synonymous with being insane. .
In 1985, William James wrote about the idea of a continuum of mystical states of consciousness ranging from the non-religious to the most religiously profound. Starting with the simplest sort of mystical experience, James notes the strong sense of significance and knowledge associated with the experience otherwise known as its "noetic" quality. This is one of the four qualities James uses to define mystical states of consciousness. "Ineffable" is another of these characteristics that mark an experience as mystical- the experience is unable to be vocalized or defined. Fading quickly it is hard to recall the quality of the experience in memory. When having a mystical experience, individuals do .
Pittman 4.
not seem to actively process the information. Instead, it is a passive experience. .
For many schizophrenics, delusions are experienced in a divine right sort of way. When a schizophrenic experiences the Divine, the object for existence becomes eternal life with the Divine and is no longer physical (Chimento, 1997). That person is guided by those things that tend toward that object of its existence. The experiencing of the Divine, can also be termed "being in the presence of God" or being in the presence of the Holy Spirit (as would be termed in Western Religion). .
The problem encountered throughout time has been to discover what it truly mean to be in the presence of the Holy Spirit.
