Mysticism is popularly known as becoming one with God or the Absolute,[1][2] but may refer to any kind of ecstasy or altered state of consciousness which is given a religious or spiritual meaning.[web 1] It may also refer to the attainment of insight in ultimate or hidden truths, and to human transformation supported by various practices and experiences.[web 2]

Liber Divinorum Operum, or the Universal Man of St. Hildegard of Bingen, 1185 (13th-century copy)

The term "mysticism" has Ancient Greek origins with various historically determined meanings.[web 1][web 2] Derived from the Greek word μύω múō, meaning "to close" or "to conceal",[web 2] mysticism referred to the biblical, liturgical, spiritual, and contemplative dimensions of early and medieval Christianity.[3] During the early modern period, the definition of mysticism grew to include a broad range of beliefs and ideologies related to "extraordinary experiences and states of mind."[4]


Broadly defined, mysticism can be found in all religious traditions, from indigenous religions and folk religions like shamanism, to organized religions like the Abrahamic faiths and Indian religions, and modern spirituality, New Age and New Religious Movements.

Since the 1960s scholars have debated the merits of perennial and constructionist approaches in the scientific research of "mystical experiences".[5][6][7] The perennial position is now "largely dismissed by scholars",[8], most scholars using a contextualist approach, which takes the cultural and historical context into consideration.[9]


"Mysticism" is derived from the Greek μύω, meaning "I conceal",[web 2] and its derivative μυστικός, mystikos, meaning 'an initiate'. The verb μύω has received a quite different meaning in the Greek language, where it is still in use. The primary meanings it has are "induct" and "initiate". Secondary meanings include "introduce", "make someone aware of something", "train", "familiarize", "give first experience of something".[web 3]




Until the sixth century the practice of what is now called mysticism was referred to by the term contemplatio, c.q. theoria.[11] According to Johnston, "[b]oth contemplation and mysticism speak of the eye of love which is looking at, gazing at, aware of divine realities."[11]


According to Peter Moore, the term "mysticism" is "problematic but indispensable."[12] It is a generic term which joins together into one concept separate practices and ideas which developed separately,[12] According to Dupré, "mysticism" has been defined in many ways,[13] and Merkur notes that the definition, or meaning, of the term "mysticism" has changed through the ages.[web 1] Moore further notes that the term "mysticism" has become a popular label for "anything nebulous, esoteric, occult, or supernatural."[12]

Parsons warns that "what might at times seem to be a straightforward phenomenon exhibiting an unambiguous commonality has become, at least within the academic study of religion, opaque and controversial on multiple levels".[14] Because of its Christian overtones, and the lack of similar terms in other cultures, some scholars regard the term "mysticism" to be inadequate as a useful descriptive term.[12] Other scholars regard the term to be an inauthentic fabrication,[12][web 1] the "product of post-Enlightenment universalism."[12]

Union with the Divine or Absolute and mystical experienceEdit


An influential proponent of this understanding was William James (1842–1910), who stated that "in mystic states we both become one with the Absolute and we become aware of our oneness."[16] William James popularized this use of the term "religious experience"[note 2] in his The Varieties of Religious Experience,[18][19][web 2] contributing to the interpretation of mysticism as a distinctive experience, comparable to sensory experiences.[20][web 2] Religious experiences belonged to the "personal religion,"[21] which he considered to be "more fundamental than either theology or ecclesiasticism".[21] He gave a Perennialist interpretation to religious experience, stating that this kind of experience is ultimately uniform in various traditions.[note 3]




Religious ecstasies and interpretative contextEdit

Mysticism involves an explanatory context, which provides meaning for mystical and visionary experiences, and related experiences like trances. According to Dan Merkur, mysticism may relate to any kind of ecstasy or altered state of consciousness, and the ideas and explanations related to them.[web 1][note 6] Parsons stresses the importance of distinguishing between temporary experiences and mysticism as a process, which is embodied within a "religious matrix" of texts and practices.[26][note 7] Richard Jones does the same.[27] Peter Moore notes that mystical experience may also happen in a spontaneous and natural way, to people who are not committed to any religious tradition. These experiences are not necessarily interpreted in a religious framework.[28] Ann Taves asks by which processes experiences are set apart and deemed religious or mystical.[29]

Intuitive insight and enlightenmentEdit

Some authors emphasize that mystical experience involves intuitive understanding of the meaning of existence and of hidden truths, and the resolution of life problems. According to Larson, "mystical experience is an intuitive understanding and realization of the meaning of existence."[30][note 8] According to McClenon, mysticism is "the doctrine that special mental states or events allow an understanding of ultimate truths."[web 7][note 9] According to James R. Horne, mystical illumination is "a central visionary experience [...] that results in the resolution of a personal or religious problem.[5][note 10]

