Mysticism

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Mysticism

In an academic context, the term "mysticism" is generally understood as referring to a cluster of phenomena having to do with the unmediated contact with the divine or with the merging with an absolute understood in impersonal terms. In everyday usage, on the other hand, the term "mysticism" is associated with magic, with the occult, and in general with practices that seek to transcend the mundane realm—above all, the realm of ordinary, institutionalized religion. Even if the equation of the "mystical" and the "magical" may appear as inappropriate to some, including mystics, the history of religions provides enough examples of cases in which out-of-the-ordinary experiences are accompanied by supernatural, mysterious powers—indeed, it ought to be remembered that "mysticism" and "mystery" are etymologically related. In any event, neither in academic nor in non-academic contexts is there an agreement as to the nature of the mystical. To begin with, one must consider the difficulties involved in trying to determine the meaning of terms such as "divine" or "absolute"—or, actually, one must confront the fact that such terms may be posited precisely because they defy definition. Furthermore, the claim that the mystics' experiences are not mediated by doctrine or ritual has been questioned by scholars since the early decades of this century. These scholars—besides pointing out that not many mystics have made such claims in the first place—have argued that, like everybody else, mystics function within a culture—that is, within a shared universe of meanings. This means that the religion within which mystics function or against which they react would necessarily mediate—that is, constrain or enable—the mystics' experiences. Against this position, some scholars of mysticism, referring to research in psychology and neurophysiology or to their own spiritual accomplishments, maintain that there are indeed experiences that transcend historical constraints. If research on mysticism is to go beyond sterile debates, scholars will have to take into account research in both the natural and social sciences—or, will have to stop assuming that the physical and the social sciences constitute self-contained domains.

A further problem with the concept of mysticism—one that will be especially relevant when discussing American developments—has to do with the difficulties one encounters when trying to differentiate mystical from other attempts to leave behind ordinary religiosity. In effect, it is not easy to distinguish attempts to transcend ordinary reality through mystical means from situations that involve messianic or millenarian ideologies. Even if one assumes that mysticism has to do mainly with achieving rarefied experiences, one can find examples of situations in which access to such experiences is achieved through the mediation of a spiritual guide—a guru or messiah. Similarly, mystical experiences can function as the catalyzers for millenarian movements—for cataclysmic events that are followed by a new era of peace and justice.

In the United States, interest in mystical approaches to religion can be traced back to Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882), the New England Transcendentalist who was familiar with ancient Indian scriptures such as the Upanishads, as well as with Neoplatonism and with the teachings of the eighteenth-century Swedish visionary Emanuel Swedenborg. Then, at the beginning of the twentieth century, William James wrote one of the most influential accounts of mysticism, Varieties of Religious Experience (1902). Interest in mysticism and in Asian religions was reawakened during the Beat generation; one need only refer to Jack Kerouac's On the Road (1957) and The Dharma Bums (1958). During the 1960s, interest in mysticism has coincided with a distrust of institutional forms of religion, particularly when leaders of the main denominations have not assumed a critical attitude toward the government's activities. To these can be added occasional reports of visions or communications with Mary that repeat in an American context the European Catholic apparitions of Lourdes and Fatima.

One of the problems that students of mysticism share with scholars of the social sciences in general is the fact that a given social phenomenon can be said to have emerged as the result of diametrically opposed causes. Thus interest in noninstitutional forms of religion can be said to appear at times of relative peace and prosperity as a reaction against complacency and ossified religious practices, but also during periods of crisis when institutions have lost their prestige. An example of the first situation would be the post–World War II period when the Beat generation seemed to function as a reaction against the self-satisfaction of 1950s American culture. During the 1960s, on the other hand, the interest in Asian religions, in forms of noninstitutional religion, as well as in altered states of consciousness can be seen as a rejection of the technological and militaristic values of society, as well as of the passivity or outright complicity of religious leaders regarding the policies of the United States government in Southeast Asia. In both cases, some of those who rejected the socially accepted values engaged, like mystics in many traditions, in antinomian behavior, doing the reverse of what would be expected from ordinary people.

