Part I examines Walter Stace's classification of mystical experience, R. C. Zahner's criticism of that classification, and Ninian Smart's response to Zaehner. Zaehner rightly faults Stace for distorting theistic mysticism and for ignoring the Hindu tradition of love mysticism. Smart's criticisms of Zaehner are to the point, though inconclusive. However, his own thesis is incoherent. If (as he...
In this paper I propose to examine the cognitive status of mystical experience. There are, I think, (at least) three distinct but overlapping sorts of religious experience. (1) In the first place, there are two kinds of mystical experience. The extrovertive or nature mystic (in some sense) identifies himself with a world which is both transfigured and one. The introvertive mystic withdraws from...