The main characteristics of mystical experience highlighted in St. Teresa of Aliva’s statement
Mystical experience is the process when the believer reunites with the transcendent casting away all material things and problems. The feeling of the whole unification of the cosmos, the deity or other reality, and a real-life penetrates this person. Sacred knowledge comes to light. A sacred understanding becomes available to the believer. Nevertheless, such experience may be suffered not only by priests and monks who devote all their life to serving God but also ordinary people who attend church. This sacred understanding presents general characteristics of mystical experience.
St. Teresa of Aliva describes the process of mystical experience. Four main peculiarities of mystical experience pointed out by a famous psychologist and philosopher William James in his book The Varieties of Religious Experience are highlighted infamous statement of St. Teresa of Aliva:
Let us now come to the most intimate part of what the soul experiences in this condition. The persons who must speak of it are those who know it, for it cannot be understood, still less described…As it cannot comprehend what it understands, it is an understanding that understands not …All the faculties now fail and are suspended in such a way that… it is impossible to believe they are active…the understanding, if it understands, does not understand how it understands or at least can comprehend nothing of what it understands. It does not seem to me to be understanding, because, as I say, it does not understand itself. Nor can I understand this (p. 129).
These peculiarities of mystical experience are ineffability, noetic quality, transiency, and passivity. Ineffability is expressed by the fact that the person who understands innermost truths cannot describe them or explain them to another person (James, p. 264). The donation of mystical experience is inexpressible (Fisher, Jeffrey, p. 19). That is the reason for the symbolism and paradoxes of mystical literature. This feeling is impossible to describe with a human language. Noetic quality expresses the bounds of mystical experience which are beyond the intellect (James, p. 265). As St. Teresa of Aliva states our soul is not able to comprehend what it understands. Space and time transcended (James, p. 265). Although this state seems to be eternal, it lasts from a few seconds to half an hour. Nevertheless, there are cases of prolonged mystical experience which are the highest point of nirvana. The person cannot realize that this state penetrates all the soul and body. Passivity is the state of trance when the person does not react the external factors (James, p. 265). The way of the understanding of sacred truths expressed by St. Teresa of Aliva contains all these main peculiarities when the person understands but it is impossible to realize what and how this understanding comes to the mind and body (p. 5).
Mystical experience as the oneness of the soul and the cosmos
There are many cases when such mystical experiences occur unexpectedly when the person becomes alone and the mind is not overloaded with everyday thoughts and problems. It is the state of relaxation. Sometimes it is possible to control mystical experiences by some methods. People can predict and even cause its appearance. There are a lot of methods such as hypnosis, sleep deprivation, floatation tanks, and sensory deprivation, meditation, yoga, breath control, and other effective means which cause a mystical experience (Happold, p. 51). The diversity of methods depends on belonging to a particular religion. There are beliefs that alcohol and even psychedelic drugs are the best methods to penetrate the mystical experience. Many other things can cause a mystical state such as art, music, sounds, dreams, words, nature, smells, and near-death experiences. Such a state cause joy, freedom of the soul, and proximity to the deity.
St. Teresa of Aliva in her book The Interior Castle depicts all the peculiarities of this mysterious state. She says that the soul becomes dead to the material world and starts living solely in God (p. 49). Such mystical experiences are widespread among representatives of Christian and Eastern religions. But sometimes even people who don’t believe in God experience such a mystical state. This state is difficult to explain. Many scientists and psychologists make a lot of researches in this area. According to Anthony Flew such mystical experience is one of the reasons proving the existence of God (p. 93). The fact of the impossibility to explain it stresses the existence of the Divine.
There are different stages of this sacred state. It may occur as a sudden burst of enlightenment when some difficult truths become clear and simple for a human’s mind to the highest degree of nirvana (Fisher, Jeffrey, p. 97). Déjà vu is classified by many researchers as a simple mystical experience. The believers of Eastern countries experience the sacred states of samadhi concentrating on one point and the highest physical alienation, Anirudh. The maximum state is the ecstasy of unification with the cosmos or the Absolute (Happold, p. 54).
Different cases cannot be explained by science and are not impossible to control by ourselves. Nevertheless, such states helped many people to make the greatest discoveries and inventions. This divine unification with the Absolute is available not every person. This is a gift from above.
Works Cited
- Happold, Frank. Mysticism: A Study and an Anthology. Britain: Penguin (Non-Classics), 1991. Print.
- Fisher, Mary, Pat, Adams, Jeffrey. Living Religions: a brief introduction. New Jersey: Prentice- Hall, 2002. Print.
- Flew, Anthony. There Is a God: How the World’s Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind. New York: Harper Collins, 2007. Print.
- St. Teresa of Aliva. Interior Castle. Wilder Publications, 2008. Print.
- James, Williams. The Varieties of Religious Experience. Edinburg: Forgotten Books, 1960. Print.