Surrendering into Silence: Quaker Prayer Cycles byDavid Johnson

Amazon.com: Customer reviews: Surrendering into Silence: Quaker Prayer Cycles




Start reading

Remove from Saved
Add to list

Download to app

Share

Surrendering into Silence: Quaker Prayer Cycles


By David Johnson
84 pages
2 hours

Included in your membership!
at no additional cost

Description

Quaker spirituality is at its core a contemplative practice which is based on the path taught and lived by Jesus. The traditional Quaker experience is that the Spirit of God communicates directly to each and every person, especially when we spend time in silence, and is experienced mainly as an Inward Light in the conscience. Further, as this Inward Light is followed, we are granted more light and greater purity of heart or holiness, and we become reborn inwardly as the Spirit of God (Christ) takes hold of our lives.

Many of the quotations in this work are deliberately sourced from the first Quakers, whose remarkable spiritual strength opened up a vision of true Christianity and changed the world around them. The language of the 1600s sounds foreign to our ears until it becomes familiar. Many words have had different meanings over the centuries, as is clear in the different wordings of the King James Version and Revised Standard Version translations of the Bible. Readers are urged to sit and feel for the underlying spiritual message of these written experiences of our Quaker ministers and elders as well as of the selected excerpts from the Scriptures.

The Quaker experience and understanding are that God is always ready to guide and lead us and goes before us, though we may be called upon to wait till we have been inwardly prepared. 'Way will open' in God's time rather than in our own time frame.

Surrendering into Silence: Quaker Prayer Cycles

byDavid Johnson

5 global ratings | 2 global reviews

From the United States

Brian

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Primer for Anyone

Reviewed in the United States on September 17, 2020

Verified Purchase

Much of this was a review to me, having been trained under the teachings of the late Thomas Keating, a Catholic. Surrendering into Silence is a Quaker version of Keating, who was one among three who began the movement of Centering Prayer and which became Contemplative Outreach LTD.

Here, Johnson, a Quaker from Australia, applies universal principles of the cycle recurring in the life of spiritual contemplation to the Quaker, or Society of Friends, or Religious Society of Friends, tradition. His use of citations from varied traditions, ancient and modern, amplifies his own comments.

While Johnson acknowledges the contemplative dimension is in varied spiritual paths, his book reads like a primer for Quakers. Still, the book would prove a valuable introduction to contemplative silence for anyone interested in exploring the process of such a way of prayerful silence and the psychology behind it as a means of purification and growing intimacy with the Divine - Johnson, in the way of Quakerism, does not seek to decide or define what the Divine would be for the reader.

Johnson points out, rightly, spiritual depth in a faith community is not possible apart from this contemplative silence. In the silence, as Johnson clarifies, we are welcomed below the usual chatter of mind and emotion so to be receptive to the Light.

And, again in the vein of Friends, receptivity to the Light in silence is done as part of a community, one not grounded on doctrinal or moral agreement, but on a shared vision in response to divine Grace. Hence, for Johnson, prayerfulness among others is as, if not more, important than alone. Indeed, he disallows any form of privatized worship, wherein one is not linked in agreement of spirit with others who share a like vision and life together.

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

Report abuse

From other countries

MikeF

5.0 out of 5 stars Much needed guide

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 9, 2020

Verified Purchase

There is far too little published about the life of prayer from a specifically Quaker point of view; this brilliant and lucid little book will be of great value not only to Friends, but to all who are called to the contemplative way, from whichever tradition.

Report abuse

===

Book Review: Surrendering Into Silence: Quaker Prayer Cycles, by David Johnson

31 May, 2020

There is language which describes an experience.

Have you ever been to Florence? There are fountains and sculptures everywhere you look, stone castles and vineyards occupying the surrounding countryside, ornate churches, murals painted on unsuspecting walls….

Then there is language which foretells an experience and invites you to it.

You’ve never been to Florence? Would my previous description entice you to visit? (pandemics aside). I loved the artistry of Italian doors, even just into a pharmacy. The coffee is awesome. You should definitely go.

And again, there is language which makes sense of experiences; affirming and consolidating them.

Welcome back from your trip. Did you see the fountains? Oh, yes, and they were wonderful!

Johnson’s book uses the language of early Quakers and the Christian mystics to:

• describe his authentic experience of the life and patterns of prayer over time (Florence)
• describe the predictable motions of the prayer of silence over time, and invites us to experience it (You should go – it’s awesome)
• affirm and make sense of the experiences we have had, and point to next steps (…yeah, I saw that too)

If you feel offended by Christian language this book will be a challenge to you. Johnson makes no claim to the rightness of Christianity, and points to the universality of faith which lies beyond any system attempting to describe the process and guide people through. But Christianity is his language – also the language of early Friends – and he uses it unreservedly.

Surrendering into Silence is in alignment with other descriptions of the life of prayer. For example, Johnson’s description of the prayer cycle fits well with Rex Ambler’s process of Light Meditation which advises us to 1) Mind the Light, 2) Open to what it has to show you, 3) Wait for guidance, and 4) Submit to that guidance. Even more succinctly, the gospel of Thomas (logion 2) quotes Jesus as saying. “Those who seek should not stop seeking until they find; when they find they will be disturbed; when they are disturbed, they will marvel and will reign over all”

This book is a deceptively brief 55 pages. The structure is not readily apparent but eventually it becomes clear that he lays out the prayer cycle bit by bit; each bit being separated from the next by some “reflections” – carefully selected short quotes to let the concept just given connect with our own experience.

These reflections are to be read and re-read and savoured over time. This is not a book to be read from cover to cover.

Johnson describes the prayer cycle as a process of moving from an external busyness to an inward stillness, and identifies practices to become “…awakened to the possibilities of the spiritual life.” Initially, we experience rest and refreshment through a sense of effort… which gives way to a sense of being found rather than doing the searching ourselves. We begin to yield to the Light.

Next we are met with “eruptions from the subconscious”. We have sought, and found, and now it’s time to be disturbed. The disturbance and darkness we find can continue unabated for some time; Johnson says, “suffering is a real and essential part of the spiritual journey” and he observes that prolonged periods of darkness are normal. Monastics call this process “stripping”; being stripped of the unhelpful to prepare us for a more fruitful life. Extended darkness can be regarded, therefore, as making good progress; discomfort begets change. This is a place where psychology and spiritual practice overlap. The author’s advice is to step back and observe and wait to see what the Light is showing you. (Sounds a lot like Rex Ambler)

The cycle of prayer (daily practice, consolation and rest, disturbance, darkness, and transformation) is repeated over and over again, each iteration moving us further in the journey. Johnson encourages us to persevere. As we persist in the process of being transformed, we are prepared to be an instrument for a secret responsiveness, not necessarily of action, which Fox described as walking in the Light. In the author’s words. “As we become more aware, more attentive and more accepting, God can do more with us. We become co-workers with God.”

It is one thing to be passionate about what is good and to respond to the flawed world through practicing our values. It is another thing to be prepared by Spirit to be a Light-powered instrument of God moving in, and responding to, the world around us.

Johnson invites us to be there, and shows us a path for how to get there. If you want the quickie cheat sheet, the full cycle is well summarised and illustrated on pages 44 and 45.

You do need to work a bit to understand Johnson’s language of experience, invitation, affirmation and guidance, but it’s worth the effort.

Surrendering into Silence: Quaker Prayer Cycles, by David Johnson, Inner Light Books 2020.

Sheila Keane, New South Wales Regional Meeting

2108 The Mystical Experience - Friends Journal

The Mystical Experience - Friends Journal

The Mystical Experience
August 1, 2021
By Donald W. McCormick


Illustration by Donald W. McCormick.

===

Reclaiming a Neglected Quaker Tradition

Many influential Quakers, such as Rufus Jones, Marcelle Martin, and Howard Brinton, have seen mysticism as the heart of Quakerism. In her Pendle Hill Pamphlet Quaker Views on Mysticism, Margery Post Abbott wrote,

In the mid-1990s, I interviewed articulate Quakers from Britain, Philadelphia, and the Pacific Northwest, many holding major positions in monthly or yearly meetings. These sixty-plus Friends overwhelmingly agreed that ours is a mystical faith.

