Lectures 16-17 - Mysticism
Religious
experiences generally have their roots within mysticism. James attempts to
define it by four factors. One, ineffability, a negative aspect, generally an
experience that defies expression and explanation, it cannot be explained. Two,
noetic quality, states of insight into deeper truths; knowledge; as
illuminations or revelations generally short lasting with the post experience
power of authority. Three, transiency, experiences are not long lasting, generally
at about a 30-minute limit while rarely also extending to several hours for
some (381), And by James' argument, through multiple experiences spaced
throughout a lifetime, it is “susceptible of continuous development in what is
felt as inner richness and importance” (381). Four, passivity, states are felt
passive as if within the presence of a higher/superior power; commonly a factor
connecting mystical states with actions of automatisms. Such passivity that
many profound factors wedge a near permanent influence. James calls these four
factors the mystical group of which form a distinct region of consciousness. He
brings us examples of their lower grades. A primary simple factor of mystical
experiences is a deepened feeling. We see examples in ‘I never realized life's
full meaning till now’ and even deepened significance seeps into the eternal, “single
words, and conjunctions of words, effects on light on land and sea, odors and
musical sounds, all bring it when the mind is tuned aright” (383). With James
arguing that most of us can probably “remember the strangely moving power of
passages in certain poems read when we were young, irrational doorways as they
were through which the mystery of fact, the wildness and the pang of life,
stole into our hearts and thrilled them” (383). Certainly, such an oddity when
feeling ‘I felt like I've been here before’. One take is that is as a ‘dream
state’, often medically subjectively connected such as epilepsy. Such states
are common to feel alienating and can lead to rough regards even insanity.
Another take is an individual argues that it is the clearest that they have
ever mentally been before. We get an example of an individual that feels
everything in the world with dense meaning but cannot understand it, this is an
ineffable experience, “Have you not felt that your real soul was imperceptible
to your mental vision, except in a few hallowed moments?” (385).
We
get another example, one where an individual felt a presence, God, to take
possession of his mind and will, felt eternity, but then gone again quickly.
Particularly this individual disliked it being ineffable and also argued it is
similar to the influence of anesthesia, “it consisted in a gradual but swiftly
progressive obliteration of space, time, sensation, and the multitudinous
factors of experience which seems to qualify what we are pleased to call our
Self” (385). The absence of ordinary reality intensifies the essential
consciousness acquired (385), leaving only the pure absolute abstract self.
Their reality has been dissolving at the great eternal Maya/illusion. In coming
back to reality, it took a second before feeling human/finite again. Forever
doubting which reality was more real. Next James wants to analyze deeper into
intoxicants relationships with mystical experiences. Starting with alcohol,
James argues a powerful mystical stimulator that is then crushed by hard facts in
its sobering hour of reality (387), “sobriety diminishes, discriminates, and
says no; drunkenness expands, unites, and says yes” (387). Thus, in truths
being relative as grasped by the perceiver, “it makes him for the moment one
with truth” (387). Next, James is bold to analyze mystical experiences through nitrous
oxide, ether, even anesthesia. Concerning nitrous oxide, its effects of truth
are generally instant but upon coming back to reality it is almost always gone.
But regardless the sense of a profound meaning still persists. A personal
experience of William James’ is one that he calls a ‘genuine metaphysical
revelation’. James’ experience had him sort normal consciousness instead as
rational consciousness as this one was a ‘special consciousness’, “potential
forms of consciousness entirely different” and “we may go through life without
suspecting their existence” (388). For William James 's experience to him felt,
“as if the opposites of the world whose contradictoriness and conflict make all
our difficulties and troubles, were melted into unity” (388). To James, he felt
authority, as if his experience must have meant something, a meaning intrinsic
in its value. Thus, he suggests to those “who have ears to hear, let them hear”
(388). With the quotes of another individual's experience, “in that half hour
under ether, I had served God more distinctly and purely than I had ever done
in my life before” (393). Such mystical moods for most, if ever, rest in their
subliminal. Concerning anesthetic mystical experiences, to many they were
rather monistic. One example is of a mystical experience with chloroform,
within such state they felt close to death, then aware of God, then felt the
presence of him streaming through themselves, they come back too and all fades
away, with anger that they come back to this, “is it possible that I, in that
moment, felt what some of the Saints have said they always felt, the undemonstratable
but irrefragable certainty of God?” (392). Now by this it is clear the
connection between religion and mysticism. And with such experience prior certainly
noting religious mysticism in their individual feeling of the presence of God
or an entity.
