| • Science | • People | • Locations | • Timeline |
| Contents | ||
A wide range of perspectives occur among spiritual traditions and beliefs which embrace direct experiential knowledge of God, Divinity, or Ultimate Reality. Different traditions adopt a range of intellectual or rational assessments of what is likely, possible, provable, approvable, or factual. Among these the idea of union or interrelationship of oneself and of all mortal beings with the ultimate imperishable being is often declared to be something that can be experienced in profound, definite, and personally undeniable ways, rather than something that is merely conjectured. It is often asserted that the triggering of such experience can involve ritual prayer and contemplations focused on such union, or may sometimes occur spontaneously with some individuals.
In theistic, pantheistic, and panentheistic classical pantheist/cosmotheist metaphysical systems, mystical experience is most often understood as individual communion with a god or goddess. These experiences are very subjective, and they may be experienced as visions, dreams, revelations, prophecies, and so forth.
St. Thomas Aquinas, a Catholic mystic from the 13th century, defined it as cognitio dei experimentalis. In Catholicism the mystical experience is not sought for its own sake, and is always informed by revelation and ascetical theologyAscetical theology is the organized study or presentation of spiritual teachings found in Scripture and the Church Fathers that help the faithful to more perfectly follow Christ and attain to Christian perfection''. The word ascetic is from the Greek word. This causes the subjectivist tendency of mysticism to be curtailed, as experiences not aligned with truths otherwise known are discarded.In philosophyPhilosophy literally means 'love of wisdom' from the Greek 'philo' and 'sofia'. It is now widely used to designate the pursuit of knowledge or wisdom about fundamental matters concerning life, death, meaning, reality, being and truth. The term may also re, the term Perennial PhilosophyPerennial Philosophy is a term that is often used as a synonym for Sanatana Dharma (Sanskrit for "Eternal or Perennial Truth"). It was used by Leibniz to designate the common, eternal philosophy that underlies all religious movements, in particular the my is used, and relates to a primary concern:
Some mystics use the term to refer to a manner wherein the mystic plumbs the depths of the self and reality in a radical process of meditative self-discovery to discover the true nature of reality experientially. Historically in some cultures and traditions, mind-altering substances have had a place as a 'guide', in others rituals and methods such as meditation, self-reflection or self-enquiry are used.