The role of mysticism in cults and religion

The Holy Grail in the phenomenology of religion (and, to a lesser extent, the sociology of religion) is a definition of religion that actually works, but, so far, this seems to have been elusive. Classical definitions of religion—substantive (e.g. Tylor) and functionalist (e.g. Durkheim)—fail, in part because they attempt to be in three places at once, as it were: they attempt to distinguish religion from non-religion; they attempt to capture what religions have in common; and they attempt to grasp the 'heart', or 'core', of religion. Consequently, family resemblance definitions of religion replace certainty and precision for its own sake with a more pragmatic and heuristic approach, embracing doubt and putting forward definitions that give us a better understanding (Verstehen) of religion. In this paper, I summarise some 'new' definitions of religion that take this approach, before proposing and defending another one, defining religion as non-propositional and 'apophatic', thus accepting that doubt is central to religion itself, as well as to the analysis of religion.

Psychedelic drugs have long been known to be capable of inducing mystical or transcendental experiences. However, given the common “recreational” nature of much present-day psychedelic use, with typical doses tending to be lower than those commonly taken in the 1960s, the extent to which illicit use of psychedelics today is associated with mystical experiences is not known. Furthermore the mild psychedelic MDMA (“Ecstasy”) is more popular today than “full” psychedelics such as LSD or psilocybin, and the contribution of illicit MDMA use to mystical experiences is not known. The present study recruited 337 adults from the website and newsletter of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), most of whom reported use of a variety of drugs both licit and illicit including psychedelics. Although only a quarter of the sample reported “spiritual” motives for using psychedelics, use of LSD and psilocybin was significantly positively related to scores on two well-known indices of mystical experiences in a dose-related manner, whereas use of MDMA, cannabis, cocaine, opiates and alcohol was not. Results suggest that even in today's context of “recreational” drug use, psychedelics such as LSD and psilocybin, when taken at higher doses, continue to induce mystical experiences in many users.

Mysticism’s Threat to Doctrine

The study of decision making is currently significant in various areas of knowledge, particularly in an interdisciplinary approach involving psychologists, economists, sociologists, cognitive scientists, and political scientists. This article explores the decision-making process in a new field: the mystical lived experience; i.e., approaches the perception of something present as unknown, the perception of mystery, within the decision-making process. It emphasizes that every perception requires a response, more or less conscious, and the mystical lived experience is no exception. The goal is to enhance our understanding and interpretation of the dynamics of mystical experience using a phenomenological analysis of the decision-making process as a hermeneutic key. The philosophical and anthropological background of this article draws from Karl Rahner’s transcendental experience, while the phenomenological and psychological perspective is informed by Louis Roy’s experiences of transcendence and Juan Martin Velasco’s studies on mysticism. The article first establishes the theoretical foundations of this new approach and then applies a decision-making analysis to the significant decisions made by St. Ignatius of Loyola, as detailed in his autobiography.

The following article is a result of empirical study conducted in 2017-2018. It is focused on narratives about religious experience, an outstanding intensive experience that individual interprets as a contact with transcendent reality. The object of our study are the ways the subjective reality of religious experience is transmitted into the language of everyday communication. I have carried out a survey in order to find the respondents that believe they had a religious (mystical) experience. Next step I have conducted eight narrative interviews. For the present comparative analysis I have chosen two interviews from the corpus of collected data. The choice was designated by the respondents’ attitude to religion: an orthodox believer and a non-believer. The aim of the analysis is to compare how the respondents construct the narrative about religious experience and their identity. For this purpose I have examinde the general structure of the narratives; the notions of religious (mystical) experience and repertoires used; the categories connected to identification or opposition to social groups. All the above allows to define the implicit meaning of religious self-identification that respondents articulated. The analysis of the examples demonstrates that individual religiosity resists the formal categorization. In the analyzed narratives the mystical experience can be described beyond religious context. The respondents give negative evaluation to religious institute and understand religious tradition as a resource that can be used pragmatically along with non-religious repertoires.

