Mysticism and Experience

This book embarks on scholarly investigations of mystical phenomena, including shamanism, near-death experiences, and the paranormal. Contributors address queries such as why religious experiences are ineffable, what the explanatory mechanisms of altered states of consciousness are, and how literature and art express the mystical.

Mysticism and Experience: Twenty-First-Century Approaches embarks on an investigation of the concept of mysticism from the standpoint of academic fields, including philosophy, anthropology, religious studies, mysticism studies, literary studies, art criticism, cognitive poetics, cognitive science, psychology, medical research, and even mathematics. Scholars across disciplines observe that, although it has experienced both cyclical approval and disapproval, mysticism seems to be implicated as a key foundation of religion, alon with the highest forms of social, cultural, intellectual, and artistic creations. This book is divided into four sections: The Exposure, The Symbolic, The Cognitive, and The Scientific, covering all fundamental aspects of the phenomenon known as mysticism. Contributors, taking advantage of recent advances in disciplinary approaches to understanding mystical phenomena, address questions of whether progress can be made to systemically enrich, expand, and advance our understanding of mysticism.

Preface

Introduction: Unutterable Experiences of Consciousness Alteration

PART I. THE EXPOSURE

1.Manifestations of Shamanic Spirituality: Mongolia 1999, 2002

Eva Jane Neumann Fridman

2. Theoneurology: Bridging Hebrew Bible Prophecy and Clinical Psychedelic Drug Research

Rick Strassman, MD

PART II. THE SYMBOLIC

3.Materializing the Symbolic in Paranormal Experience

Jess Hollenback

4.Words and Images of a Transcendent Inner Mysterion: Mysticism in Contemporary Western Literature and Art

Ori Z. Soltes

PART III. THE COGNITIVE

5.The Dao Flickering through Words: A Cognitive-Poetic Analysis of Dao-de Jing

Sivan Wagshal Te’eni and Reuven Tsur

6. Why Are Religious Experiences Ineffable? The Question of Mystical-Noetic Knowledge

Laura E. Weed

7.Toward a Cognitive Psychology of Mystical Experiences

Harry T. Hunt

PART IV. THE SCIENTIFIC

8. Explanatory Mechanisms of Altered States of Consciousness: A Brief Overview

Alex S. Kohav

9.Mathematical Modeling of Cognitive Mechanisms of Meaning and the Spiritually Sublime

Leonid I. Perlovsky

10. Transcendent Knowledge-Claims and the Scientific Study of Mystical Experiences

Richard H. Jones

About the Contributors

Index