Mystic Experience

Jordan Paper is Professor Emeritus of Humanities at York University and Associate Fellow at the Centre for Studies in Religion and Society at the University of Victoria. He has written several books, including Offering Smoke: The Sacred Pipe and Native American Religion and The Chinese Way in Religion, Second Edition (coedited with Laurence G. Thompson).

• Preface Acknowledgments 1. Introduction An EventGeneral Characteristics of the "Event"A Name for the ExperienceThe Mystic Experience in Cultural ContextA Caution to Readers 2. Phenomenology (Descriptive Analysis) of the Mystic Experience Naive ReportsReports by "Professional" MysticsConclusions 3. The Varieties of Ecstatic Experience Human Nature and Ecstatic ExperiencesFunctional Ecstasies Visions, Lucid Dreams, and Problem-SolvingDreamsShamanismMediumism Prophecy Nonfunctional Ecstasies Unitive ExperiencesPure ConsciousnessThe Mystic Experience 4. Previous Studies Philosophical AnalysesPsychological AnalysesSociological AnalysesAnthropological Analyses Combined Approaches: Anthropology and PsychologyBiological AnalysesNear-Death Experience StudiesComparative Religion Studies 5. Ethnohermeneutics I: Non-West Shamanistic and Mediumistic TraditionsSouth Asia The UpanishadsHinduismBuddhism Chinese Religion 6. Ethnohermeneutics II: West PlotinusJudaism ChristianityCatholicism OrthodoxyIslamModern "Secular" Mysticism Cosmic ConsciousnessAbsolute Consciousness 7. Conclusions: The Mystic Experience and Human Nature A Phenomenological AssessmentComparative EthnohermeneuticsSummary Works Consulted Index