There’s no shortage of coverage of it in Friends Journal. Type “mystic” into the search box of the online archives, and you get 26 pages of links to articles and book reviews that refer to mystics, mysticism, and mystical experience.

Despite all this, Quakers who talk about their mystical experiences are sometimes met with indifference. They aren’t believed or get some other negative response. I spoke to one Friend who began to have mystical experiences after she started attending Quaker meeting. She obtained a clearness committee to help her understand what was going on, but its members were uncomfortable dealing with her experiences and shuffled her off to talk to a different standing committee.

Also, there is little about mystical experience in central, authoritative Quaker bodies and books. Britain Yearly Meeting and Philadelphia Yearly Meeting are the largest groups of Quakers in the northern hemisphere, but Britain Yearly Meeting’s Faith and Practice only has a few brief mentions of mystical experience, and Philadelphia’s Faith and Practice has even fewer. In the 565-page Oxford Handbook of Quaker Studies, there are 39 chapters by different authors; none of them is about mysticism. In the chapters, there is very little about mystical experience and nothing about the large scholarly literature on it. For a definitive academic study of a mystical religion, this is pretty casual treatment.

Viewing mystical experience as a spectrum from theistic to unitive makes room for the full range of mystical experience in Quakerism, does not suggest that one type is better than another, and provides a framework that can help us to benefit from decades of research on mystical experience.

The Range of Mystical Experiences

There are thousands of publications in the scholarly literature on mystical experience. A central figure in this literature is American psychologist Ralph Hood. He argues that there are two types of mystical experiences: theistic and unitive.

The theistic mystical experience (also called prophetic or numinous) is “an awareness of a ‘holy other’ beyond nature, with which one is felt to be in communion.” It may be called Krishna or God or Allah or Yahweh. It’s the direct experience of the Spirit or of God. In Quakerism, mystical experience is usually thought of in theistic terms. Hearing the still, small voice of the Spirit is an example of this. Theistic mystical experiences can take the form of visions or voices, as they did with George Fox. The most common venue for theistic mystical experiences is worship, where people feel the presence of the Spirit.

The unitive is the other type of mystical experience. It is the type that is usually studied by neuroscience and psychology researchers. Many scholars who do this research argue that a sense of oneness or unity is its defining characteristic. There are two kinds of unitive mystical experience in Hood’s model: introvertive and extrovertive.

In the introvertive unitive mystical experience, there is an overwhelming sense of oneness, but there are no thoughts, emotions, or perceptions. No sense of time, place, or self. And it’s ineffable; that is, it’s impossible to adequately convey in words.

In the extrovertive unitive mystical experience, the person “continues to perceive the same world of trees and hills and tables and chairs as the rest of us . . . but sees these items transfigured in such a manner that Unity shines through them,” according to British philosopher Walter Terence Stace, whose research on mystical experience formed the basis of much of Hood’s work. In this type, one’s sense of self merges with what one is perceiving. One may directly experience oneness with everything—with other Quakers at a gathered meeting or with the ocean. Someone in this state often perceives an inner subjectivity, an aliveness, in all things, even inanimate things such as a stone or sunset.

These qualities of mystical experience aren’t thoughts or ideas. One doesn’t think about or feel the oneness of everything; it is experienced directly. In a unitive mystical experience, emotions like joy, love, openheartedness, a sense of mystery, awe, reverence, or blissful happiness can arise later.

People often see their unitive mystical experience as a source of knowledge more valid than everyday reality, and feel the experience is sacred or divine. Some people say they were united with God or use other religious language to describe it.


Images by Shusha Guna.

===

Quaker Thinking about Mystical Experience

Contemporary Quaker works about mystical experience tend to be based on the work of writers from 70 to 100 years ago, such as William James or Rufus Jones. Being stuck in the ways they thought about mystical experience is a problem because we’ve learned a lot about it since then.

Take William James’s 1902 book, The Varieties of Religious Experience, the most influential work in the field. Some of his ideas have held up over time (the ineffability of the unitive mystical experience) while others have not (the idea that getting drunk could “stimulate the mystical faculties”).

Rufus Jones is the most influential Quaker writer on mysticism and one of the most influential figures in Quaker history. He is the primary source of the idea that Quakerism is an experiential, mystical religion. But according to Hugh Rock in a 2016 article in Quaker Studies, Jones was hostile to the unitive mystical experience and felt that it reflected an immature stage of religious development. Also, like William James, many of Jones’s ideas have been questioned by later research, such as his assertion that the unitive mystical experience is “a metaphysical theory voicing itself, not an experience.” Anyone who’s had a unitive mystical experience, myself included, knows that they are genuine experiences, not theories.

Unfortunately, almost all Quaker writings on mystical experience fail to mention developments in the study of it from recent decades. You rarely see any mention of current thinkers or discussion of contemporary debates.

Also, when I talk with fellow Quakers about the unitive view of mystical experience, the most common response is, “Oh? There’s another view? What is it?” Our isolated views result, in part, because we don’t talk much with Christian, Buddhist, Sufi, Jewish, or other mystics, or participate much in the discussion of mysticism that goes on around the world in books, scholarly journals, conferences, and the web.

All this limits our thinking about mystical experience and makes it out of date; we don’t benefit from new developments about it that come from the hundreds of studies published about mystical experience each year in neuroscience, psychology, religious studies, and philosophy.

Our insularity also means that scientists conduct research on Buddhist, Catholic, and other mystics, but not Quaker mystics, even though Quakerism is seen as a major Western mystical tradition. We Quakers have a lot to contribute to the literature on mystical experience, but our isolation prevents this.

People know that Quakers value mystical experience. We help people to have mystical experiences, to recognize their mystical experiences, and to make sense of them. As a result of all this, Quakerism has become a spiritual home for mystics in the West.

Reconciling Theistic and Unitive Views

Quaker writing about mystical experience tends to emphasize theistic mystical experience and de-emphasizes or ignores the unitive. But within Quakerism, we can reconcile theistic and unitive perspectives on mystical experience by thinking of different mystical experiences as falling on a spectrum: with purely theistic experiences at one end, purely unitive experiences at the other, and a mix of the two in the middle. What does a mixed mystical experience look like? Marcelle Martin offers a vivid example of one in a 2016 Pendle Hill talk accompanying her book Our Life is Love:


One night . . . I was walking under the stars and I suddenly knew that the stars were me. I was in the stars. That we were part of a oneness and that there was a light flowing through everything and connecting everything and I could feel it flowing through my body and out of my arms and out of my fingers into the world with great power. It wasn’t my power. It was like a power of this divine reality. It took me a few years before I could say, “That’s God” because it was so different from what my expectations of what God was like.

Like Marcelle Martin, sometimes people who have this experience don’t think of it in terms of God or the Spirit until long afterwards. That happened to me. I had an intense introvertive mystical experience, and it took me years to realize that the oneness I had experienced was “that of God” in me.

Viewing mystical experience as a spectrum from theistic to unitive makes room for the full range of mystical experience in Quakerism, does not suggest that one type is better than another, and provides a framework that can help us to benefit from decades of research on mystical experience.

The Uniquely Quaker Contribution to Mystical Experience

Howard Brinton wrote that “mystics generally think of [the experience of union] only as union with God, but the Quakers . . . think of it also as union with their fellow men.” This sense of union with others is most common in the gathered meeting for worship. Current research on mystical experience generally doesn’t include the Quaker group mystical experience. One of the rare exceptions is Stanford Searl’s research. He writes that a gathered meeting doesn’t represent some version of ecstatic experience of mystical oneness with all creation. . . . What it represents and signifies is heightened awareness of interconnections among one’s self, others in the worship setting, and others in the wider world.

Sometimes a group mystical experience can be unitive. You can see this in William Tabor’s classic Pendle Hill Pamphlet, Four Doors to Quaker Worship. In it, he says that in the gathered meeting “The sharp boundaries of the self can become blurred and blended as we feel ourselves more and more united with fellow worshipers and with the Spirit of God” and that this experience can bring “joy, peace, praise, and an experience of timelessness.”

Most writing on the Quaker group mystical experience is about the gathered meeting, but the group mystical experience also happens outside of worship. In The Gathered Meeting, Thomas Kelly writes of the sense of unity or oneness that can happen between Friends:

It occurs again and again that two or three individuals find the boundaries of their separateness partially melted down. . . . But after conversing together on central things of the spirit two or more friends who know one another at deep levels find themselves wrapped in a sense of unity and of Presence.

