What Do We Mean by Mysticism and Mystics?
There is no one hard, fast or easy definition of mysticism or of a mystic. I consider mystics to be people who experience a direct, personal and profoundly positive relationship with God, one or more divine or spiritual entities, and/or divine or spiritual energies. They may or may not have dramatic mystical experiences such as hearing voices (like Joan of Arc), seeing visions or having an out of body or near death experience,
I suspect that many people have mystical experiences but probably wouldn't view them or describe them as mystical. Witnessing the birth of a baby, watching a sunrise, making love, bursting into song, writing poetry, listening to music, feeling the peace that passeth all understanding....
When we are "lifted out of" our "little selves" into an awareness of higher positive energies such as love, joy, peace, exaltation--or experience communication with higher positive entities--such as God, Jesus, Mary, angels, the Holy Spirit, or saints--I believe we are having mystical experiences.
Religious organizations and institutions sometimes have an uneasy, even adversarial attitude toward mystics because mystics look to personal, inner experiences, feelings and perceptions for their religious or spiritual beliefs and understanding, whereas non-mystically oriented people are more likely to base their religious or spiritual beliefs and understanding on external sources of authority, such as what they read in holy texts and what they are told to believe and think by religious professionals (clergy).
Some other ideas about and descriptions of mystics and mysticism can be found below.
- Cynthia Kiteley Lee
"Throughout all of history, mystics have been our way showers, those who go before, those who see beyond, those who seem (so often) to speak in riddles.
"They are those who have “lifted the veil” of worldly illusion to experience a deeper truth and wisdom of Being. The mystic is not so much concerned with survival as with coming to realize the full potential of being. The mystic is seeking direct realization of Truth even within a dynamic evolving Great Mystery. The mystic finds the eye of the needle and enters into the realization of the Kingdom of Heaven within.
"Every religion the world over (both of the east and west, orthodox and liberal) has at its origin the way-showing wisdom of one or more great mystics. Indeed, all the men and women throughout recorded history who have had the greatest spiritual integrity and direct authority are rightly called mystics: Jesus of Nazareth was a true mystic, as was Gandhi, Meister Eckhart, Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, William James, Thomas Merton, Sri Aurobindo, Sri Ramakrisna, Lao-tse, Shankara, Vivikananda, Abraham, Job, Carl Jung to name a mere few… and scores more of men and women poets and artists."
- Ronda Larue http://www.rondalarue.com/PAGES/WRITE%20folder/Mystic.html
"Mysticism is the art of union with Reality. The mystic is a person who has attained that union in greater or less degree; or who aims at and believes in such attainment."
--Evelyn Underwood, Practical Mysticism
An article on "Faith, a Personal God and Mysticism" by Tom Coyner
