Flights of the Soul: Visions, Heavenly Journeys, and Peak Experiences in the Biblical WorldReports of dreams, journeys into the heavens, and other alternate states of consciousness abound in the Old and New Testaments and in extrabiblical literature. While some scholars have considered such reports to be simple literary devices, John J. Pilch a leading expert in social scientific interpretation of the Bible believes otherwise. As Pilch points out, anthropological research on over 400 representative cultures in the world shows that more than ninety percent of these cultures have reported such experiences routinely. Factual or not, he says, biblical accounts of alternate consciousness are both plausible and significant because they constitute a very common, real, human experience in their respective cultures. Drawing on insights from from anthropology, cognitive neuroscience, psychology, and the social sciences, Pilch investigates and interprets Old and New Testament accounts of dreams, visions, journeys into the heavens, and other alternate states of consciousness within their cultural contexts. The result is a fresh and intriguing take on familiar biblical events. Flights of the Soul sheds new light on such things as these: * Ezekiel s prophetic visions * Enoch s sky journeys * Jesus transfiguration and ascension * Resurrection appearances in the Gospels * Paul s ecstatic vision on the road to Damascus * John s heavenly journeys described in Revelation |
Contents
Alternate States of Consciousness | 1 |
ASCs in the Old Testament | 15 |
ASCs in the New Testament | 107 |
A SocialScientific Perspective | 163 |
Pauls Call to Be an Apostle | 205 |
| 231 | |
Common terms and phrases
Acts aerophones alternate reality ancient angels Apostles appearances ASC experiences believe Bible biblical scholars Biblical Theology Bulletin book of Revelation Bourguignon Bruce Christian circum-Mediterranean Clottes Collegeville consciousness experience consensual reality contemporary Context Corinthians cross-cultural Cuyamungue death disciples dreams ecstasy ecstatic trance experience Edited emic emic and etic ences Enoch Esler ethnographic etic perspective event experienced Ezek Ezekiel Fasîd Felicitas Goodman flute Fortress glossolalia God’s gospel Greek Habel hallucinated Healing heaven holy human identified induced insights interpretation Isaiah Israel Israelite Israelite tradition John Kitbashed Lewis-Williams literary literature Liturgical Press Lord Luke Luke’s Malina Matt Mediterranean Minneapolis nasal cycle Nganasan Pages pattern Paul Paul’s person Pilch prophets psychological anthropology realm recognize resurrection Revelation rience risen Jesus ritual scenario shaman sky journeys sky travelers sleep social social-scientific soul spirit world Synoptic Testament tion Transfiguration of Jesus translated understanding vision visionary waking Walsh Western Winkelman word York