Flourish As You Age

MIND - Mysticism: What Is It?

Michael C. Patterson Season 3 Episode 25

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A mystical experience, similar to the "enlightenment" described by Buddhists and other contemplative practices, involves a disillusion of self and a sense of unity with something grander than ourselves.  We  describes this something-grander-than-ourselves, in various ways - as God, as Tao, as the natural order and so on.  

In this episode we explore the following topics

  • Common characteristics of a mystical experience
  • Iain McGilchrists hemisphere hypothesis
  • An account of a mystical experience from Clare Booth Luce
  • Introverted and Extroverted types of unity
  • The power of metaphors: "The Kingdom of God," as an example
  • No Self: the disillusion of self. 
  • Mathieu Ricard and Wolf Singer's book Beyond The Self
  • Different approaches to enlightenment, Buddhist, mystical and hemispheric
  • Unity with God (etc.) is a process of becoming. 

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