According to Evelyn Underhill, illumination is a generic English term for the phenomenon of mysticism. The term illumination is derived from the Latin illuminatio, applied to Christian prayer in the 15th century.[31] Comparable Asian terms are bodhi, kensho and satori in Buddhism, commonly translated as "enlightenment", and vipassana, which all point to cognitive processes of intuition and comprehension. According to Wright, the use of the western word enlightenment is based on the supposed resemblance of bodhi with Aufklärung, the independent use of reason to gain insight into the true nature of our world, and there are more resemblances with Romanticism than with the Enlightenment: the emphasis on feeling, on intuitive insight, on a true essence beyond the world of appearances.[32]

Spiritual life and re-formationEdit

Other authors point out that mysticism involves more than "mystical experience." According to Gellmann, the ultimate goal of mysticism is human transformation, not just experiencing mystical or visionary states.[web 2][note 13][note 14] According to McGinn, personal transformation is the essential criterion to determine the authenticity of Christian mysticism.[23][note 15]

History of the termEdit

Hellenistic worldEdit

In the Hellenistic world, 'mystical' referred to "secret" religious rituals like the Eleusinian Mysteries.[web 2] The use of the word lacked any direct references to the transcendental.[14] A "mystikos" was an initiate of a mystery religion.

Early ChristianityEdit

In early Christianity the term "mystikos" referred to three dimensions, which soon became intertwined, namely the biblical, the liturgical and the spiritual or contemplative.[3] The biblical dimension refers to "hidden" or allegorical interpretations of Scriptures.[web 2][3] The liturgical dimension refers to the liturgical mystery of the Eucharist, the presence of Christ in the Eucharist.[web 2][3] The third dimension is the contemplative or experiential knowledge of God.[3]

Until the sixth century, the Greek term theoria, meaning "contemplation" in Latin, was used for the mystical interpretation of the Bible.[36] The link between mysticism and the vision of the Divine was introduced by the early Church Fathers, who used the term as an adjective, as in mystical theology and mystical contemplation.[14] Under the influence of Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite the mystical theology came to denote the investigation of the allegorical truth of the Bible,[3] and "the spiritual awareness of the ineffable Absolute beyond the theology of divine names."[37] Pseudo-Dionysius' Apophatic theology, or "negative theology", exerted a great influence on medieval monastic religiosity.[38] It was influenced by Neo-Platonism, and very influential in Eastern Orthodox Christian theology. In western Christianity it was a counter-current to the prevailing Cataphatic theology or "positive theology".

Theoria enabled the Fathers to perceive depths of meaning in the biblical writings that escape a purely scientific or empirical approach to interpretation.[39] The Antiochene Fathers, in particular, saw in every passage of Scripture a double meaning, both literal and spiritual.[40]

Later, theoria or contemplation came to be distinguished from intellectual life, leading to the identification of θεωρία or contemplatio with a form of prayer[41] distinguished from discursive meditation in both East[42] and West.[43]

Medieval meaningEdit


Early modern meaningEdit


In the sixteenth and seventeenth century mysticism came to be used as a substantive.[14] This shift was linked to a new discourse,[14] in which science and religion were separated.[44]

Luther dismissed the allegorical interpretation of the bible, and condemned Mystical theology, which he saw as more Platonic than Christian.[45] "The mystical", as the search for the hidden meaning of texts, became secularised, and also associated with literature, as opposed to science and prose.[46]

Science was also distinguished from religion. By the middle of the 17th century, "the mystical" is increasingly applied exclusively to the religious realm, separating religion and "natural philosophy" as two distinct approaches to the discovery of the hidden meaning of the universe.[47] The traditional hagiographies and writings of the saints became designated as "mystical", shifting from the virtues and miracles to extraordinary experiences and states of mind, thereby creating a newly coined "mystical tradition".[4] A new understanding developed of the Divine as residing within human, an essence beyond the varieties of religious expressions.[14]

Contemporary meaningEdit

The 19th century saw a growing emphasis on individual experience, as a defense against the growing rationalism of western society.[19][web 1] The meaning of mysticism was considerably narrowed:[web 1]


Under the influence of Perennialism, which was popularised in both the west and the east by Unitarianism, Transcendentalists and Theosophy, mysticism has been applied to a broad spectrum of religious traditions, in which all sorts of esotericism and religious traditions and practices are joined together.[48][49][19] The term mysticism was extended to comparable phenomena in non-Christian religions,[web 1] where it influenced Hindu and Buddhist responses to colonialism, resulting in Neo-Vedanta and Buddhist modernism.[49][50]

