This article argues that Latour’s concepts of actor-networks and modes of existence make room for a different participatory approach to mystical experiences (MEs), as well as religious experience more broadly, that interprets them as participatory events rather than as the inner experiences of an isolated subject. This alternative Latourian approach to MEs neither assumes the a priori presence or absence of an ontological referent to those experiences, nor does it defer the ontological question. Section one gives a historical overview (...) of the academic study of MEs, introducing the approaches of perennialism and constructivism. Section two lays out the various philosophical problems with both these approaches. Section three describes Latour’s notions of actor-networks and modes of existence. Two of his modes of existence, beings of transformation and beings of religion, will be further elucidated. The discussion will consider in which ways a participatory approach can make a difference in the academic study of MEs. (shrink)

Explores the nature and types of mystical experience and discusses the value of mysticism for humanity.

Mystical experiences of the natural world bring a sense of unity, knowledge, self-transcendence, eternity, light, and love. This is the first detailed study of these intriguing phenomena. Paul Marshall surveys and evaluates a wide range of explanations put forward by religious thinkers, philosophers, and scientists, and offers his own perspective on the nature of these experiences.

In active inference, mystical experiences (MEs) could be characterized as adaptive learning events, where the ordinary expectations of an agent become challenged or change permanently. In the context of psychedelic-induced MEs, these (temporary) changes in information processing have been attributed to increased brain entropy, the effects of which have been seen to reorganize deep perceptual-cognitive preferences (i.e. priors, e.g. an agent’s very sense of self). Adaptive (hyper)prior restructuring is an agent’s best survival strategy against environmental entropy: organisms survive by (...) effectively predicting their future states. (Psychedelic) MEs, if characterized by increased brain entropy, may represent a state where sensory input and predictive output significantly overlap, leading to what is often phenomenally reported as a sense of “unity.” This possible alignment between sensorial entropy and entropic attunement could be understood evolutionarily as an adaptive strategy for the management of uncertainty, potentially explaining the profound nature of these experiences, where fundamental aspects of active inference come to a “halt,” delivering perplexity. This article explores how these experiences, framed as evolved allostatic adaptation, can be analyzed as information exchanges between systems where the discrepancies between the sensed and the predicted can be understood as radically altered, which we speculate is what phenomenally translates to cognitive effects such as higher ambiguity tolerance: a trademark of (psychedelic) MEs, but also death acceptance, aspects of dreams or psychosis, and comparable so-called “primary state” phenomena. (shrink)

This paper discusses the nonconceptual theory of mystical ineffability which claims that mystical experiences can’t be expressed linguistically because they can’t be conceptualized. I discuss and refute two objections against it: (a) that unconceptualized experiences are impossible, and (b) that the theory is ad hoc because it provides no reason for why mystical experiences should be unconceptualizable. I argue against (a) that distinguishing different meanings of ‘object of experience’ leaves open the possibility of non-empty but objectless nonconceptual (...) experiences. I show that (b) is a valid objection but can be countered by a new theory of mystical non-conceptuality: mystical experiences are not conceptual because the specific mode of mystical consciousness prevents conceptualization. The dissolution of the subjectivity of consciousness during mystical experiences undermines the very foundation of the possibility of conceptual thought and thus renders them ineffable. (shrink)

Mysticism and Guilt-Consciousness in Schelling's Philosophical Development was Paul Tillich's 1912 dissertation for the licentiate in theology from the University of Halle. He published it the same year and it reappears in the first volume of Tillich's collected works in German.

According to William James, mystical states of consciousness are characterized, among other features, by their noetic quality, i. e., some knowledge obtained is through them. However, another common feature of mystical experiences is their ineffability. This raises an epistemological question: How can something be known, and yet cannot be expressed? Through the conceptual framework of Ludwig Wittgenstein’s Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, we examine mystical experiences as sources of knowledge. In Wittgenstein’s conception, the mystical is placed at a liminal (...) and negative position: it lies outside the limits of language and of the world, and it refers to that which cannot be said. Despite the weak and problematic epistemic foundation of these experiences from Wittgenstein’s early perspective, we conclude with some reflections on their pragmatic and subjective value for the religious dimension of human life. (shrink)

In this highly original and accessible book, one of our leading philosophers of religion seeks to answer this question by analyzing the several states of mystic union as they are described and explained in the classical primary literature ...

