Mysticism and the Dissolution of the Self
Mystical experience has accompanied humanity throughout recorded history and across cultures. From the trance rituals of the San peoples of the Kalahari to the contemplative practices of Buddhism, Christianity, Sufism, Taoism, and Hinduism, human beings have sought ways to transcend ordinary consciousness and encounter a deeper dimension of existence. Such experiences have often transformed not only individuals, but entire societies, shaping philosophy, ethics, religion, and culture.
Figure 1. Solen (The Sun), 1909-1916, by Edvard Munch (Hall of Ceremonies at the University of Oslo) (source: Wikimedia Commons)
Although mystical experiences are frequently described as deeply personal, they have rarely been understood merely as private revelations. In many traditions, the value of mystical insight is measured by how it changes a person’s relationship with others and with the world itself. Compassion, humility, generosity, and wisdom are regarded as the true fruits of spiritual awakening.
The following text explores mystical experience through a comparative and philosophical lens, examining its cultural manifestations, psychological dimensions, and ethical implications.
Shamanic Traditions and Collective Healing
Among the Kalahari San peoples, elder shamans prevented young initiates from entering trance states during ceremonies before they were ready. The purpose of trance was not personal liberation or inner enlightenment. The San shaman sought answers within trance experiences to challenges faced collectively by other members of the tribe. The shaman was primarily a healer, and mystical trance journeys were only one tool among many in their professional repertoire.
In addition to indigenous religions, organised world religions also contain mystical practices. Christians, Sufis, Hindus, Taoists, and Buddhists all possess their own methods, which often cause mystical experiences. Common to all of these traditions is a long-term path to which the practitioner devotes themselves. A mystical experience may function as the engine that initiates a process through which the original experience is cultivated and deepened. Sometimes devotion leads to a deep mystical union, always shaped by the imagery and beliefs of the practitioner’s own religion.
Christians may experience the Crucifixion, while Buddhists may experience liberation from suffering. American philosopher William James emphasised the consequences of such experiences in life: whether the person becomes more compassionate, generous, and ethical.
The Relative and the Absolute
Here we arrive at the Zen distinction between the relative and the absolute, associated with Shitou Xiqian. It is not enough to glimpse a reality beyond the self or ego. This glimpse would then actualise in ones behaviour and one would automatically want to integrate that insight into everyday life and social relations. This want is not something that is done deliberately, but without effort.
From this perspective, it is not sufficient merely to receive a mystical glimpse of what the world is like without our selfishness. The experiencer must learn to perceive all the dimensions of this perspective, refine it, and understand its relationship to the everyday web of social interaction. Religious traditions can therefore provide valuable assistance in this regard. At its best, mystical experience serves the greater whole on a global scale.
According to Kobo-Daishi (774-835), founder of the Japanese Shingon Buddhist school, the depth of a practitioner’s awakening can be measured by how they treat others. The principle of the Golden Rule is indeed a widely shared ideal across religions.
At the core of religious teachings lies the idea of reciprocal interaction. All our actions form part of a constantly changing process in which the consequences of our behaviour are highly likely to return to us in one form or another, sooner or later. This mode of thought is almost identical to the Indian concept of karma.
Mystical experience is described by many different words and concepts depending on cultural context. Within mainstream Finnish culture, experiential religiosity is often associated with revivalist movements and various religious “fanatics”. This derogatory term entered the Finnish language during the nineteenth century, when it developed from the hih-huh cries heard during the revival meetings of the Laestadian movement. At that time, the movement itself was commonly referred to as hihhulilaisuus.
Mystical experience is a profound and deeply human phenomenon whose significance for the development of the human species should not be underestimated. Many of the most influential philosophical thinkers in human history drew wisdom from mystical experiences through which they articulated new ideas that redefined life and society. Among the most famous of these were the thinkers of the Axial Age, including Zarathustra, Pythagoras, Confucius, Laozi, the Buddha, Jesus of Nazareth, and Muhammad.
The same mystical tradition also includes the mystics of the thirteenth century, such as the Dutch mystic Hadewijch, the Sufi mystic-poet Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Balkhi-Rumi, the philosopher and poet zen master Dogen, who is considerred as the founder of the Japanese Soto Zen school, and Francis of Assisi, who renounced all personal possessions and devoted himself entirely to serving others. All of them represented major advances in the development of human culture.
Transformation of Consciousness
Mystical experience transforms three core dimensions of consciousness: self, time, and space. These three pillars undergo a form of transfiguration during mystical experience. In such states, the distinction between self and other disappears. Our sense of self merges with the entire universe, becoming one and the same with it.
In mystical experience, the self may dissolve, fall away, or even die completely. Mystical traditions sometimes speak of death and rebirth when referring to the death of the inner self. The Chinese Zen koan stating, “I have died, he has died. Where shall I meet him?” refers precisely to this transformation. When the self has died and disappeared, we may finally encounter ourselves as other, and others as ourselves. The boundary between self and other dissolves. The self merges with the universe. The self may ”die” and be reborn.
Nisargadatta Maharaj expressed this paradox:
When I look inside and see that I am nothing, that’s wisdom.
When I look outside and see that I am everything, that’s love.
Between these two my life flows.
The temporal dimension undergoes a similar mystical transformation. Past, present, and future merge into a timeless moment. The past exists fundamentally within our own subjective memories and shapes our sense of self. The future, meanwhile, is a product of imagination that produces fear and anxiety, but also hopes and wishes for something better.
Yet attachment to dreams of the future is a deceptive trap. We decide within our minds how events ought to unfold and become bitterly disappointed when reality does not conform to our expectations. We may certainly possess goals, but we should not cling rigidly to our ideas of how things must happen.
Mystical experience may offer a perspective upon the present moment that could be described as the eternal now. Time appears to stop because it no longer passes in the ordinary sense. Temporal concepts such as now, then, before, and after collapse into a single moment, which contains all time.
Through mystical experience, even brief periods of time may contain an immense richness of experience. Because of our internal and eternal dissatisfaction, we are rarely content with the present moment, as we worry about how things turned in an undesirable direction in the past. The present moment becomes merely an instrument, which we utilise for something else. We use it for planning the future in the hope that our dissatisfaction would eventually be resolved somewhere ahead of us.
In addition to the self and time, spatial dimensions also undergo similar changes. In mystical experience, space loses its ordinary limitations and becomes a source of possibility and creativity. Like the self and time, space is no longer here or there; it becomes everywhere. Everything is here.
William Blake expressed this vision:
To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.
Conclusion
Mystical experience is a universal phenomenon that transcends cultures and historical eras. Its importance lies not only in mystical altered states of consciousness but in ethical and practical transformation. It dissolves rigid boundaries between self and other, time and eternity, and here and someplace else. Rather than being an escape from reality, mysticism can be understood as a deeper form of engagement with it, grounded in compassion, humility, and interconnectedness.
References:
Blake, W. (1863). Auguries of Innocence.
James, W. (1914). The varieties of religious experience: A study in human nature. Longmans, Green & Co.
Loy, D. R. (2019) Ecodharma: Buddhist Teachings for the Ecological Crisis. Wisdom