THE MYSTIC EXPERIENCE A Psychiatric Reflection* REVEREND
The mystical experience is always of interest because of its persistence in the history of thought, its vivid and picturesque phenomenology, its variety, the many contexts in which it emerges, the impact it has on a period's history, and the diversity of interpretation given to the experience in both learned and popular literature. Our curiosity is certain to be aroused by the extraordinariness of "cosmic consciousness" and, by its vivid and varied phenomenology. In Canadian psychiatry the mystical experience has won special rights of consideration. For one of the great physicans in Canadian history was Richard Maurice Bucke. At the age of thirty he came powerfully under the spell of Walt Whitman, both in reading Leaves of Grass and in meeting and entertaining the poet. An even more decisive event, but one which seems to have had its roots in the "expansion of consciousness" which he experienced while reading Whitman, was the experience of illumination which occurred in 1872. In his own words:
J.
ERNEST RUNIONS.
M.D.I
found myself wrapped in a flame-coloured cloud. For an instant I thought offire ... the next, I knew that the fire was within myself. Directly afterwards there came upon me a sense of exaltation, of immense joyousness accompanied or immediately followed by an intellectual illumination impossible to describe. I saw that the universe ... is a living presence; I became conscious in myself of eternal life . . . I saw that all men are immortal; that the cosmic is such that without any peradventure all things work together for the good of each and all; that the foundation principle of the world ... is what we call love . . . The vision lasted a few seconds and was gone; but the memory of it and the sense of the reality of what it taught has remained ... I knew that what the vision showed was true (3).
Greenland comments, "Bucke was convinced that this was an instance of cosmic awareness or consciousness. He devoted the next thirty years of his life to establishing a scientific framework within which it could be understood as a natural phenomena [sic] quite different from similar morbid experiences" (4). Bucke's experience is noteworthy because it did not occur in a traditional religious context; it did not require the setting of asceticism or emotional turmoil so frequently described by the great mystics, it had the quality of an authentic mystic experience (illumination with certitude), it profoundly affected his life and work. The psychiatrist has, of course, an interest in the experience of "cosmic consciousness" because of its extraordinariness, (it can scarcely be considered "normal" in any statistical sense), because of its similarity to experiences in the psychotic and the hysteric, and because it has played a role in the history of medicine in the western world.
I had spent the evening in a great city, with two friends, reading and discussing poetry and philosophy. We parted at midnight. I had a long drive in a hansom to my lodging. My mind, deeply under the influence of the ideas, images, and emotions called upon by the reading and the talk, was calm and peaceful. I was in a state of quiet, almost passive enjoyment, not actually thinking, but letting ideas, images, and emotions flow of themselves, as it were, through my mind. All at once, without warning of any kind, I
'Manuscript received July 1978. I Academic Dean. Division of Christian Studies, Baptist Union of Western Canada: Clinical Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, B.C. Can. J. Psychiatry Vol. 24 (1979)
147
148
CANADIAN JOURNAL OF PSYCHIATRY
The phenomenology of the mystical experience has been well described by psychologists and psychiatrists as well as the great religious writers. Linn (9) adequately summarized the essential features: I. Inevitability. The subject often insists that his experience is inexpressible and indescribable, that it is impossible to convey what it is like to one who has never experienced it. 2. Noesis. The subject has the feeling that the mystery of the universe has been plumbed, that an immense illumination or revelation has occurred ... It seems to consist oflayer upon layer of truth that, as it unfolds, may find expression in some familiar or even common-place thought that suddenly seems pregnant with new meaning... 3. Transiency. The actual mystical state may last only a moment or it may go on for an hour or two.... It is as unforgettable as it is highly treasured, and it colors all subsequent activity. 4. Passivity.... there is an abeyance of the will, as if the subject were in the grip of a superior power .... 5. Unio Mystica. There is a sense of mystic unity with an infinite power, and oceanic feeling in which opposites are reconciled, in which there are "darknesses that dazzle" and "voices of silence." There is a quality of timelessness, in which minutes and centuries are one and in which the past and the present are one.
