Is there yogic knowledge of prana, bandha, kosha, skandha, chakra, self (atman), self (purusha), God (ishvara), Brahman (the Absolute), Nirvana?

1. The cognitive value of sense experience: the "Theory of Appearing"

If S takes something a to appear to herself as F, then she has a prima facie ("defeasible") reason for believing that a is F (Fa).

2. Similarities between sense and yogic experience

a. experience is taken by the subject to reveal realities
b. compelling character
c. checks for differentiating veridical and non-veridical experiences

3. Dissimilarities

a. lack of universality (see C & D)
b. nature of the object(s) taken to be revealed

B. Testimony and the principle of credulity

1. 1st-person and 3rd-person perspectives
2. training versus reportage

3. innocent until proven guilty
4. criteria of reliability

• character
• self-consistency
• nature of the claims (coherence with other things we know, e.g., evil or lifelessness of Mars); nature of the conflict with other claims
• personal investment, objectivity

C. Objectivity and intersubjectivity

D. The problem of yogic (mystic) diversity

Some philosophic answers:

1. William James's "piecemeal supernaturalism"
2. W. T. Stace's "core view"
3. Aurobindo's "logic of the Infinite"
4. irreconcilable diversity

E.  World views

1. why have a world view?
2. problems of coherence (e.g., God and evil)
3. spirituality without a world view
4. metaphysical minimalism

F. debunking views

1. Hume on miracles (naturalism)
2. psychological debunking (including brain chemistry)
3. sociological debunking