Peter L. Berger (Berger, 1974a) has proposed definitions and descriptions of religion. The purpose of his efforts is to place some boundaries around area of scientific study of religion. Berger is much concerned with such dichotomies as secular (the mundane, the ordinary safe of everyday life, and the ordinary, everyday 'life-world' ), and religious (ecstacies, the 'otherness' of religious experience, transcendental). He is worried that scientific study of religion must exhibit methodological atheism and would lead to secularization, which to him is a progressive loss of plausability to religious views of reality (p. 132), and to flattening out of' religious phenomenon and greyness of view of reality. Berger is wary of defining: many definitions of religion are really reductionist; others are really post hoc rationalizations; some are used ideologically. He stresses transcendence and transcendental in connection with religion, almost to point of making them sine qua non of religion. Elsewhere he (Berger, 1974b) states that religions are many sided and gigantic effort to come to terms with experience of transcendence, and that transcendence is human life experience of world of uncanny, of totally other, in which assumptions of life no longer hold. Berger's dichotomy of transcendence-religion and daily living is not universally shared. For example, in normative Judaism every act from moment of awakening in morning to that of going to sleep at night is an act of worship. And this holds true for some aspects of Islam and Hinduism. Jensen (Jensen 1951: 203) parallels this in his quotation from Kant that all duties are divine commands and awe is not special act of religion but rather religious temper in all our actions done in conformity with duty. However, it should be noted that Berger (Berger, 1974a: 132) feels uneasy about this dichotomy: at one point he says that ecstacies are domesticated by channelling them into socially acceptable and useful activity such as moral conduct. Berger, however, mentions mundane act of study as a preliminary to religious mysticism. Judaism, however, considers study as higher than prayers, etc., and, therefore, to devout Jew study is not trigger to religious experience; it is religious experience. Religion is better defined as system of practices and ideas, or perhaps better

Secularity and Science: What Scientists around the World Really Think about Religion

Mystical experiences are generally considered to be rare and special experiences, characterized by feelings of unity and self-loss. Still, certain researchers have recently proposed that mystical experiences could be placed on a continuum with more common and mundane experiences. In this paper, we present the results of an exploratory study, the goal of which was to identify ordinary experiences that might share (though to a lesser degree) the key characteristics of mystical experiences. To this end, we asked participants to report past experiences of unity and self-loss. Our results suggest that everyday experiences of unity, mainly elicited by the feeling of being part of a social group, share many (but not all) features of mystical experiences, such as feelings of unity, insight, and presence of meaning. Moreover, both mystical experiences and everyday unity experiences were characterized by the presence of social emotions. On the basis of these preliminary results, we argue that investigating the continuity between mystical and everyday experiences might contribute to shed light on the psychological mechanisms underlying mystical experiences and on their evolutionary origin.