The psychiatrist is concerned not only with the phenomenology of the experience but also with the setting in which it occurs. I. The mystical experience may occur in the setting of abnormal brain function. It is not surprising, therefore, that mystical experiences may occasionally occur as an epileptic aura. Amongst the great writers, Dostoyevsky articulated the cosmic consciousness which came upon him immediately before his seizures. In any confusional state the person may have mystical experiences. Mystical experiences are especially associated with psychotomimetic drugs. This has been well documented not only in the contemporary hagiography but also in the scientific literature. When lysergic acid was being used as a treatment for alcoholism, those alcoholics appeared to gain the most benefit who had a vivid mystical expe-
Vol. 24, No.2
rience with the feeling of rebirth. James' (5) comments regarding alcohol are relevant to other drug experiences. The sway of alcohol over mankind is unquestionably due to its power to stimulate the mystical faculties of human nature, usually crushed to earth by the cold facts and dry criticisms of the sober hour. Sobriety diminishes, discriminates, and says no; drunkenness expands, unites, and says yes. It is in fact the great exciter of the Yes function in man. It brings its votary from the chill periphery of things to the radiant core. It makes him for the moment one with truth.... The drunken consciousness is one bit of the mystic consciousness, and our total opinion of it must find its place in our opinion of the larger hope.
2. The mystical experience may occur early in schizophrenia when there is a general alteration of perception. Karl Jaspers (7) states: The cosmic experience is characteristic of schizophrenic experience. The end of the world is here, the twilight of the gods. A mighty revolution is at hand in which the patient plays a major role. He is the centre of all that is coming to pass. He has immense tasks to perform, of vast powers. Fabulous distant influences, attractions, and obstructions are at work. 'Everything' is always involved: all the peoples of the earth, all men, all the gods, etc. The whole of human history is experienced at once. The patient lives through infinite millenia. The instant is an eternity to him. He sweeps through space with immense speed, to conduct mighty battles; he walks safely by the abyss.
3. The mystical experience may occur in mania. The normal mood of mania is one of exaltation accompanied by a feeling of heightened abilities, perceptions, and significance. W.H. Auden (2) comments perceptively: I am a little disturbed by the sometimes startling resemblances between the accounts of their experiences given by mystics and those given by persons suffering from a manic-depressive psychosis. The differences between them are of course obvious too. The inflated egoism of the manic-depressive is always conspicuous whether in his elated phase, he thinks that, unlike other folks, he is God, or, in his depressed phase, he thinks that, unlike other folks, he has committed a
March, 1979
THE MYSTIC EXPERIENCE
sin against the Holy Ghost. The genuine mystics, on the other hand, always interpret their ecstasy as a gratuitous blessing from God which they have done nothing to deserve and their dark night of the soul not as evidence of their extraordinary wickedness, but as a period of trial and purgation. 4. The mystical experience may occur in hysterical dissociative states. Indeed, in textbooks of psychiatry one usually discovers the discussion regarding the mystical experience under the heading of hysterical phenomena. The experience of the hysteric is usually dramatic and accompanied by attention-seeking behaviour: the person who experiences the "illumination" is usually fairly evidently possessed of many conflicts, often of a sexual nature. Because the mystical experience comes to medical attention most often through neurotic or psychotic patients there is a great danger that psychiatrists may commit the fallacy of assuming that the mystical state is "nothing but" a pathological manifestation. James' (6) caution remains valid: To the medical mind these ecstacies find nothing but suggested and limited hypnoid states, on an intellectual basis of superstition, and a corporeal one of degeneration and hysteria. Undoubtedly these pathological conditions have existed in many and possibly in all the cases, but that fact tells us nothing about the value for knowledge of the consciousness which they induce. To pass a spiritual judgement upon these states, we must not content ourselves with superficial medical talk, but inquire into their fruits for life. 5. The mystical experience may occur in otherwise normal persons, as the great mystics - and especially spontaneous mystics - have demonstrated. Further, the psychiatrist is entitled to explore the effects of the mystical experience on the person's subsequent life. Whatever the cause of the mystical experience it has always the effect of being a nodal point (and often a turning point) in the person's life, as if the threads of personality and environment suddenly converge. The sequelae of the mystical
149
