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Mysticism: A Study in the Nature and Development of Spiritual Consciousness
Mysticism is Evelyn Underhill's seminal work on the subject. The book is divided into two parts, "The Mystic Fact" and "The Mystic Way." In the first part Underhill explores the theological, psychological, and philosophical underpinnings of mysticism from a historical perspective. In the second part Underhill examines the application of mysticism in one's life as a means for spiritual growth. Evelyn Underhill's Mysticism is both a fantastic introduction to the search for spirituality through mysticism and an almost encyclopedic examination of the subject.
356 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1911
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About the author
Evelyn Underhill
256 books162 followersEvelyn Underhill was an English Anglo-Catholic writer and pacifist known for her numerous works on religion and spiritual practice, in particular Christian mysticism.
In the English-speaking world, she was one of the most widely read writers on such matters in the first half of the twentieth century. No other book of its type—until the appearance in 1946 of Aldous Huxley's The Perennial Philosophy—met with success to match that of her best-known work, Mysticism, published in 1911.
Read more:
Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evelyn_U...
The Evelyn Underhill Association
http://www.evelynunderhill.org/
In the English-speaking world, she was one of the most widely read writers on such matters in the first half of the twentieth century. No other book of its type—until the appearance in 1946 of Aldous Huxley's The Perennial Philosophy—met with success to match that of her best-known work, Mysticism, published in 1911.
Read more:
Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evelyn_U...
The Evelyn Underhill Association
http://www.evelynunderhill.org/
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 75 reviews
November 5, 2009
This book really challenges me in a way I rarely experience in spiritual reading. I think there is such a strong idea of mystics being extreme hermits who live in caves, that the whole understanding of Christian Mysticism has been undermined. But really, what this book is helping me to grasp, is that mysticism is simply the concentrated focus of one's entire life upon the person of Christ. The mystics were people who chose to live in such a way as to powerfully encounter the reality, the living, true, real as my breath reality of God.
Encountering them through the scholarly, but poignant and passionate writing of Evelyn Underhill is a reading experience I am reluctant to leave (and I won't have to anytime soon since this is a 500 page book!).
Encountering them through the scholarly, but poignant and passionate writing of Evelyn Underhill is a reading experience I am reluctant to leave (and I won't have to anytime soon since this is a 500 page book!).
March 26, 2014
“It is no argument to say that most men see the world in much the same way, and that this “way” is the true standard of reality: though for practical purposes we have agreed that sanity consists in sharing the hallucinations of our neighbors” page 10
“Now and then an artist is born, terribly articulate, foolishly truthful, who insists on “Speaking as he saw.” Then other men, lapped warmly in their artificial universe, agree that he is mad: or, at the very best, an “extraordinarily imaginative fellow” page 10
“Is your world of experience so well and logically founded that you dare make of it a standard?” page 25
“It has been said that ‘Whatever we may do, our hunger for the Absolute will never cease’” page 39.
“Only the Real can know Reality” page 43
“was prepared for the remaking of her consciousness by years of loneliness and depression” page 181.
“Hence, whilst the practice of magic—like the practice of science—does not necessarily entail passionate emotion, though of course it does and must entail interest of some kind, mysticism, like art, cannot exist without it. We must feel, and feel acutely, before we want to act on this hard and heroic scale”Page 72
“Over and over again the great mystics tell us, not how they speculated, but how they acted” Page 83
“Thou art enough for me!” page 85
“Mysticism, then, is seen as the “one way out” for the awakened spirit of man; healing that human incompleteness which is the origin of our divine unrest” Page 94
“The high Might of the Trinity is our Father, and the deep Wisdom of the Trinity is our Mother, and the great Love of the Trinity is our Lord: and all this we have in Nature and in our Substantial Making” P 112
“ The words are different, the paths are many, but one thing is signified; the paths lead to one Person.” P113
“Hence the title of Repairer applied by Boehme to the Second Person of the Trinity” P 120
“Whatever be the theological creed of the mystic, he never varies in declaring this close, definite, and actual intimacy to be the end of his quest” P127
“Those in whom this growth is not set going are no mystics, in the exact sense in which that word is here used; however great their temporary illumination may have been” P198
“The soul,” says St. John of the Cross, “is not empty, so long as the desire for sensible things remains. But the absence of this desire for things produces emptiness and liberty of soul; even when there is an abundance of possessions” P211
“The stronger the death the more powerful and thorough is the corresponding life; the more intimate the death, the more inward is the life” P218
“The death of selfhood in its narrow individualistic sense is, then, the primary object of mortification” P221
“The mystical consciousness, as we have seen, belongs—from the psychological point of view—to that mobile or “unstable” type in which the artistic temperament also finds a place. It sways easily between the extremes of pleasure and pain in its gropings after transcendental reality. It often attains for a moment to heights in which it is not able to rest: is often flung from some rapturous vision of the Perfect to the deeps of contrition and despair” P227
“With her, as with all truly heroic souls, it was love for love, not love for joy” P248
Characteristics of true mysticism (page 81):
1. True mysticism is active and practical, not passive and theoretical. It is an organic life-process, a something which the whole self does; not something as to which its intellect holds an opinion.
2. Its aims are wholly transcendental and spiritual. It is in no way concerned with adding to, exploring, re-arranging, or improving anything in the visible universe. The mystic brushes aside that universe, even in its supernormal manifestations. Though he does not, as his enemies declare, neglect his duty to the many, his heart is always set upon the changeless One.
3. This One is for the mystic, not merely the Reality of all that is, but also a living and personal Object of Love; never an object of exploration. It draws his whole being homeward, but always under the guidance of the heart.
4. Living union with this One—which is the term of his adventure—is a definite state or form of enhanced life. It is obtained neither from an intellectual realization of its delights, nor from the most acute emotional longings. Though these must be present they are not enough. It is arrived at by an arduous psychological and spiritual process—the so-called Mystic Way—entailing the complete remaking of character and the liberation of a new, or rather latent, form of consciousness; which imposes on the self the condition which is sometimes inaccurately called “ecstasy,” but is better named the Unitive State.
