Saturday 17 March 2001

Pic of the day: Nothing mystic about the haircut, though! It is honestly bought and paid.

Mysticism

I am a mystic, of sorts. I have referred to this time and again in the past. I think this is a good time to say a bit more about it.

Mysticism is not a religion. But it seems to me that most founders of religions - or even sects - have been mystics. (An obvious exception being Ron Hubbard, who was a sci-fi writer.) Certainly the holy scriptures of several religions make more sense from a mystic perspective.

So what is mysticism? The mystic experience is that all is one - or at least intimately connected.

But even that makes no sense without some degree of actual experience. People will come up with weird notions like "the stars control our lives". Why would they think that? The stars certainly have influenced human civilization - lots of good poetry, not to mention the whole art of navigation - but we're not connected with cables or something. That's not how it works.

Mysticism is not an all or nothing package. Many people have occasional, brief mystic experiences, or an intuitive understanding of the mystic mindset. Perhaps it is like music - you can teach the piano to almost anyone, given time; but not all find it a natural way of expression, and only a few dedicate their lives to it.

I am not sure if there is a minimum intelligence required for mysticism. I am pretty sure there's no upper limit though, at least within the human range.

Once you have mysticism, though, the load on your brain is reduced. You effectively function as if your intelligence was higher, in some ways. This is because mysticism ignores walls in the mind. The mystic sees the world as a seamless whole, and can spot where parts overlap. You do not need to memorize so many rules, when you understand the underlying pattern.

(It is rumored that at higher levels of mysticism, the walls between minds can also be ignored, and the mystic can read other people's thoughts. Well, even if there was anything to that, there's no need to worry: At higher levels of mysticism, the mystic won't hurt you, since the mystic and you are one...)

***

I'm not sure when or how I became a mystic. Perhaps one is born to it; but in my childhood I noticed none of it. Some time in my late teens I started meditating, though I did not yet know that was what I did. I thought it was prayer. An experienced christian chanced upon me while I was meditating in a peaceful spot, and told me what I was doing. By then I had already meditated regularly for quite a while.

Armed with the new word, I eventually read up on meditation, both in christian tradition, other religions and secular / medical context. And so I discovered the connection to mysticism.

As I said, there are degrees of mysticism. And I am certainly not a Buddha type mystic, or even Socrates. But it is enough that I think it has changed my life. And I bet those who knew me when I grew up can attest that there has been a lot of change. I'm not sure how much of the original me still remains, except some physical laziness and a roaming curiosity of all things scientific.

***

Mysticism is not anti-scientific. On the contrary, mysticism has gradually been incorporated into science. From Isaac Newton onward, we have known that the planets keep hurtling through space directed by the same power that makes ripe apples fall down to earth. Today, most scientists assume that there are only 4 fundamental forces in the universe, and that these are all splinters of one primeval force which crystallized into different forces as the cosmos became less energetic. The "Big Bang" theory (or theories) assume that long ago, all matter and all energy were in the same place, the same time, and the same form. That they were, quite literally, one. Then space and time came into being and scattered us. But in our original nature, we are one with all of the universe.

Now, as I have asked before: If we are one with the universe, why should we go to work? But the true mystical experience does not work that way. It is far from a debilitating mental illness; if anything it is a kind of reverse insanity, improving the mind over the normal state. (But of course I would say so...) What typically happens is that the mystic experience connects one to the world ... to the mundane and the sacred, as the gap between them seems to vanish. For the mystic, God (or the Holy, the Awe-Inspiring, the Great, the All) is not remote. The joy and the terror of the mystic experience is that this Supreme Power surrounds us and even permeates us ... we are just not normally able to perceive this. Once experienced, it takes a long time to forget. (It does eventually fade, though.)

***

I guess my various fads with worldly things has done their bit to dilute the mysticism in my life. That I have grown more normal over the years. But then again there are long term effects which may have taken a time to kick in. The humility for instance, still a work in progress! I guess what I'm saying is, you can't use me as an archetype of a mystic. But there are definitely some traces of it even now.

And the vision, that was planted in my brain
still remains
within the sound of silence ...

Paul Simon, The sound of silence. A quite on-topic song actually.