experience are therefore of interest to the psychiatrist. In alteration of brain function there are no evident integrative effects - although one may plead Dostoyesky or Van Gogh as creative exceptions. Certainly there is little evidence that "consciousness expansion" by drugs produces increase in integrity of personality or creativity of function. Indeed, empirical evidence recently published suggests that, on the contrary, the person's creative abilities are unchanged or depleted; and the disintegrative impact of the so-called psychedelic drugs is shockingly obvious to hospital psychiatrists. During alterations of brain function the experience may be intense; little comes of it in the long run. In psychosis and neurosis the event is likewise nodal. In a psychotic patient it may lead to the production of delusional systems. "The schizophrenic world of acute psychosis with its double orientation is something quite different from the world of the chronic states. This can grow into a system of ideas which for the patient carries memories of unforgettable occurrences in the acute state, and take deep effect. However in the end the double orientation vanishes. A delusional system with a typical world outlook of its own then develops on the basis of the transformed self, on the experience of superhuman powersand emanations, as well as a shattering disillusion, of hidden significance and altered mood." (8) To work in a mental hospital is soon to meet the despair and defeat of the psychotic mystical experience. In the neurotic patient the experience is likewise nodal, apparently subserving repressive ego functions. Unfortunately this is a pseudosolution for the person, channeling creativity into producing more symptoms. In the persons whose experience is not preceded by intense neurotic conflicts the nodal quality of the experience remains evident but the results are far-ranging. These individuals enjoy an increased openness to the whole of the environment; and an increased sensitivity to the human needs about them. St. Paul, St. Francis of Assisi, St. Teresa, St. Ignatius, John Woolman or Frank Lau bach are outstanding examples.
150
CANADIAN JOURNAL OF PSYCHIATRY
Vol. 24, No.2
a retreat to a time when infant and mother Evelyn Underhill neatly summarizes the were fused. benefits of the mystical experience to To step from the empirical to the personality functioning: speculative is dangerous indeed,· for we Compare ... the careers of the ... mystics;in whom, indeed, "action has not injured psychiatrists have rarely the philosophical fruition, nor fruition action," who have by or theological background for such specusome secret adjustment contrived to possess lation. Surely a theologian would argue their lives in rest and in work: without persuasively that the experience is not one detriment to inward joy or outward industry. of psychological regression but rather of Bear in mind as you read these words spiritual rediscovery of paradise, the Ruysbroeck's supreme effort to tell the true healing of alienation. Perhaps the relation between man's created spirit and his experience is not invested with any single God - the great public ministry of St. Catherine of Siena, which ranged from the significance, its meaning varying with the tending of the plague-stricken to the refor- precipitant, with the setting, with the ming of the Papacy; and was accompanied by person, and with the consequences. But the inward fruitive consciousness of the here we have crossed from medicine where companionship of Christ. Remember the arts and sciences meet to theology where humbler but not lessbeautiful and significant this world and another meet. To go further achievement of her Genoese namesake: the )s beyond the scope of this paper. strenuous lives of St. Francis of Assisi, St. Ignatius, St. Teresa, outwardly cumbered with much serving, observant of an infinitude Summary of tiresome details, composing rules, setting up foundations, neglecting no aspect of their This paper reviews the phenomenology business which could conduce to its practical of the mystical experience and its varied success, yet "altogether dwelling in God in contexts epilepsy, toxicity, organic brain restful fruition." (10) syndromes, the major psychoses and What Auden (1) says in theological hysterical dissociative states as well as in context seems to be equally pertinent to the apparently normal persons. The impact of psychiatrist. the experience on the personality is noted The temptation ... isto idolizethe experience and its significance briefly reviewed. The itself as the summum bonum and spend one's author notes that two fallacies await the life either gloomily regretting its loss and so unwary psychiatrist: the fallacy of reducfalling into a state of accidie, or trying by tionism which defines the mystical exartificial means, like alcohol and drugs to perience in pathological terms only; and recapture and prolong it. the fallacy of speculation without adequate Finally, the psychiatrist, because he is philosophical or theological tools. driven by his curiosity to experience, is tempted to place untested judgements and constructions upon the mystical expeReferences rience. And here, pitfalls gape. Linn (9) who so masterfully summarizes the phenoI. Auden, W.H.: "Introduction" in The menology of mystical experience, falls into Protestant Mystics. Ed. Fremantle, Ann, this trap in his next paragraph: Toronto: Mentor Books. 1964, p. 24. The mystical experience seems to represent 2. Auden, W.H.: op. cit. p. 33. psychological regression at its most extreme. 3. Bucke, R.M. as quoted in James, William It has been hypothesized that it is a retreat to The Varieties ofReligious Experience, New the very beginning of conscious psycholoYork: Collier Books, 1961, pp. 313-314. gicallife and in a sense is an ultimate counsel 4. Greenland, Cyril.: Richard Maurice Bucke, of despair. As the individual travels backM.D. -1837-1902 The evolution ofa mystic. ward in memory in search of a time when life Can Psychiatr Assoc J, II: 146-154, 1966. was endurable, finding no one on earth to 5. James, William.: The Varieties ofReligious whom he can turn for help, he comes at last to Experience. New York: Collier Books, a time of contentment that preceded con1961. p. 304. scious awareness of other human beings. It is 6. Ibid., p: 324.
