A Psychological Paradigm for the Interpretation of the Charismatic Phenomenon of Prophecy

Abstract

This article is set in a two-fold context: theological and psychological. The theological context assumes both the general validity of present day charismatic experience and the propriety of examining such experiences scientifically. The psychological context is basically holistic, constructed eclectically from the insights of Freud, Horney, Allport, Maslow, Jung, and more recent efforts of transcendental psychology. The thesis of this article is that the present day experience of charismatic prophecy can be understood (mechanistically) in terms of the recently studied phenomena of hypnagogic imagery. The article proceeds by describing first prophetic experience (both Old Testament and present day) and then hypnagogic imagery and the hypnagogic state, followed by a discussion of the possible relationship between the two types of experience. The approach of this article is not experimental but theoretical and hypothetical. The proposed hypothesis seems susceptible of specific experimental follow-up.