Vision (spirituality)

This page is about visions in a spiritual context. For other meanings, see vision (disambiguation).

Illumination from Liber Scivias, showing Hildegard of Bingen receiving a vision, dictating to her scribe and sketching on a wax tablet.

A vision is something seen in a dream, trance, or religious ecstasy, especially a supernatural appearance that usually conveys a revelation. Visions generally have more clarity than dreams, but traditionally fewer psychological connotations. Visions are known to emerge from spiritual traditions and could provide a lens into human nature and reality. Prophecy is often associated with visions.

In simple words, it is a religious experience in which the experience can be seen and hence it is called a vision.

Examples of visions

Visions are listed in approximately chronological order whenever possible, although some dates may be in dispute.

• Vision of God in the Book of Ezekiel chapter number 1. (6th century BC)
• Vision of a heavenly figure "like a son of man" in Daniel 7:13 (6th century / 2nd century BC)
• St Paul's vision of Jesus on the road to Damascus (1st century)
• Marian apparitions (visions or visitations of Mary, mother of Jesus) (1st century AD - present)
• Visions of the afterlife in the martyr accounts of Perpetua and Felicity (2nd century AD)
• The theoria (Vision of God) by which a Christian mystic may discern a deep aspect of God (in the Eastern Orthodox tradition) (3rd-6th centuries AD)
• Constantine's vision of Christ's sign (312 AD)
• Jakob Böhme's vision of 1600, revealed when he observed the beauty of a beam of sunlight in a pewter dish
• René Descartes' series of dreams on the night of 11 November 1619, which set the course of his life in science
• Blaise Pascal's vision of 23 November 1654, which reinvigorated his spiritual commitment
• Emanuel Swedenborg's visions, which formed the basis of a newly revealed doctrine (beginning in 1740s)
• Joseph Smith's First Vision (1820), including Throne-Theophany of Lehi in the First Book of Nephi in 1 Nephi 1:8-11 (6th century BC)
• Ramakrishna Paramahamsa had several visions of religious figures including Kali, Sita, Krishna, Jesus, and Muhammed. (mid/late 19th century)

See also

• Altered state of consciousness
• Apparitional experience
• Beatific vision
• Hallucination
• Kashf
• Lourdes apparitions
• Mysticism
• Neurotheology
• Private revelation
• Shamanism
• Temporal lobe epilepsy
• Theophany
• Vision quest