“Mysticism, then, is not an opinion: it is not a philosophy. It has nothing in common with the pursuit of occult knowledge. On the one hand it is not merely the power of contemplating Eternity: on the other, it is not to be identified with any kind of religious queerness. It is the name of that organic process which involves the perfect consummation of the Love of God: the achievement here and now of the immortal heritage of man. Or, if you like it better—for this means exactly the same thing—it is the art of establishing his conscious relation with the Absolute” page 81
“Now and then an artist is born, terribly articulate, foolishly truthful, who insists on “Speaking as he saw.” Then other men, lapped warmly in their artificial universe, agree that he is mad: or, at the very best, an “extraordinarily imaginative fellow” page 10
“Is your world of experience so well and logically founded that you dare make of it a standard?” page 25
“It has been said that ‘Whatever we may do, our hunger for the Absolute will never cease’” page 39.
“Only the Real can know Reality” page 43
“was prepared for the remaking of her consciousness by years of loneliness and depression” page 181.
“Hence, whilst the practice of magic—like the practice of science—does not necessarily entail passionate emotion, though of course it does and must entail interest of some kind, mysticism, like art, cannot exist without it. We must feel, and feel acutely, before we want to act on this hard and heroic scale”Page 72
“Over and over again the great mystics tell us, not how they speculated, but how they acted” Page 83
“Thou art enough for me!” page 85
“Mysticism, then, is seen as the “one way out” for the awakened spirit of man; healing that human incompleteness which is the origin of our divine unrest” Page 94
“The high Might of the Trinity is our Father, and the deep Wisdom of the Trinity is our Mother, and the great Love of the Trinity is our Lord: and all this we have in Nature and in our Substantial Making” P 112
“ The words are different, the paths are many, but one thing is signified; the paths lead to one Person.” P113
“Hence the title of Repairer applied by Boehme to the Second Person of the Trinity” P 120
“Whatever be the theological creed of the mystic, he never varies in declaring this close, definite, and actual intimacy to be the end of his quest” P127
“Those in whom this growth is not set going are no mystics, in the exact sense in which that word is here used; however great their temporary illumination may have been” P198
“The soul,” says St. John of the Cross, “is not empty, so long as the desire for sensible things remains. But the absence of this desire for things produces emptiness and liberty of soul; even when there is an abundance of possessions” P211
“The stronger the death the more powerful and thorough is the corresponding life; the more intimate the death, the more inward is the life” P218
“The death of selfhood in its narrow individualistic sense is, then, the primary object of mortification” P221
“The mystical consciousness, as we have seen, belongs—from the psychological point of view—to that mobile or “unstable” type in which the artistic temperament also finds a place. It sways easily between the extremes of pleasure and pain in its gropings after transcendental reality. It often attains for a moment to heights in which it is not able to rest: is often flung from some rapturous vision of the Perfect to the deeps of contrition and despair” P227
“With her, as with all truly heroic souls, it was love for love, not love for joy” P248
Characteristics of true mysticism (page 81):
1. True mysticism is active and practical, not passive and theoretical. It is an organic life-process, a something which the whole self does; not something as to which its intellect holds an opinion.
2. Its aims are wholly transcendental and spiritual. It is in no way concerned with adding to, exploring, re-arranging, or improving anything in the visible universe. The mystic brushes aside that universe, even in its supernormal manifestations. Though he does not, as his enemies declare, neglect his duty to the many, his heart is always set upon the changeless One.
3. This One is for the mystic, not merely the Reality of all that is, but also a living and personal Object of Love; never an object of exploration. It draws his whole being homeward, but always under the guidance of the heart.
4. Living union with this One—which is the term of his adventure—is a definite state or form of enhanced life. It is obtained neither from an intellectual realization of its delights, nor from the most acute emotional longings. Though these must be present they are not enough. It is arrived at by an arduous psychological and spiritual process—the so-called Mystic Way—entailing the complete remaking of character and the liberation of a new, or rather latent, form of consciousness; which imposes on the self the condition which is sometimes inaccurately called “ecstasy,” but is better named the Unitive State.
“Mysticism, then, is not an opinion: it is not a philosophy. It has nothing in common with the pursuit of occult knowledge. On the one hand it is not merely the power of contemplating Eternity: on the other, it is not to be identified with any kind of religious queerness. It is the name of that organic process which involves the perfect consummation of the Love of God: the achievement here and now of the immortal heritage of man. Or, if you like it better—for this means exactly the same thing—it is the art of establishing his conscious relation with the Absolute” page 81
February 4, 2008
Read this book a long time ago, but I throw it down here because the memory of it still lingers, strong. I remember being mesmerized reading page after page of summaries of the mystics in history, Jacob Boehme, Emmanuel Swedenborg, William Blake, Dante, Meister Eckhart, the list goes on and on. Ms. Underhill, another of the great largely unheralded women writers of the 20th century, succinctly and without diminishing her subjects' greatness, presents their thinking, excerpts from their work, and clearly illustrates the thread common to all their writings which weaves its way through their common fabric. Eminently readable, incredibly instructive, Mysticism offers a huge menu of great men and women from whose work to further pursue on your own.
February 16, 2016
This book took me quite a while to read, and not at all because it is difficult (it isn't). I struggled to finish this book due to its inanity.
Underhill was obviously not a mystic. She never had a "true" mystical experience. For had this have been so she would have known that the entirety of her book is pointless. That which is the mystic experience is completely outside of language and human conception - it is outside of the human. And what does Underhill do? She tries to analyze this experience in an all too human way - through the lense of what in her day was called Science.
An example. Underhill often speaks of surface intelligence and some "deeper mind". She continuously embeds herself in such binary, hierarchical thought. What she fails to realize is that it isn't about any depth of thought or conception, but rather a completely other way of thinking and conceiving, beyond all conception.
The mystical transgresses all that is human, shattering the organizations and the order that we impose through language and knowledge. To see the world in a single flower is to break out of all that is human in our experience - truly an impossible act, from our all too human standpoint in which all experince is imbedded in concepts and patterns.
Underhill finds that all she can do is turn to writers who may have had such an experience, and quote from them excessively. If you find the writings of St. Francis or Teresa enlightening then read them; don't read someone continually rephrasing what they are telling you is already an inadequate description. Underhill is repetitive, and not as in a dirge or fugue - simply stumbling, saying the same words in trying to unify a chaos beyond all speech and thus all unity.
I wanted to enjoy this book, to learn from it. Mystical thought is very important to my own thinking. But this book, and its past popularity, are astonishing to me. There is so little of mysticism here, and so much of the human grasping that the mystics spent their lives distancing themselves from.
Underhill was obviously not a mystic. She never had a "true" mystical experience. For had this have been so she would have known that the entirety of her book is pointless. That which is the mystic experience is completely outside of language and human conception - it is outside of the human. And what does Underhill do? She tries to analyze this experience in an all too human way - through the lense of what in her day was called Science.
