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Mysticism and spiritual Experience

Mysticism and spiritual Experience. Opening reflections:. When you hear the word “mysticism” what immediately comes to your mind? Have you ever had an experience that you might consider “spiritual” in nature? How would you describe this experience?. Manifestations of the Spirit.

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Mysticism and spiritual Experience

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  1. Mysticism and spiritual Experience

  2. Opening reflections: • When you hear the word “mysticism” what immediately comes to your mind? • Have you ever had an experience that you might consider “spiritual” in nature? • How would you describe this experience?

  3. Manifestations of the Spirit • Psychomotor responses: uncontrolled movement (being slain in the spirit) • Speaking in tongues (glossolalia) • Visions and voices: seeing and hearing things beyond scope of the physical senses (visions of Mary) • Miracles • Feelings of ecstasy, “peak” experiences • Feelings of peace and well-being

  4. Kinds of Spiritual Experience (how it is perceived by us) • Confirming: an undeniable “knowing” that what one believes is true • Possession: being overtaken by a spiritual power (e.g. channeling, being “slain in the spirit”) • Saving: deliverance from affliction or sense of wholeness • Commissioning: being charged by the holy to accomplish a task, being given a mission • Mystical: sense of being one with the holy

  5. Mystical experience can be… • Introvertive or Extravertive (nature mysticism) • Theistic or non-theistic • Spontaneous or induced • Tradition-bound or independent Mysticism is the direct, inner experience of the One, All-Pervading, and Supreme Reality

  6. Classic examples of encounters with the holy • Arjuna sees Krishna in his pure form (Hinduism) • Moses sees and hears God in a burning bush (Judaism) • Saul sees a light flash from heaven and hears a voice (on the road to Damascus) (Christianity)

  7. More Classic examples • Muhammad is taken up to the highest heaven to bask in the presence of the divine (the “Night Journey”) (Islam) • Joseph Smith sees two “personages” of light who give him a mission (Mormon) • Baha’u’llah sees and hears a maiden of light declare him to be the “best beloved” (Baha’i) • Black Elk sees the unity of all, understanding more than he sees and seeing more than he can tell (Native American)

  8. Characteristics of Mystical Experience: An altered state of consciousness: • Timeless: no sense of time and space (infinite and eternal) • Oneness: sense of connectedness or unity with all that is • Noetic: Revelation of knowledge • Beyond ego: no sense of self (absorption into the one – fana, satori, sunyata, samadhi)

  9. More Characteristics of Mystical Experience: • Ineffable: beyond words to express • Sense that everything is alive • Emotions such as bliss, peace, tranquility, awe • Sense of perfection that may be called “holy,” “sacred,” or “divine” How spiritual are you?(self surveys)

  10. Mystical traditions in the world’s religions • Judaism: Kabbalah, Zohar and the Sefirot • Islam: Sufism • Gnosticism • Some Christian Mystics: • Thomas à Kempis (14th cent) • Teresa of Avila (16th cent) • George Fox (17th cent, founder of the Quakers) • Thomas Merton (20th cent) • A Hindu Mystic: Ramakrishna (19th cent) • Zen Buddhism

  11. Mysticism on the Web: • Mysticism Resources Page:http://www.religiousworlds.com/mystic/index.html • The Gnosis Archive: http://www.gnosis.org/ • Bnei Baruch World Center for Kabbalah Studies http://www.kabbalah.info/ • The Threshold Society:http://www.sufism.org/“rooted within the traditions of Sufism and inspired by the life and work of Mevlâna Jalâluddîn Rumi” • Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center of New York:http://www.ramakrishna.org/

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