Mysticism

Mysticism

1. MEANING

   • TEASDALL
     • 'direct, immediate experience of ultimate reality...
       • ...For Christians, it is union and communion with God...
       • ...For Buddhists, it is the realiztion of enlightenment.'
   • BAUERSCHMIDT
     • 'someone who has experienced an altered state of conscious that has brought them to a new awareness of ultimate reality'
   • JAMES
     • It is an ability to see truth in a special way

2. FEATURES

   • JAMES
     • INEFFABILITY
       • states of feelings so unlike anything else that it is not possible to impart or transfer them to others.
       • No adequate account of the experience can be given in words.
       • MUSIC
         • like the need to have musical ears in order to know the value of a symphony
       • implies no cognitive claim can be based on them and therefore cannot be a source of faith.
         • Non-cognitive statement: not open to verification or falsification
         • DAVIS
           • POETIC HYPERBOLE
           • EXPERIENCE NOT DESCRIPTION
           • ALL-ENCOMPASSING
           • PARADOXICAL
           • VIA NEGATIVA
           • 'cannot be descvribed' should not be taken strict sense. mystics description may not be adequate; may be inextricably bound up with models and metaphors, and the divine may remain ultimatelt beyond the grasp of human concepts but that does not mean that the often eloquent attempts of the mystic to communicate his 'vision' are not intended to give us some indication of an ultimate reality beyond his own personal life.
     • NOETIC QUALITY
       • States of knowledge to those that experience them. states that allow insight into the depths of truth unobtainable by the intellect alone.
         • illuminations, revelations full of importance and significance. Universal and external truths.
     • TRANSIENCY
       • M. states cannot be maintained for long periods of time. J. claims that 30mins to 2hrs is the limit.
       • though states remembered they are imperfectly recalled.
       • Leave recipient with a profound sense of the importance of the exp.
     • PASSIVITY
       • although M. state may be entered through meditation, the characteristic state of consiousness is one of acceptance and openness.
         • such as state the mystic will feel as if they are taken over by a superior power.
   • HAPPOLD
     • CONSCIOUSNESS OF THE ONENESS OF EVERYTHING
       • Sense of cosmic oneness.
       • Identity fades and person becomes aware of being part of a dimension much greater than themselves.
       • Unity Introvertive
         • external sense impressions are left behind.
       • Unity Extrovertive
         • person reports that they feel a part of everything that is, (objects, other people, nature, universe) or that 'all in one
     • SENSE OF TIMELESSNESS
       • The subject feels beyond past, present and future and beyond ordinary 3D space in a realm of eternity or infinity
     • THE UNDERSTANDING THAT THE EGO IS NOT THE REAL 'I'
       • a sense that there is an unchanging self that is immortal and that lies behind the usual experience of self.
   • PAHNKE
     • DEEPLY FELT POSITIVE MOOD
       • contains elements of joy, blessedness ,peace and love to an overwhelming degree of intensity.
     • SENSE OF SACREDNESS
       • Non-rational, intuitive, hushed response of awe and wonder in the presence of inspiring reality.
     • PARADOXICALITY
       • Logical contradictions that become apparent if descriptions are carefully analysed.
     • ALLEGED INEFFABILITY
       • the experience is felt to be beyond words, non-verbal and impossible to describe. Yet most who insist on ineffability do in fact make elaborate attempts to commuicate for experience, usually means of imagery or metaphor
     • PERSISTING POSITIVE CHANGES IN ATTITUDES AND BEHAVIOUR.
       • changes in attitude are towards self, others, life and the experience itself.
   • STACE: similarities

3. not all mystical experiences are necessarily religious. depends upon how relgioun is defined

   • 'personal god' central definition
     • may forms of ME could not be considered to be religious
       • problem by-passed rather than oslved by broadening def. of rel to include any experience that would qualify as mystical by our criteria
         • an exp that elicits from the experiencer, a centred response from the core of his bring.
           • whether or not ME is religious depends upon ones def of rel.

4. EXPERIENCES

   • HINDU
     • the self (atman) in a person is identified with the supreme self (Brahman) of the universe. The apparent separateness and individuality of being and events are held to be an illusion (maya). this illusion can be dispelled through the realisation of the essential oneness of atman and brahman. then a mystical state of liberation (moksha) is attained.
   • CHRISTIAN
     • Union with God
     • Appeal is made to the Bible for support for such a union. The Doctrine of incarnation is central.
     • 'contemplation' used until 14thC/15thC to describe mystical exp.
     • criticise mystical union, claiming that it tends towards pantheism, with the individual identity of the soul being lsot and absorbed into God. others defend that soul is not losing itself but finding its true identity.
     • St Catherine of Genoa, St Teresa of Avila
     • Charismatic Phenomena
       • 'Being slain in the Spirit' and 'Toronto Blessing'
       • Speaking tongue and words of knowledge
   • MUSLIM
     • Islamic doctrine rejects the idea of Allahs literal presence within matter, though the Qu'ran does describe creation as a 'sign' of Allah
       • However, a more mystical concept is implied by Sara Qaf 50:13 '(Allah is) ... nearer to man than his jugular vein'.
       • SUFISM
         • Inner, mystical dimension of Islam.
           • Al-Ghazali made Sufism more acceptable within Islam. Emphasised the personal, inner religious faith that should accompany the external practices of the religion.
           • Many Muslima nd Non-Muslims believe that sufism is out side the sphere of Islam. All Muslikms believe that they are on the pathway to God and will become close to Allah in Paradise.
           • Sufis believe that it is possible to become close to god and to experience this closeness in this life now.
             • Shabistari - 'In the Presence, "T" and "Thou" have ceased to exist, they have become one; the Quest and the Way and the Seeker are one'

5. TYPES

   • They are all one and the same
     • regards mysticism as a universal phenomenon of the human spirit experiencing communion with God. same- Christianity, Jewish, Hindu or Buddhist
       • Tradition and Culture IRRELEVANT
         • to account for some of the apparent differences between the accounts of experiences, a differences is made between the experience and its interpretation.
           • They all experience the same thing but they interpret their experiences differently, in accordance with their varying cultures and religious traditions.
   • THERE ARE A FEW TYPES THAT CUT CULTURAL BARRIERS
     • STACE
       • TWO BASIC TYPES - both are apprehensions of the one, but they are reached in different ways.
         • EXTROVERTIVE
           • looks outwardly and through the physical sense to the external world. The external world is transfigured in such a way that the unity shines thorugh them.
         • INTROVERTIVE
           • turns inwardly, introspectively, losing identity as a separate individual and merging the diving unity.
           • S. argues that this eperience is the purest as it is non-sensuous asnd non-intellectual, where the empirical consciousness has been suppressed. It is cross-cultural in that the essence of this experience is undifferentiated unity, though he sees this interpreted differently in each culture and religion.
     • ZAEHNER
       • NATURE
         • the experience of oneness with nature.
       • MONISTIC
         • the experience of my own spirit as the absolute, the identity of atman and brahman. this is found more in eastern traditions.
         • SMART
           • rejects the difference between monistic and theistic, seeing this as interpretation rather than a different experience.
       • THIESTIC
         • union or communion with a personal lord or creator.
           • non-absorptive and more related to western tradition with monotheistic faiths.
   • It is impossible to classify
     • Scholars, KATZ, argue that there is no such thing as a pure or unmediated experience. The experience itself is shaped both by the concepts that the mystics brings to it and by the form in which its reported.
       • Christians experience union with Christ, Hindus experience identification with Atman, Buddhists experience 'emptiness'