March, 1979
THE MYSTIC EXPERIENCE
7. Jaspers, Karl: General Psychopathology (tr. J. Hoenig and M. W. Hamilton). Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. 1964, p. 295. 8. Ibid., p. 296. 9. Linn, Louis: "Clinical Manifestations of Psychiatric Disorders." In Freedman, A.M., Kaplan, H.I., Comprehensive Textbook of Psychiatry, Baltimore: The Williams and Wilkins Co. 1967, p. 572. 10. Underhill, Evelyn: Mysticism, (2nd ed.) London: Methuen and Co. 1960, p. 436.
Resume
On revise la phenornenologie de l'expe-
151
rience mystique et de ses contextes varies, aussi bien dans l'epilepsie, les intoxications, les syndromes cerebraux organiques, les psychoses majeures et les etats dissociatifs hysteriques, que chez les individus apparemment normaux. L'experience mystique produit un impact sur la personnalite dont on analyse brievement la signification. L'auteur met en garde contre deux erreurs qui guettent Ie psychiatre non averti: celIe du reductionisrne qui definit I'experience mystique en termes pathologiques seulement, et celIe de la speculation sans possession suffisante de connaissance philosophiques ou theologiques,
The mystical experience is always of interest because of its persistence in the history of thought, its vivid and picturesque phenomenology, its variety, the many contexts in which it emerges, the impact it has on a period's history, and the diversity of interpretation given to the experience in both learned and popular literature. Our curiosity is certain to be aroused by the extraordinariness of "cosmic consciousness" and, by its vivid and varied phenomenology. In Canadian psychiatry the mystical experience has won special rights of consideration. For one of the great physicans in Canadian history was Richard Maurice Bucke. At the age of thirty he came powerfully under the spell of Walt Whitman, both in reading Leaves of Grass and in meeting and entertaining the poet. An even more decisive event, but one which seems to have had its roots in the "expansion of consciousness" which he experienced while reading Whitman, was the experience of illumination which occurred in 1872. In his own words:
J.
ERNEST RUNIONS.
M.D.I
found myself wrapped in a flame-coloured cloud. For an instant I thought offire ... the next, I knew that the fire was within myself. Directly afterwards there came upon me a sense of exaltation, of immense joyousness accompanied or immediately followed by an intellectual illumination impossible to describe. I saw that the universe ... is a living presence; I became conscious in myself of eternal life . . . I saw that all men are immortal; that the cosmic is such that without any peradventure all things work together for the good of each and all; that the foundation principle of the world ... is what we call love . . . The vision lasted a few seconds and was gone; but the memory of it and the sense of the reality of what it taught has remained ... I knew that what the vision showed was true (3).
Greenland comments, "Bucke was convinced that this was an instance of cosmic awareness or consciousness. He devoted the next thirty years of his life to establishing a scientific framework within which it could be understood as a natural phenomena [sic] quite different from similar morbid experiences" (4). Bucke's experience is noteworthy because it did not occur in a traditional religious context; it did not require the setting of asceticism or emotional turmoil so frequently described by the great mystics, it had the quality of an authentic mystic experience (illumination with certitude), it profoundly affected his life and work. The psychiatrist has, of course, an interest in the experience of "cosmic consciousness" because of its extraordinariness, (it can scarcely be considered "normal" in any statistical sense), because of its similarity to experiences in the psychotic and the hysteric, and because it has played a role in the history of medicine in the western world.