Mysticism presents a challenge to anyone who is interested in fundamental questions about the nature of reality, knowledge, and how we should live. In this book the author examines questions posed by mysticism. He clarifies the nature of the claims advanced by Western and Asian mystics, and explores the beliefs and values of classical mystical ways of life for their interconnections and reasonableness. Jones discusses whether all mystical experiences and all mystical claims of knowledge are similar, and (...) examines the relation of concepts and experiences in mystics' claims. Also presented are standards for evaluating competing mystical claims, and mystics' problems with language. Whether mystics' arguments are rational is investigated along with the relation of moral and non-moral values and the role of beliefs and values in enlightened mystics' ways of life. Mysticism's relation to the enterprises of science, theology, psychology and ethics is also examined. (shrink)

This article starts from the premise that the ordinary is the mystical. It does so by delving into the dynamic relationship between Spirituality and Public Theology against the backdrop of Christianity’s societal roles. It explores how Christian theology extends beyond private faith to address broad societal issues. Through a critical examination of Public Theology’s distinct contributions to contemporary discussions, the article emphasises the necessity of engaging Spirituality – with its focus on the divine-human relationship into this discourse.Contribution: This synthesis (...) aims to enrich our comprehension of Christianity’s impact on public life, advocating for a faith that actively contributes to societal transformation across diverse contexts. (shrink)

Professor R. C. Zaehner's distinction between panenhenic, monistic and theistic mysticism will be examined. It will be argued that there is no necessary reason to suppose that the latter two types involve different sorts of experience: the difference lies rather in the way the experience is interpreted. Likewise it will be argued that the Theravperennial philosophy’ common to mystics. Their doctrines are determined partly by factors other than mystical experience itself.

Practical Mysticism in Islam and Christianity offers a comparative study of the works of the Sufi-poet Jalal al-Din Rumi (1207-1273) and the practical teachings of the German Dominican, Meister Eckhart (c1260-1327/8). Rumi has remained an influential figure in Islamic mystical discourse since the thirteenth century, while also extending his impact to the Western spiritual arena. However, his ideas have frequently been interpreted within the framework of other mystical, philosophical, or religious systems. Through its novel approach, this book aims (...) to reformulate Rumi's practical mysticism by employing four methodological principles: a) mysticism is a coherent structure with mutual interconnection between its parts; b) the imposition of alien structures to interpret any particular mysticism damages its inward coherency; c) practical mysticism consists of two main parts, namely practices and stages; and d) the proper use of comparative methodology enables a deeper understanding of each juxtaposed system. Eckhart's speculative mysticism, which differs from and enjoys similarities with the love-based mysticism of Rumi, provides a "mirror" that highlights the special features of Rumi's practical mysticism. Such comparison also allows a deeper comprehension of Eckhart's practical thought. Offering a critical examination of practical mysticism, this book is a valuable resource for students and scholars of Islamic studies, comparative mysticism, and the intellectual history of Islam. (shrink)

Rather than dismissing mysticism as irrelevant to the study of medieval philosophy, this chapter identifies the two forms of mysticism most prevalent in the Middle Ages from the twelfth to the early fifteenth century - the apophatic and affective traditions - and examines the intersections of those traditions with three topics of medieval philosophical interests: the relative importance of intellect and will, the implications of the Incarnation for attitudes towards the human body and the material world, and the proper relation (...) between contemplation and activity in the good life. (shrink)

This Is A New Release Of The Original 1910 Edition.

We can’t see it, but we’re all trapped inside these strange repeating loops.— Morpheus, Matrix 41. The idea that psychedelics transform the mind by loosening rigid structures is one of the oldest i...