In the contemporary usage "mysticism" has become an umbrella term for all sorts of non-rational world views,[51] parapsychology and pseudoscience.[52][53][54][55] William Harmless even states that mysticism has become "a catch-all for religious weirdness".[56] Within the academic study of religion the apparent "unambiguous commonality" has become "opaque and controversial".[14] The term "mysticism" is being used in different ways in different traditions.[14] Some call to attention the conflation of mysticism and linked terms, such as spirituality and esotericism, and point at the differences between various traditions.[57]

Variations of mysticismEdit





Shamanism is a practice that involves a practitioner reaching altered states of consciousness in order to perceive and interact with a spirit world and channel these transcendental energies into this world.[59] A shaman is a person regarded as having access to, and influence in, the world of benevolent and malevolent spirits, who typically enters into a trance state during a ritual, and practices divination and healing.[60]



Western mysticismEdit

Mystery religionsEdit

The Eleusinian Mysteries, (Greek: Ἐλευσίνια Μυστήρια) were annual initiation ceremonies in the cults of the goddesses Demeter and Persephone, held in secret at Eleusis (near Athens) in ancient Greece.[63] The mysteries began in about 1600 B.C. in the Mycenean period and continued for two thousand years, becoming a major festival during the Hellenic era, and later spreading to Rome.[64] Numerous scholars have proposed that the power of the Eleusinian Mysteries came from the kykeon's functioning as an entheogen.[65]

Christian mysticismEdit

Early ChristianityEdit

The apophatic theology, or "negative theology", of Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite (6th c.) exerted a great influence on medieval monastic religiosity, both in the East and (by Latin translation) in the West.[38] Pseudo-Dionysius applied Neoplatonic thought, particularly that of Proclus, to Christian theology.

Orthodox ChristianityEdit

The Orthodox Church has a long tradition of theoria (intimate experience) and hesychia (inner stillness), in which contemplative prayer silences the mind to progress along the path of theosis (deification).

Theosis, practical unity with and conformity to God, is obtained by engaging in contemplative prayer, the first stage of theoria,[66][note 16] which results from the cultivation of watchfulness (nepsis). In theoria, one comes to behold the "divisibly indivisible" divine operations (energeia) of God as the "uncreated light" of transfiguration, a grace which is eternal and proceeds naturally from the blinding darkness of the incomprehensible divine essence.[note 17][note 18] It is the main aim of hesychasm, which was developed in the thought St. Symeon the New Theologian, embraced by the monastic communities on Mount Athos, and most notably defended by St. Gregory Palamas against the Greek humanist philosopher Barlaam of Calabria. According to Roman Catholic critics, hesychastic practice has its roots to the introduction of a systematic practical approach to quietism by Symeon the New Theologian.[note 19]

Symeon believed that direct experience gave monks the authority to preach and give absolution of sins, without the need for formal ordination. While Church authorities also taught from a speculative and philosophical perspective, Symeon taught from his own direct mystical experience,[69] and met with strong resistance for his charismatic approach, and his support of individual direct experience of God's grace.[69]

Western EuropeEdit

The High Middle Ages saw a flourishing of mystical practice and theorization in western Roman Catholicism, corresponding to the flourishing of new monastic orders, with such figures as Guigo II, Hildegard of Bingen, Bernard of Clairvaux, the Victorines, all coming from different orders, as well as the first real flowering of popular piety among the laypeople.





Western esotericism and modern spiritualityEdit

Many western esoteric traditions and elements of modern spirituality have been regarded as "mysticism," such as Gnosticism, Transcendentalism, Theosophy, the Fourth Way,[70] Martinus´ spiritual science, and Neo-Paganism. Modern western spiritually and transpersonal psychology combine western psycho-therapeutic practices with religious practices like meditation to attain a lasting transformation. Nature mysticism is an intense experience of unification with nature or the cosmic totality, which was popular with Romantic writers.[71]

Jewish mysticismEdit

Portrait of Abraham Abulafia, Medieval Jewish mystic and founder of Prophetic Kabbalah.

In the common era, Judaism has had two main kinds of mysticism: Merkabah mysticism and Kabbalah. The former predated the latter, and was focused on visions, particularly those mentioned in the Book of Ezekiel. It gets its name from the Hebrew word meaning "chariot", a reference to Ezekiel's vision of a fiery chariot composed of heavenly beings.