I had spent the evening in a great city, with two friends, reading and discussing poetry and philosophy. We parted at midnight. I had a long drive in a hansom to my lodging. My mind, deeply under the influence of the ideas, images, and emotions called upon by the reading and the talk, was calm and peaceful. I was in a state of quiet, almost passive enjoyment, not actually thinking, but letting ideas, images, and emotions flow of themselves, as it were, through my mind. All at once, without warning of any kind, I
'Manuscript received July 1978. I Academic Dean. Division of Christian Studies, Baptist Union of Western Canada: Clinical Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, B.C. Can. J. Psychiatry Vol. 24 (1979)
147
148
CANADIAN JOURNAL OF PSYCHIATRY
The phenomenology of the mystical experience has been well described by psychologists and psychiatrists as well as the great religious writers. Linn (9) adequately summarized the essential features: I. Inevitability. The subject often insists that his experience is inexpressible and indescribable, that it is impossible to convey what it is like to one who has never experienced it. 2. Noesis. The subject has the feeling that the mystery of the universe has been plumbed, that an immense illumination or revelation has occurred ... It seems to consist oflayer upon layer of truth that, as it unfolds, may find expression in some familiar or even common-place thought that suddenly seems pregnant with new meaning... 3. Transiency. The actual mystical state may last only a moment or it may go on for an hour or two.... It is as unforgettable as it is highly treasured, and it colors all subsequent activity. 4. Passivity.... there is an abeyance of the will, as if the subject were in the grip of a superior power .... 5. Unio Mystica. There is a sense of mystic unity with an infinite power, and oceanic feeling in which opposites are reconciled, in which there are "darknesses that dazzle" and "voices of silence." There is a quality of timelessness, in which minutes and centuries are one and in which the past and the present are one.
The psychiatrist is concerned not only with the phenomenology of the experience but also with the setting in which it occurs. I. The mystical experience may occur in the setting of abnormal brain function. It is not surprising, therefore, that mystical experiences may occasionally occur as an epileptic aura. Amongst the great writers, Dostoyevsky articulated the cosmic consciousness which came upon him immediately before his seizures. In any confusional state the person may have mystical experiences. Mystical experiences are especially associated with psychotomimetic drugs. This has been well documented not only in the contemporary hagiography but also in the scientific literature. When lysergic acid was being used as a treatment for alcoholism, those alcoholics appeared to gain the most benefit who had a vivid mystical expe-
Vol. 24, No.2
rience with the feeling of rebirth. James' (5) comments regarding alcohol are relevant to other drug experiences. The sway of alcohol over mankind is unquestionably due to its power to stimulate the mystical faculties of human nature, usually crushed to earth by the cold facts and dry criticisms of the sober hour. Sobriety diminishes, discriminates, and says no; drunkenness expands, unites, and says yes. It is in fact the great exciter of the Yes function in man. It brings its votary from the chill periphery of things to the radiant core. It makes him for the moment one with truth.... The drunken consciousness is one bit of the mystic consciousness, and our total opinion of it must find its place in our opinion of the larger hope.
2. The mystical experience may occur early in schizophrenia when there is a general alteration of perception. Karl Jaspers (7) states: The cosmic experience is characteristic of schizophrenic experience. The end of the world is here, the twilight of the gods. A mighty revolution is at hand in which the patient plays a major role. He is the centre of all that is coming to pass. He has immense tasks to perform, of vast powers. Fabulous distant influences, attractions, and obstructions are at work. 'Everything' is always involved: all the peoples of the earth, all men, all the gods, etc. The whole of human history is experienced at once. The patient lives through infinite millenia. The instant is an eternity to him. He sweeps through space with immense speed, to conduct mighty battles; he walks safely by the abyss.
