Qualia of God: Phenomenological Materiality in Introspection, with a Reference to Advaita Vedanta

Abstract

Applying Michel Henry's philosophical framework to the phenomenological analysis of religious experience, the author introduces a concept of material introspection and a new theory of the constitution of religious experience in phenomenologically material interiority. As opposed to ordinary mental self-scrutiny, material introspection happens when the usual outgoing attention is reverted onto embodied self-awareness in search of mystical self-knowledge or union with God. Such reversal posits the internal field of consciousness with the self-disclosure of phenomenological materiality. As shown by the example of Vedantic self-inquiry, material introspection is conditioned on the attitude 'I "see" myself' and employs reductions which relieve phenomenological materiality from the structuring influence of intentionality; the telos of material introspection is expressed by the inward self-transcendence of intentional consciousness into purified phenomenological materiality. Experience in material introspection is constituted by the self-affection and self-luminosity of phenomenological materiality; experience is recognized as religious due to such essential properties as the capacity of being selffulfilled, and specific qualitative "what it's like"(s). Drawing on more than 5000 live accounts of internal religious experience, it is shown that introspective attention can have different trajectories, producing, within a temporal extension of material introspection, different spatial modifications of embodied selfawareness and a variety of corresponding religious experiences.Keywords: phenomenology, comparative philosophy of religion, religious experience, introspection, subjectivity, embodiment, self-awareness, intentionality, Michel Henry, self-inquiry, Vedanta, Christian mysticism "We are invited … to give a new meaning to the concept of 'interior life' ".M. Henry1In The Essence of Manifestation, Henry argues that appearances are a self-manifestation of Life. Insofar as Life is the metaphysical Absolute, all experience can be regarded as religious experience. However, most people distinguish religious experience from ordinary experience. Many have stated that religious experience is internal experience or even experience happening in introspection2. Consequently, in order 1 Henry, The Essence, 45. 2 For connections between introspection and religious experience, see Crowe, Theology, 124-143. For more on religious experience and inwardness, see Flood, The Truth. Flood uses the term "inwardness" whereas Crowe uses "introspection"; neither of them explains their choice of the term. In this paper, the author chooses to use the term "introspection" as is more commonly used in philosophical investigations. For more on interiority and the formation of religious sense, see Ales Bello, "The Divine", 65.

Religious Experience in the First-Person Perspective: The Lived Body and Perception of Reality

“…Contemplative religious practices (also known as spiritual practices)-e.g., the Christian Prayer of the Heart or the Indian mantra-japa-direct attention inward. In these practices, "inward" means into the body-self-i.e., into the lived body, not towards the anatomical body (Louchakova-Schwartz 2017). Such inwardness differs from introspection, in which attention is directed at one's mind.…”

“…(Cf. Louchakova-Schwartz 2017. Unfortunately, Henry in his analysis does not go beyond the limits of invisibility-and, despite its limit-conceptual (Lomuscio 2017), limit-phenomenal contents, RE empirically is anything but invisible.…”

“…(Cf. Louchakova-Schwartz 2017). These systems would seek experiences associated with the discrimination of real and unreal, i.e., the advanced experiences of knowledge.…”

Implications of Tamarkoz on stress, emotion, spirituality and heart rate

“…For example, Prayer of the Heart (PH) is the central contemplative practice of the Eastern Christian traditions Apophthegmata and Hesychasm 57 . Some consider the concept of the heart in this prayer to be metaphorical and symbolic, however phenomenological analysts explain how Prayer of the Heart are actual embodied psychosomatic experiences 57 , 58 . The PH experience is described as an egological awareness of the body-self in the chest area associated with sensations, emotions, feelings, and verbal thoughts 57 , which is different from Tamarkoz meditation.…”

The Metaphysical Magnificence of Reduction: The Pure Ego and Its Substrate According to Phenomenology and Vedanta

“…For criticism of intentionality and a detailed argument in favor of phenomenological materiality as the substrate of appearances (Henry 2008) in Vedanta, see (Louchakova-Schwartz 2017). For a critique of regional ontologies and radicalism of the formal ontology (which is relevant to the present critique of the transcendental ego), see (Henry 1973, p. 10); for an ontological critique of the transcendental ego in Kant, which is relevant to my present critique, see (Henry 2009).…”