An example. Underhill often speaks of surface intelligence and some "deeper mind". She continuously embeds herself in such binary, hierarchical thought. What she fails to realize is that it isn't about any depth of thought or conception, but rather a completely other way of thinking and conceiving, beyond all conception.
The mystical transgresses all that is human, shattering the organizations and the order that we impose through language and knowledge. To see the world in a single flower is to break out of all that is human in our experience - truly an impossible act, from our all too human standpoint in which all experince is imbedded in concepts and patterns.
Underhill finds that all she can do is turn to writers who may have had such an experience, and quote from them excessively. If you find the writings of St. Francis or Teresa enlightening then read them; don't read someone continually rephrasing what they are telling you is already an inadequate description. Underhill is repetitive, and not as in a dirge or fugue - simply stumbling, saying the same words in trying to unify a chaos beyond all speech and thus all unity.
I wanted to enjoy this book, to learn from it. Mystical thought is very important to my own thinking. But this book, and its past popularity, are astonishing to me. There is so little of mysticism here, and so much of the human grasping that the mystics spent their lives distancing themselves from.
April 14, 2024
Thorough and accessible history
May 23, 2020
Mysticism is the belief that the individual will be absorbed or reabsorbed into the deity or the absolute. It is therefore incompatible with Christianity and constitutes a heresy that is sometimes affiliated with the occult.
I saw this book on LibriVox several times and it somehow caught my attention. I wanted to know more about Christianity and this was a subject I hadn't dealt with before. Every time I walk my pug I listen to a Christian audiobook and recently I've chosen this one.
I asked three Christians I personally knew (two musician friends, origami repetika and graffiti mechanism, as well as my general practitioner) about Christian mysticism, and all of them were sceptical, although repetika also suggested that some mystics had some interesting things to say. Still, I stayed with my decision to listen the book. And despite my 1 star rating, I don’t regret my choice because it deepened my understanding of mysticism or reabsorption theology.
Unfortunately, the narration of Joy Chan wasn’t all that good so I had trouble keeping focused on the text. And Underhill’s way of writing is subpar, it’s often muddled and confused. She really had a hard time giving her ideas a suitable form. Or her ideas were already a bit loony. So I will give you only very rough summary of what’s in the book.
According to Underhill, there are five successive stages a mystic can be in.
(I used https://web.csulb.edu/~plowentr/under... to help me recollect my memories and also copied some expressions from there.)
They are:
1. Awakening (abrupt and well-marked, accompanied by intense feelings of joy and exaltation)
2. Purgation (mystic becomes aware of the contrast between his perverse self-centred drifting and the clarity of the transcendent)
3. Illumination (purged oneself of attachments to the things of the senses and having substituted them with an attachment to the transcendent. The joy of this stage bears danger: a selfish preoccupation with transcendental joys)
4. The Dark Night Of The Soul (Heart and mind are arid. The mystic must overcome all attachment to the selfish ego in order to merge with the Deity. She does that by giving up the greatest good she has ever known – the joys of stage 3)
5. Union (essentially ineffable. Mystic becomes one with Deity. (Re)absorption takes place)
Stages 1-3 are called the first mystic life and many mystics never go beyond it.
To me, this is a life-negating philosophy. The self, even the selfish self, is not something dirty that has to be purged. Egoism is a necessary strategy to survive, to better oneself and, if this egoism is checked by natural law, to better the world (Adam Smith’s invisible hand). It is obvious that her mysticism is incompatible with Christian orthodoxy. As pointed out in Murray Rothbard’s essay Karl Marx as Religious Eschatologist, “each human individual is made in the image of God, is of supreme importance” and not a “perverse” creation in contrast with God (stage 2). When I read my summary of these stages, my blood runs cold. Why would a sane person want to pursue such a life for him or herself? It is beyond me but I do now understand why there are so few mystics. There is a discrepancy between the amount of mystics and the amount of people who liked this book. If they think that what Underhill has to offer is so great, then why do these people not become mystics? Why do they keep living in stage 0 (which seems to be the way most people live in capitalistic societies)? The reason seems to me that the virtues and comforts of capitalism (constrained egoism, individualistic planning, joy, consumerism, realistic assessing of available resources, …) are openly disliked and rejected in our society. But this is really only openly, in private these virtues and comforts are very much adhered to. How do I know this? Well, obviously because the world has not collapsed. So, while these people are living capitalistically, they use a defence mechanism, perhaps denial, to deal with the mental conflict between reality (stage 0) and wish (stage 5).
Looking at the five stages, I see similarities with the ideology of communism/socialism/leftism. Adherents of these view also often find fault with egoism and self-centredness. Instead of becoming one with God, they want to become one with the State. But this difference vanishes if we remember that for them the State is God. According to Leszek Kolakowski, reabsorption theology or process theology starts with Plotinus, who is quoted by Underhill a lot. Rothbard’s essay mentioned above, explores the connection between reabsorption theology and Marxism.
While Underhill’s book has as subject a theology that is at least almost two thousand years old, it is itself very much a product of its time. She talks about pragmatism and vitalism, which were very much in vogue at the beginning of the last century but are now seldomly talked about. Let’s hope, for humanity’s sake, that we can one day say the same thing about Christian mysticism aka reabsorption theology.
I saw this book on LibriVox several times and it somehow caught my attention. I wanted to know more about Christianity and this was a subject I hadn't dealt with before. Every time I walk my pug I listen to a Christian audiobook and recently I've chosen this one.
I asked three Christians I personally knew (two musician friends, origami repetika and graffiti mechanism, as well as my general practitioner) about Christian mysticism, and all of them were sceptical, although repetika also suggested that some mystics had some interesting things to say. Still, I stayed with my decision to listen the book. And despite my 1 star rating, I don’t regret my choice because it deepened my understanding of mysticism or reabsorption theology.
Unfortunately, the narration of Joy Chan wasn’t all that good so I had trouble keeping focused on the text. And Underhill’s way of writing is subpar, it’s often muddled and confused. She really had a hard time giving her ideas a suitable form. Or her ideas were already a bit loony. So I will give you only very rough summary of what’s in the book.
According to Underhill, there are five successive stages a mystic can be in.
(I used https://web.csulb.edu/~plowentr/under... to help me recollect my memories and also copied some expressions from there.)