3. The mystical experience may occur in mania. The normal mood of mania is one of exaltation accompanied by a feeling of heightened abilities, perceptions, and significance. W.H. Auden (2) comments perceptively: I am a little disturbed by the sometimes startling resemblances between the accounts of their experiences given by mystics and those given by persons suffering from a manic-depressive psychosis. The differences between them are of course obvious too. The inflated egoism of the manic-depressive is always conspicuous whether in his elated phase, he thinks that, unlike other folks, he is God, or, in his depressed phase, he thinks that, unlike other folks, he has committed a
March, 1979
THE MYSTIC EXPERIENCE
sin against the Holy Ghost. The genuine mystics, on the other hand, always interpret their ecstasy as a gratuitous blessing from God which they have done nothing to deserve and their dark night of the soul not as evidence of their extraordinary wickedness, but as a period of trial and purgation. 4. The mystical experience may occur in hysterical dissociative states. Indeed, in textbooks of psychiatry one usually discovers the discussion regarding the mystical experience under the heading of hysterical phenomena. The experience of the hysteric is usually dramatic and accompanied by attention-seeking behaviour: the person who experiences the "illumination" is usually fairly evidently possessed of many conflicts, often of a sexual nature. Because the mystical experience comes to medical attention most often through neurotic or psychotic patients there is a great danger that psychiatrists may commit the fallacy of assuming that the mystical state is "nothing but" a pathological manifestation. James' (6) caution remains valid: To the medical mind these ecstacies find nothing but suggested and limited hypnoid states, on an intellectual basis of superstition, and a corporeal one of degeneration and hysteria. Undoubtedly these pathological conditions have existed in many and possibly in all the cases, but that fact tells us nothing about the value for knowledge of the consciousness which they induce. To pass a spiritual judgement upon these states, we must not content ourselves with superficial medical talk, but inquire into their fruits for life. 5. The mystical experience may occur in otherwise normal persons, as the great mystics - and especially spontaneous mystics - have demonstrated. Further, the psychiatrist is entitled to explore the effects of the mystical experience on the person's subsequent life. Whatever the cause of the mystical experience it has always the effect of being a nodal point (and often a turning point) in the person's life, as if the threads of personality and environment suddenly converge. The sequelae of the mystical
149
experience are therefore of interest to the psychiatrist. In alteration of brain function there are no evident integrative effects - although one may plead Dostoyesky or Van Gogh as creative exceptions. Certainly there is little evidence that "consciousness expansion" by drugs produces increase in integrity of personality or creativity of function. Indeed, empirical evidence recently published suggests that, on the contrary, the person's creative abilities are unchanged or depleted; and the disintegrative impact of the so-called psychedelic drugs is shockingly obvious to hospital psychiatrists. During alterations of brain function the experience may be intense; little comes of it in the long run. In psychosis and neurosis the event is likewise nodal. In a psychotic patient it may lead to the production of delusional systems. "The schizophrenic world of acute psychosis with its double orientation is something quite different from the world of the chronic states. This can grow into a system of ideas which for the patient carries memories of unforgettable occurrences in the acute state, and take deep effect. However in the end the double orientation vanishes. A delusional system with a typical world outlook of its own then develops on the basis of the transformed self, on the experience of superhuman powersand emanations, as well as a shattering disillusion, of hidden significance and altered mood." (8) To work in a mental hospital is soon to meet the despair and defeat of the psychotic mystical experience. In the neurotic patient the experience is likewise nodal, apparently subserving repressive ego functions. Unfortunately this is a pseudosolution for the person, channeling creativity into producing more symptoms. In the persons whose experience is not preceded by intense neurotic conflicts the nodal quality of the experience remains evident but the results are far-ranging. These individuals enjoy an increased openness to the whole of the environment; and an increased sensitivity to the human needs about them. St. Paul, St. Francis of Assisi, St. Teresa, St. Ignatius, John Woolman or Frank Lau bach are outstanding examples.
