The concept "mysticism" subsumes various ways in which mystics claim to acquire special knowledge: "revelation," "faith," "tradition," "authority" (as an unquestionable source), "instinct," "intuition," "just knowing," "feeling," "listening to the heart," "hearing an 'inner voice'," "listening to the gut," and "common sense" (as an unquestionable oracle).[1]
COMMON CHARACTERISTICS. What characteristics do the various forms of mysticism have in common? First, according to reports from mystics with whom I have talked, mystics say they experience something in a non-sense-perceptible form. (Some mystics use sensory words -- such as "hear" and "see" -- to describe their non-sensory experiences, but those terms are metaphors.)
Example conversation: Mr. A: "How did you know whether to marry Jane or not?" Mr. B: " I knew I should marry her. I felt it in my gut, and I knew that what my gut was telling me was right."
Second, the various forms of mysticism eventually lead -- usually in some unspecified way -- to conceptual (verbal) "knowledge" in some form about some aspect of their experience. With that "knowledge" in hand, mystics can then write and speak to others about their mystical experiences.
DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTICS. What characteristics distinguish the various forms of mysticism from each other? Answering this question more fully will be one of the tasks of this weblog. In the meantime, I would suggest -- based on general reading and general experience in talking with some mystics -- that the various forms of mysticism are distinguished by the claimed origin of the message (a particular Authority or God or a feeling in one's own brain, for example) and by the form of the message which a particular version of mysticism delivers (verbal, visual, coded).
In summary, mysticism is the belief (-ism) that one can acquire knowledge through some means other than reason, that is, some means other than logical abstraction from sense-perception (which includes introspection). The various forms of mysticism are distinguished one from another by their alleged origin (God, the Dictator, my gut, etc.) and by the type of experience (a revelation, an inner voice, etc.).
Burgess Laughlin
Author, The Power and the Glory: The Key Ideas and Crusading Lives of Eight Debaters of Reason vs. Faith
[1] Most of these types of mysticism come from Ayn Rand's list: Ayn Rand, "Faith and Force: Destroyers of the Modern World," Philosophy: Who Needs It, pp. 75-76 (hb). She delivered this lecture at Yale University, Columbia University, and Brooklyn College in 1960.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
4 comments:
I welcome all pertinent comments and questions from readers who follow my strict rules of etiquette. I will not publish improper comments. If your screen name is not your first and last real name, be sure to include your name -- first and last -- in the body of your comment. Example acceptable forms of a name are: Burgess Laughlin; B. Laughlin; and Burgess L. or something similar that would be recognizable. The burden is on you to identify yourself.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
One candidate for advocate of mysticism in the form of intuition is Karen Armstrong, author of numerous books on religion, including the recent The Case for God. In the September 12, 2009 edition of The Wall Street Journal online, "Life and Style" section, the article "Man vs. God," she says:
ReplyDelete"In the past, many of the most influential Jewish, Christian and Muslim thinkers understood that what we call 'God' is merely a symbol that points beyond itself to an indescribable transcendence, whose existence cannot be proved but is only intuited by means of spiritual exercises and a compassionate lifestyle that enable us to cultivate new capacities of mind and heart."
Acknowledgement: Keith Lockitch, a writer for The Ayn Rand Institute, drew attention to Armstrong in his September 17, 2009 post, "Rescuing spirituality from religion," on the weblog "Voices for Reason."
http://blog.aynrandcenter.org/rescuing-spirituality-from-religion/
MYSTICISM OF ANIMATED TRUTH
ReplyDeleteIn a recent conversation on Facebook with a man who said he believes in "G-d" (out of respect, he won't spell it out), I learned a new form of mysticism. I would call it the doctrine of "Animated Truth." The idea, this man said, is that if "your heart is right," truth will find you.
Objectively, reason discovers truths, that is, reason involves looking at reality, drawing inferences from what we see, and connecting those inferences to earlier ones. The inferences are truths (if they are drawn logically from facts of reality). The process of discovery is an active process of reasoning, specifically by integration in the broad sense. Truths are a consequence of reasoning; truths do not exist "out there."
Animated Truth, as I will call it, skips all that hard work of reasoning. One needs to make the heart "right" and Truth will do the rest.
HARD-WIRED MYSTICISM?
ReplyDeleteFrom a comment -- on a letter to the editor of the Tulsa World, by Rob Abiera, on 2/3/2010 5:39 AM -- by Jeffrey Ehlers, Tahlequah (2/3/2010 8:53:28 AM):
"There's nothing wrong with faith. In a very real sense, faith is as hard-wired into the human psyche as language is.
The thing is, though, faith should never override reason. Faith is about accepting, reason is about overcoming. Both are important in their own right."
http://www.tulsaworld.com/opinion/article.aspx?subjectid=62&articleid=20100203_62_WEB_Inyour502990
Schools teach mysticism. Here is a discussion of the Muslim school movement in the USA.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43331744/ns/us_news-life/