Reviewed by: Kazantzakis and God Demetrios J. Constantelos Daniel A. Dombrowski, Kazantzakis and God. Albany: State University of New York. 1997. Pp. xii + 192. $53.50 cloth, $17.95 paper. Nikos Kazantzakis was not only a celebrated poet, dramatist, and novelist but also a profound religious thinker who throughout his tortured life sought answers to questions of perennial significance. What is the human being—the anthropos? What is God? This modest but thought-provoking volume seeks to explore Kazantzakis’s view of God. According to Dombrowski, Kazantzakis held a view of God different from the traditional conception in the Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam), all of which were influenced by certain strands of Greek philosophy, primarily the Aristotelian, whereas Kazantzakis chose the Platonic view. The book includes eight chapters preceded by a precise introduction and followed by an appendix, notes, bibliography, and an index of names. Knowledge of Kazantzakis’s writings—including his novels, poetry, travelogues, letters, treatises, and philosophical monographs—is presupposed, as is a good background in philosophy of religion and the ongoing debates between modernists and postmodernists. Postmodernism, a movement reacting to the values emphasized in our modern Western civilization, opposes capitalism, urbanization, technology, and popular culture. Kazantzakis, considered a postmodernist here, is perceived as a deeply spiritual person who, because he rejected traditional views of God, was erroneously perceived as an atheist. Dombrowski convincingly demonstrates that Kazantzakis was not only an ascetic visionary in a constant quest and struggle but also a believer in God—a theist. The God he believed in, however, is always evolving, never static—an eternal being in constant becoming. Using the tools of contemporary process philosophy or “process theology,” Dombrowski treats Kazantzakis’s theology in relation to Bergsonian theism; in fact, he emphasizes the Bergsonian influence throughout his book, yet without denying Nietzsche’s impact on Kazantzakis. As a philosopher of religion, Dombrowski is mostly interested in Kazantzakis’s profound preoccupation with the issue of God. Accordingly, he identifies several major problems that preoccupy Kazantzakis in his various writings, problems such as theodicy, human freedom, mysticism and mystical experience, the conflict between matter and spirit, and more. How does one reconcile belief in the existence of an omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent God with the evil that exists in the world? If such an omnipotent God exists, how can human beings be free? Kazantzakis writes of the need for metousiosis (transubstantiation), saying [End Page 357] that in the conflict between body and soul—between “eating and the spiritual life”—the human being must experience a spiritual transubstantiation. I have a minor observation to make concerning this Eucharistic term as understood by the Greek Orthodox Church. Transubstantiation is totally foreign to Eastern Orthodox theology. The term is never used in the New Testament and rarely in orthodox patristic literature. The word used in Eucharistic theology is metabole, not metousiosis, which means change of the ousia (the essence). Metabole signifies change of the totality of the bread and wine elements. It is a mystery in which Christ becomes present through the epiklesis of the Holy Spirit. In the Eucharist, through the metabole and communion, divinity and humanity meet. Another term used to indicate participation of the believer in God is methexis. Nevertheless, Dombrowski is correct when he argues that Kazantzakis’s Greek Orthodox roots show forth convincingly in his view of asceticism as a dynamic process leading to dematerialization and also in his conflict between apophatic and cataphatic theology. Let me add that Kazantzakis’s relationship with the Greek Orthodox Church has been treated by this reviewer in “Nikos Kazantzakis: Orthodox or Heterodox? A Greek Orthodox Appreciation” in God’s Struggler, edited by Darren Middleton and Peter Bien (Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press, 1996), pp. 37–52. Notwithstanding the existence of major contributions to Kazantzakian studies by Peter Bien, Kimon Friar, Darren Middleton, Andreas Poulakidas, and others, Dombrowski’s monograph convincingly supplements existing studies in the areas of Kazantzakis’s thought-world, his tensions, and his ambiguities, especially his obsession with the existence or non-existence of God. I am in full agreement with Dombrowski that Kazantzakis was both an ascetic and a deeply spiritual person who believed in “God” in his own...

Is individual religiosity associated with the sense of control? If so, does a nation’s religious context modify that association? Multilevel analyses with data from the sixth wave of the World Values Survey (2010–2014) demonstrate that religious attendance and prayer are positively associated with the sense of control, net of individual- and country-level controls. However, belief in God is not associated with the sense of control. Furthermore, cross-level interactions suggest that the association between individual religiosity and the sense of control varies across national religious context. Specifically, religious attendance, prayer, and belief in God are more positively associated with the sense of control in countries with higher levels of religiosity than in countries with lower levels of religiosity. I discuss the theoretical implications of these findings for views about religion, sense of control, and the linkage between macro-level contexts and micro-level factors.

Chapter 2 - The Nature of Spiritual Transcendence

Prognostic and diagnostic role of abdominal pain on admission in acute pancreatitis

The scientific study of psychedelic, religious, spiritual, and mystical (PRSM) experiences can be advanced by applying culturally inclusive qualitative methodologies that illuminate the breadth and depth of individual experiences in a variety of contexts. To enrich the common core thesis of mysticism and offer insights that could contribute more generally to bridging the gap between psychedelic and religious experiences, the current study used a phenomenological approach to explore the structure and content of mystical experiences among Daoist practitioners. The sample included 19 highly experienced Daoist monks and nuns. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with orienting questions that were adapted from the theoretical framework of the modified common core thesis, which taps into eight broad categories of mystical experience (i.e. ego loss, timelessness and spaceless, unity, inner subjectivity, positive affect, sacredness, noetic quality, and ineffability). Thematic coding suggested two clusters of Daoist experiences, one featuring a group of themes comprising dissolution of self, unitary experiences, and bodily sensations, and the other group of themes including egress of spirit and resonance with divinities and spirits. The derived themes corresponded to some prescriptions of the common core thesis, yet extended the theory with unique themes – egress of spirit and bodily sensations – that connect introvertive, extrovertive, and interpretive mysticisms. We draw on ideas found in Daoist canons and scriptures to provide a contextualized discussion of the findings, and highlight some of the ways that the findings contribute to expanding the common core thesis to a broader range of PRSM experiences.