150
CANADIAN JOURNAL OF PSYCHIATRY
Vol. 24, No.2
a retreat to a time when infant and mother Evelyn Underhill neatly summarizes the were fused. benefits of the mystical experience to To step from the empirical to the personality functioning: speculative is dangerous indeed,· for we Compare ... the careers of the ... mystics;in whom, indeed, "action has not injured psychiatrists have rarely the philosophical fruition, nor fruition action," who have by or theological background for such specusome secret adjustment contrived to possess lation. Surely a theologian would argue their lives in rest and in work: without persuasively that the experience is not one detriment to inward joy or outward industry. of psychological regression but rather of Bear in mind as you read these words spiritual rediscovery of paradise, the Ruysbroeck's supreme effort to tell the true healing of alienation. Perhaps the relation between man's created spirit and his experience is not invested with any single God - the great public ministry of St. Catherine of Siena, which ranged from the significance, its meaning varying with the tending of the plague-stricken to the refor- precipitant, with the setting, with the ming of the Papacy; and was accompanied by person, and with the consequences. But the inward fruitive consciousness of the here we have crossed from medicine where companionship of Christ. Remember the arts and sciences meet to theology where humbler but not lessbeautiful and significant this world and another meet. To go further achievement of her Genoese namesake: the )s beyond the scope of this paper. strenuous lives of St. Francis of Assisi, St. Ignatius, St. Teresa, outwardly cumbered with much serving, observant of an infinitude Summary of tiresome details, composing rules, setting up foundations, neglecting no aspect of their This paper reviews the phenomenology business which could conduce to its practical of the mystical experience and its varied success, yet "altogether dwelling in God in contexts epilepsy, toxicity, organic brain restful fruition." (10) syndromes, the major psychoses and What Auden (1) says in theological hysterical dissociative states as well as in context seems to be equally pertinent to the apparently normal persons. The impact of psychiatrist. the experience on the personality is noted The temptation ... isto idolizethe experience and its significance briefly reviewed. The itself as the summum bonum and spend one's author notes that two fallacies await the life either gloomily regretting its loss and so unwary psychiatrist: the fallacy of reducfalling into a state of accidie, or trying by tionism which defines the mystical exartificial means, like alcohol and drugs to perience in pathological terms only; and recapture and prolong it. the fallacy of speculation without adequate Finally, the psychiatrist, because he is philosophical or theological tools. driven by his curiosity to experience, is tempted to place untested judgements and constructions upon the mystical expeReferences rience. And here, pitfalls gape. Linn (9) who so masterfully summarizes the phenoI. Auden, W.H.: "Introduction" in The menology of mystical experience, falls into Protestant Mystics. Ed. Fremantle, Ann, this trap in his next paragraph: Toronto: Mentor Books. 1964, p. 24. The mystical experience seems to represent 2. Auden, W.H.: op. cit. p. 33. psychological regression at its most extreme. 3. Bucke, R.M. as quoted in James, William It has been hypothesized that it is a retreat to The Varieties ofReligious Experience, New the very beginning of conscious psycholoYork: Collier Books, 1961, pp. 313-314. gicallife and in a sense is an ultimate counsel 4. Greenland, Cyril.: Richard Maurice Bucke, of despair. As the individual travels backM.D. -1837-1902 The evolution ofa mystic. ward in memory in search of a time when life Can Psychiatr Assoc J, II: 146-154, 1966. was endurable, finding no one on earth to 5. James, William.: The Varieties ofReligious whom he can turn for help, he comes at last to Experience. New York: Collier Books, a time of contentment that preceded con1961. p. 304. scious awareness of other human beings. It is 6. Ibid., p: 324.
March, 1979
THE MYSTIC EXPERIENCE
7. Jaspers, Karl: General Psychopathology (tr. J. Hoenig and M. W. Hamilton). Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. 1964, p. 295. 8. Ibid., p. 296. 9. Linn, Louis: "Clinical Manifestations of Psychiatric Disorders." In Freedman, A.M., Kaplan, H.I., Comprehensive Textbook of Psychiatry, Baltimore: The Williams and Wilkins Co. 1967, p. 572. 10. Underhill, Evelyn: Mysticism, (2nd ed.) London: Methuen and Co. 1960, p. 436.
Resume
On revise la phenornenologie de l'expe-
151
rience mystique et de ses contextes varies, aussi bien dans l'epilepsie, les intoxications, les syndromes cerebraux organiques, les psychoses majeures et les etats dissociatifs hysteriques, que chez les individus apparemment normaux. L'experience mystique produit un impact sur la personnalite dont on analyse brievement la signification. L'auteur met en garde contre deux erreurs qui guettent Ie psychiatre non averti: celIe du reductionisrne qui definit I'experience mystique en termes pathologiques seulement, et celIe de la speculation sans possession suffisante de connaissance philosophiques ou theologiques,