They are:
1. Awakening (abrupt and well-marked, accompanied by intense feelings of joy and exaltation)
2. Purgation (mystic becomes aware of the contrast between his perverse self-centred drifting and the clarity of the transcendent)
3. Illumination (purged oneself of attachments to the things of the senses and having substituted them with an attachment to the transcendent. The joy of this stage bears danger: a selfish preoccupation with transcendental joys)
4. The Dark Night Of The Soul (Heart and mind are arid. The mystic must overcome all attachment to the selfish ego in order to merge with the Deity. She does that by giving up the greatest good she has ever known – the joys of stage 3)
5. Union (essentially ineffable. Mystic becomes one with Deity. (Re)absorption takes place)
Stages 1-3 are called the first mystic life and many mystics never go beyond it.
To me, this is a life-negating philosophy. The self, even the selfish self, is not something dirty that has to be purged. Egoism is a necessary strategy to survive, to better oneself and, if this egoism is checked by natural law, to better the world (Adam Smith’s invisible hand). It is obvious that her mysticism is incompatible with Christian orthodoxy. As pointed out in Murray Rothbard’s essay Karl Marx as Religious Eschatologist, “each human individual is made in the image of God, is of supreme importance” and not a “perverse” creation in contrast with God (stage 2). When I read my summary of these stages, my blood runs cold. Why would a sane person want to pursue such a life for him or herself? It is beyond me but I do now understand why there are so few mystics. There is a discrepancy between the amount of mystics and the amount of people who liked this book. If they think that what Underhill has to offer is so great, then why do these people not become mystics? Why do they keep living in stage 0 (which seems to be the way most people live in capitalistic societies)? The reason seems to me that the virtues and comforts of capitalism (constrained egoism, individualistic planning, joy, consumerism, realistic assessing of available resources, …) are openly disliked and rejected in our society. But this is really only openly, in private these virtues and comforts are very much adhered to. How do I know this? Well, obviously because the world has not collapsed. So, while these people are living capitalistically, they use a defence mechanism, perhaps denial, to deal with the mental conflict between reality (stage 0) and wish (stage 5).
Looking at the five stages, I see similarities with the ideology of communism/socialism/leftism. Adherents of these view also often find fault with egoism and self-centredness. Instead of becoming one with God, they want to become one with the State. But this difference vanishes if we remember that for them the State is God. According to Leszek Kolakowski, reabsorption theology or process theology starts with Plotinus, who is quoted by Underhill a lot. Rothbard’s essay mentioned above, explores the connection between reabsorption theology and Marxism.
While Underhill’s book has as subject a theology that is at least almost two thousand years old, it is itself very much a product of its time. She talks about pragmatism and vitalism, which were very much in vogue at the beginning of the last century but are now seldomly talked about. Let’s hope, for humanity’s sake, that we can one day say the same thing about Christian mysticism aka reabsorption theology.
July 7, 2008
It's a book to outlast a bookshelf. It is a thorough, insightful, clarifying overview and well referenced approach to a word which is actually quite difficult to pin down. In returning to it, I am inevitably darwn to the sections on acidie, dark nights of the soul etc. as a resource to help distinguish spiritual aridity from medical depression.
May 22, 2008
....very interesting, however, western mystics' descriptions (quotes) of the various transcended states became tedious and repetitive for me. Evelyn needed a good editor. St Teresa's quotes were the most interesting. Evelyn's organization of the subject, however, was excellent. I think I was looking more for a cultural history of mysticism.
December 14, 2020
This is deep..... And I mean VERY VERY DEEP book.... Not sure if we can call it just a "book"? This is actually a work of art in the form of words talking about all these high-level concepts and realms.... Probably the best book on Mysticism that was ever written. Definitely not a book to be taken lightly and it requires full 100% concentration. And it's definitely not for everybody.
May 6, 2024
Sometimes, one must know when to pack their bags and move on without finishing a book. After reading 250 pages of this, I felt the only thing worthwhile to do would be to close it. My experience reading this book was similar to eating a bag of potato chips; at first the taste draws you in, but as you consume more of the sameness of taste for an indefinite period of time, fatigue begins to overwhelm the appetite. Evelyn has a flowery prose that holds up the attention for a little while, until you realize she essentially says the same things over and over in different ways, and through different mystics. On that note, I didn't really walk away with any real new insights on mysticism, and considering the book was written over a century ago; the science and philosophy she espouses in her interpretation of mysticism could be dated in some respects. Nevertheless, if you're just looking fora a mystic anthology, this could be your kind of book.
August 3, 2008
this is a work of scholarship on the subject of mysticism...it is one of the more in depth books i have read about the subject...covering all the stages of the mystic journey... I learned that a mystic always holds love as the highest aim of the work begun in the individual...that no one mystic has ever revealed all of the stages that are present in any single journey toward god...that the stages appear in no particular order...after the initial contact with the absolute...I love to read this book...its many quotations from known mystics blake, theresa, fox, etc... are really interesting...mike seely and the acid tong
December 19, 2010
This book took a very long time to read. It is a must read for anyone interested in mysticism. I believe Underhill was the first woman to teach theology at Oxford and her knowledge of the spiritual life is amazing. I would have to spend a few years to fully grasp this book, but I suppose her main points can be summarized as follows:
1. Mysticism is practical, not theoretical.
2. Mysticism is entirely a spiritual activity.
3. The business and method of mysticism is love.
4. Mysticism entails a psychological experience.
Although an incredible book, I still think I liked Huxley's Perennial Philosophy and William James' Varieties of Religious Experience more.
1. Mysticism is practical, not theoretical.
2. Mysticism is entirely a spiritual activity.
3. The business and method of mysticism is love.
4. Mysticism entails a psychological experience.
Although an incredible book, I still think I liked Huxley's Perennial Philosophy and William James' Varieties of Religious Experience more.
