Mystical Research Articles

Cerita Pontianak: Cultural Contradictions and Patriarchy in a Malay Ghost Story

This article explores the synergistic relationship among competing premodern and modern worldviews and gendered power differentials in Malay culture as reflected and constituted in the Malaysia cerita hantu (ghost story) about Pontianak (a female vampire). Narrative and feminist theory are used to suggest that this seemingly mundane and simple ghost story actually operates as one means of making sense of/negotiating the tensions between traditional mysticism and contemporary logocentrism. At the same time, the cerita Pontianak maintains and perpetuates an ongoing hegemonic masculine-feminine dichotomy (perhaps not surprisingly) because of and in the context of shifting cognitive paradigms.

Os alicerces sociopolíticos do cooperativismo de crédito rural solidário na Zona da Mata de Minas Gerais

O objetivo deste artigo é analisar processos e estruturas sociais que sustentaram e condicionaram a constituição e a atuação das cooperativas de crédito vinculadas ao sistema Ecosol na Zona da Mata Mineira. A coleta de dados ocorreu em 2010 nos municípios onde a Ecosol possui unidades de atendimento: Araponga, Tombos, Espera Feliz, Divino e Simonésia, por meio de observação participante, análise documental e aplicação de entrevistas semiestruturadas. Os principais atores e fatores identificados como alicerces sociopolíticos dessas cooperativas foram: mística e religiosidade, introduzida por setores da Igreja Católica, que interferiu diretamente nas representações sociais e manifestações simbólicas que orientaram as intervenções para uma mudança da realidade; a política, marcada pelo movimento sindical e partidário (Partido dos Trabalhadores); e a técnica e estilo de vida, consolidados a partir da adoção de um projeto de agricultura sustentável e desenvolvimento alternativo introduzida por uma ONG.

Sufismo: a importância da mística islâmica no desenvolvimento histórico do islã

Elementos ascéticos e místicos presentes de forma implícita no Islã, desdeseu surgimento, tornaram-se explícitos no decorrer dos dois primeiros séculosde sua história (VII e VIII d. C.). Neste período observou-se o surgimento dosprimeiros muçulmanos devotos, que formaram comunidades nos atuais Iraque,Síria e Irã. No séc. XII, essas comunidades estavam espalhadas por diversas localidades,e formavam novas instituições sociais (Ordens). Até o início do séc. XX,o Sufismo (em árabe Tasawwuf), nome pelo qual o misticismo islâmico passoua ser conhecido no Ocidente, mantinha grande influência na vida espiritual eintelectual dos muçulmanos, sendo importante elemento na construção da teiasocial do Islã. Neste artigo, os principais aspectos sócio-históricos do Sufismo:origem, natureza e objetivos serão discutidos.

A psychodynamic inquiry into the spiritually evocative potential of music

Music has the uncanny potential to transport its listeners to normally inaccessible realms of the psyche. Grounded in an object relations perspective informed by the burgeoning neo-monistic philosophical discipline of somaesthetics, it is suggested that the synthesis of conscious (necessarily explicit), unconscious (potentially explicit), and nonconscious (necessarily implicit) elements comprises a more utilitarian concept of the psychic essence of an individual: the “foundational self.” This foundational self, or the “spiritual self,” represents the irreducible and ultimately unformulatable core of human experience that results from the dialectical fusion of true-self object relations with concomitant developmentally primitive psychosomatic self states. It is argued that certain types of so-called “sacred music” – music whose form aligns with implicit affective registries that are filtered through intrapsychic constellations of true self object relations – act as perhaps the most potent catalyst in facilitating experiences of spirituality. The phonological qualities of sacred music share the same spectrum of transitional space in which the foundational self enjoys its fullest expression. Sacred music possesses the ability to dissolve explicit representational boundaries in service of achieving symbolic interpersonal fusion with the foundational self, in so doing facilitating a blissfully ego-boundless sensation of unio mystica.

Typologies and values of religious mysticism

About mysticism written a large number of scientific and pseudo-scientific works, and therefore navigate in their infinity is not just a specialist. The study of this or that aspect of religious mysticism involves the adoption of a definite, even not always well-formulated, conceptual statement about the essence of mysticism. A thorough study of this phenomenon is impossible without defining the scope of the concept of "mysticism", which would embrace all manifestations of the mystical. It is at the creation of the definition of such a concept sent numerous typologies that have been formed in the field of scientific study of mystical.