Islamic mysticismEdit

The consensus is that Islam's inner and mystical dimension is encapsulated in Sufism.[73][74][75]

Classical Sufi scholars have defined Sufism as


A practitioner of this tradition is nowadays known as a ṣūfī (صُوفِيّ), or, in earlier usage, a dervish. The origin of the word "Sufi" is ambiguous. One understanding is that Sufi means wool-wearer; wool wearers during early Islam were pious ascetics who withdrew from urban life. Another explanation of the word "Sufi" is that it means 'purity'.[77]

Sufis generally belong to a khalqa, a circle or group, led by a Sheikh or Murshid. Sufi circles usually belong to a Tariqa which is the Sufi order and each has a Silsila, which is the spiritual lineage, which traces its succession back to notable Sufis of the past, and often ultimately to Muhammed or one of his close associates. The turuq (plural of tariqa) are not enclosed like Christian monastic orders; rather the members retain an outside life. Membership of a Sufi group often passes down family lines. Meetings may or may not be segregated according to the prevailing custom of the wider society. An existing Muslim faith is not always a requirement for entry, particularly in Western countries.

Mawlānā Rumi's tomb, Konya, Turkey

Sufi practice includes

  • Muraqaba or meditation.
  • Visiting holy places, particularly the tombs of Sufi saints, in order to remember death and the greatness of those who have passed.


Notable classical Sufis include Jalaluddin Rumi, Fariduddin Attar, Sultan Bahoo, Sayyed Sadique Ali Husaini, Saadi Shirazi and Hafez, all major poets in the Persian language. Omar Khayyam, Al-Ghazzali and Ibn Arabi were renowned scholars. Abdul Qadir Jilani, Moinuddin Chishti, and Bahauddin Naqshband founded major orders, as did Rumi. Rabia Basri was the most prominent female Sufi.


Indian religionsEdit


In Hinduism, various sadhanas aim at overcoming ignorance (avidhya) and transcending the limited identification with body, mind and ego to attain moksha. Hinduism has a number of interlinked ascetic traditions and philosophical schools which aim at moksha[79] and the acquisition of higher powers.[80] With the onset of the British colonisation of India, those traditions came to be interpreted in western terms such as "mysticism", drawing equivalents with western terms and practices.[81]

Yoga is the physical, mental, and spiritual practices or disciplines which aim to attain a state of permanent peace.[82] Various traditions of yoga are found in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism.[83][84][85] The Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali defines yoga as "the stilling of the changing states of the mind,"[86] which is attained in samadhi.

Classical Vedanta gives philosophical interpretations and commentaries of the Upanishads, a vast collection of ancient hymns. At least ten schools of Vedanta are known,[87] of which Advaita Vedanta, Vishishtadvaita, and Dvaita are the best known.[88] Advaita Vedanta, as expounded by Adi Shankara, states that there is no difference between Atman and Brahman. The best-known subschool is Kevala Vedanta or mayavada as expounded by Adi Shankara. Advaita Vedanta has acquired a broad acceptance in Indian culture and beyond as the paradigmatic example of Hindu spirituality.[89] In contrast Bhedabheda-Vedanta emphasizes that Atman and Brahman are both the same and not the same,[90] while Dvaita Vedanta states that Atman and God are fundamentally different.[90] In modern times, the Upanishads have been interpreted by Neo-Vedanta as being "mystical".[81]

Various Shaivist traditions are strongly nondualistic, such as Kashmir Shaivism and Shaiva Siddhanta.


Tantra is the name given by scholars to a style of meditation and ritual which arose in India no later than the fifth century AD.[91] Tantra has influenced the Hindu, Bön, Buddhist, and Jain traditions and spread with Buddhism to East and Southeast Asia.[92] Tantric ritual seeks to access the supra-mundane through the mundane, identifying the microcosm with the macrocosm.[93] The Tantric aim is to sublimate (rather than negate) reality.[94] The Tantric practitioner seeks to use prana (energy flowing through the universe, including one's body) to attain goals which may be spiritual, material or both.[95] Tantric practice includes visualisation of deities, mantras and mandalas. It can also include sexual and other (antinomian) practices.[citation needed]

Sant-tradition and SikhismEdit

Mysticism in the Sikh dharm began with its founder, Guru Nanak, who as a child had profound mystical experiences.[96] Guru Nanak stressed that God must be seen with 'the inward eye', or the 'heart', of a human being.[97] Guru Arjan, the fifth Sikh Guru, added religious mystics belonging to other religions into the holy scriptures that would eventually become the Guru Granth Sahib.

The goal of Sikhism is to be one with God.[98] Sikhs meditate as a means to progress towards enlightenment; it is devoted meditation simran that enables a sort of communication between the Infinite and finite human consciousness.[99] There is no concentration on the breath but chiefly the remembrance of God through the recitation of the name of God[100] and surrender themselves to God's presence often metaphorized as surrendering themselves to the Lord's feet.[101]


According to Oliver, Buddhism is mystical in the sense that it aims at the identification of the true nature of our self, and live according to it.[102] Buddhism originated in India, sometime between the 6th and 4th centuries BCE, but is now mostly practiced in other countries, where it developed into a number of traditions, the main ones being Therevada, Mahayana, and Vajrayana.