November 13, 2022
"Así, también para nosotros, la Vida Trascendental que anhelamos se revela, así como nuestro vivir dentro de ella, no en algún plano lejano y árido del ser, en las ingeniosas explicaciones de la filosofía, sino en los actos normales de nuestra experiencia diurna, que de repente cobran significación para nosotros. No en los remansos de la existencia; no entre sutiles argumentos y ocultas doctrinas, sino en todos aquellos lugares donde prosigue la vida directa y sencilla de la tierra. Se encuentra en el alma humana mientras esa alma esté viva y en crecimiento; no se encuentra en ningún lugar estéril". ▪️ Todos los seres humanos que nos dejan en cuerpo presente, más tarde o más temprano, pasan a ser una representación de aquello que fueron para nosotros. Un significado con su significante, una imagen mental que nos permite pensar en ellos en pasado, en presente y en futuro. Un amor proferido, en cierta manera, hacia un símbolo de lo que aquella persona fue, una forma de continuar haciendo que exista. La Mística es para mí un camino de representaciones que busca despertar la conciencia de una humanidad camuflada, aquella sobre la que existe una semilla que hay que tratar de encontrar y nutrir para que crezca tan alto que pueda trascender. Experiencias de este tipo han existido siempre, personajes como William Blake, Santa Catalina de Siena, San Agustín o San Juan de la Cruz (por mencionar algunos) han dedicado su vida y obra a tratar de hacernos entender cómo ha sido su experiencia, qué han sentido en su camino hacia ese Dios simbólico que ha besado su existencia. Evelyn Underhill recoge en esta inspiradora y acurada obra sobre el estudio de la naturaleza y desarrollo de la conciencia espiritual, las diferentes etapas del camino de muchos de estos personajes: El despertar del yo, la purificación: distanciamiento/mortificación, la iluminación del yo, las voces y visiones, la introspección, la contemplación, el éxtasis y rapto, la noche oscura del alma y finalmente, la vida unitiva. Destaca también su introducción desde la Psicología sobre todos aquellos procesos mentales relacionados con los delirios y la conciencia así como su clara separación de la línea entre la Mística y lo mágico o esotérico. Más que un libro, es un camino. Me ha acompañado desde la primavera al otoño y afirmo con seguridad que volveré a él durante más ocasiones en mi vida. Me ha inspirado mucho sobre mi existencia y mi capacidad de transformarla. También sobre todas aquellas sombras en las que todos los seres humanos nos sumergimos y con las que debemos aprender a convivir. Y aunque todo esto pueda sonar a algo celestial, inalcanzable, extraño e incluso inaccesible, Underhill logra bajar a la Tierra serena la experiencia sublime para recordar que es aquí, en nuestra realidad, donde nosotros vivimos y desde donde podemos crecer: "Nosotros, que deliberadamente buscamos lo que suponemos que es espiritual, pasamos por alto con demasiada frecuencia lo único que es Real. Los verdaderos misterios de la vida tienen lugar de manera tan suave, con una gracia tan fácil y asegurada, con tan franca aceptación de nuestro mundo de reproducción, esfuerzo, muerte e inquietud, que el hombre natural, carente de imaginación -lleno de ansias por lo maravilloso-, apenas se sorprende por la diaria y radiante revelación de la sabiduría y el amor infinitos." Lo que los místicos buscaban enseñarnos no se trataba de algo sobrenatural o extraño. Sólo querían acercarnos a la vida, como diría mi abuelo, a través de un sencillo mendrugo de pan compartido. 🌹
July 6, 2019
Read it.
March 18, 2012
Underhill's bold undertaking of mysticism is still relevant today. Hume wanted academia to catch up and make progress in defining and codifying metaphysics. Maybe Underhill hasn't reached Hume's level of intellectual study of the subject, but her insights are relevant and valuable.As a follower of another metaphysical path I found this an important addition to my library.
April 20, 2008
The primary source for a first understanding of mysticism. A monumental work. One of the Sayers-Lewis collective. Did you know St. Catherine lived for years running on nothing but one communion wafer a day - never lost weight or energy? A dangerous path to start if you like your HDTV and couch sitting.
April 9, 2016
Interesting classic on the subject of mysticism. Generally a good book and it covers authentic mysticism which is refreshing and not the diluted "new age" idea of mysticism which is now sadly all too common.
Read
June 4, 2009I read the appendix "A Historical Sketch of European Mysticism from the Begiinning of the Christian Era to the Death of Blake." It is a good short introduction to the Western Mystical tradition.
May 30, 2012
A classic early monograph on mysticism. A must read for those interested in the question of mysticism.
November 20, 2022
Evelyn Underhill was one of the great Christian minds of early 20th century Britain. A writer, teacher, pacifist and spiritual director, she was the first woman to lecture to the clergy in the Church of England and the first woman officially to conduct spiritual retreats for the church. She published over 30 books, received an honorary Doctorate of Divinity from Aberdeen University and was made a fellow of King's College. On her death in 1941, The Times obituary stated that on the subject of theology, she was "unmatched by any of the professional teachers of her day." She is honoured in the calendar of the Anglican communion worldwide (including NZ) on 15 June each year.
Underhill started out her writing career with a book of poems and several novels. Then, in 1911 (in those hopeful days before WW1 brought so many dreams of the potential of humankind crashing down), she published this, her magnum opus, Mysticism.
What a book it is. It's long - maybe too long - and it took me many a month to read. The scope is amazing. It's hard to imagine a more thorough treatment, and it must certainly have preserved and promoted an interest in mysticism and contemplative Christianity in the modern age, as well as preserving a who's who of mysticism's history. A vital connection in the passing down of that knowledge for us today.
Despite a significant academic component, for Underhill the subject had to be about lived experience. For her personally (though this is never stated in the book), the project was an exploration of her own mystical experiences, and she always holds in highest esteem those historical writers on mysticism (e.g. Teresa of Avila) whose work is clearly grounded in experiential reality.
A major component of the work is distilling a vast amount of source material into categorising the stages of the spiritual journey. This has been a favourite project of writers on mysticism for centuries, and Underhill takes on that challenge afresh; though it's generally acknowledged that a rigid (and perhaps prescriptive) approach to such things often blurs and breaks down in reality.
Such frameworks have historically included a necessary denial of the senses and therefore a problematic disembodiment informed by neoplatonism. This is made all the more problematic by a theology of purgation, and such things as practices of self-mortification. Because these ideas so often occur in historical writings on mysticism, they form a key part of Underhill's survey. But Underhill also endorses them to some extent (though not the extremities of mortification, thankfully... she chooses not to mention many of the specifics of the crazy shit that some of the saints got up to).
Another aspect that I found a little troubling was her placing of the mystic at the high point of human evolution and 'above other men'. The ultimate ascent of human consciousness. Special people with a special knowledge. Partly this was the tone of the time. As previously mentioned, before WW1 there was a lot of optimism about the trajectory of humanity into enlightenment.
Both the above two issues are part of the reason why mysticism and contemplation are sometimes accused of being Gnostic.