Agents of Uncertainty: Mysticism, Scepticism, Buddhism, Art and Poetry. By John Danvers.

Agents of Uncertainty: Mysticism, Scepticism, Buddhism, Art and Poetry. By John Danvers.

Mysticism in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam

As we enter a new millennium, it is becoming more and more crucial that members of the religious traditions of the world understand and mutually enrich each other by sharing some of their spiritual treasures. This will enable them better to collaborate in the common effort to respond to humankind’s thirst for the infinite and to stem the forces of violence and destruction. An appreciation of some of the salient elements of various traditions can work toward these goals. To this end a glimpse at some of the features of the mystical traditions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam is offered here. Perhaps the best way to arrive at insights into these mystical traditions is to examine the lives and/or writings of various mystics themselves, for they are the ones who incorporate these values and they witness to this incorporation by means of their lives. Lest we presume that what appears to be common among these traditions is an exact correspondence, it is important to recognize that there are in fact important variations within and among the traditions themselves. Furthermore, the considerable problems involved in the actual translation of texts from another culture and another period in history often prevent an accurate presentation of the thought of the respective mystic. Despite such limitations, this

From Philo to Plotinus: The Emergence of Mystical Union

Mystical union in Judaism has always been a controversial matter. Scholars of past generations, Christians and Jews alike, consistently denied the possibility of unio mystica in Judaism, citing as their reason that the Mosaic Law, rejecting incarnation on the one hand and pantheism on the other, maintained a fundamental gulf between man and God. A famous example from Christian scholarship is the oft-cited opinion of Edward Caird, writing on the evolution of religion, who argued that the “Jewish mind” is not capable of real contemplation and, consequently, not capable of reaching what he considered as the ultimate full mystical state of union. Caird contrasts Plotinus, “the mystic par excellence,” with Philo, for it was impossible “for a pious Jew like Philo to be a mystic or a pantheist and so to reduce the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to an absolute substance, in whom all the reality of the world is merged.” Similarly in the field of Jewish studies, a Hegelian-

Satanism, Magic and Mysticism in Fin-de-siecle France

Satanism, Magic and Mysticism in Fin-de-siecle France

A Mysticism of Kindness: The Biography of “Lucie Christine.” by Astrid M. O’Brien (review)

A Mysticism of Kindness: The Biography of “Lucie Christine.” by Astrid M. O’Brien (review)

Mysticism and mind in Welby's significs

Mysticism and mind in Welby's significs

The role of ethics in preventing the infringement

According to the method described in this paper - has been written analysis aims to examine the role of ethics in infringement. How and infringement ethics in legislation and enforcement, the main question of this research. How and infringement ethics in legislation and enforcement, the main question of this research. We assume that the source of moral law - unlike many lawyers - and according to this source, preventing abnormal and the offense gets. Finally to conclude that morality is indirectly the cause of preventing infringement Mysticism is the interface between them. Customary law as a valid source of legislation is accepted by the majority of jurists. In fact, it creates moral norms and customs are the basis of morality. Therefore, legislators should take note of the morality and conscience of the community rather than disrespect for easy control laws, their implementation and their people are welcome.

