the varieties of mystic experience

[lorentzen-nicklaus]

 re: who's mystic?


 since "the varieties of religious experience" [1901/2] by william james was  
 discussed some weeks ago, i may hint at the lectures xvi and xvii, which deal  
 with mystic states of mind. (in the tarot's great arcanum, xvi is "the tower"  
 and xvii "the star": fits perfectly!). in the beginning of his lecture, james  
 names four criteria for the mystical experience (again in own re-translation): 
 inexpressibleness, noetic quality, transitoriness, & passivity. more than once, 
 james points out that the actual existence of mystical experiences 'falsifies' 
 the claim of the non-mystical everyday state of mind to be the authoritative 
 instance of truth. in his introduction to the german paperback edition of 1997 
 (william james: die vielfalt religiöser erfahrung. übersetzt von eilert herms 
 und christian stahlhut. ffm/leipzig: insel verlag), peter sloterdijk 
 ("chancen im umgeheuren. notiz zum gestaltwandel des religiösen in der 
 modernen welt im anschluß an einige motive bei william james", pp. 11-34)speaks 
 of james' "ontological pluralism" (hey, i must have heard this term before 
 ...), & he also goes for the thesis that this could be considered to be "an 
 american way into phenomenology" (p. 25, own translation). any comments on 
 that?

kfl
     
                               ps: those interested in a new systems-theoretical 
                               view on religion may check out luhmann's 
                               posthumously published "die religion der 
                               gesellschaft" (ffm 2000: suhrkamp). 

                               pps: "the world is just a great big onion ... & 
                               the only way to get rid of this great big onion 
                               is to plant love-seeds until it diies, huuuh ..."
                               (marvin gaye & tammi terrel, late 1960s)