I say all this while also acknowledging the inevitable existential role that suffering does play in the unfolding of the (spiritual) life. (It seems to me that life will bring sufficient suffering of its own, without going out of your way to self-inflict it.) On the other side of suffering, or even within suffering, are the possibility of unique gifts gained in no other way. Though this not about killing off the body. And there are perhaps times when the usual human senses are put aside in favour of some other sense and the possibility of the reality of the non-physical, the non-material.
There is also the possibility of undertaking a journey that does indeed expand life into realms of specially enhanced noticing, knowing and creativity.
For Underhill's part, the problematic issues of disembodiment and the specialness of the mystic are mitigated by a couple of things.
Firstly, healthy mysticism in its fullest flourishing always results in a greater level of engagement with the created world and with humankind. A love of creation, and acts of service, activism for positive change, and creativity. So in a sense, the individual ultimately becomes embodied in a much more vibrant form.
Secondly, for Underhill, mysticism and contemplation are in fact something for everyone. The 'special genius' of the great mystics simply serves as pioneering work for the rest of us, and a description of what might be possible. There's an invitation to a way of being that can have form in a more everyday, commonplace life.
It was to that end that Underhill devoted much of the rest of her life, via the work she went on to do. A significant gift she left, and she is entirely apt to be remembered for it. I'm thankful for the journey of this book, the characters that appear in it (amongst whose number Underhill should rightfully be placed) and the journey it describes.
Underhill started out her writing career with a book of poems and several novels. Then, in 1911 (in those hopeful days before WW1 brought so many dreams of the potential of humankind crashing down), she published this, her magnum opus, Mysticism.
What a book it is. It's long - maybe too long - and it took me many a month to read. The scope is amazing. It's hard to imagine a more thorough treatment, and it must certainly have preserved and promoted an interest in mysticism and contemplative Christianity in the modern age, as well as preserving a who's who of mysticism's history. A vital connection in the passing down of that knowledge for us today.
Despite a significant academic component, for Underhill the subject had to be about lived experience. For her personally (though this is never stated in the book), the project was an exploration of her own mystical experiences, and she always holds in highest esteem those historical writers on mysticism (e.g. Teresa of Avila) whose work is clearly grounded in experiential reality.
A major component of the work is distilling a vast amount of source material into categorising the stages of the spiritual journey. This has been a favourite project of writers on mysticism for centuries, and Underhill takes on that challenge afresh; though it's generally acknowledged that a rigid (and perhaps prescriptive) approach to such things often blurs and breaks down in reality.
Such frameworks have historically included a necessary denial of the senses and therefore a problematic disembodiment informed by neoplatonism. This is made all the more problematic by a theology of purgation, and such things as practices of self-mortification. Because these ideas so often occur in historical writings on mysticism, they form a key part of Underhill's survey. But Underhill also endorses them to some extent (though not the extremities of mortification, thankfully... she chooses not to mention many of the specifics of the crazy shit that some of the saints got up to).
Another aspect that I found a little troubling was her placing of the mystic at the high point of human evolution and 'above other men'. The ultimate ascent of human consciousness. Special people with a special knowledge. Partly this was the tone of the time. As previously mentioned, before WW1 there was a lot of optimism about the trajectory of humanity into enlightenment.
Both the above two issues are part of the reason why mysticism and contemplation are sometimes accused of being Gnostic.
I say all this while also acknowledging the inevitable existential role that suffering does play in the unfolding of the (spiritual) life. (It seems to me that life will bring sufficient suffering of its own, without going out of your way to self-inflict it.) On the other side of suffering, or even within suffering, are the possibility of unique gifts gained in no other way. Though this not about killing off the body. And there are perhaps times when the usual human senses are put aside in favour of some other sense and the possibility of the reality of the non-physical, the non-material.
There is also the possibility of undertaking a journey that does indeed expand life into realms of specially enhanced noticing, knowing and creativity.
For Underhill's part, the problematic issues of disembodiment and the specialness of the mystic are mitigated by a couple of things.
Firstly, healthy mysticism in its fullest flourishing always results in a greater level of engagement with the created world and with humankind. A love of creation, and acts of service, activism for positive change, and creativity. So in a sense, the individual ultimately becomes embodied in a much more vibrant form.
Secondly, for Underhill, mysticism and contemplation are in fact something for everyone. The 'special genius' of the great mystics simply serves as pioneering work for the rest of us, and a description of what might be possible. There's an invitation to a way of being that can have form in a more everyday, commonplace life.
It was to that end that Underhill devoted much of the rest of her life, via the work she went on to do. A significant gift she left, and she is entirely apt to be remembered for it. I'm thankful for the journey of this book, the characters that appear in it (amongst whose number Underhill should rightfully be placed) and the journey it describes.
February 11, 2024
I believe if you read this book in the spirit of Abrahamic (being mostly Christian) mysticism from a Christian rather than a book on mysticism itself then the book is ok, but with issues. It contains good research on a variety of Abrahamic authors and experiences of individuals who had underwent mystical experiences, it is well written, and the categorizations can be interesting. However, there is danger here in treating it as a piece on mysticism at large due to these same circumstances. It has heavy undertones of judgement, ownership of both definition and procedure often displayed as "fact", and as such isn't incorrect but narrow and incomplete. Allow me to explain.
Underhill sets out to try and define "True Mysticism" and as such she becomes the arbiter of what a "true" mystic, a "full experience", a "full" value, and more is versus what it isn't based on parameters set out by those she seemed attracted to in the first place. As such she builds this definition of mysticism out of an already arrived at conclusion rather than reaching a conclusion through the research itself. This crystallization of such a narrow boxed in definition is like building a map to your own house and claiming its the world. I'll quote this passage which could be the introduction to the work:
"Without prejudice to individual beliefs, and without offering an opinion as to the exclusive truth of any one religious system or revelation ... we are bound to allow as a historical fact that mysticism, so far, has found its best map in Christianity. Christian philosophy, especially that Neoplatonic theology which, taking up and harmonizing all that was best in the spiritual intuitions of Greece, India, and Egypt, was developed by the great doctors of the early and mediaeval Church, supports and elucidates the revelations of the individual mystic as no other system of thought has been able to."
