Editing Philosophy of religion (section)

====Perennialism vs Constructivism====
Another debate on this topic is whether all religious cultures share common core mystical experiences ([[Perennial philosophy|Perennialism]]) or whether these experiences are in some way socially and culturally constructed ([[Constructivism (psychological school)|Constructivism]] or [[Contextualism]]). According to [[Walter Stace]] all cultures share mystical experiences of oneness with the external world, as well as introverted "Pure Conscious Events" which is empty of all concepts, thoughts, qualities, etc. except pure consciousness.<ref name="auto6"/> Similarly [[Ninian Smart]] argued that monistic experiences were universal. Perennialists tend to distinguish between the experience itself, and its post experience interpretation to make sense of the different views in world religions.<ref name="auto6"/>

Some constructivists like [[Steven T. Katz]] meanwhile have argued against the common core thesis, and for either the view that every mystical experience contains at least some concepts (soft constructivism) or that they are strongly shaped and determined by one's religious ideas and culture (hard constructivism).<ref name="auto6"/> In this view, the conceptual scheme of any mystic strongly shapes their experiences and because mystics from different religions have very different schemas, there cannot be any universal mystical experiences.<ref name="auto6"/>