Editing Experience (section)

=== Non-ordinary experience ===
The terms "non-ordinary experience", "anomalous experience" or "[[altered state of consciousness]]" are used to describe a wide variety of rare experiences that significantly differ from the experience in the ordinary waking state.<ref name="Facco">{{cite journal | last1=Facco | first1=Enrico | last2=Pederzoli | first2=Luciano | last3=Tressoldi | first3=Patrizio E. | title=Non-Ordinary Experiences of Consciousness: Expressions of Our True Nature | journal=[[SSRN Electronic Journal]] | publisher=Elsevier BV | year=2019 | issn=1556-5068 | doi=10.2139/ssrn.3510213 | ssrn=3510213}}</ref><ref name="Revonsuo">{{cite journal |last1=Revonsuo |first1=Antti |last2=Kallio |first2=Sakari |last3=Sikka |first3=Pilleriin |title=What is an Altered State of Consciousness? |journal=Philosophical Psychology |date=2009 |volume=22 |issue=2 |pages=187–204 |doi=10.1080/09515080902802850 |s2cid=55819447 |url=https://philpapers.org/rec/REVWIA|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Examples of non-ordinary experiences are [[religious experience]]s, which are closely related to spiritual or [[mystical experience]]s, [[out-of-body experience]]s, [[near-death experience]]s, [[psychotic episode]]s, and [[psychedelic experience]]s.<ref name="Facco"/><ref name="Revonsuo"/>

Religious experiences are non-ordinary experiences that carry religious significance for the experiencer.<ref name="Facco"/><ref name="Webb">{{cite web |last1=Webb |first1=Mark |title=Religious Experience |url=https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/religious-experience/ |website=The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy |publisher=Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University |access-date=8 October 2021 |date=2017}}</ref> They often involve some kind of encounter with a divine person, for example, in the form of seeing God or hearing God's command. But they can also involve having an intensive feeling one believes to be caused by God or recognizing the divine in nature or in oneself. Some religious experiences are said to be [[ineffable]], meaning that they are so far away from the ordinary that they cannot be described in words.<ref name="Webb"/><ref name="Wynn">{{cite web |last1=Wynn |first1=Mark |title=Phenomenology of Religion: 1. The phenomenology of religious experience |url=https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/phenomenology-religion/#PheRelExp |website=The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy |publisher=Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University |access-date=8 October 2021 |date=2016}}</ref><ref name="Clark">{{cite web |last1=Clark |first1=Kelly James |title=Religious Epistemology: 3e. Religious Experience |url=https://iep.utm.edu/relig-ep/#SH3e |website=Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy |access-date=8 October 2021}}</ref> Out-of-body experiences involve the impression of being detached from one's material body and perceiving the external world from this different perspective.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Hayward |first1=Rhodri |title=The Oxford Companion to the Body: Out-of-body experiences |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/medicine/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/out-body-experiences |access-date=8 October 2021}}</ref> In them, it often seems to the person that they are floating above their own body while seeing it from the outside. They can have various different causes, including [[traumatic brain injuries]], [[psychedelic drugs]], or [[sleep paralysis]]. They can also take the form of near-death experiences, which are usually provoked by life-threatening situations and include contents such as flying through a tunnel towards a light, talking to deceased relatives, or a [[life review]], in which a person sees their whole life flash before their eyes.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Fischer |first1=John Martin |last2=Mitchell-Yellin |first2=Benjamin |title=Near-Death Experiences: Understanding Visions of the Afterlife |date=2016 |publisher=Oxford University Press USA |url=https://philpapers.org/rec/FISNEU |chapter=1. Introduction}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Near-death experience |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/near-death-experience |website=Encyclopedia Britannica |access-date=8 October 2021 |language=en}}</ref>

It is uncontroversial that these experiences occur sometimes for some people. In one study, for example, about 10% report having had at least one out-of-body experience in their life.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Blackmore |first1=Susan |title=A postal survey of OBEs and other experiences |journal=The Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research |date=1984 |volume=52 |issue=796 |pages=225–244 |url=http://www.susanblackmore.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/JP-1984.pdf}}</ref> But it is highly controversial how reliable these experiences are at accurately representing aspects of reality not accessible to ordinary experience.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Fischer |first1=John Martin |last2=Mitchell-Yellin |first2=Benjamin |title=Near-Death Experiences: Understanding Visions of the Afterlife |date=2016 |publisher=Oxford University Press USA |url=https://philpapers.org/rec/FISNEU |chapter=12. Confirmation Bias}}</ref> This is due to the fact that various wide-reaching claims are made based on non-ordinary experiences. Many of these claims cannot be verified by regular perception and frequently seem to contradict it or each other. Based on religious experience, for example, it has been claimed that a divine creator distinct from nature exists or that the divine exists in nature.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Jäger |first1=Christoph |title=Religious experience and the probability of theism: comments on Swinburne |journal=Religious Studies |date=September 2017 |volume=53 |issue=3 |pages=353–370 |doi=10.1017/S0034412517000191 |s2cid=171523193 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/religious-studies/article/abs/religious-experience-and-the-probability-of-theism-comments-on-swinburne/4FB6BFE12560DC9D93D28110A3DE5B58 |language=en |issn=0034-4125}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Byerly |first1=T. Ryan |title=The Awe-Some Argument for Pantheism |journal=European Journal for Philosophy of Religion |date=2019 |volume=11 |issue=2 |pages=1–21 |doi=10.24204/ejpr.v11i2.2968 |s2cid=197708001 |url=https://philpapers.org/rec/BYETAA}}</ref><ref name="Clark"/><ref name="Wynn"/> Out-of-body experiences and near-death experiences, on the other hand, are often used to argue for a [[mind–body dualism]] by holding that the soul can exist without the body and continues to exist after the death of the body.<ref>{{cite web |title=Philosophy of mind - The soul and personal identity |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/philosophy-of-mind/The-soul-and-personal-identity |website=Encyclopedia Britannica |access-date=8 October 2021 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Fischer |first1=John Martin |last2=Mitchell-Yellin |first2=Benjamin |title=Near-Death Experiences: Understanding Visions of the Afterlife |date=2016 |publisher=Oxford University Press USA |url=https://philpapers.org/rec/FISNEU |chapter=10. Near-Death Experiences, Transformation, and the Afterlife}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Lommel |first1=Pim van |title=Near-Death Experience, Consciousness, and the Brain: A New Concept About the Continuity of Our Consciousness Based on Recent Scientific Research on Near-Death Experience in Survivors of Cardiac Arrest |journal=World Futures |date=2006 |volume=62 |issue=1 & 2 |pages=134–151 |doi=10.1080/02604020500412808 |url=https://philpapers.org/rec/VANNEC|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Dell’Olio |first1=Andrew J. |title=Do Near-Death Experiences Provide a Rational Basis for Belief in Life After Death? |journal=Sophia |date=2010 |volume=49 |issue=1 |pages=113–128 |doi=10.1007/s11841-009-0154-z |s2cid=145057993 |url=https://philpapers.org/rec/DELDNE|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Defenders of such claims often contend that we have no decisive reason to deny the reliability of such experiences, for example, because they are in important ways similar to regular sensory experience or because there is an additional cognitive faculty that provides us access to knowledge beyond the regular senses.<ref name="Webb"/><ref name="Clark"/>