While some philosophers suggest that mystical experience may provide evidence for belief in God, skeptics doubt that there is adequate warrant for even accepting the claim of a mystical experience as evidence for anything, except perhaps for some kind of mental instability. Drawing from the work of Gabriel Marcel, I argue that the pervasive philosophical skepticism about the evidential status of mystical experiences is misguided because it rests on too narrow a view about ways of knowing and about what can count as evidence for belief in the divine. I illustrate the advantages of Marcel's approach by applying it to the respective spiritual journeys of Augustine of Hippo and Abu Hamid Muhammad al-Ghazali. I then argue that Marcel's framework improves on contemporary analytic approaches because it captures more accurately the kind of knowledge that mystical experiences convey as reported by the subjects who claim to have them.

The word “mystic” has a common meaning in philosophical traditions like neo-Platonism and religions (Hindu, Jewish, Christian, and Muslim)—namely the elevation of a human being to reach the One/God and have an intimate, immediate experience of God. In this experience of God, music plays various roles. On the one hand, for Hindus, Jews, Christians, and Muslims, music can be the language of God. From that starting point, the question of spiritual (inner) and material (physical) hearing is opened: What can we say about the hearing of celestial songs (sung by God Himself or, more commonly by angels or, in Christianity, by the choir of saints)? This question about the inner spiritual hearing and about the external physical hearing of celestial music brings an other question: What may be the content, the grammar and the semantic of God’s song? Finally, one can ask: Why and in which circumstances do God and the angels address a message to the individual through music? Looking to mystic literature, one can find various responses to these questions. This literature deals with spiritual and physical hearing, with the semantic dimension of God’s music, and with the purpose of God’s musical language within mystical experience. In the mirror of such an ensemble of questions, the question of music as the language spoken by the mystic has to be considered. If God makes music to speak to the mystic during musical vision for example, the mystic often answers to God through music. What is the specificity of music as the language of the mystic? This is a complementary question to be asked to mystical literature. On the other hand, both philosophical traditions and religions deal with the causal effect of music on the mind and body of the listener Thanks to music, may the listener reach divine union with God? Can music generate mystical ecstasy? And what kind of music can do it (angelic choir or human songs, instrumental or vocal concert, sacred or profane music)? All these questions interrogate the effects of music in mystical experience. The theological question ahead is: Can a material element (music is made by sounds) have an impact on a spiritual experience? So when we look at music and mysticism in philosophical traditions as well as in the monotheistic religions, the question is not only about spiritual and sonorous music and about celestial (whether divine or angelic) and human making of music but also listening to music—to make music to generate ecstasy, and to listen to music, whether celestial or terrestrial, as part of mystical experience, to respond to God. “Mystic” has a different meaning when we look at it from an ethnological point of view, and may include all kinds of inner experiences. This opens up an enormous field of study without a consistent theoretical frame. The following bibliography focuses on a narrow, technical definition of “mystic” as the experience of God. It thus excludes scholarship on music and natural magic, music and black magic, music and demoniac possession, music and the occult. Music and mysticism studies are particularly reliant on European and North American academic cultures; the bibliography reflects this reliance. The relevance of mysticism for music scholarship emerges in relation to musical meaning or context, whether historical, theological, or analytic. Both “music” and “mysticism” mark the bodies and the spirit, and both interrogate experiences of individuals in a precise religious context in ways that provide unequal access to cultural, physical, and psychic resources, including but not limited to semiology and philosophy of language, theology and spirituality, and, of course, history of music. The rich descriptive and analytic dimensions of scholarship into music and mysticism have proved illuminating for questions such as: What kind of music is in mystic literature? What effects of music are in mystical context and experience? How and what does celestial music signify? What is represented and what is said through musical vision? How does musical performance respond to the experience of God? Such questions assume that music is a practice but also a purely spiritual language. Each assumes a benefit from working to understand how music functions within mystical experience.