Can A Mystical Experience Be Brought About?

[Student of X]

If you can bring about a leap of faith, then you can bring about a mystical experience.

On the other hand if leaps of faith are regarded as gifts, then no you can't bring about a mystical experience because they too would be gifts.

I like to think that we can take leaps of faith, and so in that case the first step to bringing about a mystical experience is taking a leap and believing and intending that you can and will have one. Maintain that inner alchemy state-of-mind for a while and you will be shown a path. Follow it.

 

[Valjean]

If mystical experiences can't be induced there are a lot of religious practitioners all over the world wasting their time.
Yogis yoke, dervishes whirl, monks meditate, hippies trip, Lakotas go on spirit quests, Aborigines dance -- everyone but mainstream Abrahamics seems to be trying to tweak their minds.

In re drugs: There's been a lot of research, both formal and informal, on the effects of hallucinogens on consciousness by psychologists and neurologists. There is a remarkable consistency in the descriptions of these experiences. Moreover, the descriptions seem indistinguishable from those derived from traditional or orthodox methodologies.

If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, quacks like a duck...

 

[doppelganger]

Yes, I think they can be induced by introducing practices and chemicals that alter brain chemistry enough to fundamentally shift to a frame of experience outside of ordinary self-identity. Psychedelic drugs, extreme sensory deprivation, extreme physical deprivation (hunger, thirst, sleep, pain), brain damage all work very quickly. Meditation and similar mental practices take a lot longer to master to the point where the practitioner can induce experiences, and in my opinion, is a better approach if one's goal is to make enlightenment more integral to the full human experience.

Though in full disclosure, I've never tried psychedelics. I've read quite a bit about them and listened to the insights into them from the likes of Terence McKenna and Timothy Leary. As sixties "radicals" go, I prefer Alan Watts' and Joseph Campbell's approach, myself.

 

[roger1440]

If mystical experiences can't be induced there are a lot of religious practitioners all over the world wasting their time.
Yogis yoke, dervishes whirl, monks meditate, hippies trip, Lakotas go on spirit quests, Aborigines dance -- everyone but mainstream Abrahamics seems to be trying to tweak their minds.

In re drugs: There's been a lot of research, both formal and informal, on the effects of hallucinogens on consciousness by psychologists and neurologists. There is a remarkable consistency in the descriptions of these experiences. Moreover, the descriptions seem indistinguishable from those derived from traditional or orthodox methodologies.

If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, quacks like a duck...

Among “religious practitioners all over the world” the mystical experience is a sort of added bonus for the devoted. It is not the goal. Example: with unconditional love, love is its own procurement. Its only goal is to have a snow ball effect. It grows and grows.
A person may take hallucinogens that would mimic the same effect as a mystical experience but the hallucination may not produce a mystical effect in the person’s life. Many people on a hallucinogenic drug would just think it’s a cool trip. There are people who do take such drugs to achieve an mystical experience. In the end in most cases the goal is to achieve a mystical experience without the aid of the drug.
Please read The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge by Carlos Castaneda

 

[Storm]

Please read The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge by Carlos Castaneda

Why? It was a hoax.

 

[Valjean]

Good points, Roger. The average Joe is more concerned with putting food on the table than expanding his consciousness. Often it's only the priests or shamans that actively seek it.
As far as goals, though, enlightenment, unity, cosmic consciousness -- whatever you want to call it -- is the formal goal of the major Eastern Religions.

 

[zenzero]

Friend Ss,

Can A Mystical Experience Be Brought About?

It depends on what is termed *mystical*.
Our parents were instrumental in bringing us back in their own image; is that not mystical if gone through consciously by our parents at every stage?
Say you are preparing tea like a zen master and when it is ready the aroma, taste and the total tea experience; is it not mystical??

Love & rgds