Comparative Mysticism

[Limbo]

I've been doing my own home-grown attempt at comparative mysticism, and I think this field can shed a great deal of light on a great many subjects.

Comparative mysticism is many times a segment of comparative religion classes. I plan to take a class next year.

I was wondering if anyone knows of any text books or other sources of information reguarding this subject.

[Nattering Nabob]

Free to read online...


Mysticism: A Study in Nature and Development of Spiritual Consciousness | Christian Classics Ethereal Library

[Limbo]

Thank you very much!

[InLove]

Hi Limbo and Nat (or should I call you Bob or Spiro?),

The title of the thread caught my attention right away! I said, "Oh boy!"

Then I clicked on the link and, while I don't think there is a connection, the name of the college gave me a bit of a startle. Hmmmm.....

InPeace,
InLove

[Ciel]

Originally Posted by InLove

Then I clicked on the link and, while I don't think there is a connection, the name of the college gave me a bit of a startle. Hmmmm.....

InPeace,
InLove

Hi InLove, I find myself in a mode of questioning, interested to know why?

- c -

[InLove]

Hi Ciel--

Well, the name instantly brought the thought of "Calvinism" to my mind. I have never thought of John Calvin as one of the great mystics of the world, but then I suppose someone might.

Anyway, like I said, there is probably no connection, but if there is, I would sure like to know.

InPeace,
InLove

Edited to Add: I just did some surfing, and the school is indeed named after him. So I have some research to do!

[Limbo]

So far it seems to me that in order to understand the origins/common ground between religions, the meaning(s) of mythological symbolism, etc then comparative mysticism is absolutely essential.

I've come to realize that mysticism is natural, science is beginning to understand it, and it underlies all religious experiences. Far from invalidating the religious experience, for me these insights liberate the religious experience from their cultural trappings.

[Nattering Nabob]

I've come to realize that mysticism is natural, science is beginning to understand it, and it underlies all religious experiences. Far from invalidating the religious experience, for me these insights liberate the religious experience from their cultural trappings.

I agree.

[InLove]

So far it seems to me that in order to understand the origins/common ground between religions, the meaning(s) of mythological symbolism, etc then comparative mysticism is absolutely essential.

I agree that it is very helpful.

I've come to realize that mysticism is natural, science is beginning to understand it, and it underlies all religious experiences. Far from invalidating the religious experience, for me these insights liberate the religious experience from their cultural trappings.

I appreciate the optimism here. I, too, find it encouraging that science increasingly embraces the spiritual, and vice versa. And I agree that mystic revelation does play a major role in transcending our own physical and cultural boundaries, as well as understanding those that apply to another. However, while I can possibly relate all spiritual experience to the mystical, I can't seem to place all religious activity into the same arena.

Just thinking out loud, and trying to understand your viewpoint.

InPeace,
InLove

[flowperson]

From some of the mystical experiences I seem to have had, I would have to describe them as essentially antithetical to the nature of the world, if not the universe, that we physically inhabit and live in. In mystical experiences you penetrate and are penetrated in a profound manner such that you realize that in things truly spiritual there can be no boundaries or limits. Some describe it as a "post quantum" experience. Even the methodologies of uncertainty do not apply there.

Does this make sense to any of you out there ?

And no, I certainly do not consider Calvin to have been a mystic, but then, I might be a poor judge of his motivating experiences. All I know is that his philosophies of religion were ultimately controlling in nature rather than freedom inducing, IMO.

flow....

[Limbo]

^Yes it sure does. The experience of transcending the mundane nature of the world is one type of common mystical experience, your description is very similar to many, many descriptions I've come across.

[bgruagach]

I really enjoyed reading John Horgan's book "Rational Mysticism." It's a sort of survey of mysticism in a number of religious systems with a healthy dose of current scientific understanding added to the mix.

[Limbo]

^Thank you I have added that to my 'must-read' list!

[Nattering Nabob]

I was reading a book called Arctic Adventure written in 1935 by Peter Freuchen, a Danish adventurer and came across an account of a spontaneous mystical experience he had while seal fishing in a kayak. To hunt seals from a kayak you must remain totally motionless for hours at a time and the author related that the natives who did this sometimes suffered from what he called "kayak sickness" during which they would be paralyzed (though fully awake) and unable to move until the wind or another native stirred their kayak into a slight movement.

"It was at this time that I experienced the trance or "kayak disease" or whatever it is. I sat in my kayak day after day waiting for seals. The water was, as the natives say, "merely oil" (becalmed). The air was calm as an empty room and the sun like liquid fire on the glass of the sea. The hunter must not move for the slightest shift of his body will disturb the small craft and frighten the seals away.

It is then that the mind begins to wander crazily. I dreamt without sleeping (my italics), resurrected forgotten episodes from my childhood. Suddenly great mysteries became for the moment plain to me. I realized I was in an abnormal, or supernormal, state and reveled in it. I cannot explain the feeling exactly, but it seemed that my soul, or spirit, or what you will, was released from my body, my life and obligations, and it soared impersonally, viewing everything as a whole. I was at home in Denmark and saw al my people once more. I asked myself whether I had grown tired of the life I elected to live, and answered no, for I was not. Still, I realized that I was not such an enthusuastic hunter and adventurer as I had believed.

I remember that I told myself that I must stop this dreaming, but I remember also that I did not tell myself this until it was no more a temptation to do so. I have often wondered if this was a touch of brain fever, or "kayak disease"- or merely a state which everyone experiences at one time or another. I have never known, and no one seems willing to talk about it. But I do know that on sunny days, sitting in a kayak on the surface of a still sea, I approached a comprehension of mysteries otherwise denied me."

[InLove]

Hi Again--

I am still trying to understand the idea behind the words, Limbo and Nattering Nabob.

Are you positing that all people are mystics (or have the potential) whether they know it or not? This is the only way I can make sense of it if you consider Calvin to be a mystic, since from what I can gather, Calvin himself spurned the idea.

Or perhaps it depends on one's definition of "mystic"?

Any thoughts?

InPeace,
InLove