Dropping the Veil

Dropping the Veil Jay Shearer (bio) Strategies Against Extinction. Michael Nye. Queen’s Ferry Press. http://www.queensferrypress.com 240 pages; paper, $14.95, eBook, $2.99. Strategies Against Extinction seems the perfect title for these finely nuanced character studies, though it’s sometimes hard to say if Michael Nye’s people are plotting for or against it. Their most favored strategy is to imagine a world of past glory or future conquest outside and away from the present complication, usually a scenario where extinction seems near (the death of career or marriage or family, places where centers cannot hold). Of course, imagination and memory can act as harbors of self-protection, even freedom; they are also, potentially, hothouses of delusion. In this sense, Nye’s characters always come to. The veil drops, if only fleetingly, and the so-to-speak truth of the world is exposed. Nye often features a lost soul doggedly striving, rich or poor or once-poor-now-rich or somewhere in the middle and likely sinking. Three stories in, we get a kind of mission statement via “A Fully Imagined World,” where Kyle, a laid-off lawyer condemned to stay-at-home dad, chances on a long-gone lover at Cincinnati’s Natural History Museum. When she doesn’t remember him—they’d slept together just once, never spoke again, a college age memory he’d clung to—Kyle is crushed by it, enough to space out in a tragic way and lose track of his two-year-old in the vast museum. That trouble is eventually resolved yet only deepens Kyle’s despair. Later, before he is confronted by his wife (“whatever existential crisis you’re going through needs to stop. Right now”), Kyle succumbs to nostalgic yearning for his days as a high school quarterback. He longs for “the certainty of football’s controlled aggression,” for “this glory, this purpose.” Certainty and purpose are what these characters pine for but can’t quite find. They seek meaning from an indifferent universe that answers with little to none. Still, despite whatever they’ve lost (or might soon lose), most of Nye’s characters accept their lot. Acceptance of one’s reality, however grim or vulnerable, is a winning strategy here as well. This is in fact the definition of wisdom: the destruction of the Ideal (or so say the Eastern mystics). Nye examines, even endorses, this sort of notion without telegraphing the punch. His work is rich with symbolic suggestion, often involving museums or statues or static landmarks. There is the giant artificial glacier across which Kyle spots his onetime lover: on the other side of the fake freeze is the living version of his artificial ideal (also frozen, as it were, in his mind). There is the pristine miniature replica of Cincinnati, seventy feet long, that entrances the narrator in “Union Terminal.” It stands in marked contrast to the actual “city now in decay.” In “Projection,” the small-town water tower (Ashland County) becomes a secret blight of identity for a girl home from college for one last summer. The water tower, she tells her emerging boyfriend, “makes me feel branded. Like the tower is a scar or a deformity everyone can see when I’m walking around campus.” She is surprised to find that her boyfriend-to-be, this odd bird from a wealthy family, can see it from his house as well, as if water towers—and small town malaise—could only infect the working poor. The concerns of class and money and power hang over these stories like a steady cloud. It is in her summer job as a projectionist at the Findlay Omniplex that Monica first spots the fortunate son who will become her summer’s lover. This son of wealth with no summer job turns out to be a touch unhinged, having taken too literally their drugged pledge to “nuke” the water tower and escape Ashland County. The daughter of the factory worker who wants to be a filmmaker proves to be the stable, sensible one. In this regard, Nye occupies multiple perspectives—he skips in and out of strata with relative ease—though college-age lovers are...

Music, Mysticism, and Experience: Sufism and Spiritual Journeys in Nathaniel Mackey's Bedouin Hornbook

