Mystical experiences and scientific method : a study of the possibility of identifying a "mystical" experience by a scientific method, with special reference to the theory of Walter T Stace

Abstract: A necessary condition for being able to identify a mystical experience by a scientific method is to solve the following problems:(a) We must explicitly present and argue for a theory of meaning that allows us to draw conclusions from mystical sentences about the experience in question. No such theory exists today. Stace has not applied his referential theory to mystical language, still less argued that a referential theory is the one to be selected in preference to other alternatives.(b) We must show that mystical sentences are actually used for describing mystical experiences. The reasons Stace provides are untenable. None of the mystical sentences that Stace cites functions descriptively. But arguments put forward by Troy Organ and Stace in his intermediate period against the logical possibility of mystical sentences functioning descriptively are also untenable.(c) We must provide a satisfactory explanation of what the mystics mean by saying that the experience is ineffable. Nine different explanations have been suggested. None of them is unobjectionable. The reasons that Stace puts forward in support of his explanation that the mystical experience is not really ineffable are untenable. In none of the mystical utterances that Stace cites does the mystic use the word "ineffable" in the way Stace recommends. None of the nine explanations can, however, be dismissed definitively. Closer examination of the mystical utterances that Stace uses, from twenty-eight mystics, shows that different mystics, or even the same mystics, use the expression "ineffable", in different ways in different linguistic contexts. It is also possible to find utterances in which the sentences function descriptively with regard to the non-content-related properties of the experience, while the content of the experience is logically ineffable. I have found no support for the idea that the ineffability of the experience renders its identification logically impossible.The conclusion of my investigation is that there are no logical reasons why identification should be impossible. On the other hand, there is no theory in existence today that has shown that it is possible to identify a mystical experience by a scientific method.