Buddhism aims at liberation from the cycle of rebirth by self-control through meditation and morally just behaviour. Some Buddhist paths aim at a gradual development and transformation of the personality toward Nirvana, like the Theravada stages of enlightenment. Others, like the Japanese Rinzai Zen tradition, emphasize sudden insight, but nevertheless also prescribe intensive training, including meditation and self-restraint.

Although Theravada does not acknowledge the existence of a theistic Absolute, it does postulate Nirvana as a transcendent reality which may be attained.[103][104] It further stresses transformation of the personality through meditative practice, self-restraint, and morally just behaviour.[103] According to Richard H. Jones, Theravada is a form of mindful extrovertive and introvertive mysticism, in which the conceptual structuring of experiences is weakened, and the ordinary sense of self is weakened.[105] It is best known in the west from the Vipassana movement, a number of branches of modern Theravāda Buddhism from Burma, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Sri Lanka, and includes contemporary American Buddhist teachers such as Joseph Goldstein and Jack Kornfield.

The Yogacara school of Mahayana investigates the workings of the mind, stating that only the mind[106] (citta-mātra) or the representations we cognize (vijñapti-mātra),[107][note 20] really exist.[106][108][107] In later Buddhist Mahayana thought, which took an idealistic turn,[note 21] the unmodified mind came to be seen as a pure consciousness, from which everything arises.[note 22] Vijñapti-mātra, coupled with Buddha-nature or tathagatagarba, has been an influential concept in the subsequent development of Mahayana Buddhism, not only in India, but also in China and Tibet, most notable in the Chán (Zen) and Dzogchen traditions.

Chinese and Japanese Zen is grounded on the Chinese understanding of the Buddha-nature as one true's essence, and the Two truths doctrine as a polarity between relative and Absolute reality.[111][112] Zen aims at insight one's true nature, or Buddha-nature, thereby manifesting Absolute reality in the relative reality.[113] In Soto, this Buddha-nature is regarded to be ever-present, and shikan-taza, sitting meditation, is the expression of the already existing Buddhahood.[112] Rinzai-zen emphasises the need for a break-through insight in this Buddha-nature,[112] but also stresses that further practice is needed to deepen the insight and to express it in daily life,[114][115][116][117] as expressed in the Three mysterious Gates, the Four Ways of Knowing of Hakuin,[118] and the Ten Ox-Herding Pictures.[119] The Japanese Zen-scholar D.T. Suzuki noted similarities between Zen-Buddhism and Christian mysticism, especially meister Eckhart.[120]

The Tibetan Vajrayana tradition is based on Madhyamaka philosophy and Tantra.[121] In deity yoga, visualizations of deities are eventually dissolved, to realize the inherent emptiness of every-'thing' that exists.[122] Dzogchen, which is being taught in both the Tibetan buddhist Nyingma school and the Bön tradition,[123][124] focuses on direct insight into our real nature. It holds that "mind-nature" is manifested when one is enlightened,[125] being nonconceptually aware (rigpa, "open presence") of one's nature,[123] "a recognition of one's beginningless nature."[126] Mahamudra has similarities with Dzogchen, emphasizing the meditational approach to insight and liberation.


Taoist philosophy is centered on the Tao, usually translated "Way", an ineffable cosmic principle. The contrasting yet interdependent concepts of yin and yang also symbolise harmony, with Taoist scriptures often emphasing the Yin virtues of femininity, passivity and yieldingness.[127] Taoist practice includes exercises and rituals aimed at manipulating the life force Qi, and obtaining health and longevity.[note 23] These have been elaborated into practices such as Tai chi, which are well known in the west.

The Secularization of MysticismEdit

Today there is also occurring in the West what Richard Jones calls "the secularization of mysticism".[128] That is the separation of meditation and other mystical practices from their traditional use in religious ways of life to only secular ends of purported psychological and physiological benefits.

Scholarly approaches of mysticism and mystical experienceEdit

Types of mysticismEdit

R. C. Zaehner distinguishes three fundamental types of mysticism, namely theistic, monistic and panenhenic ("all-in-one") or natural mysticism.[6] The theistic category includes most forms of Jewish, Christian and Islamic mysticism and occasional Hindu examples such as Ramanuja and the Bhagavad Gita.[6] The monistic type, which according to Zaehner is based upon an experience of the unity of one's soul,[6][note 24] includes Buddhism and Hindu schools such as Samkhya and Advaita vedanta.[6] Nature mysticism seems to refer to examples that do not fit into one of these two categories.[6]