Now
turning towards aspects of nature, of which commonly, oddly, awakened mystical
moods. Even to those that follow God already, they may try to explanation of
such an ineffable as that of the “larger God may then swallow up the smaller
one” (394). We had an example of someone at Niagara Falls, I also lost myself,
feeling that I was an atom too small for the notice of almighty God” (394). We
get another example, “I felt myself one with the grass, the trees, birds,
insects, everything in nature” (394). With a take on this as, “the vanishing of
the sense of self, and the feeling of immediate unity with the object, is due
to the disappearance, in these rapturous experiences, of the motor adjustments
which habitually intermediate” (394) between the consciousness and object. We
get an example of a person in nature under the night sky seeing all the stars
and then feeling a connection to the infinite. We get another example with
one's perception of the ocean feeling symbolic of the infinite, commanding
reverence, to feeling that “earth, heaven, and sea resounded as in one vast
world-encircling harmony. It was as if the chorus of all the great who had ever
lived were about me” (395). Walt Whitman spent much of his time in nature,
gaining relational feelings of God as his hand, becoming into a love of all
humankind. Walt Whitman may have had a chronic mystical perception, James
argues, with Walt Whitman arguing, “there is, apart from mere intellect, in the
makeup of every superior human identity, a wonderous something that realizes
without argument, frequently without what is called education… an intuition of
the absolute balance, in time and space, of the whole of this multifariousness,
this reveal of fools, and incredible make believe in general unsettledness, we
call the world; a soul sight of that divine clue and unseen thread which holds
the whole congeries of things, all history and time, and all events, however
trivial” (396). We had an example of a person that is enraptured in ecstasy and
later feeling that this must have been heaven that they were in feeling as if
they were even ‘bathed in a warm light’, divine illumination. The real
experience is stay with the person, they argue even dreams fade away but of
highest experiences with God’s presence, quite rare, come with conditions of
exhalation, an insight with significant questioning on the worth of such a
moment. Such reality only continues to become clearer and more evident with
time post experience, “when they came, I was living the fullest, strongest,
sanest, deepest life… immersed in the infinite ocean of God” (397-398).
Next,
we have a take by Dr. Bucke on their ideology of ‘cosmic consciousness’, of
which they characterize mystical experiences as being a consciousness of the
cosmos. Not merely as an extension of consciousness but a super addition, a
distinct function from average consciousness of higher animals. A consciousness
of the cosmos or life and order of the universe; a consciousness taking an
individual to a different plane of existence, often forming memberships as a
different species; cosmic consciousness also generally follows with a state of
moral exaltation, ineffable emotions and joy; it often strengthens and quickens
moral sensibility, certainly something argued as a superior intellectual power
often also accompanying senses of immortality, a consciousness of the eternal,
and feelings that it has truly been experienced (398). The doctor's own
experience influence such theory, “it was not a conviction that I would have
eternal life, but a consciousness that I possessed eternal life then; I saw
that all men are immortal; that the cosmic order is such that without any
peradventure all things work together for the good of each and all; that the
foundation principle of the world, of all the worlds, is what we call love, and
that the happiness of each and all is in the long run absolutely certain”
(399). With Dr. Bucke feeling that the visions showed truth. And in their worst
depressions it was never forgotten. Now to pass from sporadic examples to
methodological practices, i.e., Christians, Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists.
India
is a long history in mysticism under the name of yoga which means, “the
experimental union of the individual with the divine” (400), with a yogi,
disciple, by discipline practices to overcome their lower natures by entering
into ‘samadhi’ to come “face to face with facts which no instinct or reason can
ever know” (400). With yogis arguing, “the mind itself has a higher state of
existence, beyond reason, a super conscious state” (400), with all yoga’s steps
aiming at this. Vendantists believe such experiences may be sporadic but
without discipline they are unpure. James argues that such tests of purity is
as our test of religion, both empirical in that, “its fruits must be good for
life” (401). With post samadhi, as post individual enlightenment, coming out
with a completely new mental composition. Next, we have Buddhistic mysticism
which also highly regards samadhi. As well as Hindu mysticism using their form
of Dhyana, of which James mentions 4 recognized stages. One, the mental focus
on a singular point; this allows the exclusion of desire but still leaves
judgment and discernment, thus still intellectual. Two, intellectual function
drops off; a sense of unity remains with satisfaction. Three, satisfaction
drops off; indifference begins as well as memories and self-conscious awareness.
Finally, four, indifference, memory, and self-conscious become perfected (401).
With James arguing such memories and self-conscious is not of general lower
consciousness but of higher regard, for them nothingness; from consciousness to
nothing to no ideas to the end line of both ideas and perception, arguably, by
them, possibly the closest to Nirvana while living.
