I wonder if @RabbiO knows of Zvi Ish-Shalom and what perspective he can offer:
Do you see the light? Descendant of Hasidic scholar teaches ‘Primordial Torah’
In his 20s, Zvi Ish-Shalom underwent a spiritual transformation rooted in Kabbalah; his new book offers an ‘experiential shift in consciousness’ – for Jews and non-Jews alike
The now 47-year-old Kabbalah scholar and teacher Zvi Ish-Shalom was in his early 20s when he began experimenting with esoteric Kabbalistic practices and suddenly found himself moving through a period of “profound energetic and psychic upheaval.”
“It’s all fun and games until you lose an ‘I,’” said Ish-Shalom playfully, during a recent interview with The Times of Israel. “And then it gets pretty terrifying.”
The entirety of that experience, which included shifts in how he perceived reality, would lead to a “cataclysmic shift” in his relationship to God, Torah and his Jewish lineage.
“Just as one can experience deep intimacy with another, and feel oneself melt with another, I experienced that with the divine light,” said Ish-Shalom. “And I experienced it in a way that, to my senses, was absolutely 100 percent real.”
...
Already trained in the classics at McGill University, Ish-Shalom enrolled in a graduate program in Jewish mysticism at Brandeis University as a way to deepen his knowledge of Kabbalah. Simultaneously, he studied with the late Tosher Rebbe of Broisbriand, Quebec, in the Hasidic lineage of his great-grandfather. Though he ultimately received rabbinical ordination, Ish-Shalom says that wasn’t his intent when he began his studies. Rather, he says, he was searching to better understand the spiritual transformation he was going through.
Do you see the light? Descendant of Hasidic scholar teaches ‘Primordial Torah’
In his 20s, Zvi Ish-Shalom underwent a spiritual transformation rooted in Kabbalah; his new book offers an ‘experiential shift in consciousness’ – for Jews and non-Jews alike
The now 47-year-old Kabbalah scholar and teacher Zvi Ish-Shalom was in his early 20s when he began experimenting with esoteric Kabbalistic practices and suddenly found himself moving through a period of “profound energetic and psychic upheaval.”
“It’s all fun and games until you lose an ‘I,’” said Ish-Shalom playfully, during a recent interview with The Times of Israel. “And then it gets pretty terrifying.”
The entirety of that experience, which included shifts in how he perceived reality, would lead to a “cataclysmic shift” in his relationship to God, Torah and his Jewish lineage.
“Just as one can experience deep intimacy with another, and feel oneself melt with another, I experienced that with the divine light,” said Ish-Shalom. “And I experienced it in a way that, to my senses, was absolutely 100 percent real.”
...
Already trained in the classics at McGill University, Ish-Shalom enrolled in a graduate program in Jewish mysticism at Brandeis University as a way to deepen his knowledge of Kabbalah. Simultaneously, he studied with the late Tosher Rebbe of Broisbriand, Quebec, in the Hasidic lineage of his great-grandfather. Though he ultimately received rabbinical ordination, Ish-Shalom says that wasn’t his intent when he began his studies. Rather, he says, he was searching to better understand the spiritual transformation he was going through.