Introduction to Mysticism

What does ‘mysticism’ imply? Sensitive souls may think of a mysterious Power beyond the corporeal that defies being pinned down in any hard-and-fast category. Those of a sceptical turn of mind may see in it a nebulous dreamscape jollied along by a ‘Mystic Meg’ in a fairground attraction. Those who stand tall on only what they see, touch and calculate are increasingly on the backfoot as science unfurls more to life than meets the eye. ‘Vision’ wrote Swift in 1711 is ‘The art of seeing the invisible.’ Reflection itself may border on mysticism in the attempt to delve into the deep wellsprings of our being.

If you wish to reflect on the Mystic Dimension in life you are spoiled for choice:

One could read the autobiographical book by the mystic and philosopher G. Gurdjieff. ‘Meetings with Remarkable Men’ or see its 1979 cinematic adaptation directed by Peter Brook

Or read ‘Wild Mercy’ by Mirabai Starr subtitled ‘Living the Fierce and Render Wisdom of the Women Mystics’: ‘Mystics seem to have no shame about contradicting themselves left and right. They blithely proclaim that the cure for pain is in the pain itself and that the cry of longing is the sigh of merging. That’s because the path of the mystic reconciles contradictory propositions (such as harrowing sorrow and radical amazement) and blesses us with an extended capacity to sit with ambiguity, to treasure vulnerability, to celebrate paradox as the highest truth.’

Or set out on a Buddhist path as in ‘The Teachings for Victory’ by Daisaku Ikeda: ‘The Mystic Law has the power to create value, transforming negative influences in positive influences. It has the power to change karma, transforming great evil into great good. It has the power of Justice, transforming inhumanity into humanity and reason’.

The philosopher Roy Maunder recalls ‘The Mystic Light’ by Walter H Hudley adapted by R. Albert Fisher, published 1939, as a seminal work explaining the meaning of the bible in Sufi mystic terms of metaphor. It’s ten basic principles marry well with modern parallels to the writings of Plato and Socrates and to Quantic Physics and the holographic universe: ‘God is an infinite sphere who centre is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere’, the universe is likened to a hologram: ‘As below, so above!’

What this institute offers in so vast a field for exploration as Mysticism can only be pointers to whet an appetite if the visitor is so inclined….