Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Experiential \Ex*pe`ri*en"tial\ ([e^]ks*p[=e]`r[i^]*[e^]n"shal),
a.
Derived from, or pertaining to, experience.
--Coleridge.
It is called empirical or experiential . . . because it
is given to us by experience or observation, and not
obtained as the result of inference or reasoning.
--Sir. W.
Hamilton.
-- Ex*pe`ri*en"tial*ly, adv.
--Dr. H. More.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1640s (implied in experientially), from Latin experientia "knowledge gained by testing or trials" (see experience (n.)) + -al (1).
Wiktionary
a. Of, related to, encountered in, or derived from experience.
WordNet
adj. relating to or resulting from experience; "a personal, experiental reality"
derived from experience or the experience of existence; "the rich experiential content of the teachings of the older philosophers"- Benjamin Farrington; "formal logicians are not concerned with existential matters"- John Dewey [syn: existential]
Usage examples of "experiential".
But as absolutely crucial and important as experiential disclosures are, they can be finally assimilated only in a subjective structure that grows and evolves to meet the demand, and experiences thrown at a subject do not necessarily and profoundly grow the subject itself.
Second, if what this evidence points to is true-that is, if all these lines of evidence really do point to the resurrection of Jesus-the evidence itself begs for an experiential test.
Witness or aboriginal Self, which starts to emerge, however haltingly, as an experiential reality at this psychic stage.
This is not to imply that Plotinus or Aurobindo were ultimate Realizers in a permanent or perfected sense, but rather that they are superb representatives of a full-spectrum approach to human growth and development based on their own experiential disclosures of the higher domains.
And in that deep form, the mystics of the world are in virtually unanimous and unyielding agreement, and this on the basis of their experiential evidence disclosed and discussed in a community of intersubjective interpreters.
That is to say, to each of those propositions corresponds a direct, repeatable, experiential disclosure, as interpreted in a community of those who have mastered the paradigm and displayed competence in the injunctions and exemplars.
It denies the very essence of these higher stages: they are all experimental, contemplative, experiential realities that are directly disclosed to immediate awareness under the proper laboratory conditions.
In a culture hell-bound for extraordinary experiences, no doubt there is much appeal in an experiential joyride through the seven heavens.
Here the intense experiential disclosures do not have to be worked into a subjective structure already present, but rather have to be part of a subjective and intersubjective process of building a structure not yet in existence: experiences have to be part, not of structural uncovering, but of structural building.
A cartography of the ecstatic and meditative states: The experimental and experiential features of a perception-hallucination continuum.
This is done from the experiential, rather than the intensely intellectual and analytical point of view.
Mysticism being, in essence, the practical, experiential exploration of Being, under the driving and guiding power of Love.
Creator Himself, can be directly perceived by a process of experiential knowing, an expansion of consciousness.
The rise of nonsectarian interest in the experiential dimensions of contemplative practice is a wonderful departure from the adversarial attitude that has plagued relations among religions for centuries.
This level of practice became a holy quest entailing a search for knowledge, not by impersonal, objective research but by individual, experiential revelation.