Mysticism

• Mysticism - direct intuition/knowledge of an experiance with god.
• Mystic - a person who has had an RE. Usually they are activly seeking RE.
• Features of Mysticism: gaining knowledge of the ultimate reality, knowledge hidden from human intellect. Sense of freedom from limitations of time/space. Oneness with divine, bliss, serenity.
• True Mysticism has 3 stages: purgation (freeing mind from unnecessary thoughts); Illumination (god opens the persons mind so they can understand him); Contemplation (mystic feels a unity with the divine)
• St Teresa of Avila, 1500s: entered a convent. Became an invalid - developing a love for mental prayer and intense religious moments. Teresa has a religious awakening with a number of REs she called 'intellectual visions'.
• Teresa: believed she had experianced god directly, and had been shot with Jesus dart. She struggled to describe experiances. Experianced religious ecstasy.
• Teresa taught that there are 4 stages for the soul to pass through to reach god: devotion of the heart (contemplation of the suffering of christ); devotion of peace (state of peace from god); devotion of the unity (feeling of spiritual joy as soul finds love of god); devotion of rapture (trance like state with ecstasy as soul is absorbed into gods presence).
• Mystical experiances fit with james PINT
• Mysticism presents in many of worlds traditions - teresa (christianity); buddhist monks, some devoted lives to discovering mystical truths.
• Not unusual for mystics to develop a sence of dualism. 2 worlds, the physical and the spiritual, which do not exist in harmony.
• Mystics are often profoundly changed by their experiances like conversion experiances.
• People often report simalar mystic experiances: important as this means either - they are caused by the same part of the brain; or they are simalar as they are caused by god.