Mystical Oneness And The Nine Aspects Of Being

Building on the groundbreaking research of Irreducible Mind and Beyond Physicalism, Edward Kelly and Paul Marshall gather a cohort of leading scholars to address the most recent advances in the psychology of consciousness. Currently emerging as a middle ground between warring fundamentalisms of religion andscience, an expanded science-based understanding of nature finally accommodates empirical realities of spiritual sorts while also rejecting rationally untenable overbeliefs. The vision sketched here provides an antidote to the prevailing postmodern disenchantment of the world and demeaning of human possibilities. It not only more accurately and fully reflects our human condition but engenders hope and encourages ego-surpassing forms of human flourishing. It offers reasons for us to believe that freedom is real, that our human choices matter, and that we have barely scratched the surface of our human potentials. It also addresses the urgent need for a greater sense of worldwide community and interdependence - a sustainable ethos - by demonstrating that under the surface we and the world are much more extensively interconnected than previously recognized.

The European Middle Ages bequeathed to the world a legacy of spiritual and intellectual brilliance that has shaped many of the ideals, preconceptions, and institutions we now take for granted. An Introduction to the Medieval Mystics of Europe examines this phenomenon in vivid and scholarly accounts of the lives and achievements of those men and women whose genius most inspired their own and subsequent ages. These great mystics explored and consciously realized the relationship between human life and unconditioned transcendence. Representing both the contemplative and scholastic traditions, the mystics in these studies often found their solutions to ultimate questions in radically different ways. Some of them, such as Eckhart, Aquinas, and Cusa, may already be familiar, and here the reader will benefit from a new approach and summary of extensive research. Others, such as Smaragdus and several of the women mystics, are little known even to specialists. Finally, and unusually for a study of European mysticism, the influence of Spanish Kabbalists is discussed in relation to the Zohar and two figures from the mystical school of Safed, Cordovero and Luria. Though the essays focus on individuals, the cultural and social implications of their lives and work are never ignored, for the mystic way did not exist separately from the rest of medieval life; it functioned as an integral part of the whole, influencing the development of Christian and Jewish religions in both their internal and external forms.

The volume investigates the question of meaning of mystical phenomena and, conversely, queries the concept of "meaning" itself, via insights afforded by mystical experiences. The collection brings together researchers from such disparate fields as philosophy, psychology, history of religion, cognitive poetics, and semiotics, in an effort to ascertain the question of mysticism's meaning through pertinent, up-to-date multidisciplinarity. The discussion commences with Editor's Introduction that probes persistent questions of complexity as well as perplexity of mysticism and the reasons why problematizing mysticism leads to even greater enigmas. One thread within the volume provides the contextual framework for continuing fascination of mysticism that includes a consideration of several historical traditions as well as personal accounts of mystical experiences: Two contributions showcase ancient Egyptian and ancient Israelite involvements with mystical alterations of consciousness and Christianity's origins being steeped in mystical praxis; and four essays highlight mysticism's formative presence in Chinese traditions and Tibetan Buddhism as well as medieval Judaism and Kabbalah mysticism. A second, more overarching strand within the volume is concerned with multidisciplinary investigations of the phenomenon of mysticism, including philosophical, psychological, cognitive, and semiotic analyses. To this effect, the volume explores the question of philosophy's relation to mysticism and vice versa, together with a Wittgensteinian nexus between mysticism, facticity, and truth; language mysticism and "supernormal meaning" engendered by certain mystical states; cognitive-poetic analysis of mystical poetry; and a semiotic scrutiny of some mystical experiences and their ineffability. Finally, the volume includes an assessment of the so-called New Age authors' contention of the convergence of scientific and mystical claims about reality. The above two tracks are appended with personal, contemporary accounts of mystical experiences, in the Prologue; and a futuristic envisioning, as a fictitious chronicle from the time-to-come, of life without things mystical, in the Postscript. The volume contains fourteen chapters; its international contributors are based in Canada, Israel, United Kingdom, and the United States.

I and Thou is a summons calling us to dialogue today. Like the call Buber himself received, the book invites us to encounter the Other, our counterparts both human and eternal. Buber's spiritual awakening, his engagement with his people and his times, his wide reading, and his grief are contexts that open up this call to us to join with him in the fullness of a life of dialogue. If we follow Buber into his study, into the struggle of his inner life, into his achievement of dialogical existence--he opens up the wonders of I and Thou to us as his testament and his call to us to turn to dialogue, and he shows us the path to the fulfillment of that life. This book ushers us to that place.

“We are all connected in Love’s energy mystical might. Where you end . . . I am there . . . in the Blue-Black of Knight. We merge into the Oneness, and with Venus’s blush on our face, a New Universe is present to embrace. In the undulation of rhythmical Love, this new Universe, this new state extant, is able to take a nubile first breath and takes flight into the dawning Light … filled with a newborn baby’s happy sighs and … seeks Eternity’s Sunrise.” “That early spring day …When we first met … I knew I was dead …I knew I was done I was outnumbered … You were only One You charged into the battle Hopeless even to have Begun ….” Chung is a Samurai born in the 1500s. He enters infinite numbers of Nows and dimensions through portals and, in this way, can Time travel. “I slip between worlds at sunset. Sunset is when Mystics come out to play. Forgotten stories of Heros can be found among the stars. When there is only fear and hate in the world, Legends of one lone individual or group winning against insurmountable odds are found among the stars. All to bring Hope to subjugate fear and hate and allow Peace and Understanding to steer the Stars.” Mind Walking the Eons of Mystical Memories sees Chung search and find his Lost Love, Soft Moon Rising. Eleven stories of Mystical Memories tell of Cosmic Consciousness and stories of rebirth, Mysticism, unity, sacrifice, honor, and Love traveling the Eons. In addition, a brief discussion of the Emerald Tablets of Thoth. These tablets are thought to be a gift from the Atlantians. Thought to contain the secrets of the essence of all matter. It leads to the elixir of Life and immortality and thus is the prime reference source for alchemy. Thoth is an Egyptian god. He was revered from 6000 to 3000 BC. The Emerald Tablets were thought to be written in hieroglyphs and translated in the 2n century AD. Mystical Memories echo Elocuously Throughout the Eons.

This book introduces students to Christian mysticism and modern critical responses to it. Christianity has a rich tradition of mystical theology that first emerged in the writings of the early church fathers, and flourished during the Middle Ages. Today Christian mysticism is increasingly recognised as an important Christian heritage relevant to today's spiritual seekers.

Wisdom Seekers: The Rise of the New Spirituality explores the origins and precursors of the New Age movement, its consolidation within the American counterculture of the late 1960s, and its development into an international spiritual perspective in contemporary Western society. The book considers the influence on the New Age of metaphysicians like Emanuel Swedenborg, Mesmer, Madame Blavatsky and Gurdjieff; pioneering thinkers like Freud, Jung and William James; and the contribution to New Age thought of Indian spiritual traditions and transpersonal psychology. Wisdom Seekers also describes the way in which the New Age paradigm has absorbed the most recent discoveries of quantum physics and consciousness research, and it explores the New Age focus on personal spiritual experience rather than formal religious doctrines.