2 ‘Being All, Knowing All, Loving All’
Mystical Encounters with the Natural World July 7, 2005 Peer reviewed DOI: 10.1093/0199279438.003.0003
Summary
The study provides a detailed characterization of extrovertive mystical experiences, highlighting various types of unity and notable features such as self-transcendence and altered time perception. While these experiences are often uplifting, they can also have disturbing aspects, particularly when linked to drugs or mental health issues. The work critiques earlier definitions and offers a more nuanced understanding based on numerous mystical accounts.
Study at a glance
| Population | mystical experience accounts |
|---|---|
| Key finding | Extrovertive mystical experiences include both uplifting and disturbing features, with various types of unity and characteristics identified. |
Abstract
Abstract The classic characterizations of extrovertive mystical experience by R. M. Bucke, Rudolf Otto, W. T. Stace, and R. C. Zaehner are summarized and their limitations exposed. The author proceeds to give a more nuanced description of extrovertive phenomenology, based on his study of a large number of mystical accounts. Several kinds of extrovertive unity are distinguished, and details are given of other notable characteristics: self-transcendence, expansive knowledge, all-encompassing love, visual and auditory phenomena, altered time-experience, presences and realities, somatic phenomena, paranormal phenomena, and fusion of characteristics, including synaesthesia. The experiences are often uplifting, but there can be disturbing features too, especially in cases associated with drugs, mental breakdown, and kundalini arousal.