Negotiating the Nature of Mystical Experience, Guided by James and Tillich

The nature of mystical experience has been hotly debated. Essentialistsdivide into two camps: 1) immediate identity beyond any subject-object structure 2)the mystical object maintaining some distinctness at the point of contact. PaulTillich’s mystical a priori has some affinities with the former, while William James’model of religious experience coheres only with the latter. Opposing the essentialistsare constructivists. After noting some ironies of the constructivist position, thisarticle elaborates difficulties with 1) the traditional model of pure identity with thedivine by certain mystics, 2) the Tillichian universal mystical awareness, and 3) theJamesian direct perceptual model. Finally, it proposes that the human body and brainmediate mystical experience, which consists of a distinctive sense of bodily harmonyconjoined with openness to the potentialities of an integrated environment, involvingdistinctive neurological processes