Bu məqalədə islamqədərki ərəb cəmiyyətində mövcud olan mistik elementlər və onların İslam sufizminin formalaşmasına təsiri araşdırılır. XİX əsrdən etibarən sufizmə dair mənbələrlə daha yaxından tanış olmağa başlamış Avropa şərqşünaslığında İslam mistisizminin qaynaqları barədə mülahizələr səslənməyə başlamış, tədqiqatçıların böyük əksəriyyəti İslamın öz mahiyyətini düzgün anlamadığından sufizmi “qumsal İslam səhrasına kənardan gətirilmiş bitki” hesab etmişlər. Lakin müasir tədqiqatlar bu cərəyanın İslamla üzvi bağlılığını vurğulayır. Bu məqalə bizim Cahiliyyət dövrü ərəblərinin asketik meyllərini, mistik təcrübə və mənəvi yaşantılarını öyrənən, onların meditasiya və ezoterik təcrübələrinə (...) diqqət yetirən tədqiqatımızın bir hissəsidir. Burada xristian və yəhudi mistikası, həmçinin yunan fəlsəfəsi kimi ətraf mədəniyyətlərin təsiri araşdırılır və qeyd olunur ki, bu xarici elementlər ərəb cəmiyyətində artıq mövcud olan mistik substratla qarşılıqlı şəkildə fəaliyyət göstərmişdir. Qədim ərəblərin öncəgörmələrlə bağlı təcrübəsi, mistik təbabəti və fövqəltəbii aləmlə təmas təcrübələri mistik dünyagörüşün tərkib hissələri kimi öyrənilir. İslamqədərki mistik meyllərin izlənilməsi sufizmin sosial-mədəni əsaslarını aydınlaşdırmağa, erkən ərəb mənəvi təcrübələri ilə islam mistisizminin asketik və ezoterik yönümlü cəhətləri arasında varislik əlaqələrini üzə çıxarmağa xidmət edir. (shrink)

This article offers a comparative study of the religious epistemologies of Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī and Gregory Palamas, highlighting their shared resistance to the overintellectualization of theology through Greek philosophical categories. Both thinkers critique the limitations of Aristotelian and Platonic conceptions of knowledge, particularly their abstraction of the divine and the reduction of metaphysical inquiry to rational demonstration. Al-Ghazālī, disillusioned with kalām and falsafa, turns to Sufism and the epistemology of kashf (“unveiling”), grounding knowledge of God in direct, transformative spiritual experience. (...) Similarly, Palamas, in response to Barlaam of Calabria, defends the Eastern Christian tradition of hesychia, asserting that divine energies can be encountered in contemplative prayer (theōria) as a step towards union or divinisation (theosis). The article explores the parallel between al-Ghazālī’s distinction between speculative knowledge and spiritual certainty, and Palamas’ essence-energies distinction, both of which affirm the possibility of real, albeit non-conceptual, participation in the divine. Drawing on the critique of metaphysics in Heidegger’s later thought, the article also considers both figures as pointing toward a renewed understanding of truth as “unconcealment” (aletheia) rather than an exercise aimed at propositional mastery, though without asserting that they had arrived at exactly the same conclusions as Heidegger. This study shows how al-Ghazālī and Palamas challenge Islamic and Byzantine philosophy as merely derivative of Greek thought, whilst advancing the distinctiveness and enduring relevance of their own mystical–theological epistemologies rooted in Christian revelatory experience. This is interpreted as a reassertion of revelatory experience over the growing dominance of philosophical theology; a move, however, not without its own difficulties. (shrink)

It has often been claimed, e.g. by William James or Aldous Huxley, that mystical experiences across times and cultures exhibit a striking similarity. Even though the words and images we use to describe them are different, underneath the surface we find a common experiential core. Others have rejected this claim and argued that all experiences are intrinsically shaped by the mystics’ pre-existing religious concepts. Against these constructivist objections, I defend the idea of a common core by arguing that even (...) if all experience is interpreted through concepts, there could still be a common core. Those who reject the common core thesis usually argue that no distinction between experience and interpretation can be made since all experience is per se already interpreted. The notion of an uninterpreted experience is self-defeating. Drawing on current research on nonconceptual mental content, I argue that experiences can have nonconceptual content; that interpretation must be understood as conceptualization and that conceptualization presupposes a raw mental content that is not conceptualized. This raw content is not experienced as nonconceptual. Rather, the nonconceptual, uninterpreted common core is an abstraction which shows itself only through reflection. Thus, the existence of a common core is compatible with the fact that all experiences are interpreted. (shrink)

