INTERPENETRATING AND TRANSCENDING THE World of phenomenal life there is an order of being that both sustains life and draws it to its final destination. The order of being of which I speak is all-embracing, having no finite parts, and neither beginning nor end. It embraces every created object. Indeed, the validity of the identity of any object, whether material or personal, lies in its belonging to this greater scheme of reality. This reality is as far above the personal as the personal exceeds the physical, and yet each object is sustained as itself in and by the all-embracing reality. In other words, the unique identity of each person (and created object) is never impugned or obliterated. On the contrary, it is confirmed and glorified in the eternal presence of which it is both an integral part and a universal whole.
This is the experience of mysticism, and to any who have been given it (for it never comes entire by willed assertiveness from the personality) by the grace of God, a new understanding both of the meaning of life and the nature of God dawns upon consciousness. It is no wonder that mystical experience is sought above all else by those who know, for in the glimpse of reality vouchsafed, the meaning and destiny of individual existence is dimly comprehended. However, both the experience and the effect its advent has on the subsequent life of the aspirant need careful consideration, for not every self-transcending experience is truly mystical, and indeed certain episodes of this type may be associated as much with brain dysfunction as with spiritual growth. Although the great mystics of the world have transformed the nature of society and man's view of reality by their ministry and teaching, it is nevertheless true that groups which have indulged heavily in practices that lead to dissociation of the personality have all too often tended to ignore the physical and social side of life. And drug-induced mystical states are not infrequently the precursors of a serious disintegration of the personality, so much so that the word mysticism is equated in many minds with irrational behaviour, occult tendencies, and a general inability to face the realities of everyday life. All these accusations have unfortunately a certain truth in them, and yet the true mystic is the most exalted of men, for he has seen the light of reality, and has been illuminated by it.
The true mystical experience, though rare in its full expression is not at all uncommon in those whose personalities are becoming better integrated, and who are living constructively and creatively in the society where they belong. The characteristic feature of a mystical experience (or a "peak experience" as it is more usually called by humanistic psychologists) is an awareness of union. The distance that separates subject and object in discursive meditation or in everyday relationships is suddenly, for a brief spell of time, transcended, and in that moment the identity of the person expands to embrace the identity of the object. In fact the soul is being explored. As Heraclitus said some 2,500 years ago; "You can never find out the boundaries of the soul, so deep are they." It is in the most sacred part of the soul, the spirit, that God reveals Himself to us. In the soul the barriers of time are dissolved and a state of eternity prevails. Eternity is not an endlessly long period of time, as the mathematician would define it, but rather the totality of being to which nothing, whether time or space, can be added. It is in this eternity that God is known, not by direct revelation, for It (as the Godhead) is outside the scope of rational cognition, being the eternal void from which all creation moves. In It is the eternal generation of the Trinity : creator Father, uncreated Son by Whom all substantive creation is evoked as the word of God, and the Spirit that effects creation and infuses all created things with life that brings them through willed action (in a time-space world) back to the Father as responsible agents.
In mystical experience the Godhead reveals Itself by its outpouring energies. Of these two are pre-eminent-love and light. The love that bears the creature, as it were in the everlasting arms, is personal in regard to the creature - who is a person - but also beyond personality in regard to the whole cosmos. The cosmic dimension of divine love is transpersonal, but never impersonal. Transpersonal love never denies the unique nature of any creature, but loves all creatures equally without respect of their uniqueness. The mystic glimpses in his vision the mind of Christ, and all mystics, of whatever religious tradition or none, are in the mind of the cosmic Christ when they are illuminated. This mind is one of light, not created, but an overflowing energy of God. Its intensity is such that it illuminates every part of the created universe. Its illumination is physical, in that it blinds the bodily eye by its radiance, psychical in that it illuminates the world of soul relationship by the experience of union and reconciliation, and intellectual, in that it reveals to the heightened reason the purpose, meaning, and end of individual life.
It is no wonder that Christ is described as "God of God, light of light, very God of very God" in the Nicene Creed. This is no symbolic statement. It is an affirmation of the indescribable radiance of uncreated light which is also the light of transfiguration. An illuminated person is physically transfigured, and this transmutation of the flesh and the mind should proceed even when the experience is but a past memory. The soul is also aware of a harmony so perfect that it resembles music of no earthly type. It has been called the music of the spheres; unlike the music of this world it is continuous and undivided. Of course, this is an impossible situation in terms of the music heard by the body's ear, which depends for its effect on its time sequences. But the celestial music is the source of all earthly music, transcribed in time sequence by the reasoning mind.
