Atheistic Mysticism
Atheistic Platonism January 1, 2023 Eric Charles Steinhart
An analysis of eleven detailed cases of atheistic mystical experience identifies five recurring themes: structural insight, wholeness, extremity, ego dissolution, and valuable connection. The author interprets these themes through the lens of atheistic Platonism. Structural insight and wholeness correspond to a relational power called membership that binds all things into the wholeness of nature, understood as the entire iterative hierarchy of classes. Mystical extremity arises because nature's wholeness is transcendental, possessing the absolute infinity of a proper class. During ego dissolution, the mystic brain drops all ontic encodings and encodes only the existential quantifier oriented toward the Good. Valuable connection shows that this relational power points from the One to the Good, and the atheistic mystic's body bears perfect witness to the Good.