I think you can create a space where mystical experience is more accessible. But a focus on the external can promise false hopes and can be a roadblock or pitfall. The effort and devotion - the blood, sweat and tears - of mystical illumination are wholly internal: The kingdom of [X] is within you. For me, it's daily meditation - the profound payoff of which took five or six years to even taste. Now it's always with me. Less so when in motion - at work or running errands, and so on - but still always with me. That took 20 years of tireless daily practice.
I'm excited to see what the next 20 years have in store.
For me, it's daily meditation - the profound payoff of which took five or six years to even taste. Now it's always with me. Less so when in motion - at work or running errands, and so on - but still always with me. That took 20 years of tireless daily practice.
That's the kind of "mystical" I was trying to convey when I said earlier that we could create a mystical place that adapts a positive aura. I deleted most of my post as I didn't make a connection between mystical experience and psychosis in your OP. But I read your other post, and this is what you mean.
I have an objection to the OP in combining the mystical with the psychotic.
It's one of two things, either it's an altered state brought about by deprivation, over-indulgence, or a genetically caused misfiring or it's the truly mystical and from the gods.
It's as Kierkegaard asked. Was it God asking Abraham to sacrifice his son or was Abraham just a murderous schizoid?
It's cooler to think the gods speak to us and that our epiphanies come from the heavens, but funnier to think the leader of the world's major religions was criminally insane.
So there I was, nervously entering the floatation tank like a virgin bride on her wedding night. I know that simile doesn't make sense but bear with me. First, there was the gentle caress of the salient warm water. Did I say salient? I meant that it's salty, really salty. It's like almost burning your skin salty. Next, there was silence and darkness as the tank door closed. Finally, I was set adrift in a sea of sensory deprivation. After a while, my mind starved for sensory input, and not finding any it began to generate its own reality. I was sliding off of emptiness. Falling further and further into the depths of blackness. Then I heard a beeping sound. Was it God? No, it was the alarm set to notify me that my time was up.
Reply to praxis I've had psychoses, psychedelics, shamanic telepathy (looking through an animal) and a whole lot of other things. I used to go to floatation tanks to calm my nerves. It worked really well. Wouldn't call it a mystical experience though. Just a deep and profound relaxation. Yours sounds a little less pleasant, or am I wrong?
Reply to ZzzoneiroCosm Obviously. Well, we've got plenty of time to dive deep on these ones. Survived the pandemic and no plans of kicking the bucket anytime soon.
My sister has a pet dog. I think she (the dog) has canine-level mystical experiences. She'll be walking in no particular direction when she'll stop abruptly in her tracks as if she just remembered something but can't quite figure out what that is exactly! Part of these episodes is her eyes, they seem to be asking a question. As suddenly as they happen they end and its back to being a dog - hungry 24×7, shedding fur, chasing birds, pooping, etc.
Comments (31)
Crimes of the Future
See: Nikos Kazantzakis' The Saviors of God.
I call to god, a
blue flower in my throat, and
rest in the breathing sky
That's sweet. :hearts: :heart: :hearts: :heart:
But I only get the mystical sort lately... :fire: :heart: :fire:
Edit: I just saw your other thread about mystical experience with psychosis.
I think you can create a space where mystical experience is more accessible. But a focus on the external can promise false hopes and can be a roadblock or pitfall. The effort and devotion - the blood, sweat and tears - of mystical illumination are wholly internal: The kingdom of [X] is within you. For me, it's daily meditation - the profound payoff of which took five or six years to even taste. Now it's always with me. Less so when in motion - at work or running errands, and so on - but still always with me. That took 20 years of tireless daily practice.
I'm excited to see what the next 20 years have in store.
That's the kind of "mystical" I was trying to convey when I said earlier that we could create a mystical place that adapts a positive aura. I deleted most of my post as I didn't make a connection between mystical experience and psychosis in your OP. But I read your other post, and this is what you mean.
It's one of two things, either it's an altered state brought about by deprivation, over-indulgence, or a genetically caused misfiring or it's the truly mystical and from the gods.
It's as Kierkegaard asked. Was it God asking Abraham to sacrifice his son or was Abraham just a murderous schizoid?
It's cooler to think the gods speak to us and that our epiphanies come from the heavens, but funnier to think the leader of the world's major religions was criminally insane.
You don't need gods to be a mystic, and you don't need gods to have a mystical experience.
This thread flows out of a discussion of the link between mystical and schizophrenic experience.
https://thephilosophyforum.com/discussion/12996/mysticism-and-madness
Do you remember that woman in the news some years ago who murdered all her children because god told her to?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deanna_Laney_murders
I've never tried a flotation tank but it sounds like a good time. Glad you shared.
Not mystical, I was just goofing. It was an interesting experience though.
[quote=Wolfgang Pauli]Agent Smith, you're not even wrong![/quote]
:snicker:
True. You also don't need mystical experience to be a god, and you don't need mystics in histrionic hysterics that predicts the edicts of deitics.