The Contours of Spiritual Perception: A Brief Note on Perceptual Training

Abstract

There has been a growing interest in thinking critically and constructively about the contours of spiritual perception (SP). One aim involves making philosophical sense of SP. How, for example, are statements about perceiving things divine to be construed philosophically (e.g., “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God”)? What are the conditions under which perceiving the divine is possible? What are the objects and features of SP? Is it comparable to other types of perception (e.g., physical, moral, aesthetic, and value perception)? What is the relationship between the perceptual and the conceptual? In what ways can conceptually loaded forms of SP become epistemically beneficial or distorted?