Among the groups that became popular during the 1960s and 1970s are the once ubiquitous Hare Krishna, founded by Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. Although the psychological transformation induced by devotional yoga promoted by the International Society of Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) can be traced back ultimately to the teachings of the sixteenth-century Indian mystic Caitanya, the movement was never popular in India, having been rather elicited by conditions in the United States. Indeed, the emphasis on transforming one's consciousness through mystical means, rather than by changing institutions through politics, was one of the avenues left to those who mistrusted American institutions. On the other hand, it would be worth exploring the parallels between the social conditions against which twentieth-century American devotees of Krishna Consciousness were reacting with those prevalent in northeastern India in the sixteenth century: on the one hand, youth alienation from a government engaged in aggression against Vietnam, and, on the other, Hindu protest against Muslim domination—in both cases, ecstatic devotion as a reaction against intolerable external conditions. Less ecstatic is the "gestalt consciousness" and the realization of Self sought by the adherents of the Human Potential Movement, popular during the 1960s and 1970s. In this movement, as in many others, one sees at work the still pervasive concern with therapeutic models and self-realization. Potentially deadly, on the other hand, are recent apocalyptic groups such as the Solar Temple, whose members committed suicide (or were murdered) seeking to transcend the human condition.

Interest in the mystical, intensified by the approach of the new millennium, may involve reading the many books found in the "metaphysical" section of most bookstores or harmless books such as James Redfield's The Celestine Prophecy, which takes place in a suitably mysterious Peru and is popular among college students. More pretentious, if equally harmless, are the many writings of "continental" authors, popular among academics of the postmodern persuasion—"continental" being for some academics at the turn of the millennium what "Oriental" used to be for 1960s dropouts. What deconstruction and postmodernism have in common with traditional forms of mysticism is the mistrust of reason as well as the concern with the relationship between identity and difference. However, traditional mystical teachings tend to emphasize identity and oneness, but postmodernism/deconstruction celebrates otherness and difference.

One should not conclude from the previous cases of mystical religion that mystical practices always take place outside the framework of mainstream religion. The ambiguity of mysticism becomes clear when one sees that intense experiences are sought and achieved in Protestant Pentecostal churches as much as in the Catholic Charismatic Renewal. In these cases, trance, possession, speaking in tongues, and the like, take place in a ritualized context—just as mystical experiences have tended to occur in all cultures. Similarly, academic celebrations of otherness and difference do take place within the safe confines of academia.

Despite the apparent clash between mystical goals and the values of a consumer society, in its current American form the mystical quest fits very well with the prevailing American ideology. In effect, the rejection of external constraints on one's behavior, the lack of interest in doctrinal issues, the abandonment of the unpleasant aspect of religion (for example, Americans' tendency to believe in heaven but not in hell), the concern with the self and with self-cultivation—in short, the desire for a religion designed by and for oneself, rather than one inherited by tradition—all go hand in hand with an individualist ideology in which the consumer, faced with an unlimited supply of inexpensive goods, is always right. It should be pointed out, however, that the fact that many contemporary Americans engage in mystical practices in order to improve their psychological and physical health, as well as their general well-being, should not be construed as the betrayal of a presumed essence of mysticism, for in many traditions mystical practices are intimately connected with the control of one's mind and of one's body—meditation has been an important component of most of the religions that have emerged in India, and in the Taoist tradition the goal is to attain immortality in one's own body.

Perhaps more telling than specific cases of interest in mystical teachings or membership in esoteric groups is Americans' desire for "experiencing," as opposed to just knowing about something in a detached way. This is shown by the frequency with which precisely the word "experience" is used in everyday American speech—for example in expressions as mundane as "dining experience" or "shopping experience." The fact that these expressions are promoted in the context of carefully orchestrated sales pitches does not prove that the thirst for experiencing is artificially induced—it shows rather that advertisers and purveyors of popular culture are quite aware of the pulse of American culture. We may conclude by noting that the peculiar tension between the search for experience and the concern with the self, on the one hand, and the prevalence of calculation and desire for economic advancement, on the other, is one of the central characteristics of modernity. In that sense, then, the current understanding of mysticism as that which transcends ordinary religion and ordinary experience appears as the perhaps necessary, modern counterpart of the rationalized world that emerged in the seventeenth century.