As such anything that is outside of this is used to amplify Christianity and its mysticism as a "highest". The issues with this are manifold, but let's take a look at some of the more aggressive problems of being so confined to one idea of truth:
"Hence in every period of true mystical activity we find an outbreak of occultism, illuminism, or other perverted spirituality ... In the youth of the Christian Church, side by side with genuine mysticism descending fro the Johannine writings or brought in by the Christian Neoplatonists, we have the arrogant and disorderly transcendentalism of the Gnostics: their attempted fusion of the ideals of mysticism and magic. During the Middle Ages and the Renaissance there are the spurious mysticism of the Brethre of the Free Spirit, the occult propaganda of Pracelsus, the Rosicrucians, the Christian Kabalists; and the innumerable pantheistic, Manichean, mystery-making, and Quietist heresies which made war upon the Catholic tradition."
Not only did she build a map of her house rather than a map of the world, but she also designated it the center of all taking shots from a crystallized personal "truth" which she claimed she wasn't going to do. This same vein is found running throughout the text. Indeed, despite the claims of lack of prejudice or a claim on truth we find statements like this:
"This systole-and-diastole motion of retreat as the preliminary to a return remains the true ideal of Christian Mysticism in its highest development. Those in whom it is not found, however great in other respects they may be, must be considered as having stopped short of the final stage."
"The fact remains that only such bitter knowledge of wrongness of relation, seen by the light of ardent love, can spur the will of man to the hard task of readjustment."
We see these "facts" and claims of validity rampant throughout the book. This is why it is at such risk of the reader to see this as a book on mysticism when it is one really on a small part of Christian Mysticism from a Christian who seems to not be able to see from outside of that bubble. As someone who personally adds "Liberty" to Light, Life, and Love these areas can't help but jump out to me when liberty is being violated.
Underhill sets out to try and define "True Mysticism" and as such she becomes the arbiter of what a "true" mystic, a "full experience", a "full" value, and more is versus what it isn't based on parameters set out by those she seemed attracted to in the first place. As such she builds this definition of mysticism out of an already arrived at conclusion rather than reaching a conclusion through the research itself. This crystallization of such a narrow boxed in definition is like building a map to your own house and claiming its the world. I'll quote this passage which could be the introduction to the work:
"Without prejudice to individual beliefs, and without offering an opinion as to the exclusive truth of any one religious system or revelation ... we are bound to allow as a historical fact that mysticism, so far, has found its best map in Christianity. Christian philosophy, especially that Neoplatonic theology which, taking up and harmonizing all that was best in the spiritual intuitions of Greece, India, and Egypt, was developed by the great doctors of the early and mediaeval Church, supports and elucidates the revelations of the individual mystic as no other system of thought has been able to."
As such anything that is outside of this is used to amplify Christianity and its mysticism as a "highest". The issues with this are manifold, but let's take a look at some of the more aggressive problems of being so confined to one idea of truth:
"Hence in every period of true mystical activity we find an outbreak of occultism, illuminism, or other perverted spirituality ... In the youth of the Christian Church, side by side with genuine mysticism descending fro the Johannine writings or brought in by the Christian Neoplatonists, we have the arrogant and disorderly transcendentalism of the Gnostics: their attempted fusion of the ideals of mysticism and magic. During the Middle Ages and the Renaissance there are the spurious mysticism of the Brethre of the Free Spirit, the occult propaganda of Pracelsus, the Rosicrucians, the Christian Kabalists; and the innumerable pantheistic, Manichean, mystery-making, and Quietist heresies which made war upon the Catholic tradition."
Not only did she build a map of her house rather than a map of the world, but she also designated it the center of all taking shots from a crystallized personal "truth" which she claimed she wasn't going to do. This same vein is found running throughout the text. Indeed, despite the claims of lack of prejudice or a claim on truth we find statements like this:
"This systole-and-diastole motion of retreat as the preliminary to a return remains the true ideal of Christian Mysticism in its highest development. Those in whom it is not found, however great in other respects they may be, must be considered as having stopped short of the final stage."
"The fact remains that only such bitter knowledge of wrongness of relation, seen by the light of ardent love, can spur the will of man to the hard task of readjustment."
We see these "facts" and claims of validity rampant throughout the book. This is why it is at such risk of the reader to see this as a book on mysticism when it is one really on a small part of Christian Mysticism from a Christian who seems to not be able to see from outside of that bubble. As someone who personally adds "Liberty" to Light, Life, and Love these areas can't help but jump out to me when liberty is being violated.
March 20, 2021
I have such mixed feelings about this book. Man, it was a slog -- and a slog that involved a lot of outdated psychology and philosophy. Underhill's writing is like nothing I've experienced before. Her approach is bizarre, but maybe correct for a topic as arcane as mysticism? I am so far out of my field of expertise here that I genuinely don't know. I suppose this is what it looks like to take mysticism seriously? The first half of the book considers mysticism through various lenses, such as philosophy, psychology, and theology. The second half of the book considers the process that mystics undergo in their journey towards the divine. Underhill's writing supposedly explores mystics across cultures, but definitely has a significant Christian bias.
Overall, I'm not in a hurry to read this again or to recommend it, but some of Underhill's musings will stick with me:
- Humans as a "vision-making" species
- The similarities that she draws between mystics and artists (really, mystics and experts in any field)
- The similarities that she draws between mystics across eras and cultures
- Mystics as geniuses in something that all humans experience, to some extent: the desire to experience Truth and Beauty and be a part of something greater than themselves
- The catalog of "steps" on the pathway towards the divine and how those steps are experienced by different mystics across culture and time was impressive, if extremely long and repetitive.
Overall, I'm not in a hurry to read this again or to recommend it, but some of Underhill's musings will stick with me:
- Humans as a "vision-making" species
- The similarities that she draws between mystics and artists (really, mystics and experts in any field)
- The similarities that she draws between mystics across eras and cultures
- Mystics as geniuses in something that all humans experience, to some extent: the desire to experience Truth and Beauty and be a part of something greater than themselves
- The catalog of "steps" on the pathway towards the divine and how those steps are experienced by different mystics across culture and time was impressive, if extremely long and repetitive.
Read
August 13, 20252025-08-13
Review 2025.07.010
Reviewers Note: It is the middle of 2025 and I am not doing a good job of keeping up with this desired goal of mine to write book reviews. I do not want to lower my expectations but I am going to so that I can catch up. This will mean short reviews on the books I read.
Mysticism by Evelyn Underhill
363 Pages
This was a much slower read than I anticipated. Many times I just read her words and had to stop and process. I had 43 highlights on my Kindle. I probably should have highlighted a lot more but it was a bit overwhelming. This was the book I was reading in the morning for my prayer book and there were several days I had to take a break from it and pick it up later. Some of those breaks were only a day but one of them was three days long. I thought the book was brilliant and I’m positive that I only gleaned a small bit of what I could have and should have gleaned.
