Mystical Experience Among Tibetan Buddhists: The Common Core Thesis Revisited
Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion June 1, 2011 Zhuo Chen, Ralph W. Hood Jr, Lijun Yang et al. 63 citations
A debate in mysticism asks whether a universal core experience exists across religions. This investigation combines Jamesian and social constructivist views, arguing that stable experiential facets combine differently across cultures to form local interpretations, which still share a family resemblance—a mystical common core. Confirmatory factor analyses of data from 240 Tibetan Buddhist adults show that a three-factor model fits better than a unidimensional model, indicating that pure experience can be distinguished from its context-specific interpretation.