A Vision of the Future of Quakerism and Mystical Experience

My own mystical experiences and study of both Quakerism and mystical experience have led me to a vision for the future of Quaker mysticism. Imagine this scenario for ten years from now:

Copies of Faith and Practice and reference works talk more about mysticism, and Quaker scholars interact with the larger community of mysticism researchers and publish in non-Quaker journals.
People have group mystical experiences in gathered meetings for worship. Many people come to meeting and keep coming back because it’s the place where they have this deep experience. More and more people are becoming Quakers.

People in our meetings aren’t afraid to talk about their mystical experiences. They don’t fear that their fellow Quakers will say that their experiences are implausible, incomprehensible, or inconceivable. We understand and support people’s mystical experiences. We’ve expanded our idea of mystical experience to include unitive ones that may not have a theistic aspect to them. This makes room for the mystical experiences of nontheistic Quakers, who now experience a closer connection to the mystical center of Quakerism.

People know that Quakers value mystical experience. We help people to have mystical experiences, to recognize their mystical experiences, and to make sense of them. As a result of all this, Quakerism has become a spiritual home for mystics in the West.

Correction: Margery Post Abbott’s name was misspelled in the earlier online and in the print edition.

Donald W. McCormick

As a professor, Donald W. McCormick taught management, leadership, and psychology of religion. His interests include the scientific study of mysticism and Quakerism, and evidence-based methods for teaching mindfulness. He is co-clerk of Grass Valley Meeting in Nevada City, Calif., and director of education for Unified Mindfulness. Contact: donmccormick2@gmail.com.
Previous ArticleNext Article


January 1 2022



David Castro
Bryn Mawr, PA, August 3, 2021 at 10:37 am


Thank you for this wonderful essay. I have always found the mystical element of Quakerism to be very important. I love your vision of how the mystical elements within Quakerism can be uplifted. There is something very powerful (and mystical) in the immediacy of silence and silent corporate worship. We carry the past with us in our memories, but a gathered meeting is also vitally present to the current moment and the experience of the light within the world, within ourselves, within others. It is a direct encounter with the spirit in which we have the opportunity for both theistic and unitive experiences!
Reply1

Priscilla Ppraeluso
Citrus heights Cap, August 6, 2021 at 12:45 pm


Well said.
Inspiring to this interested,
Outsider. I will be searching
Quakerism meetings when I Move to New England.
Thank you
Reply1

George Powell
Carmel Valley CA, August 30, 2021 at 5:40 pm


This essay is a great analysis of an ineffable subject. The categories of theistic and unitive mystical experience (and the sub-categories of introvert and extrovert for the latter) are useful for logically understanding this phenomenon. In my experience, all of these are experienced simultaneously, like united paradoxes.
Reply

George Powell
Carmel Valley CA, August 30, 2021 at 5:56 pm


Carl Jung wrote that the only experience of the Collective Unconscious in the world is found in the gathered or covered Quaker Meeting for Worship.
Reply

Kerry Shipman
Dorrigo NSW, September 2, 2021 at 12:18 am


Beautiful.
Reply

Rhonda Ashurst
Reno, Nevada, August 14, 2021 at 4:05 pm


I was happy to see this article on mystical experience in FJ this month! I am one of the editors of What Canst Thou Say (WCTS). WCTS has been sharing the personal stories of Quaker mystics for over twenty-five years through our quarterly publication. We also have an email listserv and blogs to foster sharing of mystical and contemplative experiences. I began writing for WCTS 15 years ago, when one of the editors found my writing and encouraged me to submit some of my pieces. It was through WCTS that I learned about Quaker faith and was ultimately drawn to Reno Friends Meeting. 

I felt like I finally found my tribe–others who had experiences like mine. You can find out more at our website: http://www.whatcanstthousay.org/. 

Friends are invited to request a free sample copy or send submissions for future issues. All varieties of mystical experience are welcomed and valued. You can also submit to our blog or sign up for the listserv through the website.
Reply2

schast
Philadelphia, PA, September 1, 2021 at 12:07 pm


I enjoy What Canst Thou Say.
Reply

donmccormick2
Grass Valley, CA, August 17, 2021 at 10:40 pm


I’m delighted by your post, Rhonda. I see we don’t live that far apart either. Did you by any chance attend the special interest group on mystical experience that I led at Pacific Yearly Meeting a few years back? I’m also glad that you mentioned What Canst Thou Say. To those who are unfamiliar with it, I can’t recommend it highly enough. In fact, partially in preparation for this article, I bought a copy of every back issue I could get–going back to 1994.
Reply1

Rhonda Ashurst
Reno, August 22, 2021 at 5:45 pm


I’m happy to hear that you are a reader of WCTS and that is has been helpful to you. I have only been going to Reno Friends Meeting since 2018, so I’m sorry I missed your group. We at WCTS are delighted by your article and thank you for writing it!
Reply1

Susann Estle
Danville, IN, August 30, 2021 at 12:02 pm


I, too, experience mysticism in a unitive fashion. I have often seen these experiences through the lenses of Native American or Indigenous spirituality – that the earth and all on it are interconnected, and yet there is “that of God in all” (not just humans). Quaker beliefs and practices help me practice equality and peace with this knowledge.
Reply1

donmccormick2
Grass Valley, CA, August 30, 2021 at 3:48 pm


That’s wonderful that you are having unitive experiences and that “the lenses of Native American or Indigenous spirituality” are ways that you find helpful in understanding mystical experience. Years ago, when I was trying to create a theory about spirituality in the workplace, I studied a variety of spiritual and religious traditions. One thing that I found that really impressed me was that certain cultures, such as the Navajo, are deeply spiritual but have no word for religion or the spiritual per se, in part because it is seen as such an integral part of life. If people don’t experience a separation between work and spirituality in the first place, a theory that looks at the degree to which work is more or less integrated with their spiritual lives is meaningless. I’m curious, do you engage in any Native American or Indigenous spiritual practices, like the sweat lodge or the sun dance?
Reply

friendmarcelle
Chester, PA, August 30, 2021 at 2:27 pm


Thank you for this wonderful article. I love the Vision of the Future of Quakerism and Mystical Experience. The author’s colorful illustration is amazing.
Reply1

Helen Meads
Huddersfield, West Yorkshire , August 30, 2021 at 6:31 pm


Here’s a link to a serious academic study of Quaker religious/spiritual/mystical experience, Don: https://etheses.bham.ac.uk/id/eprint/3076/1/Meads11PhD.pdf
Reply

George Schaefer
Glenside, PA, August 30, 2021 at 7:34 pm


Thank you, Don for your informative article and the reminder that Quakerism is, in fact, a mystical and experiential faith.

I agree with your assessment of the Oxford Book of Quaker Studies (2013.) The absence of any direct reference to the mystical Quaker religious experience is noticeable. While the editor (Stephen Angell) intended this volume to present Quakerism to the academic world, anyone searching for information, scholarly or otherwise, in this authoritative book, that explores in depth the bedrock Quaker conviction that spiritual knowing can only be found in a direct encounter with the divine, will have to look elsewhere.

The Cambridge Companion to Quakerism edited by Stephen Angell and Pink Dandelion and published in 2018 includes only one reference to mysticism in its index. It references the writing of Rufus Jones (Mystical Religion) published in the early twentieth century. While it states that Jones tried to locate Quakerism in the stream of Western mysticism, it claims that he drew heavily on American Transcendentalist thought and the early modern European mystics. There is no mention of the early Quaker mystical religious experience other than a brief reference to the idea of the Inward Light as central to Fox’s theology.

Again, it is the intention of the editors to present Quakerism to the wider-world and so the core religious and mystical experience that motivates Quakers to do what they do is not delved into. However, Pink Dandelion has published and spoken publicly about the profound mystical experience (extraverted unitive, to use your useful topology) he had as a young Englishman traveling in American. I know that Pink Dandelion is a sociologist and not a historian of religion. But he is a mystic! I hope in the future, as editor he will fix this lacuna in his presentation of Quakerism to those outside of the fold.

