Cross-cultural mystical reports yield irreconcilably different characterizations of the ultimate—personal God, impersonal Brahman, Sunyata—with no neutral criterion to adjudicate among them.

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(as used in arguments about religious experience)

Personal accounts or stories from people who claim to have had spiritual experiences or direct encounters with something divine or supernatural.

Neutral criterion(the statement says we lack a neutral way to decide which description of the ultimate is correct)

A fair, unbiased standard or test that doesn't favor one side over another—like a judge with no personal stake in the outcome.

Personal God(describing the type of God being proposed)

A God who has thoughts, feelings, and intentions like a person does, rather than being an impersonal force or abstract principle.

Sunyata(Buddhism's distinctive way of describing ultimate reality)

A Buddhist concept meaning 'emptiness'—the idea that nothing has a permanent, independent, unchanging essence or self.

The ultimate(what different religions are all supposedly trying to point to or describe)

The deepest reality or highest truth that religions and spirituality try to describe—what some call God, what some call the source of all existence.

cross-cultural(as used in anthropology and philosophy)

Something that appears in or affects multiple different cultures and societies around the world.

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