2 ‘Being All, Knowing All, Loving All’
Mystical Encounters with the Natural World July 7, 2005 DOI: 10.1093/0199279438.003.0003
Summary
AI-generated from the abstractClassic descriptions of extrovertive mystical experience by Bucke, Otto, Stace, and Zaehner are summarized and shown to be limited. A more nuanced account is given, based on study of many mystical accounts. Several kinds of extrovertive unity are distinguished, along with characteristics such as self-transcendence, expansive knowledge, all-encompassing love, visual and auditory phenomena, altered time-experience, presences and realities, somatic and paranormal phenomena, and synaesthesia. Experiences are often uplifting but can be disturbing, especially with drugs, mental breakdown, or kundalini arousal.
Study at a glance
| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Mystical accounts |
| Key finding | Extrovertive mystical experiences have a nuanced phenomenology with several kinds of unity and notable characteristics, and can be disturbing in some contexts. |
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.