One corrective to this oversight is Mind the Oneness: The Mystic Way of the Quaker by Rex Ambler (PHP 463.) published in 2020. Rex’s pamphlet is based on a talk he gave to the Quaker Universalist Group at their annual conference in 2017. It “explores Quaker mysticism from the earliest years of George Fox to the present day.” Rex sees mysticism as part of the search for “ultimate reality” and authentic self hood: “a finding of oneness against the forces of separation and alienation, always in direct, unmediated experience.”

Ambler does make the caveat that mysticism is not a systematic endeavor. This is because the spiritual searching and the finding of a living truth to be guided by is not a static, step-wise process. It is a life long practice that unfolds as we engage with our world both inner and outer. I have experienced both introverted and extraverted unitive experiences (both theistic and non-theistic) at various times in my life. How this happened is a mystery, of course. But the glimpse of unity and the inner peace it brings leaves me with a thirst to know more.

And, for Ambler mysticism may involve protest. The Quaker mystic is often compelled to reconcile the unitive reality of our collective being with the social structures established by governments that attempt to separate (and thus alienate) people from their intuitive and noetic understanding of our common humanity as apart of the created world. To my mind, this is the basis of our equality testimony.

At the conclusion of Ambler’s pamphlet, he hopes that in the future the Quaker mystical vision will continue to be embodied in new and practical ways. Thanks again for raising up a topic so essential to our lives and work as Friends. I hope that the more we talk about this foundational aspect of our tradition the more appealing Quakers will be to those searching for a home (both theistic and non-theistic) where talking safely and respectfully about the mystical in the language of our present experience is welcomed.
Reply

donmccormick2
Grass Valley, California, August 31, 2021 at 4:32 pm


Dear George,
You wrote,
“Again, it is the intention of the editors to present Quakerism to the wider-world and so the core religious and mystical experience that motivates Quakers to do what they do is not delved into.”
“However, Pink Dandelion has published and spoken publicly about the profound mystical experience (extraverted unitive, to use your useful topology) he had as a young Englishman traveling in American. I know that Pink Dandelion is a sociologist and not a historian of religion.”
I once talked to a person from the field of sociology of religion and said that the field seems to study religion as if the existence of God was not a relevant question. They agreed that this was the case.
But he is a mystic! I hope in the future, as editor he will fix this lacuna in his presentation of Quakerism to those outside of the fold.
I suspect that the reason that mention of mystical experience is avoided in these books is that academics who are unfamiliar with the literature on mystical experience in neuroscience, psychology, history, and religious studies are embarrassed to write about it. There may confuse mystical experience with mysticism and there be anxiety that it would be like writing about something too intimately religious, or too new-age-wacky for academic study. I would very much like to know why they don’t include mystical experience in their books. But your comments made me realize that I don’t need to guess, I can just ask him via email. I think I will.
“Ambler does make the caveat that mysticism is not a systematic endeavor. This is because the spiritual searching and the finding of a living truth to be guided by is not a static, step-wise process. It is a life long practice that unfolds as we engage with our world both inner and outer. I have experienced both introverted and extraverted unitive experiences (both theistic and non-theistic) at various times in my life. How this happened is a mystery, of course. But the glimpse of unity and the inner peace it brings leaves me with a thirst to know more.”
I disagree with Ambler about this. I think that Buddhist and other disciplines are systematic and do lead to mystical experience. Also, the current research in the use of psylocibin and other psychedelic drugs can provide a system for it.
“And, for Ambler mysticism may involve protest. The Quaker mystic is often compelled to reconcile the unitive reality of our collective being with the social structures established by governments that attempt to separate (and thus alienate) people from their intuitive and noetic understanding of our common humanity as a part of the created world. To my mind, this is the basis of our equality testimony.”
That’s really beautifully put. I always wanted to have some buttons or t-shirts printed that said
Activist + Mystic = Quaker
But I’ve held back because I keep thinking it would offend some people, although I’m not exactly sure why.
“Thanks again for raising up a topic so essential to our lives and work as Friends.”
You’re welcome. I really enjoyed your comments.
Reply

Nola Landucci
August 30, 2021 at 11:42 pm


Theistic and unitive responses are different faces of the essentially mystic nature of creation in its essence, in themselves they are neither opposite nor in competition All vibrant spiritual systems are animated by and thru them, and ultimately united in the communion of the saints. Singing.
Reply

Kerry shipman
Dorrigo. New South Wales, August 31, 2021 at 1:41 am


Thank you for this wonderful article. I am a relatively newcomer to Quakers and after six months of regular meeting I feel as if I have been a Quaker all my life. I have always been drawn to the traditions of mysticism and feel sad about how it has been trivialized and exiled to the periphery by the very traditions that nurtured it and brought it into being. It as been hijacked by the esoteric blanket throwers and now is its time to reclaim its rightful place within the midst of community and the routines of every day life. St Teresa of Avila basically said the best way to distinguish between a neurotic and a genuine mystic is their ability to integrate into daily life of community. The heart of a mystical experience is to be grounded in the here and now.
I suspect at this time in our collective histories there are profound disintegrations of paradigms within the broad spectrum of Western culture and society aided and abetted by crass consumerism and radical individualism. The old reference points no longer give us direction – the old is dying but not yet dead and the new is coming to birth but not yet born. Perhaps the age of disconnection has run its course and humanity is ready to reach out for a connection that embraces us in mutual relationships grounded in stillness and silence.
In the silence of our meetings I experience the most profound embrace of Presence and connection and I don’t think we will have to wait too long to recover something we already have in abundance.
Reply

donmccormick2
Grass Valley, CA, August 31, 2021 at 4:35 pm


Kerry, I sincerely hope you are right about not having to wait too long. – Don
Reply

Sandra Palmer
Vienna, VA, August 31, 2021 at 1:28 pm


Thank you, Donald, for bringing forward the essence of Quaker practice, for our examination. I believe mystical experience is not meant to be mysteriously available only for a special few. It is meant to be commonplace and available to everyone. Reinforced in Meeting for Worship and other gatherings but also available while washing dishes or pulling up weeds. The more experience I have, the fewer useful distinctions I can make. That state of being really is ineffable. Yet we need to talk about it in order to provide validation for folks who may not understand what is happening, or has happened, to them. And because we need to know that one’s spiritual experience can–and should–develop, grow, and change. The One in whose oneness we participate does also instruct.

As a Quaker, I recommend also investigating the writings of Evelyn Underhill, St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, and T.S.Eliot. Each of them has provided invaluable validation of my experience and opened doors to more, despite being no longer with us.
Reply

Chris King
Ojai, CA, August 31, 2021 at 2:26 pm


The word “mystical” puts me off. I prefer ‘transcendent’ because such experiences are greater than ordinary ones, but they don’t *necessarily*signify that I have communicated with some higher power. This is the puzzle to me—why people assume their experience of connecting with a higher power means they have in fact done so. As an author and artist I know that the experience of ‘outside’ can come from inside (though some would argue that ‘genius’ is something visited upon us.) I see visions nightly in my dreams. I can be ‘transported’ by sexual ecstasy or drugs or even exhaustion. What is curious to me is the strong human desire to be larger than ourselves. Why do we see some prophet’s dream as some greater truth rather than just some personal ‘trip’ that they enjoyed? Personal or prophetic, I guess we see transcendence as the antidote to that other deep vision the full knowledge of our own and our loved ones’ decay and death.
Reply

Kerry Shipman
Dorrigo NSW, September 1, 2021 at 2:47 am


Dear Chris,
I tend to agree and l think we need to grapple a little longer before we find descriptive words that resonate with the Western mind set.
One of our problems with the term mysticism is it implies a disconnection from the ordinary events of day to day living. The same can be said regarding Mystic. Mystery tends to be interpreted as a problem to be solved.
We have lost our capacity to recognise the mysterium as a reality to be penetrated with openess and curiosity. The insights gained by the individual experience is always for the benefit of the community.
I suspect there is a recalibration of significant paradigms taking place within our cultural and social fields placing our familiar reference points in a state of flux. The old is dying but not yet dead and the new is coming to birth but not yet born.
For me, the concreteness of ‘Now’ centres me within this state of flux, for the past is always present within the Now and actions to change the future are anchored in the Now. Perhaps mysticism may teach us the language of actions rather than words “…..for the word killeth.”
The Light lives within me/us, reverberates within me/us, and radiates from me/us as me/us.
Reply

David Leonard
Kennett Square, PA, August 31, 2021 at 3:47 pm


Thanks for this useful article.

