Mysticism and Noh in O'Neill

Abstract

1 Walter Stace's definition of mysticism is drawn on here for the purposes of this essay. See his Mysticism and Human Reason (Tucson: Univ. of Arizona Press, 1955), p. 10. Any attempt at a definitive concept of mysticism is difficult, given the nature of mystical experience, that it entirely transcends our sensory-intellectual consciousness. (Stace, The Teachings of the Mystics [New York, 1960], p. 15). William J. Wainwright notes that scholars have tended to restrict the term [mystical experience] to (1) 'unitary states which are (2) noetic, but (3) lack specific empirical content . . . [Mystical experiences are] intuitive apprehensions of the (character of) the space-time world as a whole or of something which transcends it. (Mysticism: A Study of its Nature, Cognitive Value and Moral Implications [Madison: Univ. of Wisconsin Press, 1981], p. 1). Wainwright also points out the important distinction that must be made between mystical experiences and visions, voices and such occult phenomena as telepathy, clairvoyance and precognition. None of these experiences is unitary. (p. 1)