Flights of the Soul: Visions, Heavenly Journeys, and Peak Experiences in the Biblical World

Reports of dreams, journeys into the heavens, and other alternate states of consciousness abound in the Old and New Testaments and in extrabiblical literature. While some scholars have considered such reports to be simple literary devices, John J. Pilch — a leading expert in social scientific interpretation of the Bible — believes otherwise. As Pilch points out, anthropological research on over 400 representative cultures in the world shows that more than ninety percent of these cultures have reported such experiences routinely. Factual or not, he says, biblical accounts of alternate consciousness are both plausible and significant because they constitute a very common, real, human experience in their respective cultures. Drawing on insights from from anthropology, cognitive neuroscience, psychology, and the social sciences, Pilch investigates and interprets Old and New Testament accounts of dreams, visions, journeys into the heavens, and other alternate states of consciousness within their cultural contexts. The result is a fresh and intriguing take on familiar biblical events. Flights of the Soul sheds new light on such things as these: * Ezekiel’s prophetic visions * Enoch’s sky journeys * Jesus’ transfiguration and ascension * Resurrection appearances in the Gospels * Paul’s ecstatic vision on the road to Damascus * John’s heavenly journeys described in Revelation