One important Quaker thinker on mysticism who has been missed in this discussion is Douglas Steere. He was the Haverford colleague of Thomas Kelly and editor of the latter’s important TESTAMENT OF DEVOTION. He also was well connected personally across denominational and faith boundaries to other mystic leaders — Catholic, sufi, etc. He saw Quakerism as a lay mystical religious order within the larger, ecumenical church. Perhaps for that reason most of his longer work was published outside the world of Quakerism, even though he was deeply involved with Pendle Hill for many years. His 1984 edited volume on QUAKER SPIRITUALITY was published by the Paulist Press and much of his work on prayer was published by a Methodist press. The latter does a good job of bridging between mysticism and more conventional devotional spirituality.

Much of what appears to be the short shrift given to mysticism in “official” Quaker publications is due to the fact that those experiencing it often use other language for their experiences. George Fox spoke of “openings;” Issac Pennington and John Woolman also had direct divine “leadings.” There is no shortage of references to these leaders and their clearly mystical experiences in the multiple versions of FAITH AND PRACTICE.
Reply

donmccormick2
Grass Valley, CA, August 31, 2021 at 4:39 pm


I know of one accomplished mystic who explained to me that when you are no longer identified with a particular body or person, but instead identify with the entire universe, that the death of the individual self is no longer something that is to quite be so feared.
Reply

schast
Philadelphia, PA, September 1, 2021 at 12:21 pm


Thanks for (re) starting the discussion. I’ve found it helpful to think of mysticism in tandem with “terminal screens” (Kenneth Burke, 1966)–though I’ve expanded the concept, I think, in accepting how I experience mystically. For example, I might hear Jesus’ voice and God’s voice, but I know mentally, physically–and all ways of knowing–that these two ideas/entities don’t have “voice.” It’s as if–along with all the other languages of Babel–‘what-is-experience’ seeks a channel through which I will receive. That channel may be similar or different to how others experience, it may be a group experience, it may be familiar, it may be surprising and new. When we factor communication in with experience, I believe we expand the idea of mysticism and help individuals to see that they may have been mystics all along.
Reply

donmccormick2
Grass Valley, California, September 4, 2021 at 11:04 pm


That’s a very good point you make about the way that the Spirit communicates with us. If God or Jesus or the Spirit does communicate with us, it must be through some way that we can receive it. I’m reminded of people who dismiss religious experience as “just” something physical or neurological or biological. As if there is some form of communication that has no sensory or physical component to it. These people also remind me of the story of the holy man who is caught in a flood. His neighbor pulls up in a car and offers to give him a ride to safety. He replies, “No thanks. I have prayed and God will provide.” The water gets up to his neck and someone else comes up in a boat and offers to help. The man says, “No thanks. I have prayed and God will provide.” The man drowns and when he meets God in heaven, he asks God why his prayers weren’t answered. God replies, “I don’t understand either. I heard your prayers and I sent your neighbor in a car. Then I sent someone in a boat…”
Reply

Aaron J Freeman
New Haven, CT, September 1, 2021 at 12:44 pm


The six days of Labor, Commerce and Obligations, potentiate the seventh day of Rest. To understand the mystical nature of The Quaker Religion, it would help to understand the mystical nature of the Sabbath: you are going to die, which ultimately beats the alternative; The Sabbath is a good rehearsal for this; Quaker Meeting supercharges The Sabbath; Meeting is no more the whole of The Quaker Religion, than The Hinge is the whole of The Door. The experience of Reality should be a mystical act.
Reply

Kerry shipman
Dorigo NSW, September 3, 2021 at 12:42 am


I think the Sabbath is celebrated on Saturday and belongs uniquely in the Jewish tradition. Christians chose the first day of the week (Sunday) as it represented new beginnings in the light of the resurrection.
Reply

D Lockyer
Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire, Wales, UK, September 4, 2021 at 5:33 pm


Thank you for this article. I have been engaged in the study of the actual relationship between C G Jung and a group of Quakers who were in Geneva in the 1930s, and how they disseminated their transformed understanding of Quakerism as a mystical, experiential and experimental religion that resulted.
The key members of that group, Irene Pickard, Elined Kotschnig (who played a leading role in the Friends Conference on Religion and Psychology), P W Martin (who wrote the book Experiment in Depth), and his wife Margery, created an archive of materials which Irene Pickard fortunately preserved.
They knew Rufus Jones, Howard Brinton and Douglas Steere, and like them, laid great stress on the mystical tradition within Quakerism, which for them was given extra zest by what they saw as the psychological underpinning provided by Jung.
The resultant work is currently with a publisher.
Reply

Search Results · Philadelphia Yearly Meeting

Search Results · Philadelphia Yearly Meeting


Philadelphia Yearly Meeting

of the Religious Society of FriendsMENU


About 645 results (0.44 seconds)

Spiritual Formation Collaborative – Philadelphia Yearly Meeting
www.pym.org › spiritual-formation-program-collaborative

This nine-month program of spiritual deepening and community building has been offered at PYM ever since. The Spiritual Formation Working Group of eleven ...

Spiritual Formation Weekend Retreat · Philadelphia Yearly Meeting
www.pym.org › event › spiritual-formation-retreat

PYM Spiritual Formation Collaborative will host an in-person gathering on October 15-17, 2021 at Pendle Hill in Wallingford, Pennsylvania, ...

Bringing Spiritual Formation to Your Meeting
www.pym.org › organizing-issues › bring-spiritual-formation-meeting

Over the years the Spiritual Formation Working Group has offered the program both to individual meetings and to groups of meetings. The design for the program ...

2021 SFC Weekend Retreat – Spiritual Formation Collaborative
www.pym.org › 2019-spiritual-formation-retreat

Spiritual Formation Weekend Retreat. at Pendle Hill. October 15-17, 2021. Friday @ 4pm to Sunday @ 2pm. Spiritual Refreshment: Reaching for the Divine.

For Facilitators – Spiritual Formation Collaborative
www.pym.org › spiritual-formation-program-collaborative › for-facilitators

This section acts as a repository for facilitators; a collection of items used in our Spiritual Formation Programs. If you can't find it here, ...

Intergenerational Spiritual Formation Program Announced ...
www.pym.org › intergenerational-spiritual-formation-program-announced

Jul 11, 2014 ... The Spiritual Formation Program Working Group of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting has offered Spiritual Formation Programs for over 15 years and ...

Spiritual Formation Colaborative · Philadelphia Yearly Meeting
www.pym.org › peace-social-justice › spiritual-formation-colaborative

Jul 29, 2021 ... The 341st Annual Sessions 2021 commenced with a virtual Spiritual Formation Retreat that was led by .O (she/him/?/they/them) and organized ...

The Journey of Spiritual Formation · Philadelphia Yearly Meeting
www.pym.org › the-journey-of-spiritual-formation

Feb 4, 2013 ... The Spiritual Formation Program deepens individual spiritual lives and the spiritual life of the community that engages in it.

spiritual formation · Philadelphia Yearly Meeting
www.pym.org › tag › spiritual-formation

This webinar is the initial session of the Tuesday online Exploring Spiritual Practices course taught by Swarthmore Meeting member Marcelle Martin.

Spiritual Formation Retreat Launches our 340th Annual Sessions ...
www.pym.org › spiritual-formation-retreat-launches-our-340th-annual-sess...

Jul 29, 2020 ... At 6:45 Tuesday evening our 340th Annual Sessions launched with a Spiritual Formation Retreat guided by Marcelle Martin.


1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Search for spiritual formation on Google

Rational mysticism - Wikipedia

Rational mysticism - Wikipedia

Rational mysticism

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to navigationJump to search

Rational mysticism, which encompasses both rationalism and mysticism, is a term used by scholars, researchers, and other intellectuals, some of whom engage in studies of how altered states of consciousness or transcendence such as trance, visions, and prayer occur. Lines of investigation include historical and philosophical inquiry as well as scientific inquiry within such fields as neurophysiology and psychology.