The intellectual illumination that accrues from mystical experience is spontaneous. It is a primary intimation and does not follow intellectual analysis. On the contrary, the ratiocination that brings the mystical revelation into a new metaphysic follows the experience and is the fruit of later discursive meditation. For every aspect of mysticism is an extension of the well recognised facts of reality. The radiance of the uncreated light is also the void which is eternally dark and obscure. The harmony of the uncreated sound is heard in complete silence. The love that embraces all creation in the flow of life is felt without personal touch. It therefore follows that, in mysticism, there is an inevitable reconciliation between apparently irreconcilable opposites. It is thus that the mystic is the leader of men towards a broader synthesis in which sects flow into the universal church, and science finds its ultimate source and end in spiritual reality.
The facts of mystical illuminations are the eternity of life and the forgiveness of sins. It is in illumination that the very relative role of the physical body in the life of the person is understood. The soul stands outside the time sequence, and is immortal according to the love of God who created it. But the body is not merely an unimportant physical covering that is to be discarded when death occurs. On the contrary, it is to be resurrected in spiritual reality. Thus the building of the spiritual body is the most important personal work that has to be performed when the soul is in incarnation.
The forgiveness of sin follows the ineffable love that comes to us from God. This forgiveness is unconditional, being an inevitable result of love. To be forgiven requires only the submission of self in complete faith to the power of God, and then a change in heart, in mind, and in strength is given one. We earn forgiveness, not by a positive act of selfish will trying to elevate ourselves to the divine reality by good works, but by accepting the unconditional love of God. If the atoning sacrifice of Jesus could be seen as a material demonstration of this mystical fact, the redemption of the personality that His act made possible would be better understood. Forgiveness leaves the person free to continue his path towards full integration of the personality. He is no longer hindered or sidetracked by the thought of revenge or the emotion of guilt that prevents him in his real work, which is integration and self-realisation. Indeed, in the experience of mysticism he is given a preview, in a mere flash of time, of what he and the whole world are to become when the spirit is fully revealed in the soul. This is the knowledge of fulfillment, whose height is love.
It follows from all this that the hall-mark of real mysticism is intuitive knowledge. A mystical experience is not simply a marvelous feeling or an emotional release. While these components are surely present, they are secondary events. It is the opening of the mind into a new way of understanding that is the real criterion of mystical illumination. This higher understanding is called "gnosis". It speaks of the eternity of life, the reality of a spiritual order that governs and sustains the physical order (which is in fact a reflection of the spiritual, and not to be thought of as basically separate or even different from the one reality that is spiritual), and the fact of God, Who is beyond all categories of thought but Who reveals Himself to His creatures as personal love and is seen in the cosmos as transpersonal love, uncreated energy, and preordained purpose. The mystic knows, but is not a "gnostic" in the limited, exclusive sense of that ill-used word. He knows he is not one of the "elect" who has been chosen to form a group in which to guard the "mysteries" (of which there are none, for everything of God is open and universal according to the person's ability to receive and comprehend). On the other hand, he returns to the world as he was before his illumination - simple, quiet, unobtrusive, and yet inwardly transformed by the experience of eternity he has had. What he is radiates from him in greater work, service, and healing to those around him.
As regards forgiveness, remember always that the redemption that follows the acceptance of God's love does not automatically make one perfect. This requires a long path of discipline using the free will and acting upon the grace of God. Whatsoever a man sows, that shall he surely reap is the law of life. It is called "karma" in the East. But karma is redeemed by the love of Christ. Its emotional energies are transformed, ceasing to be destructive and repetitive. Thus a redeemed karma is worked out in love and joyful anticipation, not in fear of future consequences or in a spirit of revenge. Even worldly punishment or bodily suffering is transfigured so that each experience loses its threat and becomes a stepping-stone towards the integration of the personality. In this way our wounds become as worships before God, to recall Dame Julian's words again. The path towards spiritual realisation is strait and narrow, but it is not uphill. The narrowness is a manifestation of its essential balance, the middle way of Buddhism.
