Mystik och läran om själen : En idéanalys och jämförelse av Ramana Maharshi och Thomas Merton baserad på Jungiansk psykologi

The aim for this paper is to study how mystics can be seen as religious psychologists. It does so by describing and comparing Thomas Merton (1915–1968) and Ramana Maharshi (1879–1950), two mystics from the western-Christian respectively the eastern-Hindu faith. The essay focuses on the mystics understanding about three notions. These are (1) the self, (2) self-realization and (3) the ultimate reality. It does so through the eyes of another 20th century soul searcher: Carl G Jung. The theory that's used is Jungian psychology and is meant to facilitate a tool for describing the mystics' understanding about the notions. It brings the purpose to explain the mystics teachings about the soul, which is the literate meaning of the word ‘psychology’. As such, a discussion is being made about how the mystics can be seen as religious psychologists, because of their use of religious terms and teachings based on mystical experiences. A closer look at the similarities between Jung and the mystics, as well as the impact their teachings have on human well-being, show how they can in fact be seen as religious psychologists. An argument against it is that mystical experiences cannot be proven with a materialistic worldview based on science. However, I discuss that just as some psychological theories and hypotheses cannot be proven by empirical means but are rather judged on the effect it has, so can mysticism also be seen as a religious psychology