Walter Terence Stace, in his book Mysticism and Philosophy (1960), distinguished two types of mystical experience, namely extrovertive and introvertive mysticism.[129][6][130] Extrovertive mysticism is an experience of the unity of the external world, whereas introvertive mysticism is "an experience of unity devoid of perceptual objects; it is literally an experience of 'no-thing-ness'."[130] The unity in extrovertive mysticism is with the totality of objects of perception. While perception stays continuous, “unity shines through the same world”; the unity in introvertive mysticism is with a pure consciousness, devoid of objects of perception,[131] “pure unitary consciousness, wherein awareness of the world and of multiplicity is completely obliterated.”[132] According to Stace such experiences are nonsensous and nonintellectual, under a total “suppression of the whole empirical content.”[133]

Stace argues that doctrinal differences between religious traditions are inappropriate criteria when making cross-cultural comparisons of mystical experiences.[6] Stace argues that mysticism is part of the process of perception, not interpretation, that is to say that the unity of mystical experiences is perceived, and only afterwards interpreted according to the perceiver's background. This may result in different accounts of the same phenomenon. While an atheist describes the unity as “freed from empirical filling”, a religious person might describe it as “God” or “the Divine”.[134]

Mystical experiencesEdit

Since the 19th century, "mystical experience" has evolved as a distinctive concept. It is closely related to "mysticism" but lays sole emphasis on the experiential aspect, be it spontaneous or induced by human behavior, whereas mysticism encompasses a broad range of practices aiming at a transformation of the person, not just inducing mystical experiences.

William James' The Varieties of Religious Experience is the classic study on religious or mystical experience, which influenced deeply both the academic and popular understanding of "religious experience".[18][19][20][web 2] He popularized the use of the term "religious experience"[note 25] in his "Varieties",[18][19][web 2] and influenced the understanding of mysticism as a distinctive experience which supplies knowledge of the transcendental:[20][web 2]

Under the influence of William James' The Varieties of Religious Experience, heavily centered on people's conversion experiences, most philosophers' interest in mysticism has been in distinctive, allegedly knowledge-granting "mystical experiences.""[web 2]

Yet, Gelman notes that so-called mystical experience is not a transitional event, as William James claimed, but an "abiding consciousness, accompanying a person throughout the day, or parts of it. For that reason, it might be better to speak of mystical consciousness, which can be either fleeting or abiding."[web 2]

Most mystical traditions warn against an attachment to mystical experiences, and offer a "protective and hermeneutic framework" to accommodate these experiences.[135] These same traditions offer the means to induce mystical experiences,[135] which may have several origins:

  • Spontaneous; either apparently without any cause, or by persistent existential concerns, or by neurophysiological origins;
  • Religious practices, such as contemplation, meditation, and mantra-repetition;
  • Entheogens (psychedelic drugs)
  • Neurophysiological origins, such as temporal lobe epilepsy.

The theoretical study of mystical experience has shifted from an experiential, privatized and perennialist approach to a contextual and empirical approach.[135] The experientalist approach sees mystical experience as a private expression of perennial truths, separate from its historical and cultural context. The contextual approach, which also includes constructionism and attribution theory, takes into account the historical and cultural context.[135][29][web 2] Neurological research takes an empirical approach, relating mystical experiences to neurological processes.

Perennialism versus constructionismEdit

The term "mystical experience" evolved as a distinctive concept since the 19th century, laying sole emphasis on the experiential aspect, be it spontaneous or induced by human behavior. Perennialists regard those various experience traditions as pointing to one universal transcendental reality, for which those experiences offer the proof. In this approach, mystical experiences are privatised, separated from the context in which they emerge.[135] Well-known representatives are William James, R.C. Zaehner, William Stace and Robert Forman.[9] The perennial position is "largely dismissed by scholars",[8] but "has lost none of its popularity."[136]

In contrast, for the past decades most scholars have favored a constructionist approach, which states that mystical experiences are fully constructed by the ideas, symbols and practices that mystics are familiar with.[9] Critics of the term "religious experience" note that the notion of "religious experience" or "mystical experience" as marking insight into religious truth is a modern development,[137] and contemporary researchers of mysticism note that mystical experiences are shaped by the concepts "which the mystic brings to, and which shape, his experience".[138] What is being experienced is being determined by the expectations and the conceptual background of the mystic.[139]

Richard Jones draws a distinction between "anticonstructivism" and "perennialism": constructivism can be rejected with respect to a certain class of mystical experiences without ascribing to a perennialist philosophy on the relation of mystical doctrines.[140] One can reject constructivism without claiming that mystical experiences reveal a cross-cultural "perennial truth". For example, a Christian can reject both constructivism and perennialism in arguing that there is a union with God free of cultural construction. Constructivism versus anticonstructivism is a matter of the nature of mystical experiences while perennialism is a matter of mystical traditions and the doctrines they espouse.