Next,
we see the influence in Islamic relations particularly the Sufi sect of the
dervish bodies, a sect dating back to the 11th century, a practice of Islam
with Hindu influences. We get a long example of 11th century Persian
philosopher and one of the greatest ‘Moslem’ church doctors, as recognized by
James, philosopher Al-Ghazzali. Of whom we get an example, he believes that the
science of the Sufis is to detach one's heart from all that is not of God and
instead give all of one's heart to meditation of the divine. He strongly
believes that learning cannot possibly prepare one for the subjective
experience of practice, the “transport, ecstasy, and the transformation of the
soul” (403). Compared with the ideas knowing health is quite different from
feeling healthy, learning the science of drunkenness is very different from
experiencing it, similar to the difference between understanding abstinence
versus utilizing abstinence to detach one soul from the world (403). Now with his
social weight growing and looming he detached from the world and, when in
complete weakness, went to God in need, God answered, and now the author has no
fear to renounce glory, wealth, and his children. Thus, he proceeds forward to
Baghdad, then to Syria; conquering desires, passions, soul purity training, as
he argues, the true Sufi walks in the path of God as “they are illumined by the
light which precedes from the prophetic source” (404). An end Sufi goal being
the complete absorption into God as, “the intuitions and all that precede are,
so to speak, only the threshold for those who enter” (404). By the authors
belief, true Sufis see and hear angels, of whom then transport the individual,
transport that is indescribable without the notion of sin. And, in the author’s
opinion, only those who know the experience of transportation experience with
transformation know as ‘the true nature of prophetism’ (404) but such others
may still be sure of its existence by verification of others and culture. “As
there are men in doubt only with this sensitive faculty… so there are
intellectual men who reject and avoid the things perceived by the prophetic
faculty” (404). With him arguing states of sleep near analogous to this, of
which, one’s experience’s of things are normally hidden, “just so in the
prophetic the site is illumined by a light which uncovers hidden things and
objects which the intellect fails to reach” (405) but as that is a nature
higher than general, “the prophet is endowed with qualities to which you
possess nothing analogous, and which consequently you cannot possibly
understand” (405). The ineffability of transport is certainly a key notion in
mysticism; mystical truths exist solely for the experiencer. And in these
regards God exists more as intuitive and constructed after the feelings
experienced. Next, we have Christian Mystics of whom many practices became
church codified. However, for them a primary methodology was that of ‘orison’
or meditation, to elevate the soul towards God, often mystical experiences at
higher levels. Concerning orison, step one, detached from outer senses; for
them one method was to imagine holy scenes. For James, psychologically, this
touched semi hallucinatory to mono-ideism, “an imaginary figure of Christ, for
example, coming fully to occupy the mind” (406-407), and eventually imagery
falls off becoming ineffable. We get an example of Saint John of the Cross’ ‘union
of love’ followed his ‘dark contemplations’ (407).
Now
with the lack of core mystical features of illuminations William James has left
out mystical experiences of “visual and auditory hallucination, verbal and
graphic automatisms, and such marvels as ‘levitation’, stigmatization, and the
healing of disease” (408). With William James also believing, the vast varieties
of experiences are near as infinite as human idiosyncrasies. Cognitive aspects
of revelation come clear with Saint Teresa, a master of such explanation
especially with her ‘union of orison’. We get an example of Saint Theresa, who
argues, an orison of union is the soul fully awakened in regards of God. Within
it, she is deprived of every feeling thus, had no application biased for
understanding. She persists unsure of her love or will of it, “dead to all
things of the world and lives solely in God” (409) and by such brief experience,
“God establishes himself in the interior of the soul in such a way, that when
she returns to herself it is wholly impossible for her to doubt that she has
been in God, and God in her” (409) and lives the rest of her life in regards of
God of such experiences. Many communicable mystical truths generally relate to
this world such as future visions, reading individual's hearts, immediate
textual understandings. With St. Ignatius arguing a particular single hour of
meditation taught him more of heaven than in a lifetime of effort learning
would; visions of a future plan of divine wisdom of creation; being surrounded
by divine light and replenished with the heavenly knowledge. Saint Teresa also,
“it was granted to me to perceive in one instant how things are seen and
contained in God” (411) and also, she gained a sense of clarity of the Trinity,
“I understand how the three adorable persons form only one God and I experience
an unspeakable happiness” (412). Saint Teresa perceived orisons as given to her
as a gift and message to spread.
Next
to look at the tonic effects of mystical states, as such states may be hypnotic
or even pathological but again, we must know we here for fruits. Of which are
quite various, one, stupefaction, or the inability of process correctly,
something certainly relying one upon others to live. Mysticisms of other-worldliness
can over abstract practical life forming passive and feeble intellects, but it
is also commonly present within strong minds. St. John's intuitions of how God ‘touches’
through the soul and within such divine experiences, “a single one of these
intoxicating consolations may reward it for all the laborers undergone in its
life” (414). With Saint Theresa as a historically chief example of tonic
inducing reality of such mystical experiences, “the soul after such a favor is
animated with a degree of courage so great that if at the moment its body
should be torn to pieces for the cause of God, it would feel nothing but the
liveliest comfort" (414). That, “promises and heroic resolutions spring up
in profusion in us” (414). “What empire is comparable to that of a soul who,
from this sublime summit to which God has raised her, seize all the things of
earth beneath her feet, and is captivated by no one of them?” (414).