Music, Mysticism, and Experience:Sufism and Spiritual Journeys in Nathaniel Mackey's Bedouin Hornbook S. R. Burge (bio) The opening metaphor of Jalal al-Din Rumi's famous poem the Mathnawi has striking resemblances to Nathaniel Mackey's contemporary expositions of loss, music, and mystical experience. Rumi begins by comparing the mystic's search for God to that of the reed in a reed pipe seeking to be reunited with the reed bed: - Listen to this reed as it is grieving; it tells the story of our separations. "Since I was severed from the bed of reeds, in my cry men and women have lamented. I need the breast that's torn to shreds by parting to give expression to the pain of heartache. Whoever finds himself left far from home looks forward to the day of his reunion." (7) The Mathnawi is not simply about the notion of separation but also describes the Sufi path—the mystical journey to God, where the mystic's self becomes united with the Oneness of God, where the "reed" is reunited with the "rush." For Rumi, as for many Sufis, music resonates with the spiritual journey. The experience [End Page 271] of music as mysticism is also an important theme in Nathaniel Mackey's Bedouin Hornbook. In "Cante Moro," Mackey refers to Rumi's reed pipe (nay) and, having quoted the opening line of the Mathnawi, comments: [Rumi] goes on to say that the reed was cut from rushes and that what we hear in the sound of the nay is the remembrance of that cutting, that the very sound calls to mind the cutting which brought it into being and which it laments. The sound subsists on that cutting. The nay not only mourns but embodies separation. ("Cante Moro" 90) Mackey's Bedouin Hornbook, part 1 of his series From a Broken Bottle Traces of Perfume Still Emanate, comprises letters written by a horn player known only as N., addressed to the "Angel of Dust." In each of his letters, N. muses on meaning, philosophy, (religious) experience, and most importantly, his music, particularly jazz. During a series of concerts, N. undergoes mystical experiences, induced and influenced by his music. To what extent can the idea of the spiritual journey be seen in Mackey's Bedouin Hornbook? Norman Finkelstein, in his study exploring "why the sacred remains a basic concern of poets today" (1), reads Mackey's poetry in light of shamanism, linking the ideas of initiation, and the spiritual journey, as well as "wound[ing] and heal[ing]" (184)—all themes prominent in shamanism—to Mackey's poetic world (183-207). The influence of religious mysticism, particularly Islamic mysticism (Sufism), has been acknowledged by Mackey himself in his interviews with Christopher Funkhouser (325-26) and Peter O'Leary (37), especially the thought of the Andalusian Sufi Muhyi al-Din Ibn 'Arabi (d. 1240). My aim in this essay is to explore Mackey's Bedouin Hornbook in light of the Sufi tradition and to assess the extent to which the experience of music in Bedouin Hornbook has common links with Islamic mysticism. In the various studies that have been made of Bedouin Hornbook, such as those indexed by James C. Hall, few have attempted to explore the impact of Islamic mysticism on N.'s experiences of music; furthermore, the information about Islam that has been provided in the secondary literature is, at times, misleading. For example, the idea, suggested by Peter O'Leary ("Deep Trouble" 523), that "Sufism can trace its origins in part [End Page 272] to Andalusia" is simply incorrect. The origins of Sufism are found in the central Arab lands. Andalusia, like the rest of the Islamic world, had a number of notable Sufis, including Ibn 'Arabi, but the "origins" of Sufism are not found there. In Bedouin Hornbook, particular Islamic features such as the name Djamilaa, references to udhri poetry, and Sufi musicians are openly and easily found; others, such as the use of music to achieve a mystical state, are more alluded to than stated clearly. English literature has had a long interest in Islamic thought, from examples of indirect Islamic influences on Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe...

Social Reformations of Jibran Khalil Jibran in the Novel “AlAjniha Al-Mutakassira” (The Broken Wings)

Social Reformations of Jibran Khalil Jibran in the Novel “AlAjniha Al-Mutakassira” (The Broken Wings)

„Пергаменти“ Јеле Спиридоновић Савић: зачудан пример женске епске поезије

This paper analyses the forgotten poem of Jela Spiridonovic Savic – The parchments (1923). In line with the global tendency of feminist writers’ rediscovery (who are forgotten or insufficiently studied) and analysis of their literary works, we wanted to examine and highlight different aspects of this work, written in the spirit of the religious mysticism’s dialectic, postulates of spiritual philosophy, and Rilke’s religious poetic prayer The book of hours. Having analised the mystical experiences of mediaeval monks and nuns, the writer concludes that, Rastko Nemanjic – St. Sava, represented the embodiment of mystics, because of his spiritual tendencies, asceticism and desire for a union with God. Her vision of the Serbian Orthodox Church’s founder is artistically shaped in The parchments, a poem which created a lot of attention, not only within the Serbian literary audience but also in Italy (the Italian translation was published in 1927). Evangelistic philosophy is the spiritual essence of the The parchments, and therefore, it was impossible to interpret the work beyond its theological framework. The analysis was enriched with a dictionary of biblical terms, as a roadmap for understanding the poetess’s intentions. This work primarly belongs to the religious discourse of Serbian history, from mediaeval hagiographies to Njegos’s Luca Microcosma. We conclude that Jela Spiridonovic Savic, within her spiritual icon of St. Sava, has especially illuminated the psychological process of his religious ascension – the fight with his own weaknesses, doubts and sins, and his union with God in absolute humility and raising awareness of his assignated purpose.