Contextualism and attribution theoryEdit

The perennial position is now "largely dismissed by scholars",[8] and the contextual approach has become the common approach.[135] Contextualism takes into account the historical and cultural context of mystical experiences.[135] The attribution approach views "mystical experience" as non-ordinary states of consciousness which are explained in a religious framework.[29] According to Proudfoot, mystics unconsciously merely attribute a doctrinal content to ordinary experiences. That is, mystics project cognitive content onto otherwise ordinary experiences having a strong emotional impact.[141][29] This approach has been further elaborated by Ann Taves, in her Religious Experience Reconsidered. She incorporates both neurological and cultural approaches in the study of mystical experience.

Neurological researchEdit

Neurological research takes an empirical approach, relating mystical experiences to neurological processes.[142][143] This leads to a central philosophical issue: does the identification of neural triggers or neural correlates of mystical experiences prove that mystical experiences are no more than brain events or does it merely identify the brain activity occurring during a genuine cognitive event? The most common positions are that neurology reduces mystical experiences or that neurology is neutral to the issue of mystical cognitivity.[144]

Interest in mystical experiences and psychedelic drugs has also recently seen a resurgence.[145]

The temporal lobe seems to be involved in mystical experiences,[web 9][146] and in the change in personality that may result from such experiences.[web 9] It generates the feeling of "I," and gives a feeling of familiarity or strangeness to the perceptions of the senses.[web 9] There is a long-standing notion that epilepsy and religion are linked,[147] and some religious figures may have had temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE).[web 9][148][149][147]

The anterior insula may be involved in ineffability, a strong feeling of certainty which cannot be expressed in words, which is a common quality in mystical experiences. According to Picard, this feeling of certainty may be caused by a dysfunction of the anterior insula, a part of the brain which is involved in interoception, self-reflection, and in avoiding uncertainty about the internal representations of the world by "anticipation of resolution of uncertainty or risk".[150][note 26]

Mysticism and moralityEdit

A philosophical issue in the study of mysticism is the relation of mysticism to morality. Albert Schweitzer presented the classic account of mysticism and morality being incompatible.[151] Arthur Danto also argued that morality is at least incompatible with Indian mystical beliefs.[152] Walter Stace, on the other hand, argued not only are mysticism and morality compatible, but that mysticism is the source and justification of morality.[153] Others studying multiple mystical traditions have concluded that the relation of mysticism and morality is not as simple as that.[154][155]

Richard King also points to disjunction between "mystical experience" and social justice:[156]


See alsoEdit



  1. ^ Note that Parmenides' "way of truth" may also be translated as "way of conviction." Parmenides (fl. late sixth or early fifth century BC), in his poem On Nature, gives an account of a revelation on two ways of inquiry. "The way of conviction" explores Being, true reality ("what-is"), which is "What is ungenerated and deathless,/whole and uniform, and still and perfect."[15] "The way of opinion" is the world of appearances, in which one's sensory faculties lead to conceptions which are false and deceitful. Cook's translation "way of conviction" is rendered by other translators as "way of truth."

    Compare Plotinus, who argued that The One is radically simple, and does not even have self-knowledge, since self-knowledge would imply multiplicity.[24] Nevertheless, Plotinus does urge for a search for the Absolute, turning inward and becoming aware of the "presence of the intellect in the human soul," initiating an ascent of the soul by abstraction or "taking away," culminating in a sudden appearance of the One.[25]
  6. ^ Merkur: "Mysticism is the practice of religious ecstasies (religious experiences during alternate states of consciousness), together with whatever ideologies, ethics, rites, myths, legends, and magic may be related to them."[web 1]
  11. ^ Original quote in "Evelyn Underhill (1930), Mysticism: A Study in the Nature and Development of Spiritual Consciousness.[33]
  13. ^ Gellman: "Typically, mystics, theistic or not, see their mystical experience as part of a larger undertaking aimed at human transformation (See, for example, Teresa of Avila, Life, Chapter 19) and not as the terminus of their efforts. Thus, in general, ‘mysticism’ would best be thought of as a constellation of distinctive practices, discourses, texts, institutions, traditions, and experiences aimed at human transformation, variously defined in different traditions."[web 2] According to Evelyn Underhill, mysticism is "the science or art of the spiritual life."[33][note 11][note 12]
  14. ^ According to Waaijman, the traditional meaning of spirituality is a process of re-formation which "aims to recover the original shape of man, the image of God. To accomplish this, the re-formation is oriented at a mold, which represents the original shape: in Judaism the Torah, in Christianity Christ, in Buddhism Buddha, in the Islam Muhammad."[34] Waaijman uses the word "omvorming",[34] "to change the form". Different translations are possible: transformation, re-formation, trans-mutation. Waaijman points out that "spirituality" is only one term of a range of words which denote the praxis of spirituality.[35] Some other terms are "Hasidism, contemplation, kabbala, asceticism, mysticism, perfection, devotion and piety".[35]
  16. ^ Metropolitan Hierotheos Vlachos: "Noetic prayer is the first stage of theoria."[66]
  17. ^ Theophan the Recluse: "The contemplative mind sees God, in so far as this is possible for man."[67]
  20. ^ "Representation-only"[107] or "mere representation."[web 8]
  22. ^ Yogacara postulates an advaya (nonduality) of grahaka ("grasping," cognition)[108] and gradya (the "grasped," cognitum).[108] In Yogacara-thought, cognition is a modification of the base-consciousness, alaya-vijnana.[109] According to the Lankavatara Sutra and the schools of Chan/Zen Buddhism, this unmodified mind is identical with the tathagata-garbha, the "womb of Buddhahood," or Buddha-nature, the nucleus of Buddhahood inherent in everyone. Both denoye the potentiality of attaining Buddhahood.[110] In the Lankavatara-interpretation, tathagata-garbha as a potentiality turned into a metaphysical Absolute reality which had to be realised.
  23. ^ Extending to physical immortality: the Taoist pantheon includes Xian, or immortals.
  24. ^ Compare the work of C.G. Jung.
  26. ^ See also Francesca Sacco (2013-09-19), Can Epilepsy Unlock The Secret To Happiness?, Le Temps


