Rudolf Otto's book Mysticism, East and West is a landmark in comparative mysticism, arguing that mysticism is fundamentally a kinship between Eastern and Western traditions. Otto uses the concept of the "Numinous" or Sacred to bridge historical and geographical divides between religions. First published in 1926, the work compares the Hindu mystic Shankara, representing Eastern mysticism, with the Christian mystic Eckhart, representing Western mysticism. Otto seeks to provide a model for understanding religious truth and comparing religious thinkers, presenting mysticism as a phenomenon that is inherently East-West in nature, building on ideas first explored in his 1923 book The Idea of the Holy.
A critique and review of Massoud Ismaili's book "The Essence of Mystical Knowledge" examines how the author investigates the nature of mystical knowledge within both Islamic and Western contexts using a comparative approach. The book is judged largely successful in the field of the philosophy of mysticism, though it contains some formal and material shortcomings.
The paper examines whether neuro-psychological theory can explain religious experience. It divides religious experience into three types: Erlebnis (RErl, mystical), Erfahrung (RErf, transformative), and ideological (RIT). Focusing on neuro-psychologist M. A. Persinger's work, it reports that mystical experience (RErl) is associated with the right hemisphere of the brain, while religious ideology (RIT) relates to the left hemisphere. Persinger suggests that understanding the neuro-cognitive processes of religious experience could allow copying them for clinical use to treat depression. The paper compares people practicing religious meditation with non-practitioners and reviews PET scanning results from schizophrenic and epileptic patients, noting that neurologically, pain and religious experience both arise from brain processes.