Contents

• 1Overview
• 2See also
• 3References
• 4External links

Overview[edit]

The term "rational mysticism" was in use at least as early as 1911 when it was the subject of an article by Henry W. Clark in the Harvard Theological Review.^[1] In a 1924 book, Rational Mysticism, theosophist William Kingsland correlated rational mysticism with scientific idealism.^[2][3] South African philosopher J. N. Findlay frequently used the term, developing the theme in Ascent to the Absolute and other works in the 1960s and 1970s.^[4]

Columbia University pragmatist John Herman Randall, Jr. characterized both Plotinus and Baruch Spinoza as “rationalists with overtones of rational mysticism” in his 1970 book Hellenistic Ways of Deliverance and the Making of Christian Synthesis.^[5] Rice University professor of religious studies Jeffrey J. Kripal, in his 2001 book Roads of Excess, Palaces of Wisdom, defined rational mysticism as “not a contradiction in terms” but “a mysticism whose limits are set by reason.”^[6]

In response to criticism of his book The End of Faith, author Sam Harris used the term rational mysticism for the title of his rebuttal.^{[7][8][9][10]} University of Pennsylvania neurotheologist Andrew Newberg has been using nuclear medicine brain imaging in similar research since the early 1990s.^[11][12]

Executive editor of Discover magazine Corey S. Powell, in his 2002 book, God in the Equation, attributed the term to Albert Einstein: “In creating his radical cosmology, Einstein stitched together a rational mysticism, drawing on—but distinct from—the views that came before.”^[13]

Science writer John Horgan interviewed and profiled James Austin, Terence McKenna, Michael Persinger, Christian Rätsch, Huston Smith, Ken Wilber and others for Rational Mysticism: Dispatches from the Border Between Science and Spirituality,^[14] his 2003 study of “the scientific quest to explain the transcendent.”^[15]

See also[edit]

• Analytic philosophy
• Henosis
• Philosophy of Baruch Spinoza
• Relationship between religion and science
• Sociology of scientific knowledge

References[edit]

1. ^ Clark, Henry W. (1911). "Rational Mysticism and New Testament Christianity". The Harvard Theological Review. 4 (3): 311–329. doi:10.1017/S0017816000007227. JSTOR 1507131.
2. ^ William Kingsland. Rational Mysticism: A Development of Scientific Idealism. London: Allen & Unwin, 1924; description at Weiser Antiquarian Books. Scientific Idealism, or, Matter and Force and Their Relation to Life and Consciousness. London: Rebman, 1909, OCLC number 9226308 on WorldCat.
3. ^ The Theosophical Movement, 1857-1950, a History and a Survey. Compiled by Theosophy journal editors as a continuance of a 1925 work published by E. P. Dutton. Los Angeles: The Cunningham Press, 1951 (pp. 158, 220, 303, 309).
4. ^ Donald Jay Rothberg; Sean M. Kelly (1998). Ken Wilber in Dialogue: Conversations with Leading Transpersonal Thinkers. Quest Books. pp. Chapter 1, p. 2. ISBN 0835607666. ‘…what is arguably the core philosophical and religious lineage of Western culture—what we might call a “rational mysticism” (Findlay 1970) [Ascent to the Absolute]’ (Quoted here; full text on Google Book Search.)
5. ^ Randall, John Herman (1969). "The Intelligible Universe of Plotinos". Journal of the History of Ideas. 30 (1): 3–16. doi:10.2307/2708241. JSTOR 2708241. In one sense indeed, Plotinos is the most consistent “naturalist” in Greek thought; though of course he is not an empirical and functional naturalist, like Aristotle, but rather a rationalistic and structural naturalist, like Spinoza. Spinoza, in fact, is the one philosopher among moderns with whom Plotinos can be most validly compared. Both Plotinos and Spinoza are rationalists with overtones of rational mysticism. (Journal article adapted from a chapter in Hellenistic Ways of Deliverance and the Making of the Christian Synthesis, Columbia University Press, 1970, ISBN 0-231-03327-3.)
6. ^ Jeffrey J. Kripal. Introduction (p. 3) Roads of Excess, Palaces of Wisdom: Eroticism and Reflexivity in the Study of Mysticism. University of Chicago Press, 2001. ISBN 978-0-226-45378-1. “The Sanskritist and Indologist Frits Staal long ago made an eloquent plea for the “rational mystic”… A rational mysticism is not a contradiction in terms; it is a mysticism whose limits are set by reason.”
7. ^ Sam Harris (March 2007). "Rational Mysticism". Free Inquiry.
8. ^ Meera Nanda (2003). "The Mystifications of Sam Harris: Spirituality at Faith's Funeral". Butterflies and Wheels. Archived from the original on 2007-11-15.
9. ^ New York Public Library (25 September 2006). "About Sam Harris". LIVE from the NYPL.
10. ^ Australian Broadcasting Corporation (23 October 2007). "Contributors: Sam Harris". Unleashed.
11. ^ A. Chris Gajilan (April 5, 2007). "Are humans hard-wired for faith?". CNN. The frontal lobe, the area right behind our foreheads, helps us focus our attention in prayer and meditation. The parietal lobe, located near the backs of our skulls, is the seat of our sensory information. Newberg says it's involved in that feeling of becoming part of something greater than oneself. The limbic system, nestled deep in the center, regulates our emotions and is responsible for feelings of awe and joy.
12. ^ Andrew Newberg, researcher in neurophysiology at the University of Pennsylvania, and Noreen Herzfeld, professor of theology and computer science at St. John's University (May 6, 2001). "God in Our Minds?". Forum at Grace Cathedral (includes links to RealAudio files). Archived from the original on January 29, 2008.
13. ^ Corey S. Powell. 2002 first edition: God in the Equation: How Einstein Became the Prophet of the New Religious Era (ISBN 0-68486-348-0). 2003 paperback edition: God in the Equation: How Einstein Transformed Religion (ISBN 0-68486-349-9.) Both editions New York: Free Press. Chapter 3, p. 43. (God in the Equation on Google Book Search. Science News book review.)
14. ^ Dick Teresi (March 23, 2003). "Book review: Dude, Where's My Karma?". The New York Times.
15. ^ McCauley, Charles C. (2005). Zen And the Art of Wholeness: Developing a Personal Spiritual Psychology (Google Book Search). iUniverse. pp. Ch. 3, p. 54. ISBN 0-595-33920-4. Retrieved 2007-11-12.

External links[edit]

• John A. Buehrens (12 October 2003). "On Being a Rational Mystic" (PDF). Sermon on First Parish Needham Unitarian Universalist website. Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 July 2011. To be a rational mystic is always to be something of a heretic…

Categories: 

• Metaphysical theories
• Mysticism
• Neoplatonism
• Neurotheology
• Religious philosophical concepts

Rationalism

Oct 16, 2007Paul rated it really liked it

Shelves: about-mysticism

John Horgan, erstwhile science writer, invites his reader on a tour of current opinions about mysticism. Taking a journalistic stance - with one foot in a storyteller's motley boot and the other in a gumshoe's sneaker - he is mostly distracted from reflection. As he tells about his experiences writing the book, he displays his reporter's skepticism and disguises his biases as conclusions (to his credit, he also flags those biases with phrases like "to my mind"). He has done his research, down to reading old books and talking with living opinion-makers. He is detached enough not to involve the reader in others' confusions and is frank about his own. He shares his personal journey, and how his views have changed. To my mind, while his insights are hindered by an inadequate grasp of religion (and therefore of mysticism and spirituality), he does paint an informative portrait of American cultural currents around mysticism, and focuses in the end on the right concerns.

Relating mysticism to religion is, to my mind, crucial to understanding it. Bernard McGinn, the leading scholar of Western mysticism, said as much to Horgan in an interview. One old book that might have helped Horgan is Friedrich von Hügel's "The Mystical Element in Religion," cited in McGinn's "The Presence of God." (Dennis Tamburello also uses it in his bite-sized "Ordinary Mysticism" [Paulist Press, 1996].) Von Hügel describes religion as having three elements: experiential (mystical), speculative (theological) and institutional (traditional). Horgan's bias that "a sense of absolute knowledge is the sine qua non of mystical experiences" causes him to conflate these elements. He asks: "What sort of truth would a rational mysticism give us? What sort of consolation?" These questions address the speculative and institutional elements of religion, respectively, not the mystical. Mysticism is about what sort of presence we hold in the world, our awareness of what is present to us (within and beyond ourselves), and how we move in the world. It is about what we do to hold that presence and awareness and way of moving - spiritual practices. Once experience, awareness and ways of being cross the threshold into words, we are out of the mystical and into the speculative element of religion, where truth is sought. Mystical theology - what Horgan pays most attention to - is speculation that strives to stay connected to mystical experience. Consolation, as he discovers on his journey, comes from our compassion for one another. And that is what religious institutions are meant to shelter and nourish, cultivate and encourage and preserve.

