Are Mystical Experiences Delusional?

[Valjean]

Without begining or end still implies time, though, rather than a vast simultaneity. And, of course, if there's no time there can be no space to waste, as time and space, or distance, are the same thing looked at from different angles, so to speak.
This is all relativity and metaphysics, though. From a "what is man..." perspective it does seem way more space than needed.

 

[rojse]

Ben D,

Hi rojse, appreciate your contribution, but do you really find it odd that most of the posters on RF don't use words according to the medical definition, but rather use them according to the meaning as generally understood in religious dialogue.

The term 'delusion' is used extensively in the religious traditions to imply ignorance or error, i.e. people who are living in 'maya', but believe it is the one and only reality.

and Sunstone

Perhaps you can explain what the medical definition of delusion has to do with anything? The notion the "medical definition" is somehow binding on us -- is somehow the definition that must be used here -- is a notion best left to comedians.

get an identical response, since they asked the same question.

Delusion is a psychological condition. Hence, to define what the word delusion is in a proper sense, we would consult a psychology or medicine textbook before commencing debate. And as delusion, medically speaking, excludes beliefs that are easily explainable by religion or culture, then the question becomes moot.

 

[rojse]

Why don't you start a thread on the kind of mystical experiences you yourself wish to discuss. In this thread we are discussing those kinds of mystical experiences that involved an end to subject/object perception while experiencing continues. I attempted to make that clear in the OP.

As for whether such experiences are common among mystics, I know of no studies to suggest they either are or are not.

Perhaps I was not reading the OP as carefully as I could have, because this point did not come across to me in that fashion.

 

[rojse]

Brendan Behan compared critics to eunuchs in a harem. He was right about a lot of things

The quote which StephenW refers to:

Critics are like eunuchs in a harem; they know how it's done, they've seen it done every day, but they're unable to do it themselves.

 

[capslockf9]

The basis of the universe is consciousness, which constructs the experience. Space, time, motion, and particles are illusions.
Consciousness concocts the experience of existense.