1	Mysticism Lecture and Discussion: Building a Vocabulary
2	Mysticism The ambiguities of the word Used to describe everything from vampires and werewolves to the sublime theology of Plotinus and Proclus.
3	Sources of Confusion The word originated in the mystery religions of antiquity. These religions featured: Initiations The idea of secret or esoteric knowledge A concept of revelation. Belief in immortality
4	Mystery Religions Mithra in characteristic pose The statue is surrounded by symbols The cape may be the heavens
5	19^th Century Scholarship The Search for the “Essence” of Religion. The belief among these scholars that the essence of religion had to precede religion’s linguistic and cultural expression. “Mysticism,” seen as an immediate experience of the “divine” seemed to fit this need.
6	Typical Representative: Aldous Huxley The Perennial Philosophy (1945) Combined Eastern and Western insights Saw mysticism as the great unifier of humankind
7	Mysticism As Experience The most famous advocate of this understanding was the American Philosopher and Psychologist: William James
8	James’ Four Marks of Mystical Experience Ineffability Noetic quality Transiency Passivity
9	The New Emphasis on Religion and the Brain Closely related to the older view of James and other “empirical” psychologist Religious experiences, particularly mystical experiences, are held to be related to the activity of the brain at certain moments.
10	The Physical Basis of Religion If the new brain science is sustained, then it will have found a physical basis for human religious experience. But, note, that such an explanation would not necessarily explain either: Religious belief or non-belief Or make all religious experiences equal any more than the discovery of the physical basis of mathematics makes everyone’s mathematics equal to Einstein’s.
11	New Interest in Spirituality After the 1960s Alan Watts and the Interest in Zen Transcendental Meditation The Spread of Religion Departments New Appreciation of Nature
12	Alan Watts: Lecture On Zen by Alan Watts That in this universe, there is one great energy, and we have no name for it. People have tried various names for it, like God, like *Brahmin, like Tao, but in the West, the word God has got so many funny associations attached to it that most of us are bored with it. When people say 'God, the father almighty,' most people feel funny inside. So we like to hear new words, we like to hear about Tao, about Brahmin, about Shinto, and __-__-__, and such strange names from the far East because they don't carry the same associations of mawkish sanctimony and funny meanings from the past.
13	Cultural Interpretations of Mysticism Steven T. Katz in Mysticism and Philosophical Analysis defined mysticism as a “linguistic” phenomenon. In other words, mystics are those people who use mystical language. Contained in this analysis is the belief that mysticism, like other human activities, is a profoundly cultural phenomenon.
14	Advantages and Disadvantages of Katz’s perspective Disadvantages: Mystics have always claimed to be doing more than transmitting cultural forms Tends to reductionism Like most post-modern perspectives, it may explain less than it appears to explain. May make it more difficult, rather than less, to explain personal religious experiences. Advantages: Few mystics described themselves as mystics Mystics have a strong desire to communicate their experiences, often in writing. Helps explain many common elements among mystics by pointing to cultural transmission of common ideas and symbols.
15	Attempt at A Working Definition Mysticism is a cultural and linguistic means of expressing the human relationship with the ultimate source of the universe It is a religious language. Like all language, it invites others to share in its reality and to adopt its perspective. Mysticism always has a philosophical or theological component in that the mystic makes definite claims about the “truth” of his or her propositions.
16	Mystical Language: Common Elements Always has a cultural component. Mystics use the language of their culture, time, and religious tradition. For example, one cannot understand Eckhart without knowing about the neo-platonic tradition. We can speak of a mystical tradition in Christianity, Islam, Judaism, etc.
17	Mystical Language: Individualization Even when a medieval mystic tells us almost nothing of her life, her writings sparkle with her personality. We know Julian, for example, although she tells us almost nothing of her life. Hildegard of Bingen’s crusading “will to power” shines forth on almost every page of her writings.
18	The Mystical Tradition Mystics read and study mystical literature. Thus, the highly individualistic Plotinus fills his Enneads with quotes from the Master, Plato. The place of study in mystical life means that there is often an intergenerational and intercultural dialogue or conversation between different mystics. Mystics often seek to advance the discussion or to deepen the common perception of religious life.
19	Some Mystic Symbols The Ascent The Journey, Quest, or pilgrimage Rebirth Sexual Love Nature and Alchemy
20	Stages on the Mystical Way Purgation or the cleansing of the soul and mind Illumination or the reception of God’s Presence Union or closing with God (very brief) Desertion or “The Dark Night” when all the gains of the past seem to vanish and God to be profoundly absent. New Life and Service.
21	The Stage Can Also Be Seen as Levels Earthly Spiritual Intellectual Ultimate or Source Return to the earthly. Finding the Source in others. Following Plotinus who favored the image of an ascent into the heavens.
22	Active and Contemplative. The Contemplative is the living in God—the simple accepting of the divine Presence with and in the Soul. Union is the highest form of contemplation. Traditional mysticism tended to regard this as a very fleeting experience. The Active is the striving to prepare the soul to receive God: The life of Sacrament Verbal Prayer Most religious experiences Classically, many mystics regarded these preparatory steps as no sign of grace. In mystical literature, the phrase, Active Life, rarely refers to ethical activity.
23	The Two Types of Mystic Conversation The Way of Love Sees the love of God as the great motive for seeing God Often uses sexual or romantic images. The mystic experiences the Self, even when the Self disappears as an independent entity, as awash in a Sea of Love. The loss of the Self in the Other is the highest experience of grace. The Intellectual The ladder to contemplation is essentially driven by the need to know. The person, thus, moves from the world of sense to the world of ideas to the Source. Usually results in a via negativa. At the height of our experience of God is what we do not know.
24	Transformation. Mysticism seems almost always to issue into a new style of life in which the mystic invest his or her life in others. The person who participates in the conversation emerges as a “Servant” (Christianity) or as a Person of “Compassion.” Thus, the flight of the “Alone to the Alone” usually ends in the flight of the Alone to the Other.
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