Dialetheism is the view that some contradictions are true. Resorting to either metaphysical dialetheism or semantic dialetheism may seem like an appropriate resolve to certain theological contradictions. At least for those who concede to theological contradictions, and take dialetheism seriously. However, I demonstrate that neither of these types of dialetheism would serve to be amenable in resolving an Islamic theological contradiction. This is a theological contradiction that I refer to as ‘the paradox of an unknowable and ineffable God’. As a (...) result of this, I propose an alternative type of dialetheism which aims to resolve the paradox of an unknowable and ineffable God. I call this type of dialetheism, ‘mystical dialetheism’. (shrink)

This paper concerns the translation of Plato’s Palinode and in particular, Phaedrus 247d8-e1, where the soul is said to see and feast upon the Forms of Justice, Temperance, and Knowledge. The paper looks forward to the passage’s reception as revealed in Plotinus’ expanded contemplation of it in Ennead V.8, On Intelligible Beauty, and then in Ficino’s subsequent translation of and Commentarium on the Phaedrus, the final versions of which were published after Ficino’s translations of the Enneads. Both of these Neoplatonist (...) philosophers understood the Hyperouranian topos, site of the soul’s encounter with the Forms, as a contemplative landscape, wherein the mind, that is, the soul, as a knowing subject, comes to rest in its object, the Form, realizing its unity with this object by discovering the very ground of the soul, namely Nous, or Intellect. The soul, in Plotinus’ parlance, reverts to (epistrephetai) intellect (nous), thereby discovering its deeper or truer identity. The intellect, from the viewpoint of Plotinus, is a One-Many, a unity that contains within itself and as itself, the Forms, the real beings, which it eternally contemplates. For Plotinus and for Ficino after him, the erotic longing of the soul for beauty is also a path to self-knowledge, as the soul discovers true beauty within itself. In this paper, we advocate for a reading of Plato’s Phaedrus that can be said to navigate the reader toward such a search for intelligible beauty, namely, within him or herself. The paper builds on Suzanne Stern-Gillet’s work, especially her studies of Plotinus’ own treatment of Plato’s Phaedrus. In particular, her essay, one of the last studies she authored, “The double Hamartia of the Soul IV 8 [6] 5.14-37,” spurred our own meditations on Plotinus’ readings of Plato’s Palinode in the Phaedrus. (shrink)

The chapter takes up the difficulties of discussing mysticism and mystical experiences philosophically. How to describe something that is almost by definition ineffable? There is a notable tradition of the philosophy of mysticism, which has said a lot of meaningful things about mysticism. This chapter argues that an essential virtue for the philosophy of mysticism is coherence between three aspects of mysticism: the mystical subject, the mystical Object, and the mystical experience that mediates the two. The (...) philosophy of mysticism is discussed in connection to the study of esotericism, and it is pointed out that the two have very different approaches to essentially the same phenomena. It is argued that while essentialism about mystical experiences is to be avoided in historical, empirical studies, which the current study of esotericism is mostly about, it is still a possible approach in the philosophy of mysticism. (shrink)

The mystical and spiritual authors of the thirteenth to eighteenth centuries provided rich inspiration for Kierkegaard's religious thought. Kierkegaard owned numerous works by these authors, who are associated with the spiritual traditions of Rheno‐Flemish mysticism, Devotio Moderna, post‐Tridentine and Baroque Catholicism, and Reformed Pietism. The accurate spiritual diagnostics and the apt methods of spiritual formation found in (Pseudo‐)Tauler, Theologia Deutsch, Abraham a Sancta Clara, and François Fénelon deeply impressed Kierkegaard. He adopted and further developed motifs from the mystical (...) and spiritual authors in a variety of his writings, and his journals contain abundant reflections on themes from Thomas à Kempis, Ludovicus Blosius, and Gerhard Tersteegen, such as the imitation of Christ, spiritual guidance, or divine pedagogy. The best testimony to the importance of spiritual literature for Kierkegaard is the fact that he sought counsel in it in a personal crisis when he was deciding on the future of his religious authorship. (shrink)

By reading the analyses of mysticism found in Beauvoir and Irigaray with and against some medieval women's mystical texts, the paper articulates a possible space for the divine within feminist thought.

