On Mysticism cover art

On Mysticism

The Experience of Ecstasy

 Preview
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free
Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.
Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Just £0.99/mo for your first 3 months of Audible.
1 bestseller or new release per month—yours to keep.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.
Auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

On Mysticism

By: Simon Critchley
Narrated by: Simon Critchley
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly. Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

LIMITED TIME OFFER | £0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Premium Plus auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Terms apply.

About this listen

Mysticism is about existential ecstasy—an experience of heightening one's senses and self into a sheer feeling of aliveness. Mystical experiences offer us a practical way to open our thoughts and deepen the sense of our lives, whether through a mainstream connection to God or by taking part in mind-altering experiences.

Here, Simon Critchley explores the history and practice of mysticism, from its origins in Eastern and Western religion, through its association with esoteric and occult knowledge, and up to the ecstatic modernism of T.S. Eliot and others. Through a discussion of the lives of famous mystics, like Julian of Norwich and Jesus Christ, Critchley reveals how embracing the spectrum of mystical experience can refresh our thinking and help us live deeper and freer lives.

Philosophical and playful, analytical and inventive, On Mysticism is a definitive account of humanity's quest to understand the divine, and a call to thinkers everywhere to broaden our minds to life larger than our selves.

©2024 Simon Critchley (P)2024 Profile Books Ltd Metaphysics Other Religions, Practices & Sacred Texts Philosophy

Listeners also enjoyed...

 Against Identity cover art
Awake! cover art
The Weird and the Eerie cover art
Don't Forget We're Here Forever cover art
Discovering Christianity cover art
Psychopolitics cover art
All Things Are Full of Gods cover art
Awaiting God cover art
God Is an Englishman cover art
Goethe cover art
Continental Philosophy cover art
Postcapitalist Desire cover art
Analytic Idealism in a Nutshell cover art
A Secret History of Christianity: Jesus, the Last Inkling, and the Evolution of Consciousness cover art
Believe cover art
Anti-Oedipus cover art
All stars
Most relevant
Simon Critchley unfolds a delicate and precise account of the mystical experiences recounted by a selection of medieval, modern and contemporary writers.

This is a book that exposes the reader to a series of highly visual and evocative texts written by authors who have attempt to define the indefinable.

It induces in the listener or reader a powerful desire to explore the experiences and revelations that these writers have experienced and recounted.

I have thoroughly enjoyed ‘On Mysticism’ and am now going back to re-listen to it, while hunting down and reading the original texts it quotes from.

Highly recommended!

A book that exposes the reader to a series of highly visual and evocative texts about the experience of mystical insight.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Quite impassioned at times. Learned. Lots of helpful reflections. Well read. Towards the end goes on a bit. Protesting a little more than necessary. We all love mystics now, don’t we?

Mostly good.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.