"Other ways of knowing," aka Different Cognitive Styles

[okasha]

62. I recently saw an article about a local group of matachines,

ceremonial dancers whose traditions go back to pre-Columbian roots in Mexico. They were performing in honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe and the Holy Cross. Their descriptions of their experience were totally consonant with what I have read/heard of the experiences of Protestant Christians, Jews, Muslims, Sikhs, Hindus, Native Americans, etc.. I've seen the Quran quoted as saying "Many doors open on God." I think that's true, and something that the Buddhist image of the dharma wheel also expresses.

I don't know if the capability to have such experiences is universal, even for those who believe on the basis of theology. Thomas Aquinas was arguably one of the most rational thinkers of his own or any other day, yet he had that transcendental experience very late in his life, and for him it rendered all his rational, Aristotelian theological work "as ashes." You raise another important question here, I think.