Can mystics intuit something of what modern physicists calculate? And if so, how? The question of the relation between the classical mysticisms and modern science is approached in Part I in terms of the multiple forms and definitions of 'truth value'. Intuition/epiphany, pragmatism, coherence, and correspondence are considered as forms of truth that have also been proposed for unitive mystical experience. Since 'correspondence' or 'representation' has been the definition at the core of modern science, it in particular is approached (...) by combining Lakoff and Johnson on the roots of all abstract knowledge in physical metaphor and Gibson on the ecological array of perception as the template from which such metaphors must be drawn. A series of similarities between the maximally inclusive metaphors underlying unitive mystical experience and cosmological physics, as abstracted from an ecological array already resonant with multiple levels of physical reality, suggests a basis for the correspondence between these otherwise distinct cognitive domains. Part II extends this approach to widely posited cross cultural values of spiritual or mystical realization, in terms of gratitude, compassion, faith, and inner freedom. When fully embodied as forms of personal conduct, these are also ultimately derivable from the openness and flow patternings of the ecological array itself. The possibility that the more abstract spiritual values of the major world mysticisms exemplify not only revelatory and pragmatic forms of truth, but are also broadly correspondent with both the principles of immediate concrete perception and modern physics, may eventually allow a contemporary re- formulation of the microcosm-macrocosm unities basic to traditional cultures. (shrink)

Within Jean Paul Sartre’s atheistic program, he objected to Christian mysticism as a delusory desire for substantive being. I suggest that a Christian mystic might reply to Sartre’s attack by claiming that Sartre indeed grasps something right about the human condition but falls short of fully understanding what he grasps. Then I argue that the true basis of Sartre’s atheism is neither philosophical nor existentialist, but rather mystical. Sartre had an early mystical atheistic intuition that later developed into (...) atheistic mystical experience. Sartre experienced the nonexistence of God. (shrink)

In this paper I explore the history of the notion that to believe in religion is to believe in society by tracing instances in which, in the discourse of this current within nineteenth-century French republicanism, the term religion entered into the same semantic field as the notions of society and association. I analyze several groups and individuals who sought to define religion by invoking "association" and "society": the Saint-Simonians, P.-J.-B. Buchez, Pierre Leroux, Jean-Marie Guyau, and Emile Durkheim. I conclude by (...) suggesting that this way of thinking about religion not only illuminates the intellectual context in which Durkheim's religious sociology emerged, but also highlights a distinctly French social imaginary. (shrink)

At the time when existentialism was a dominant intellectual and cultural force, a number of commentators observed that some of the language of existential philosophy, not least its interpretation of human existence in terms of nothingness, evoked the language of so-called mystical writers. This book takes on this observation and explores the evidence for the influence of mysticism on the philosophy of existentialism. It begins by delving into definitions of mysticism and existentialism and then traces the elements of mysticism (...) present in German and French thought during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The book goes on to make original contributions to the study of figures including Kierkegaard, Buber, Heidegger, Beauvoir, Sartre, Marcel, Camus, Weil, Bataille, Berdyaev, and Tillich, linking their existentialist philosophy back to some of the key concerns of the mystical tradition. Providing a unique insight into how these two areas have overlapped and interacted, this study is vital reading for any academic with an interest in twentieth-century philosophy, theology, and religious studies. (shrink)

Most characterizations of mystical experience emphasize its private, esoteric, and non-sensory nature. Such an understanding is far removed from the original meaning of the term mystikos. For the ancient Greeks, the ”mystical’ was that which led participants into the awareness of a higher reality, as in the initiatory rites of the ancient mystery cults. This usage was taken over by the early Church, which similarly designated the Christian sacraments and their rites as ”mystical’ because they draw participants (...) into a higher level of reality. I argue that the Divine Liturgy is a form of ”mystical experience’ in this sense, and that philosophers have missed a great deal by excluding such communal acts from the scope of mystical experience. (shrink)

In Mysticism and Philosophy in al-Andalus, Michael Ebstein underscores the many links that connect the intellectual world of the Andalusi mystics Ibn Masarra (269/883-319/931) and Ibn al-ʿArabi (560/1165-638/1240) to the Ismāʿīlī tradition.