Horgan, like many others today, gives undue respect to a more-than-century-old popular error that imagines religion and science in irreconcilable conflict. This error is rooted in two perceptions: that religion depends upon the concepts and forms and stories preserved by religious institutions (and challenged by science), and that abuses of religious institutions invalidate religion (but not spirituality - hence the popular stance, "I'm more spiritual than religious" or "I'm spiritual, not religious"). His categorization of today's religious critics into "perennialists" and "postmodernists" reflects how this error divides us. Yet he sees the way out. He sees that the speculative and institutional criticisms of religion apply equally to science. And he sees that the mystical element in religion can be found in the wonder of science. Far from being in conflict, religion and science are complementary, respectively exploring interior and exterior worlds. To my mind, our main challenge is distinguishing between the psychological and the spiritual, so as to define the threshold between science and religion. (less)

flag8 likes · Like  · comment · see review

Jun 30, 2009Nick Stengel rated it it was ok

Shelves: philosophy-and-religion

I did really want to love this book. Lots of it is fascinating philosophy and I learned a lot about perennialists and such. There is also a fair amount of pharmacology and discussion of the geography of the brain. It is thick with information that sent me scurrying to secondary sources.

That being said, the book fails in it's primary purpose. The science meeting spirituality regularly devolves into discussions of psychotropic drugs and their effects on the brain without ever relating these to the search for higher truth. I was left with the opinion that most prophets were mentally ill and that most people in 1968 were on the same level as the Biblical greats. Disappointing.

Horgan reduces enlightenment or revelation to a specific part of the brain and then backs off any conclusion. That may be the state of the science, but I wanted more, even if it might be conjecture. (less)

flag4 likes · Like  · 4 comments · see review

Apr 15, 2015Clivemichael rated it it was amazing  ·  review of another edition

Shelves: education, history, religion, pyschology, anthropology, biographic, social-comment, community, political, occult

I loved this conversation. And full of referenced statements
“All these schemes ask us to believe in some sort of supernatural moral accountant who, like Santa Claus, keeps tabs on our naughtiness and nice-ness in order to determine our fate in the afterlife. As William James commented’ Any God who on the one hand, can care to keep a pedantically minute account of individual shortcomings, and on the other hand can feel such partiality, and load particular creatures with such insipid marks of favour, is too small-minded a God for our favour.’”
Skepticism can help us achieve mystical deautomatization, or so I wanted to believe.”
Jean Houston said 'I haven't seen too much evidence' that psychedelics promote a healthy spirituality. ‘it doesn’t seem to sustain that reality’... any spiritual practice or path -...- can become an end itself, which leads us away from reality rather than toward it..."
‘Prayers and chants, images, temples, gods, sages, definitions, and cosmologies are but ferries to a shore of experience beyond categories of thought, to be abandoned on arrival.’ Joseph Campbell- Masks of God”
Why do we respond to rainbow, sunsets, and stars phenomena from which we extract no tangible, utilitarian benefit?..."
oneness ‘has within it a hidden duality’ that leads to hierarchical social divisions.”
(less)

flag2 likes · Like  · comment · see review

Oct 11, 2007Susan rated it liked it  ·  review of another edition

places too much emphasis on drugs as a source for mystical inspiration when the opposite is true -- the experience under drugs (joined in with their often lurid and sinister side effects) can not be placed in the same category as true mystical experience as described by the great saints, rishis and sages. The author is giving a good effort but gets side tracked on the drug issue, while ignoring the revelations of enlightened masters who eschewed drug use, Pandit Gopi Krishna of Kashmir being one. The author also fails to investigate the mechanism which the lofty spiritual heritage of India tells us is behind mystic experience -- Kundalini. (less)

flag2 likes · Like  · comment · see review

Jun 10, 2007Jesse rated it it was ok

Shelves: science, religion

My impetus for reading this book largely came largely from my fondness for the author's superior The End of Science. The title of this book is a bit odd, since it doesn't make any particular case for the rationality of mysticism. The book is an easy read, but some of the gurus it discusses are not even interesting in their oddness. The author seems as fascinated by psychedelics as he does by spirituality, and the reader will likely come away having learned as much about the former as the latter. (less)

flag2 likes · Like  · comment · see review

Sep 11, 2018Bill rated it really liked it

Despite the title of Horgan’s book, there is really no such thing as rational mysticism. This book is a critical discussion of mystical experiences: how they happen, what they are like, what they mean, and their effects on people who experience them. Each chapter focuses on a particular philosopher, scientist, psychologist or guru who has experience with and strong opinions about mysticism. The author describes their ideas and then discusses them critically, considering their logic or illogic and relevant evidence. It is clear that—contrary to some claims—not all mystical experiences are essentially alike. While most are positive, some are negative. Do mystical experiences reveal profound knowledge? Different mystics have come to different conclusions on fundamental questions such as: What is the nature of God? Why does God allow evil? Why are we here? Why is there anything, instead of nothing? What is enlightenment? What is the significance of the mystical “oneness” experience? Is escaping from the “self” really a good thing? Some chapters are about mystical experiences generated by drugs. Are they legitimate mystical experiences, or are they merely the bizarre consequences of abnormal brain activity? Or does it make any difference? Horgan rightly takes a critical, skeptical view of many of the claims for the benefits of mystical practices and experiences, but he does not deny that for some people they are meaningful and valuable and life-changing. (less)

flag1 like · Like  · 1 comment · see review

Jul 06, 2014Cal Thunder Hawk is currently reading it

This book was recommended to me regarding my interest in pursuing possible solutions to the problems of defining certain features and aspects of Lakhota ceremonial activities, traditionally relegated by Westerners into a dualistic "spiritual" domain, within a materialistic perspective. I am especially interested in those traditional Lakhota ritual practices that involve individual and collective experiences produced without the use of hallucinogenics and diathesis stress.
In trying to get a sense of how those experiences are practiced in popular culture, I've thus far read Chapter 8: "In The Birthplace of LSD" so far and it was entertaining but disappointing. The author is not a scientist.
Popular Western culture categorizes traditional Lakhota practices as "mystical" and thereby taints them with the moral and ethical contradictions of religions while associating Western mysticism with drug-induced religious experience.
There are 12 chapters in all and I look forward to going through them.
(less)

flag1 like · Like  · comment · see review

Jul 30, 2011Brendan rated it it was amazing

Re-read, 10/2019: This is a fantastic book; I'm not sure what I thought of it the first time around due to no review present, but I thoroughly appreciated Horgan's approach to the topic of mysticism on this read. He is faithful without being dogmatic, skeptical without being entirely negative, and maintains an absolute open mind about every topic covered. This is a great text for anyone seeking something more than the mundane world, be it through drugs, religion or anything in between. (less)

flag1 like · Like  · comment · see review

Feb 11, 2014David Parker rated it it was ok

Shelves: spirituality, science, philosophical, non-fiction, psychology, religion

I am disappointed with "Rational Mysticism: Spirituality Meets Science in the Search for Enlightenment " by John Horgan. It was so dry that you will have to drink a gallon of cool aid and force feed yourself every page. I think it was too intellectually written. I for one have never been a great fan of pure philosophy.
...more

flag1 like · Like  · comment · see review

Jan 15, 2018Steven rated it did not like it

This good writer and journalist shares his tourist's view of the subject of mysticism.

The book has less than the value of any uninformed tourist guide who does not know the landscape.

Book has close to no value. (less)

flag1 like · Like  · comment · see review

Feb 06, 2019Andrea Paterson rated it really liked it

Shelves: non-fiction

This was the perfect book to read after Michael Pollan's How To Change Your Mind. While Pollan comes away with quite a romantic view of psychoactive drugs Horgan comes to a more conservative conclusion. I loved both books and really think they should be read together. (less)

flag1 like · Like  · comment · see review

Dec 31, 2017Suhrob rated it it was amazing

This year a delved into a lot of esoterical & psychoanalytical topics. Horgan's book was a nice bookend for this exploration.

