THE WAY OF THE JEWISH MYSTICS

THE WAY OF THE JEWISH MYSTICS
A good introduction to JEWISH MYSTICISM

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

WAY OF THE MYSTIC

THE WAY OF THE MYSTIC has seen a number of varied travelers along its mist-shrouded paths,lanes, and byways....some monks, some priests, some lamas, some Buddhists, and even shamans.....thus, this WAY connects or links at times with THE WAY OF THE MONK, THE WAY OF THE YOGI, and THE WAY OF THE FAKIR, though not necessarily in that order......Visionaries can be of all kinds of religious and occult organizations or simply be 'natural mystics' those who contemplate things deeply, meditate on certain themes,subjects, objects, principles,etc. or those who are merely subject to certain 'spells',bouts of ecstasy,intense imagination as well as fantasies, and who may be misunderstood, untutored, uneducated,etc. but always subject to the EMOTIONAL MACHINE....or the emotions that arise in them for all kinds of reasons, some medical, some drug-induced, some due to certain physiological changes(such as,aging, or hormone in balance or glandular secretions,such as the onset of puberty,etc. It would be, of course,a great mistake to reduce all mystical descriptions of visions and mystical states to anxiety attacks, hysteria, sexual conflicts, vivid dreams, drug frenzies, or epilepsy or the like...or to dementia and other nervous afflictions..... Explanations cannot do justice to the writings of the more 'classic' mystics, who often created or developed religions or sects of their own, or had it done for them by others....and the numerous accounts all over the world of work accomplished by 'saints', 'sages', 'healers','seers',etc. seem to attest to something goin on,somewhere, somehow, sometime,etc. that the ordinary mind will simply not turn away from or refute, even when science steps in or orthodoxy intrudes.... It is up to the reader of this blog to determine for himself whether or not mysticism is strictly a religious mania, a psychotic state, an unusual tendency, a complex of emotions, often coupled with intellectual considerations, or something supernatural or, at the very least, a misunderstood natural occurrence, not easily controlled or induced.....

1 comment:

  1. One of the classic works on MYSTICAL WAYS is William James, THE VARIETIES OF RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE....that I read many, many years ago,but which gives no one any real ability to become 'mystical',that is, enable one to become a mystic of any consequence and though it is an excellent description and attempt to explain or consider a few things....it only serves to those who feel a mystical impulse to look elsewhere.....and that is why some take up certain or special types of yoga or a strictly religious path, such as, becoming a monk, a friar, a priest, a minister,etc....or end up delving into some of the occult groups that are both ceremonial and mystic in certain aspects and areas.....

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