4 6 S p i r i t ua l i t y S t u d i e s 8 - 1 S p r i n g 2 0 2 2 3 Spirituality and Experience The configuration of experience that Plessner focuses on and which he elaborates in a fundamental way in continuity with phenomenology provides a good opportunity to talk about spirituality also in a philosophical – that is, not only theological or cultural-anthropological – perspective. Generally speaking, it offers the possibility to observe spirituality “as ‘it’ is lived” (Steinbock 2007, 25) and offers the possibility of an adequate and original investigation, taking into account the human perspective when it counts “only with the configuration of conditions specific to human behavior. Whatever components may form the unity of the configuration in which the human being is manifested, none of them can claim priority over it by itself.” (Plessner 2016, 418). We thus find an effective leading clue to the analysis. It’s one side is an openness to different forms of givenness, which manifests itself on the other side in the unfolding of different modes of experience. Plessner draws attention to the duality inherent in the experience of which we are both the actor, and we live it. This duality already manifests itself on the level of corporeality, in which one finds oneself as a living body (Ger. Leib), who one is and which one at the same time has as a physical body (Ger. Körper). This belongs to the monopolies of human existence, as well as other specific manifestations of human life that Plessner draws attention to, such as crying, laughing, expressing oneself in artistic activity, acting, taking roles in intersubjective situations, situating oneself in agency, and so on. In the context of spiritual experience, we can find cases that can serve as exemplars for this analysis: icons, rituals, mysteries, but also works of art that can lead us to spiritual experience, open us up to spiritual events. As an example, Mark Rothko’s series of fourteen black paintings in the Houston Chapel are among the striking images that evoke very intense emotional movement, touching and weeping in those who view them [5]. It is the crying that is the expression of the human being in which one can speak of experiences that are associated with the disruption of normal expected circumstances, which then act as a mental-bodily tension and disorganization in the relationship of the human being to his or her own corporeality. On the one hand, one loses control over bodily expressions, but on the other hand, one’s own expression of crying (or laughing) is released. Plessner thus points to phenomena that are at the same time natural, specifically connected to the human being, but seem to lack an adequate way of comprehending them. This is not to be found in the causal sphere, but in the dynamics of man as a corporeal, mental, and spiritual being. In other words, crying is a specific, liminal, boundary human expression. It cannot be derived from some set of assumptions, cultural or biological conditions that would lead to it. It derives from a lived experience that is penetrated by the “inexpressible.” Man is thus a being who has the inherent capacity both to face the circumstances of life and to yield to the incomprehensible and to lose control over the situation. This realm also includes spiritual experience, which in its configuration is beyond ordinary grasping, yet finds its place in the life of man – it is specifically human. We can follow the consideration of Steinbock (2007, 28): If this approach “has a role to play in the description of spiritual, religious, and even mystical experiences, it is because it is a shift in perspective that in principle is open to all kinds of givenness and thus is in a position – however modestly – to orient us to them (and not, mistakenly, as a method that ‘provokes’ those givens).” Another aspect that arises from this is the exchange between the experience and the experiencer. One is confronted with oneself; one shapes oneself by relating to oneself. This also affects the potential transformation by the transcendent, vertical experience that takes place in the context of this interaction, that is, as Plessner characterizes it: as an imbalanced equilibrium, a search for stability in instability, a search for resonance with the situation in which one finds oneself as an open being – open to various, even surprising, forms of givenness, asymmetries, saturated phenomena. This happens, for example, in experiences of surprise, vocation, evocation, being addressed by the radical otherness, being shaken, by sacrifice, ecstasy, which can lead to such a fundamental transformation as a leap of faith (Plessner 2019, 317):
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