Cambridge University Press eBooks
January 27, 2026
Z. Chen
6 citations
Mystical experiences transcend perceived reality and transform individuals, characterized by noetic and ineffable qualities. The text presents a fourfold hierarchy of mystical forms: monistic mysticism merges self and ultimate reality in oneness with ego-dissolution; nondualistic mysticism keeps the self distinct yet absorbed into a transcendent order, as in world religions; dualistic mysticism involves encountering a separate nonhuman reality, seen in shamanism and psychedelic states; pluralistic mysticism emphasizes multiple dimensions of self and reality, integrating embodied and spiritual aspects. These perspectives stress that transcendent realities require self-transformation and can inform daily life across cultures.
Religions
January 24, 2026
Zhiping Yu
In early Chinese religion, celestial deities, earthly spirits, and ghosts were devoutly worshipped. Oracle bone inscriptions record rituals for rain, temple worship, and river deities under terms like “fang.” The Supreme God was the paramount deity of the Shang Dynasty, merging with ancestral spirits by the early Zhou. The hexagram of Contemplation (guan gua) depicts shamans or ritual hosts performing temple sacrifices, emphasizing sincere human–Heaven communication. A monarch’s guan ritual embodies inner sincerity, prompting celestial trust, forming an interactive relationship. The hexagram’s structure highlights deities’ transcendence and humans’ reverence. Sages established religion for human life but not as leaders. From Shang through Spring and Autumn, Chinese spirituality shifted from shamanism to ritual propriety and from theistic to humanistic culture, shaping subsequent 2500 years. Confucius replaced shamanistic elements with moral experience.
BMC Psychology
January 21, 2026
Christina Chwyl, Angelica Spata, Will Lucas et al.
Psychological context, or 'set,' is more strongly linked to the outcomes of psychedelic experiences than the specific substance used, suggesting a 'mindset-over-molecule' pattern. The findings indicate that the mental state and expectations of the user play a more influential role than the chemical properties of the drug alone.
Pensamiento Revista de investigación e información filosófica
January 13, 2026
Felix Alejandro Cristiá
Hildegard von Bingen's mystical experience can support a worldview that integrates both theological and political dimensions. From the perspective of medieval philosophy grounded in philosophical anthropology, the article clarifies essential concepts of mystical experience, analyzes Hildegard's visions and their relationship to her era's worldview, and evaluates the political role her teachings may play. To affirm the Catholic Church's position, it is essential to emphasize the preeminence of the Son in dogma and adopt a specific worldview.
Psychedelic Medicine
January 12, 2026
Kelsey T. Laird, Prabha Siddarth, Ashley Ramos et al.
In psilocybin-assisted therapy for alcohol use disorder, the intensity of mystical experiences is linked to several psychological and environmental factors. Spirituality and spiritual intentions were strongly associated with mystical experience intensity, especially during the first dosing session. Positive mindset and positive perceptions of the treatment setting were more strongly linked to mystical experiences during the second session. Mystical experience intensity increased from the first to the second session, while the precursor factors did not change significantly across sessions. The findings suggest that both internal factors (spirituality, intentions, mindset) and external factors (the treatment environment) may predict how intense a mystical experience a person has during psychedelic therapy.
Journal of Advanced Research in Social Sciences
January 6, 2026
Amit Shankar Saha, Sanjana Prasad
Religious diversity has shaped human civilization, and harmony among religions is essential for global peace and social cohesion. This paper explores the relevance of religious harmony as conceptualized by 19th-century Bengali mystic Ramakrishna Paramhansa, who taught that all religions are different paths leading to the same truth. His personal spiritual experiences across multiple faiths led to his pluralistic vision, encapsulated in his saying "Joto Math, Tato Path" (as many faiths, so many paths). This vision fosters mutual respect and acceptance in a multicultural world.
