Tokos wrote:I'm very interested in learning how you turned faith. Was it because of Pascal's Wager? Blind fear? A hallucination that happened to come along at the right time? Failing to use reasoned logic?
Let me guess… anything you don't like is a "hallucination"?
I would imagione that (s)he is assuming that personal revelations or visions are hallucinations or delusions.
This is a common method of explaining how these events come about from a secular perspective. However, psychologists do not view such events as delusional, nor is there evidence of these episodes being hallucinations.
But don't take my word for it:
http://www.spiritualcompetency.com/dsm4 ... 3_3.asp#R3
Mystical Experiences and Psychopathology
Surveys assessing the incidence of mystical experience in the general population indicate that it has been rising. during the past few decades. Now more than half the population polled answered yes to the Gallup Poll question:
Have you ever been aware of, or influenced by, a presence or a power — whether you call it God or not — which is different from your everyday self?
1973: 27%
1986: 42%
1990: 54%
(Gallup [1], [2])
Given that most of the adult population report such experiences, they are clearly normal rather than pathological phenomena. A recent survey found that most clinicians do not currently view mystical experiences as pathological [3]. To some degree this reflects a change, partly attributable to Abraham Maslow, Ph.D., who was a founder of humanistic psychology in the 1960s, and then went on to found transpersonal psychology. He described the mystical experience as an aspect of everyday psychological functioning:
It is very likely, indeed almost certain, that these older reports [of mystical experiences], phrased in terms of supernatural revelation, were, in fact, perfectly natural, human peak experiences of the kind that can easily be examined today. (Abraham Maslow Religions, Values, and Peak Experiences p. 20)
...
In addition, studies have found that people reporting mystical experiences scored lower on psychopathology scales and higher on measures of psychological well-being than controls. (see The Psychology of Religion: An Empirical Approach by Ralph W. Hood, Editor).
Surveys assessing the incidence of mystical experience in the general population indicate that it has been rising. during the past few decades. Now more than half the population polled answered yes to the Gallup Poll question:
Have you ever been aware of, or influenced by, a presence or a power — whether you call it God or not — which is different from your everyday self?
1973: 27%
1986: 42%
1990: 54%
(Gallup [1], [2])
Given that most of the adult population report such experiences, they are clearly normal rather than pathological phenomena. A recent survey found that most clinicians do not currently view mystical experiences as pathological [3]. To some degree this reflects a change, partly attributable to Abraham Maslow, Ph.D., who was a founder of humanistic psychology in the 1960s, and then went on to found transpersonal psychology. He described the mystical experience as an aspect of everyday psychological functioning:
It is very likely, indeed almost certain, that these older reports [of mystical experiences], phrased in terms of supernatural revelation, were, in fact, perfectly natural, human peak experiences of the kind that can easily be examined today. (Abraham Maslow Religions, Values, and Peak Experiences p. 20)
...
In addition, studies have found that people reporting mystical experiences scored lower on psychopathology scales and higher on measures of psychological well-being than controls. (see The Psychology of Religion: An Empirical Approach by Ralph W. Hood, Editor).
I would even suggest that those people who categorise such events as delusional or hallucinatory do so without looking at the evidence. I do not share their faith and am somewhat more skeptical.
