Does Mystical Experience Give Access to Reality?
Religions October 18, 2022 Peer reviewed DOI: 10.3390/rel13100983 via OpenAlex
Summary
Mystical experiences can suggest deeper realities beyond everyday perception, yet their metaphysical significance has often been overlooked in philosophical discussions. Two main obstacles to exploring this significance are radical contextualism and reductionist neuroscience. By addressing these issues, the article opens up a dialogue between mystical experiences and metaphysics, especially in light of growing interest in non-materialist perspectives and psychedelic research.
Study at a glance
| Key finding | The article argues that overcoming certain theoretical obstacles allows for a meaningful dialogue between mystical experiences and metaphysical insights. |
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Abstract
Mystical experiences can bring an overwhelming sense that deeper realities have been contacted or that the everyday world has been apprehended as it truly is. Philosophical study of the experiences has not given much attention to their metaphysical significance, especially to the insights they may offer on fundamental issues such as the nature of reality, self, consciousness, and time. There are reasons for the neglect, and in the present article I consider two major theoretical obstacles to finding metaphysical significance in the experiences: a radical form of contextualism and a reductionist approach to neuroscience. With these obstacles addressed, there is room to consider how mystical experience and metaphysics can be brought into dialogue, a task facilitated by the contemporary resurgence of interest in alternatives to materialist metaphysics and a renewed interest in mystical experience encouraged by psychedelic research.