The unitive experience occurs as a milestone on the spiritual path. Far from being the end of the journey, it is a confirmation by God's grace that all one has stored in one's faith is a living reality. It comes like the wind, blowing as it will, so that no one can tell where it comes from or where it is to go. This is the way of the Holy Spirit. I do not believe that anyone who is on the path of discipleship is left without an experience of union of God with the created universe, but there are all grades from the fully manifested experience which is known to the great mystics of the race to the fleeting peak experiences that lighten the worldly darkness of the humble aspirant. It is not the intensity of the experience that determines its validity, but rather the effect it has on the future life of the disciple. The acid test is (and I make no apology for saying this again) : "By their fruits ye shall know them."
This judgment is particularly important nowadays because many people are trying to force the pace of their own inner understanding by the use of drugs that so disturb the working of the brain that material of various hierarchies of significance enters uncensored into their consciousness. Some of this information is, as far as can be assessed from the descriptions given by drug-takers, similar in quality to the unitive experience of the mystic. Another type of approach that is much in vogue at present is the use of various types of meditation techniques, mostly derived from the Eastern religious tradition, which, by a process of auto-hypnosis through the repetition of mantras, can lay the mind open to the influx of material from sources beyond the physical. While the discipline of meditation is essential for the development of the spiritual will (the free will from the soul), it is only one aspect of the spiritual life. When beginners start indulging in alleged techniques of self-realisation without submitting first to the dedication of all they have and are to God's greater glory and the service of their fellow men, the results are not likely to be helpful to them even if they are able to glimpse mystical reality. It is important to consider the matter in detail.
We live our lives amphibiously between the sensory information of the physical world and the psychic communication of the realm of the soul. In primitive man the reason is so poorly developed that, as I said earlier, psychic impressions invade the personality with little resistance. The result is an animal type of attunement of the person with the environment in which he lives, but free will is so remote that the human dimension of life can scarcely be considered to have begun. As man comes more to himself, the reason develops until it assumes a dominant role. The intellect binds the personality into a coherent unit, but it also separates the person from his environment. Rational man can use his surroundings intelligently for his own benefit, but he cannot lose himself in a self-giving relationship. It is only on the more advanced spiritual path, in which the demands of the self are progressively surrendered in love to the needs of the greater community, that the person moves beyond the thraldom of intellectual dominance and emotional instability to the freedom of the spirit that lightens the soul. At this stage the personality is sufficiently integrated to bear the irruption of mystical information that derives from the spirit, which is of God. But if similar material invades the less developed consciousness of an unspiritual man, the result can be shattering. This happens in its most terrifying form in the course of severe mental illness, when it may disrupt the person's equilibrium entirely and make him feel that he is in direct contact with God. Indeed, he may identify himself with the Almighty.
A not altogether dissimilar result may follow the irruption of mystical material into the consciousness of rather undeveloped people under the influence of hallucinogenic drugs or meditation techniques that cause them to lose their sense of physical identity. Thus not every self-transcending experience is beneficial to the personality. Some such experience may lead to disintegration.
On the other hand, it is not unknown for frankly psychotic people to have beneficial self-transcending experiences. These are not to be dismissed as mere symptoms of insanity, for they may act as an integrating centre around which the smashed personality could reform itself. It is evident that a sane discernment of such events is most important. Only a trained spiritual director can be relied on, for an unsympathetic psychiatrist would certainly dismiss all such experiences as psychotic, whereas an untrained, well-meaning religionist might exalt the phenomenon far above its true value.
It follows from all this that mysticism is most convincing when it occurs in healthy, well-balanced people whose lives are self-actualising (or self-realising), and whose work in the world is creative and self-effacing. Mystical experience that occurs during the course of a psychosis or after the use of drugs lacks the needle-sharp knowledge, or "gnosis", that follows illumination in a healthy person. The reason for this is that the disrupted personality is unable to comprehend and condense the material that flows into it. For the proper assimilation of such intimations a healthy body and mind are essential.
It is this inner balance that distinguishes a real mystic from a mentally abnormal person. The former brings his intimations into worldly action, while the latter escapes into a private realm of self-transcendence while letting the world's demands go unheeded. It may be necessary to "drop out" of an inimical society for a short period - as many mystically or occultly inclined young people have done in recent years - but in the end there must be a return, so that the character may be strengthened through the inevitable tension between the demands of society and our own intimations of truth. The result of the resolution of this tension is not only an integrated personality but also a transformed society. The Marxist quite rightly declares that man should cease from merely interpreting the world and should instead change it - indeed this is also the meaning of the Christian revelation. But transformation can only follow the full development of the personality of each individual, so that he becomes a truly living man. For this to occur there must be a synthesis of mystical illumination that comes from God and progressive social action that comes from enlightened, self-transcending man. Social action based on purely intellectual precepts, no matter how laudable they are in theory, leads to the enslavement of mankind, and not its liberation.
