INTRODUCTION

In the previous chapter I introduced intense experiences and located them in a phenomenological map of RSEs as a subset of ultimacy experiences. I begin in this introduction by stating the intensity hypothesis – a suite of interconnected phenomenological, neurological, evolutionary, philosophical, and theological claims – and will devote this chapter to expounding and supporting it.

Definition

Intense experiences involve strong and broad neural activation, corresponding to existential potency and wide awareness, involving both strength of feeling and interconnectedness of ideas, memories, and emotions in such a way as to engage a person with ultimate existential and spiritual concerns and leverage significant personal change and social effects. This is intensity not in the neurologist's narrow sense of strong activation only, but in the common usage that expresses amazement at meaningfulness. Intense experiences are particularly useful for my purposes because their distinctive characteristics open a pathway to a species-wide understanding of the nature, functions, and value of RSEs, an understanding that encompasses their evolutionary origins, their cognitive structure, their emotional texture, their neurological embedding, their bodily and social effects, and their existential and cultural importance.

Affiliation with other terms

Intensity is not the only factor that matters for RSEs, by any means. My own research has made that quite clear, both in phenomenological and neurological terms. Under a variety of names, however, the experiential characteristics I am collecting under the banner of “intensity” have been central in the phenomenology of religion, construed as the beating heart of many diverse and powerful RSEs, as well as potent aesthetic experiences and transformative experiences of creativity that have no recognizable religious connection but here are called spiritual.