Religions
January 2, 2026
Santiago García Mourelo
In plural and global contexts, the Theology of Religions and Interreligious Dialogue foster mutual understanding and a culture of encounter. This article examines theological and spiritual foundations through Paul Tillich and Jacques-Albert Cuttat. It reconstructs Tillich's ontological and pneumatological framework, focusing on a mystical a priori as the structural condition of religious experience. It analyzes Cuttat's model of "assumptive convergence" between Eastern and Western religious hemispheres as an experiential unfolding of Tillich's intuition. The argument holds that Cuttat anticipates Tillich's theology of religions, showing Christian mystical experience can assume, discern, and transfigure other traditions without syncretism or relativism. Mysticism emerges as a principle for articulating truth, plurality, and ethical responsibility in interreligious dialogue.
American Journal of Medical and Clinical Research & Reviews
January 1, 2026
Julian Ungar-Sargon
Jewish theology contains an ongoing tension between viewing God as a personal 'Thou' and mystical experiences that dissolve the self into an infinite. This essay argues that Hasidism, particularly its existential and devotional streams, redirects mystical depth toward relational responsibility rather than self-loss. Drawing on scholarship in Jewish mysticism and Hasidic studies, it extends these insights into clinical ethics and addiction recovery, proposing that the I–Thou relation is an ethical discipline of presence. In therapy, this involves practices like tzimtzum (contraction), sacred not-knowing, and refusing premature explanations to preserve the patient's irreducibility.
International Journal of English Literature and Social Sciences
January 1, 2026
Vikhyath S Shetty
Mystical experiences are often considered ineffable, yet mystics have persistently tried to articulate them. This paper compares two modes of articulation—spiritual and intellectual—through a literary analysis of Ramana Maharshi and Jiddu Krishnamurti. Ramana Maharshi’s writings display pedagogical assurance, grounded in the authority of realization and aimed at guiding seekers. Krishnamurti’s accounts reflect an ongoing, self-reflexive inquiry, where language serves to understand the experience for himself rather than to instruct. The juxtaposition reveals similarities beneath their distinct approaches, showing how each negotiates the tension between ineffability and expression.
Global Journal of Arts Humanities and Social Sciences
January 1, 2026
Alan Peter Garfoot
Mystical experiences and enlightened spiritual consciousness across major world religions may have a neurological basis involving the conversion of serotonin into the psychoactive compound DMT within the pineal gland. The DMT release hyperstimulates frontal lobe areas, expanding the bottleneck filter of perception, and combined with the gland's photoreceptive properties, facilitates individual mystical experiences when prior serotonin saturation from religious experience is present. This proposes that heightened spiritual consciousness and awareness of a divine presence have psychopharmaceutical underpinnings aligning with Carl Jung's conceptualization of spiritual and psychic experiences. The paper integrates neuroscience, psychopharmacology, cognitive psychology, and religious studies to define the psychophysiological mechanisms behind mystical psychic states.
Pharos Journal of Theology
January 1, 2026
M. Nawa Syarif Fajar Sakti, Bagus Haziratul Qodsiyah, Muh Nur'Afwan et al.
Three Abrahamic mystical traditions—Sufism, Kabbalah, and Christian mysticism—treat nature as a form of non-verbal revelation, offering a spiritual foundation for ecological ethics. Sufism sees nature as tajallī (manifestation) guiding seekers toward divine love; Kabbalah frames nature within the myth of shevirat ha-kelim and the task of tikkun olam; Christian mysticism emphasizes creation's sacramentality and Christological icon of God's presence. While converging on the cosmos as a medium for encountering the Divine, they differ theologically. These perspectives reframe the environmental crisis as a religious calling, not merely a scientific or political issue, providing transformative insights for ecological justice and sustainability.
January 1, 2026
Julian Ungar-Sargon
An earlier argument claimed that the Twelve Steps, combined with Hasidic relational theology, could resolve the tension between a personal God addressed as Thou and an impersonal infinite. This essay partially recants that conclusion, arguing that the deepest honesty is not synthesis but inhabiting an unresolved antinomy. Drawing on William James, Martin Buber, Elliot Wolfson, and Chabad doctrine, it reads Step Eleven's movement toward conscious contact as a moment where address and ground become simultaneously unavoidable and mutually irreducible. The recovering self discovers it cannot decide between these grammars, and that sobriety depends on not deciding. The argument is developed through hermeneutic medicine and therapeutic tzimtzum.