5/20/2023 0 Comments Be here now by ram dass![]() And so, while reading Be Here Now, by Ram Dass, a work of art on paper that is more mystical experience than literary artifact, more an object to be encountered rather than a book to be read, I found myself thinking about commonalities I’ve seen in various mystical texts I’ve read. Mystical experiences are by their nature paradoxical and ineffable, but despite the obliteration of logic, they also seemed to bring about a kind of epistemological certainty in their truth, accompanied by a sense of sacredness, reverence, deep peace, joy, and even love. ![]() A person would often be filled with the sense that everything was imbued with consciousness or presence. Mystical experiences involved the transcendence of time and space, and appeared to happen outside of time and outside of space altogether, or within infinite space. These characteristics included an awareness of the unity and interconnectedness of all beings and often included the actual unification of the self with the universe. Whether a person was a mystic, a nun, a monk, a Buddhist, a Christian, a Sufi, lost in meditation, or lost on psilocybin, mystical experiences exhibited certain key characteristics. ![]() ![]() In his very rare and very out of print book, Mysticism and Philosophy, Walter Terence Stace categorized the features of mystical experience. ![]()
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