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  2. ^ a b Moore 2005.
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  6. ^ a b c d e f g h Paden 2009, p. 332.
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  8. ^ a b c McMahan 2008, p. 269, note 9.
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  10. ^ San Cristobal (2009), p. 51-52
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  12. ^ a b c d e f Moore 2005, p. 6355.
  13. ^ Dupré 2005.
  14. ^ a b c d e f g h Parsons 2011, p. 3.
  15. ^ Cook 2013, p. 109-111.
  16. ^ a b Harmless 2007, p. 14.
  17. ^ a b Samy 1998, p. 80.
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  19. ^ a b c d e Sharf 2000.
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  67. ^ Theophan the Recluse, What Is prayer?. Cited in The Art of Prayer: An Orthodox Anthology, p.73, compiled by Igumen Chariton of Valamo, trans, E. Kadloubovsky and E.M. Palmer, ed. Timothy Ware, 1966, Faber & Faber, London.
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  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s "Gellman, Jerome, "Mysticism", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2011 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.)". Archived from the original on 2018-09-11. Retrieved 2013-11-06.
  3. ^ "μυώ". WordReference English-Greek Dictionary. Retrieved April 24, 2016.
  4. ^ "3453. mueó". Strong's Concordance. Bible Hub. Archived from the original on March 19, 2021. Retrieved April 24, 2016.
  5. ^ a b c "3466. mustérion". Strong's Concordance. Bible Hub. Archived from the original on March 19, 2021. Retrieved April 24, 2016.
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  7. ^ a b "Content Pages of the Encyclopedia of Religion and Social Science". Archived from the original on 2015-11-05. Retrieved 2006-07-12.
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Further readingEdit

Religious and spiritual traditionsEdit

  • Idel, Moshe; McGinn, Bernard, eds. (2016), Mystical Union in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam: An Ecumenical Dialogue, Bloomsbury Academic
  • McGinn, Bernard (1994), The Presence of God: A History of Western Christian Mysticism. Volume 1–5, Crossroad
  • Poor, Sara S.; Smith, Nigel (2015), Mysticism and Reform, 1400–1750, University of Notre Dame Press
  • Magee, Glenn Alexander (2016), The Cambridge Handbook of Western Mysticism and Esotericism, Cambridge University Press
  • Shipley, Morgan (2015), Psychedelic Mysticism: Transforming Consciousness, Religious Experiences, and Voluntary Peasants in Postwar America, Lexington Books
  • Komarovski, Yaroslav (2015), Tibetan Buddhism and Mystical Experience, Oxford University Press

Constructionism versus perennialismEdit

Contextual approachEdit

  • Merkur, Dan (1999), Mystical Moments and Unitive Thinking, SUNY
  • Taves, Ann (2009), Religious Experience Reconsidered, Princeton: Princeton University Press

Philosophical issuesEdit

  • Jones, Richard H. (2016), Philosophy of Mysticism: Raids on the Ineffable, SUNY Press

Mysticism and modernity

  • Cupitt, Don (1998), Mysticism after Modernity, Malden, MA: Blackwell
  • Schmidt, Leigh Eric (2003), "The Making of Modern 'Mysticism'," Journal of the American Academy of Religion 71
  • Zarrabi-Zadeh, Saeed (2020), "The 'Mystical' and the 'Modern': Mutual Entanglement and Multiple Interactions," Studies in Religion / Sciences Religieuses 49


External linksEdit