Mystical Experiences By Walter T. Stace Analysis

What I found in the literature was that, so-called spiritual experiences are part of every culture and have shaped spiritual and religious traditions. It is clear to me that “I” am not the physical body, but “I/God” is a consciousness in eternity,

"It is with considerable difficulty that I remember the original era of my being; all the events of that period appear confused and indistinct. A strange multiplicity of sensations seized me, and I saw, felt, heard, and smelt at the same time; and it was, indeed, a long time before I learned to distinguish between the operations of my various senses. By degrees, I remember, a stronger light pressed upon my nerves, so that I was obliged to shut my eyes. Darkness then came over me and troubled me, but hardly had I felt this when, by opening my eyes, as I now suppose, the light

Around 1982, Swami Krishnananda wrote, "There is an intensive urge to solidify matter into a localised existence, which is what we call the ego." Throughout his collected works, he describes the ego, as a form of energy converging onto a single point, similar to the eye of a hurricane. This force or feeling that we exist as independent entities, which we are drawn to re-affirm at every turn, binds us to this focal point in space-time, while it maintains an air of separation from the cosmos in the deepest parts of our minds.

Spirituality gives meaning and purposes to their belief (51). In Reconnecting science and spirituality, Walach defines spirituality as “a way to understand the natural makeup of the world by means of rational methods of inquiry”. This quotes allows the world to have faith in their own beliefs (425). The happenings in Hydesville involving the Fox sisters started to increase the rate of mediums around the world (Walliss 129). Spiritualism started to have a greater influence of people’s lives. People started to go to mediums to communicate with lost love ones. Spiritualism was given closures to people in the world (Walliss

Bor opens his work stating that “It is easy to view consciousness as a kind of magic” (Bor) and continues to comment on how religion

Prior to understanding and describing religious experiences, it’s important to define the terms and typology of religious experiences. A point of contention for theologians is whether or not mystical or out-of-body experiences are religious in nature. To understand what the role religion plays in these experiences, for this context, you must define and understand what religion is and the major components that make it up. James states that religion “cannot stand for any single principle or essence, but is rather a collective name” (35). If you were to ask someone about the essence of an object or a concept, different people would provide various components or parts of it. You would end up of with a list ranging from objective and subjective responses, but it would provide a better understanding of it because, like religion, no one thing or person can be summed up in a sentence or a word.

As our scientific paradigm has shifted towards a materialist account of the world, many thinkers believe that appeals to the supernatural cannot provide truth. Consequently, beliefs that had once been considered adequate must now be reworked if not torn down entirely to fit this new world view. Daniel Dennett’s book Consciousness Explained attempts to provide an account of our internal experience (i.e. Consciousness) that is rooted in the materialist world view. Though he is not the first to undertake this project, he takes issue with what he perceives to be the popular materialist account of consciousness, and seeks promote his own theory. With this essay I aim to offer an informative summary of the book followed by an evaluative dialogue of its central claims.

Ramsey explains how Underhill “analyzed the mystical factors is a psychological way” (Ramsey 275) within her book about the five-stage process and the way the mystic behaves using this process. Underhill is described not as an “exponent of mysticism, but as a doctor of the Christian Church” (Ramsey 277). She is believed to be someone who has influenced the way mysticism has progressed into an identity and religion instead of a single male dominated entity. Ramsey states that Underhill’s writing and philosophy is as follows “though the mystic life means organic growth… but in the metaphysical object which the subject apprehends” (Ramsey 276). Ramsey agrees with Underhill’s principle of the concept of being is based upon the mystic’s relation of two aspects. The two aspects are the relation to mystic appearance and the ultimate union between the mystic and

As everything we experience is linked to what we believe, the author believes that shifting the way we use belief can change our lives. He says that our “belief waves” shape the quantum that everything is made from. “It makes us part of all that we see and experience, with the power to solve problems and find solutions. Through the power of human belief, we are given the ability to bring what we believe

In immediate self-consciousness the simple ‘I’ is the absolute object which, however, for us or in itself is absolute mediation and has its essential moment lasting independence” (95). Those that relinquish the struggle, however, end up being the slave of external circumstances.

Thomas Aquinas are considered to be scholastics. Because of this vast academic difference, it can be easy to assume that the interpretation of faith and reason among mystics and scholastics would obviously be different. However, since Ibn Rushd, Moses Maimonides and St. Thomas Aquinas are all scholastics their views will essentially be somewhat parallel and connected. Before being able to truly understand what each philosopher’s stance ultimately is, this writer feels that it is important to distinguish the difference between each school of thought; the schools of thought in particular would be mysticism and scholasticism. According to the class discussion, materials and presentation, the term mysticism refers to a very personal and individual religious experience. In this school of thought, private faith and philosophy is accompanied with an emotional experience that surpasses reason. Mystics have a personal preference of a direct relationship and experience with God, or the divine. Mystics, like the ones studied in class, use certain visions, dreams and revelations to gain definite knowledge from God; further, mystics typically revolve their studies around God’s infinite love.

In the stages leading up to self-consciousness, consciousness placed the locus of truth into that which it took to be other than itself. The particular and immediate being of the

The incessant search for reality within (through drugs, meditation and intense feeling) was a quest for authenticity that reason, it was felt, deadened. It called for the reconnaissance at the extremes of human experience, as far beyond the limits of reason as possible, thus placing uncommon stress upon subjunctive moods. (Merrill, 2)

Eastern enlightenment religions have been gaining popularity throughout the western world for the past few decades, with many people attracted to a "different" way of experiencing religion. As with many other enlightenment religions, Buddhism requires disciples to understand concepts that are not readily explainable: one such concept is that of no-self. In this essay I shall discuss the no-self from a number of modern perspectives; however, as no-self is difficult to describe I shall focus on both the self and no-self. Beginning with psychological aspects, and neurophysiological research on transcendental meditation, I shall discuss the impact of modern brain science on our understanding of the self and transcendence. Next I will outline

ABSTRACT: Curiously, in the late twentieth century, even agnostic cosmologists like Stephen Hawking—who is often compared with Einstein—pose metascientific questions concerning a Creator and the cosmos, which science per se is unable to answer. Modern science of the brain, e.g. Roger Penrose's Shadows of the Mind (1994), is only beginning to explore the relationship between the brain and the mind-the physiological and the epistemic. Galileo thought that God's two books-Nature and the Word-cannot be in conflict, since both have a common author: God. This entails, inter alia, that science and faith are to two roads to the Creator-God. David Granby recalls that once upon a time,