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MYSTICISM. Philosophy – love of wisdom- it is a search for truth. UK – dominated by a narrow understanding of what the word means Increasingly limited to linguistic analysis The ancient use of the word has become marginalised.
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Philosophy – love of wisdom- it is a search for truth • UK – dominated by a narrow understanding of what the word means • Increasingly limited to linguistic analysis • The ancient use of the word has become marginalised
‘The whole modern conception of the world is founded on the assumption that the so called laws of nature are the explanations of natural phenomena. ‘ Ludwig Wittgenstein • ‘Science cannot solve the ultimate mystery of nature, because we in the last analysis are part of the mystery we are trying to solve.’ Max Planck
‘If a solely empirically based understanding of reality is inadequate, REX may provide pointers to the transcendent that are not available elsewhere.’ Peter Vardy • See his chart on REX
Thomas Murton – modern day mystic wrote: • ‘ In Louisville, at the corner of 4th and walnut st, in the centre of the shopping district, I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realisation that I loved all those people, that they were mine and I theirs, that we could not be alien to one another even though we were total strangers. It was like walking from a dream of separateness, of spurious self – isolation in a special world, the world of renunciation and supposed holiness’.
Argyle and Hills argue that there are just 2 main types of REX; 1.Experience of contact with a transcendent being or being in the presence of the holy. 2.Experience of the immanent unity of all things, sometimes called mystical experiences.
William James and the main features of REX • Scholars have attempted to define the common experiences of Rex and what makes them specifically ‘religious’. • William James 1st tried this in his book,' the varieties of religious experience’,.
Still regarded as a classic text on REX and in particular mysticism. • Ludwig Wittgenstein was known to carry this book in his pocket everywhere he went. • In this text