The Challenges of Teaching Mysticism

The Challenges of Teaching Mysticism

Del escepticismo al misticismo científico: el itinerario de Aldous Huxley

DOI:10.5294/pebi.2012.16.2.2 Aldous Huxley vivio un periodo muy particular del siglo XX, uno en el que el debate entre racionalistas y escepticos marco a toda una generacion. Precisamente, ese fue el gran tema en torno al que girarian sus principales ensayos literarios y filosoficos. Es tam- bien en ese contexto donde hay que encuadrar el crucial papel que otorgo a la biotecnologia en el progreso individual y social. No obstante, Huxley avisa de los peligros que de la biotecnologia pueden derivarse de no lograr conciliar la postura del mundo objetivo con la del mundo de la vida. El autor de Un mundo feliz propuso como remedio a dicho divorcio y como prevencion a los males que estaban por venir el devol- ver la unidad perdida a las ciencias y, en ultimo termino, al hombre. En dicha tarea, el hecho religioso, lejos de quedar excluido, es considerado un elemento sine qua non en todo proyecto interdisciplinar y vital. Es por ello que, para Huxley, todo el que aspira a la unidad intelectual debe quedar comprometido existencialmente. Como no podia ser de otra manera, esta conclusion es fruto de su extraordinaria trayectoria vital: partiendo de una posicion esceptica marcada por la critica a la racionalidad cientifico-tecnologica y a la religion, Huxley terminara convirtiendose a un misticismo abierto y dialogante para con el discurso cientifico. La actitud de Huxley con respecto a la ciencia no es novedosa, por lo menos si valoramos en algo la filosofia premoderna. Aun y todo, Huxley presenta este ideal —el de la Filosofia perenne, como lo denomina— con aires nuevos y accesibles para una sociedad donde los signos del pesimismo y del desconcierto eran cada vez mas patentes. En tanto que esos signos son hoy visiblemente manifiestos, reflexionar sobre la vida-pensamiento de quien es uno de los mas clarividentes, transgresores y obstinados intelectuales del siglo XX, resulta un ejercicio fecundo, por lo menos para quienes no han renunciado a la senda interdisciplinar. Ofrecer contenidos para dicha reflexion es el objetivo ultimo de nuestro articulo. DOI:10.5294/pebi.2012.16.2.2

Piercing the Veil: Comparing Science and Mysticism as Ways of Knowing Reality by Richard H. Jones

<i>Piercing the Veil: Comparing Science and Mysticism as Ways of Knowing Reality</i> by Richard H. Jones

The Reasonable Explanation of Annihilation (fanā) in Mysticism

&lt;div&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Abstrak : &lt;/strong&gt;Para mistikus melampaui tahap-tahap (derajat kesempurnaan mistik) dan maqam spiritual dalam perjalanan mereka menuju Allah yang sulit dimengerti oleh non-mistikus. Karena itu, sebagian besar kalangan reflektif berusaha mengandalkan prinsip-prinsip intelektual dan teoritis mereka untuk memperoleh penjelasan atas pengalaman mistis dan ekstasi. Namun, keberhasilan penjelasannya sepenuhnya berada di bawah kuasa dan kekuatan dari prinsip-prinsip tersebut. (Fanā) atau kesirnaan adalah salah satu tahap mistis atau keadaan yang sulit dimengerti oleh non-mistikus sehingga memunculkan berbagai teori yang berbeda untuk menjelaskannya. Pencapaian prestasi ilmiah dan filosofis merupakan penjelasan yang tepat atas fanā. Bagaimanapun upaya yang dilakukan dalam artikel ini membuktikan bahwa satu-satunya penjelasan yang sukses adalah penjelasan yang didasarkan pada prinsip-prinsip teosofi transendental dan mistisisme teoritis.&lt;strong&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Kata kunci : Fanā, Mistisisme, Penjelasan rasional, Mistisisme teoretis, Filsafat transendental&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Abstract :&lt;/strong&gt; Mystics are passing through stages (degrees of mystic perfection) and esoteric abodes (spiritual stations) in their spiritual journey to Allah which is difficult for unmystics to understand. Because of this, most of the reflective people are trying to rely on their intellectual and theoretical principles to obtain an understandable explanation of mystical experiences and ecstasy. However the success of such explanation completely lies in the power and strength of the above mentioned principles. (Fanā) or annihilation is one of the mystical stages or states which unmystics find very difficult to reasonably understand, hence various and different theories have been provided for its explanation. Various scientific and philosophical achievements are appropriate explanations of annihilation (fanā) which is valuable in its place; however effort had been made in this article to prove that the only successful explanation is an explanation based on the principles of transcendental theosophy and theoretical mysticism.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Keywords : Fanā (annihilation), Mysticism, Reasonable explanation, Theoretical mysticism, Transcendental theosophy&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;