Horgan is an ex-science writer and fortunately shows a decent understanding of how science works.
The selection of interviewees and their sequencing is also excellent.

The danger for me is that I generally agree with his stances and therefore tend to rate the book high just due to confirmation bias.

So a few negatives:
- the writing is great but somewhat formulaic - every cha ...more

flagLike  · comment · see review

Dec 12, 2021G rated it liked it

First of all, this book is written by a journalist and it is basically series of interviews with prominent figures of philosophy, neuroscience research and scholars of religious studies, (e.g. Ken Wilbert, Huston Smith, Stanislav Grof, etc.) intertwined with author's thoughts and impressions.

Horgan tries to explores what mysticism is from all kinds of perspectives, such as perennial philosophy or postmodernism. It then moves on to explore neurotheology with particular emphasis on psychedelics, w ...more

flagLike  · comment · see review

Feb 15, 2021Carlos rated it really liked it  ·  review of another edition

Shelves: religion-mythology, non-fiction

This was a though-provoking sober-minded look at how different experts try to make sense of mystical experiences. Horgan presents/critiques the work of several mystical experts as well as interviewing them to get a better understanding of how they viewed the matter. These experts range from neuroscientists studying the way meditation shows up in the brain, to philosophers seeking commonalities in the mystical experiences recorded in different cultures, to psychedelic proponents of drug-induced mystical experiences, as well as those neuroscientist criticizing the studies that purport to explain the meditative mind, the philosophers criticizing the ham-fisted pursuit of “oneness” at the cost of each culture’s tradition and the psychiatrists highlighting the problem of having the drug-experience become the goal instead of the medium towards something greater. This variety of thought, paired with Horgan’s even-handed approach allows the reader to approach the subject from all angles and understand the difficulty of trying to pinpoint something so ineffable. Although Horgan’s take-no-sides/criticize-all-sides might not suit everyone, it is a great way to explore the subject without tilting the scales from the beginning. (less)

flagLike  · comment · see review

Jun 05, 2017PerennialMystery rated it it was amazing  ·  review of another edition

Excellent survey.

An excellent survey of an unwieldy topic. Well written and relatable. I think he got the point in the end, but somehow seems to have missed that what he thought was a rejection of mysticism was actually an embrace of mysticism. He ends by embracing the here and now of life lived, and rejecting the notion of some ethereal transcendent unity. But they are not opposed. In Zen, they sometimes say "samsara is nirvana." That is, enlightenment is not different than the mundane of daily life. In fact, the mundane of daily life is the essence of enlightenment. "Savor the unflavored" as one translation of the Tao Te Ching puts it. All that said, the book itself was nicely written and an easy, pretty light read that gives a nice top-level survey of some ideas and perspectives related to mysticism without being either overly skeptical or enthusuastic. (less)

flagLike  · comment · see review

Oct 29, 2018Aaron Wenger rated it it was amazing

Shelves: contemplation-religion-mysticism

One of the best books I've read on spirituality and mysticism. Though you won't find scholarly deconstructions or inspired musings from an ancient traditions, you do get to an important facet of the mystical experience: the mystics themselves. Until I'd read this book names like Steven Katz and Huston Smith were just vague identities attached to or referenced in literature. Here, we see an important individual element.

The author's own journey is honest and emotional, it frames the book nicely. However, the author's personal beliefs aren't necessary rational. Odds are, any seeker reading this book would find something to nit pick about the author's deductions about phychedelia and the existence of a creative force. What's important, though, is that the author included them. (less)

flagLike  · comment · see review

Aug 18, 2019Dave rated it really liked it

Shelves: metaphysical, religion

This is like an investigative reporter taking a long, detailed look at all the elements of mysticism and things paranormal. Lots of things examined from psychedelic drugs and ESP to chanting, drumming and hyperventilation. Along the way LOTS of “truths” surface.

From the epilogue this touched me: “Does God care? Who knows? But we care. Our solace — and salvation, if we can be saved — will come not from God’s compassion but from our own.”

flagLike  · comment · see review

Sep 04, 2019Alice Greczyn rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites

An absolute favorite of mine! If you like exploring ideas considered spiritual through the lens of science, John Horgan is your author. From psychedelics to near-death experiences to philosophy and cosmology, I was fascinated from beginning to end.

flagLike  · comment · see review

Jul 09, 2017Clay Zdobylak rated it liked it

I enjoyed this book, but it didn't live up to what i had hoped it would be, though it's been long enough that i cant remember exactly what that was. ...more

flagLike  · comment · see review

Aug 08, 2017Patrick Murphy rated it really liked it

Horgan does an excellent job painting the different world views that embody mysticism and interpretations of mystical experiences.

flagLike  · comment · see review

Oct 13, 2017Dave rated it it was amazing

Excellent! John Horgan does not disappoint.

flagLike  · see review

Jan 25, 2020Oskari rated it it was amazing

Very informative, entertaining and well-researched. I do not subscribe to most of the accounts, but there were some moments of insights of the mystical path.

flagLike  · comment · see review

Apr 22, 2021Marc rated it really liked it

i've read this maybe 3 times and still don't really understand it but i'll probably read it again and still don't get it (less)

flagLike  · comment · see review

Dec 20, 2017Lachlan rated it liked it

Thought provoking. Much I agree and disagree with. A piece of writing will be forthcoming.

flagLike  · comment · see review

Sep 25, 2016Peter Neiger rated it really liked it

Horgan does wonderful job investigating many of the popular traditions and institutions that seek insight through mysticism. Everything from religion to science to drugs is explored, analyzed, criticized, and ultimately, found wanting. The eventual failure of different institutions to meet Horgan's standard does not leave one with a pessimistic view of the world, quite the opposite. Instead, I found myself happy (and a little proud) that humans are seeking answers to the tough questions from a variety of perspectives. There is a danger in mysticism and enlightenment (or whatever you want to call it) when we neglect the world we live in pursuit of something else. I think that is where problems really start to arise when our religion or meditation or drug use becomes our purpose for living and we neglect the beauty and connections that exist in our shared world. (less)

flagLike  · comment · see review

Nov 13, 2015Tim rated it liked it

Shelves: 2015, nonfiction, science, psychology

Not his best book, by any means - that would be The Undiscovered Mind: How the Human Brain Defies Replication, Medication, and Explanation (in my humble opinion, of course) - but still interesting. If you find the subject matter intriguing, this one is a more palatable read: Wired For God? (less)

flagLike  · see review

Sep 11, 2010Todd Settimo rated it it was amazing

A very worthwhile read. Benedictine monk and Zen master Willigis Jäger paraphrasing Karl Rahner said "Men and women of the future will be mystics or they won't be at all."

This book is an invaluable addition to the increasing body of literature which is serving to bring the mystical experience out of the haze of folklore and into the modern discussion; a discussion necessary if Jager's quote is to be heeded. (less)

flagLike  · comment · see review

Mar 18, 2011Kathy Petersen rated it really liked it  ·  review of another edition

Shelves: read-non-fiction, x-feb-11-thru-jan-12

The title, or rather the subtitle, may be misleading. Horgan writes more about science than about spirituality and doesn't identify any borders. Still, he does explore some of the methods of seeking mystic revelations with good, clear prose and a sympathetic but still objective demeanor. His discussion of the altered states entered into by way of certain drugs is interesting, if in my opinion not germane to true spirituality. (less)

flagLike  · comment · see review

Aug 29, 2012Tina Stroh rated it really liked it

This book was another eye opener for me. I read it many years ago so I am going on memory.... A journalist interviews several key spiritual leaders of our time and also does his own experiment with ayahausca. He is unafraid to offer his honest impression of the interviewees, unlike magazine writers who want their subject to look "good" most of the time, he is honest and, if I recall, even brutal. I'd like to read it again. (less)

flagLike  · comment · see review

Mar 17, 2016Mark Valentine rated it really liked it

Horgan's extended essay works as investigative journalism in mysticism, free-range religion, psychology, and science (or pseudo-science). What I enjoyed about reading it was his fresh approach: He asks questions of all his topics.

It is also the kind of book to put into the hands of young truth seekers who know that there is more in the mind than in the stars, more in the experience than in the credo. (less)
flagLike · comment · see review