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On Mysticism

The Experience of Ecstasy

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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
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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.

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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.

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