An introduction to religious and spiritual experience

10. Mystics
In all times and places there have been people with a special awareness of 
ultimate reality. Through these mystics, we are able to glimpse the beyond, 
as the finite touches the infinite. A mystical experience is usually thought 
of as being one of unity with Ultimate Reality, an intense form of spiritual 
experience.
Mystical experiences tend to happen in two main ways: an introvert 
experience, achieved through inner realization or an extrovert experience, 
outside the self, of merging with the universe. The immanent experience 
is within, a personal relation with God or Allah, who is closer than the 
jugular vein according to the Qur’an. Within other religious traditions 
this might be interpreted as Christ within or the realization of the Buddha 
nature. The extrovert experience is a sense of the individual merging 
into unity with the transcendent, whether this is viewed as the Godhead, 
understood as the absorption into the impersonal Brahman, or as attain-
ing the Buddhist state of Nirvana. These states can lead from one to the 
other and indeed it is often held that the immanent is a stage on the path 
to the transcendent experience.
The inner way can be through meditation, as the mind is calmed and 
probed, thoughts watched and allowed to disappear. In 
How to Practise, 
the Way to a Meaningful Life
, the Dalai Lama quotes the Buddha.
In the mind, the mind is not to be found; the nature of the mind is 
clear light.
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Radhakrishnan (1888–1975) explains the outward way:
The way of growth lies through a gradual increase in impersonality by 
an ever deeper and more intense unifying of the self with a greater than 
itself. In this process prayer, worship, meditation, philosophy, art, and 
literature all play their part, since all help in purifying the inner being 
and disposing it more and more for contact with the divine.
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Although often alleged to be ineffable, that is, impossible to describe, 
mystical experiences have given the human race some of its most 

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Religious and Spiritual Experience
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profound and exquisite writings. Mystics attempt to express their sublime 
states, yet are constantly aware of the shortcomings of language, whether 
conceptual or poetic. Mystical experiences may also include supranatural 
manifestations, such as visions, voices or presences and in some cases 
physical marks such as the stigmata.
There are mystics in most religious traditions, who very often bring a 
new vision. However, it has to be admitted that they are often completely 
different from the norm. There is at times a thin line between mental 
imbalance and life lived within a consciousness of another level of exis-
tence. Their behaviour sometimes does not conform to what is generally 
accepted. The ecstasies of Ramakrishna and Teresa of Avila are challeng-
ing. However, many profound insights have come through mystics, who 
have deepened our understanding: Plotinus (205–270), Muhammad Ibn 
‘Arabi (1165–1240), St John of the Cross (1542–1592) and Meister 
Eckhart (1260–1327) to name but very few. Ramakrishna (1836–1886) 
explored the mystical experiences at the heart of Hinduism, Islam and 
Christianity and found them to be the same. In his view God had made 
many religions to suit the needs of different times and places, just as a 
mother cooks different dishes for the members of her family.
There are schools of thought supporting this, such as Aldous Huxley in 
The Perennial Philosophy,
who sees a similarity between the mystical 
experiences within different religious traditions. This leads them to claim 
a common core. Many interpreters, however, look closely at the differ-
ences between the experiences of various religious traditions, and main-
tain that all experience, including that of the mystics, is determined by 
prior expectation as well as subsequent interpretation and thus deny any 
common core.
Mystical experiences may come after specific practice, and most reli-
gious traditions have mystical branches and techniques associated with 
them. Hindus use various types of yoga; the Greeks had their Mysteries, 
reserved for the initiated; Buddhists use various forms of meditation and 
in Zen impossible questions known as 
koans
are used to pierce logical 
thought; the Sufis of Islam have the poetry of love, music and the dance 
of the whirling dervishes; the Jewish Kabbalists use the Tree of Life. 
These are just a few ways in which individuals can prepare themselves for 
an experience of the divine, but it cannot be induced. Many experiences 
take the mystics beyond the boundaries of their tradition, sometimes 
revealing greater depths of understanding of doctrine, but often moving 
beyond the teachings. It has often been the case that the mystics, although 
they were trained within their specific religious traditions, they have 
found themselves on the margins when their extraordinary experiences 
became known. Their revelations did not always conform to received 

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doctrine. In fact, Meister Eckhart was condemned by the church. Yet 
mystics are often innovators and can offer a deeper understanding of 
faith.
Such experiences can also happen with no preparation at all. Blaise 
Pascal (1632–1662) was a French mathematical genius, who excelled in 
the fields of physics and geometry and invented an adding machine called 
‘la pascaline’. He was also known for his wager: that as we cannot know 
whether there is a God or not, it is more sensible to believe, as if you 
believe and are right, you gain paradise, if you believe and are wrong, that 
is the end anyway, as it would be if you disbelieve and are right. However, 
if you disbelieve and are wrong, you risk eternal damnation.
This rational approach was shattered by Pascal’s pivotal religious 
experience, which took place on 23 November 1654. He wrote down 
what happened to him on this ‘Night of Fire’ and afterwards kept his 
‘memorial’ or ‘amulet’, sewn into his clothes. The parchment was discov-
ered after his death and it recounted his realization of the
God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, not of the philosophers 
and savants.
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This was certainty, this was a revelation of God as a powerful reality 
and of Jesus Christ. It caused Pascal tears of joy and led to complete 
submission. He subsequently led a semi-monastic life and composed 
the 
Lettres Provinciales
(Provincial Letters) on Jesuit theology and began 
a treatise on miracles which developed into a work of ‘Thoughts’ or 
Pensées, which were published posthumously.