Mysticism and Embodiment

Anna Westin is a lecturer in philosophy and ethics at St. Mellitus College, UK and a Lecturer and Research Fellow at The Bakhita Centre for the Study of Modern Slavery, Exploitation and Abuse at St. Mary’s University, Twickenham, UK. She is Director of The Willow Institute, an academic collective of artists engaged in trauma and the arts.

• 1. IntroductionPart One: An Existential Phenomenology of Mysticism2. Traditions in Mysticism3. Continental Philosophy and Transcendence4. Contemporary Mystical PracticePart Two: Ethics and Transcendence5. Creation Myths6. Mending the World7. The Interior Castle, The Exterior PublicPart Three: Mysticism and the Imagination8. Mysticism in the Arts9. Film as Ethics10. Music, Word and Spirit11. Somatic Movement and DancePart Four: Mysticism and the Other12. Freedom and Post-Shoah Jewish Phenomenology13. Revelation and Communication14. Defining Transcendence Through ActionPart Five: Healing and Mysticism15. Medicine and Mysticism16. Drug-Induced States17. Psychosis and Mania18. Anorexia and Aestheticism19. Conclusion

Westin offers an impressive phenomenological study which reframes mysticism as a transformative way of being with others rather than a private ineffable event, insightfully linking medieval sources with contemporary concerns including trauma, responsibility, and social justice.