If the modern mystic is to be contrasted with his medieval, or pre-scientific, counterpart, the difference must lie, not in his experience or temperament, but in his general view of the world. Pessimists can see no change for the better in the modern world, but those of us with greater perspective should be able to welcome many of the recent developments in science, medicine, psychology, economics, and sociology. The reality and glory of the physical universe have been further demonstrated by the work of the scientist, and the denial of the body that was so common amongst mystics of past ages is now seen to be an aberration. Self-flagellation, asceticism, and crushing poverty, far from being the way of God, are a repudiation of the theology of creation. When God created the world, He saw that it was all very good.
The spiritual path has been under the closest scrutiny by modern psychologists armed with Freud's destructive criticism of theism. While no unbiased person could accept the finality of the Freudian critique of religion-and indeed some of his later colleagues, especially Jung, have reinstated the religious quest as an essential component of mature adult life - it is nevertheless true that no serious aspirant can afford to be ignorant of the psychic power that drives the personality from its unconscious depths. Techniques of auto-hypnotic meditation no less than starvation through ascetic practices can induce dissociated states of the mind that may culminate in mystical experiences, but the product of these, as has already been noted, is an unbalanced personality. The great saints of the past were able to transcend the harsh circumstances of their lives through the high degree of integration of their personalities. The life of St. Teresa was one in which considerable physical ill-health and nervous strain in her youth were later overcome, so that she became a redoubtable old lady, the reformer of the Carmelite order, and one of the greatest mystics in the Christian tradition. A great modern mystic, Simone Weil, led a life of such asceticism that she died young at a time when her continued witness would have been of great help to the world.
It must be emphasized that mysticism is not only compatible with physical health and a balanced social life, but that the validity of the mystic depends on the contribution he makes both to the society round him in his lifetime and to the spiritual aspiration of subsequent generations. Far from opting out of unpleasant situations, the mystic should be in the forefront leading his fellow-men by the truth of his spiritual vision. When an aspirant falls ill, or becomes the victim of recurrent headaches and other symptoms of physical malaise, he should not submit to this as an act of God or the part he has to play in bearing the sufferings of mankind! He should, according to elementary common sense, check up on his way of life, and try to ascertain where he is going wrong. He may need more rest or a change of scene. Holidays, relaxation, and the simple pleasures of life are as important for the mystic as they are for other people. Likewise good food, clothing, and housing are prerequisites for the spiritual life. If these are denied there will be bodily dysfunction and mental disturbance. In such a person there can be little effective free will.
This leads us to a consideration of the social implications of spirituality. As we have already noted, the spiritual person must be informed about all relevant aspects of modern life. The world will never be the same as it was before the effects of Marx's social criticism manifested themselves. The inseparable relationship of the individual to the society in which he lives can never be denied again. Thus although the Marxist critique of religion as the opium of the people cannot be sustained if we survey the entire personality of man with its innate spiritual aspirations, there can be no permanent withdrawal of the aspirant from the world of relationships into a private retreat where the luxury of spiritual development can be enjoyed in selfish exclusiveness. The spiritual integrity of the mystic is inseparably related to the happiness of his fellows. The phases of withdrawal and return are part of the spiritual life; we withdraw in order to recollect our dependence of God, and we return once more to share this blessing with the world. As I have already said, there can be no effective spiritual aspiration in people who are starved, deprived of medical and social care, or so uneducated that they can scarcely communicate intelligently with their fellows.
It is the tacit acknowledgement of this basic fact that is at the root of social advancement. No country can deny its urgency. No person can be forgotten except to the detriment of everyone else. That we are all members one of another - St.Paul's great mystical insight - is at last being recognised at least on the level of social justice. Much still needs to be done, and the spiritual man can contribute much through his larger, more detached compassion and his ability to reconcile differences in a new synthesis.
The summons to life leads us from a self-centred existence to the encounter with God. But it is we who have to discover the spiritual path.