Often
mysticism excites the soul's energy. James again notes that we turned to
mysticism in an attempt to truth. Certainly, mystical states argue a true
experience for many, especially those in the saintly life. But is there a
definite theological direction? Too difficult to say. But philosophical
direction? There may be a few ways about it; one, optimism and two, monism. The
vast majority of mystical experiences are usually described by negatives. While
at the same time of course mysticism generally appeals to a yes function than a
no. Many instead deny divinities’ existence, only in doing so as a deeper yes, to
have more relations with it. Such denial is also in many eastern cultures,
especially Taoism. As to them, to call it ‘this’, cuts it off as being ‘that’,
lessening divinity's greatness. And, in denying the ‘this’ it helps to affirm
the ‘that’. With examples existing as a fountainhead within Christian mysticism,
Dionysius the Areopagite. With Dionysius as an example, the cause of all things
is not spirit, not intellect, not words, nor thoughts rather, it is what is not
those as it infinitely exceeds what is. It is not essential but super essential,
it is not natural but supernatural. We get an example, of whom, feels they have
nothing, they can do nothing, they have become nothing, and only God is to them,
thus they say, ‘I AM’ (418); only as nothing, can God enter. Now in overcoming
all barriers between the individual and absolute we certainly see undeniable
union with the absolute. Both one with the absolute and also awareness of such
oneness. ‘That art thou’, not separate but one and the same; Vendantists
believe it is like, “water in water, fire in fire, ether in ether, no one can
distinguish them” (420). Thus, to be, they truly subjectively claim, ‘I am
god’. “In the vision of God”, says Plotinus, “what sees is not our reason, but
something prior and superior to our reason” ” (420). “ “Here,” writes Suso, “the
spirit dies, and yet is all alive in the marvels of the Godhead” (420). One of
the last main points of mystical practice that James wants to address is music,
argued by many practitioners as the best medium of speaking of mystical truths.
We get an example arguing, that who can hear the voice of Nada, the soundless
sound, can learn Dharna; “the inner sound which kills the outer” (421). By
James, music gives ontological messages, certainly a factor that critics cannot
disregard. And clearly many times access to such mystical regions is about
retrieving a password, generally relating to the primeval man.
Now
in concluding this piece James has three main conclusive points. One, mystical
states generally have the right to authority over the individual. Two, no
authority emanates outside of them for others to accept uncritically. Three,
mystical states deconstruct authorities of non-mystical states or rationalism,
with such now appearing as a type of consciousness. Such experiences open a new
reality of truths to be seized. By these three factors James will discuss them
in points. To start with, mystical states carry authority for those that have
them, even those so opposed to jail practitioners find such mystical relations
and authorities still within the jail. As general sensory experiences feel of fact,
mystical experiences feel of direct relation. Second there can be no claim to
outsiders of your mystical authority if only in the admittance that one
developed a good presumption. And acknowledging another reality is totally
appropriate as long as it suits one's life. Now generally mysticism is
something taught to others and passed on, being preserved in particular
temperaments and schools of thought. But generally, an individual’s mystical
experiences may themselves build schools of thought. Now, mystical experiences
certainly are very ambiguous, self-indulgent for some, duality for some, monism
for some, even pantheism, certainly a vast plurality of mystical experiences
and truths. In relation with some non-religious pathological highly pessimistic
mystical experiences as well James argues that either experience is mystical
and either ‘spring’ from the same mental region, via ‘the great subliminal’
both “ ‘seraph and snake’ abide their side by side” (426). Certainly, less
reason for an external individual’s mystical authority. Finally, such mystical
experiences certainly break down the exclusive authority of rationalistic
states. Mystical states generally always overthrow prior authority of non-mystical
states, by James's rule, “mystical states merely add a super sensuous meaning
to the ordinary outward data of consciousness. They are excitements like the
emotions of love or ambition, gifts to our spirit by means of which facts
already objectively before us fall into a new expressiveness” (427). Through
individual critique, rationalization and/or verification, such experiences
interweave into the network of facts and truths in their reality. However there
always is a looming question if mystical states are superior point of views, “windows
through which the mind looks out upon a more extensive and inclusive world”
(428). Thus, mystical experiences do not generally force authority, but higher
ones strongly do direct people towards spiritual sentiments. Mystical
experiences often share “supremacy of ideal, of vastness, of union, of safety, and
of rest” (428), and certainly offers us hypotheses. With many, supernaturalism
and optimism often offering some of “the truest of insights into the meaning of
this life” (428). It could be that possibility and permission are the only
requirements a religious consciousness may need to strive. For many, taking
such experiences for empirical debate is not enough, next to turn towards
philosophy.
--Seth
Graves-Huffman
