Have you read “How Jesus Became God?” There are two chapters dealing with the resurrection. The second of these deals extensively with visions.
Something between 5 -15% of people have visions. Here is one excerpt.
“One authoritative account is given by the psychologist Richard Bentall in an article titled “Hallucinatory Experiences.”15 Bentall says that the first real attempt to see whether it was possible for people to have nonveridical visions without suffering from physical or mental illness came at the end of the nineteenth century. A man named H. A. Sidgewick interviewed 7,717 men and 7,599 women and found that 7.8 percent of the men and 12 percent of the women reported having had at least one vivid hallucinatory experience. The most common vision was of a living person who was not present at the time. A number of the visions involved religious or supernatural content. The most common visions were reported by people who were twenty to twenty-nine years old.”
Excerpt From: Bart D. Ehrman. “How Jesus Became God.” HarperCollinsPublishers. iBooks.
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Visions are not unheard of.
In my humble opinion, critical scholars focus too much on hallucinations as a possible inspiration for Jesus’ postmortem appearances. I do not know of any solid evidence that anyone has experienced a hallucination, and then that hallucination became part of a new religion. On the other hand, I can think of a couple examples where people have convinced themselves that they saw something miraculous.
History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter‑day Saints is available online in several places, including Project Gutenberg. Look on page 54-55 where Joseph Smith took Martin Harris, David Whitmer, and Oliver Cowdery into the woods to see the Golden plates containing the Book of Mormon. I won’t tell you what I think really happened. Read it and see what you think.
The Shakers must’ve been the absolute champions at seeing miraculous things. Shakers wore spiritual clothes, ate spiritual food, and talked with spirits of the departed. I recommend a interesting book available online for free, especially pages 51 and 65‑66. David R. Lamson, Two Years’ Experience among the Shakers (1848). ** you do not have permission to see this link **.
I’m not saying that Jesus’ disciples were just like Mormons or Shakers. My point is that hallucinations are not the only way people see things that are not really there.
Lawyerskeptic said
In my humble opinion, critical scholars focus too much on hallucinations as a possible inspiration for Jesus’ postmortem appearances. I do not know of any solid evidence that anyone has experienced a hallucination, and then that hallucination became part of a new religion. On the other hand, I can think of a couple examples where people have convinced themselves that they saw something miraculous.
Yeah well it is just a hypothesis. And based on what we’ve learned about neurobiology it does at least provide a reasonable explanation. We’ll never know.
If the account about Paul’s vision of Jesus depicted in Acts is in anyway historical (Paul give no details in his letters) then you might say he had a hallucination that “became part of a new religion”.
Paul was clearly a religious ecstatic. He depicts himself as such in his letters. The 64,000 dollar question is whether Jesus and his disciples were. If they were and they had a practice that involved ecstatic visions and dreams then a postmortem hallucination of Jesus becomes more likely.
But at any rate it turns out that hallucinations are not singular and freakish events and they do not automatically bespeak mental illness. Our sensory equipment can be fooled quite easily, especially under stress.
ask21771 said
But how likely is it
0% likely. HELP YOU!!!!! Okay, in the name of Jesus, personification of salvation, and the Holy Spirit, accepted to mean the archetype of being the Comforter of souls.
Watch the video and YOUR question will be answered. We look forward to your comments and or questions afterwards.
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Stephen said
If the account about Paul’s vision of Jesus depicted in Acts is in anyway historical (Paul give no details in his letters) then you might say he had a hallucination that “became part of a new religion”.
Paul was clearly a religious ecstatic. He depicts himself as such in his letters. The 64,000 dollar question is whether Jesus and his disciples were. If they were and they had a practice that involved ecstatic visions and dreams then a postmortem hallucination of Jesus becomes more likely.
But at any rate it turns out that hallucinations are not singular and freakish events and they do not automatically bespeak mental illness. Our sensory equipment can be fooled quite easily, especially under stress.
Good points. I will not hazard a guess whether Paul might’ve experienced a hallucination or some other event. T
Lawyerskeptic said
Good points. I will not hazard a guess whether Paul might’ve experienced a hallucination or some other event. T
One also has 1 Cor 15: 5 where Paul says Jesus appeared to Cephas first.
The Bible is not describing a hallucinatory event, a 40-day hallucinatory event, period.
As for Paul’s vision, that is not topical to the more major Resurrection appearances before Ascension.
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