The text presented here is an edited transcription of a thirteen-page unpublished typescript titled “Heidegger and the Mystical Tradition” by Reiner Schürmann. It dates back to the time following the completion of Schürmann’s book on Meister Eckhart and exhibits the preliminary conception of the former’s famous ‘practical a priori.’ Focusing on the relation between Heidegger’s meditative thinking and a mystical tradition inaugurated by Meister Eckhart, the text retrieves the steps of the latter’s path to Releasement as a practical (...) transformation of existence (Part I). In so doing, it provides a detailed account of Releasement as the condition for a peculiar experience of thinking “in which one fundamental attitude manifests itself throughout an itinerary of human existence and which tends to make this itinerary the very condition for the understanding of truth.” By hinging on Heidegger’s different acceptations of ‘letting-be’—as well as on his verbal understanding of Being as Anwesen (presencing) and Ereignis (appropriation-event)—the text indicates Releasement as the coincidence of Being’s and man’s ways to be and shows how it is in the very “urgency of a new existence and thought” that the proximity between Heidegger and Meister Eckahrt’s mystical tradition comes to the fore. (shrink)

Platonic mysticism -- Mapping mysticism -- The eclipse of Platonic mysticism -- The externalist fallacy -- On literature and mysticism -- Transcendence -- Contemplative art, contemplative science.

On Simone Weil’s “Pythagorean” view, mathematics has a mystical significance. In this paper, the nature of this significance and the coherence of Weil’s view are explored. To sharpen the discussion, consideration is given to both Rush Rhees’ criticism of Weil and Vance Morgan’s rebuttal of Rhees. It is argued here that while Morgan underestimates the force of Rhees’ criticism, Rhees’ take on Weil is, nevertheless, flawed for two reasons. First, Rhees fails to engage adequately with either the assumptions underlying (...) Weil’s religious conception of philosophy or its dialectical method. Second, Rhees’ reading of Weil reflects an anti‐Platonist conception of mathematics his justification of which is unsound and whose influence impedes recognition of the coherence of Weil’s position. (shrink)

Transcendental Meditation (TM) holds that the essence of reality is “pure consciousness.” This piece contrasts three interpretations of their meditative trance: (i) TM doctrine, and (ii) scientific physicalism, (iii) with my own meditative experience. Pure consciousness events, defined as wakeful contentless consciousness, are known to occur, but what ontological basis do they have? While cosmic consciousness may be the only ontological ultimate there is, my meditative introspection does not neatly align with TM dogma. In search of the right metaphor, this (...) piece journeys over mystical notions of divine darkness, contemplates evidence regimes, and proposes “mystic doubt” or ontological skepticism as an alternative to ontological relativism. (shrink)

Previous analyses of descriptively defined psychotic phenomena have concluded that they can occur in benign spiritual experiences as well as pathological states. Attempts to forge a distinction between psychotic experiences in spiritual and pathological contexts on the basis of the form or content of the experience (broadly described) can be disproved by counterexample; distinguishing on the basis of negative or positive consequences of the phenomena for the individual can be seen to beg the question. In the present paper, it is (...) argued that examining the fundamental conceptual organization of psychotic and mystical mental states not only elucidates the observed similarities between them, but can highlight the differences, and the processes by which negatively evaluated pathological features can be seen to emerge. Oriental philosophical systems such as Tibetan and Zen Buddhism, and Tantric Hinduism, provide conceptualizations of mystical states of mind, from which a model can be drawn, while the epistemologies of these systems provide an illuminating metaphysical perspective on both psychotic and mystical experiences. It is concluded that mystical and psychotic experiences can be distinguished not only by emotional and behavioral consequences, but by real differences in the states themselves; certain features, such as loss of subject/object boundaries and loss of the relative dimensional structure of perception, are common to both processes. (shrink)

The following key ideas of the Dutch philosopher Herman Dooyeweerd (1894–1977) can already be found in the nineteenth century German philosopher, Franz von Baader (1765–1841): religious antithesis, the law idea (Wetsidee) contrasted with autonomy of thought, Ground Motives in history, the method of antinomy, the use of Kant’s ideas to criticize Kant’s own Critique, cosmic time, the supratemporal heart, the prism analogy, modalities, sphere sovereignty, sphere universality, analogies of time, anticipation and retrocipation, Christ as the Second Root, pre-theoretical experience, the (...) Subject-Object relation, the Gegenstand relation, theoretical synthesis, and cultural unfolding. A comparison with Baader helps to interpret Dooyeweerd. (shrink)