It started off quite broad including more than just a Christian perspective in the area of mysticism. Then later in the book she narrowed the focus to just a Christian perspective. I appreciated this.
For those studying mysticism, I would recommend this book but I would recommend it after you have read shorter and more accessible books like Thomas Merton. I don’t think I would have finished it apart from my foundation from other books and deep desire to grow in this area of my life.
Review 2025.07.010
Reviewers Note: It is the middle of 2025 and I am not doing a good job of keeping up with this desired goal of mine to write book reviews. I do not want to lower my expectations but I am going to so that I can catch up. This will mean short reviews on the books I read.
Mysticism by Evelyn Underhill
363 Pages
This was a much slower read than I anticipated. Many times I just read her words and had to stop and process. I had 43 highlights on my Kindle. I probably should have highlighted a lot more but it was a bit overwhelming. This was the book I was reading in the morning for my prayer book and there were several days I had to take a break from it and pick it up later. Some of those breaks were only a day but one of them was three days long. I thought the book was brilliant and I’m positive that I only gleaned a small bit of what I could have and should have gleaned.
It started off quite broad including more than just a Christian perspective in the area of mysticism. Then later in the book she narrowed the focus to just a Christian perspective. I appreciated this.
For those studying mysticism, I would recommend this book but I would recommend it after you have read shorter and more accessible books like Thomas Merton. I don’t think I would have finished it apart from my foundation from other books and deep desire to grow in this area of my life.
July 17, 2019
It is no argument to say that most men see the world in much the same way, and that this “way” is the true standard of reality: though for practical purposes we have agreed that sanity consists in sharing the hallucinations of our neighbors” page 10
“Now and then an artist is born, terribly articulate, foolishly truthful, who insists on “Speaking as he saw.” Then other men, lapped warmly in their artificial universe, agree that he is mad: or, at the very best, an “extraordinarily imaginative fellow” page 10
“Is your world of experience so well and logically founded that you dare make of it a standard?” page 25
“It has been said that ‘Whatever we may do, our hunger for the Absolute will never cease’” page 39.
“Only the Real can know Reality” page 4
“Now and then an artist is born, terribly articulate, foolishly truthful, who insists on “Speaking as he saw.” Then other men, lapped warmly in their artificial universe, agree that he is mad: or, at the very best, an “extraordinarily imaginative fellow” page 10
“Is your world of experience so well and logically founded that you dare make of it a standard?” page 25
“It has been said that ‘Whatever we may do, our hunger for the Absolute will never cease’” page 39.
“Only the Real can know Reality” page 4
July 31, 2024
A staggering work of historical and spiritual genius, collecting together the many and varied disparate threads of mysticism and demonstrating the commonality between them. Underhill manages to trace out the categories of imminent and immanent, internal and external, and awakening, purgation, illumination, dark night, and union with unparalleled clarity. Her research is comprehensive, convincing, and even convicting. This book represents a genuine change in my life, giving words and direction to things I had been stumbling around for some time. Not the easiest read, but not because of lack of skill, more because approaching the mystical requires a certain level of commitment to the basic premises.
August 23, 2017
Though not an easy read, this is a must for anyone seriously interested in mysticism and contemplative prayer. Underhill does an excellent job exploring the similarities and differences in cross cultural theologies and philosophical views and also does justice to the psychology of mysticism, especially the dissociative aspects (considering the limited perspective of the early 20th century). Furthermore, she does well in presenting her thesis without blurring the heretical lines of pantheism and Quietism. My only disappointment was the lack of Eastern Orthodox perspective. Nevertheless, this book still merits 5 stars and a permanent spot on my reference list.
April 14, 2023
„Mysticism is the art of union with Reality“, and a „Science of Love“.
Centered (in attention) (1) and empty (of personhood, attachment & desire) (2), you begin the contemplative, or mystical, life. Contemplating the Natural World of Becoming through savouring and seeing God in everything (3.1), contemplating the Metaphysical world of Being through surrendering to Nothingness (3.2), and contemplating the One Divine Reality in which these two merge into completion through full surrender of self to the One Reality beyond and within both form and formlessness (3.3).
Then you are fully empowered to let love live 🤍
Centered (in attention) (1) and empty (of personhood, attachment & desire) (2), you begin the contemplative, or mystical, life. Contemplating the Natural World of Becoming through savouring and seeing God in everything (3.1), contemplating the Metaphysical world of Being through surrendering to Nothingness (3.2), and contemplating the One Divine Reality in which these two merge into completion through full surrender of self to the One Reality beyond and within both form and formlessness (3.3).
Then you are fully empowered to let love live 🤍
February 8, 2025
Purchased the book hoping that it was for mysticism what Joseph Campbell is for mythology. Sadly, despite the authors best efforts it’s highly biased towards Christianity and overtly dismissive of many other faiths despite attempts at a civil tone. That said, it was an easy read and the author is great in the sections where she manages to break free of bias.
If I were to use the language of the author herself, I’d say that she is a mystical philosopher and not a mystic. Stuck using the metaphors and religious language she is most accustomed to v speaking from lived experience. There are better books that manage a more balanced perspective if you aren’t catholic.
If I were to use the language of the author herself, I’d say that she is a mystical philosopher and not a mystic. Stuck using the metaphors and religious language she is most accustomed to v speaking from lived experience. There are better books that manage a more balanced perspective if you aren’t catholic.
December 10, 2019
Firstly, the book is entirely Christocentric. I found much of it to be a slog to read through. The two cool parts of the book where when she 1) opens with a quick examination and bashing of other philosophies and finds a nice place to slot the philosophy of Mysticism into and 2) where she systematises the ‘mystic way’ into her five fold path, I like it because it’s ambitious and striving for a pattern even if at times it feels contrived and procrustean.
If you like books like this you'll love my project:
http://youtube.com/c/seekersofunity?s...
If you like books like this you'll love my project:
http://youtube.com/c/seekersofunity?s...
August 30, 2023
Includes a great summary/overview/history of Christian mystical experience. Her grasp of material and presentation are impressive. I disagree with her on the nature of the mystical experience. She would argue that the mystic brings his own imagination and creativity to the things he or she experiences. I would say that the mystic is a receiver of things from God (or other entities in the case of non-Christian meditation). An exhaustive bibliography would have been helpful for someone seeking to conduct a study of the source materials.
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