The proposition of "inexpressible, inexpressible" in Buddhist scriptures has long been misinterpreted by the public and some researchers as irrational mysticism, or dismissed as an evasive rhetorical device to avoid in-depth exploration of doctrinal implications. Taking the boundary of language as the core entry point, this paper attempts to construct an interdisciplinary theoretical framework...
One recurrent source of religious and mystical appearance lies in the way finite motifs resist finite closure and come to be inhabited under maximal, unconditioned, or unsurpassable forms. We call these forms limit-forms and argue that they are Husserlian horizonality under existential pressure: ordinary experience always exceeds what is presently given, but some horizons become...
According to William James, mystical states of consciousness are characterized, among other features, by their noetic quality, i. e., some knowledge obtained is through them. However, another common feature of mystical experiences is their ineffability. This raises an epistemological question: How can something be known, and yet cannot be expressed? Through the conceptual framework of Ludwig...
This paper explores how British and Uzbek prose represent the inner life of the individual and the experience of transcendence. It examines psychological and mystical realism not as isolated literary trends, but as interconnected ways of portraying consciousness, doubt, faith, memory, and spiritual awakening. The study examines how writers guide readers to experience complex mental and...
in: Boaz Huss (ed.), Kabbalah and Contemporary Spiritual Revival (The Goldstein-Goren Library of Jewish Thought Publication No. 14), Ben Gurion University of the Negev Press: Beer-Sheva 2011, 251-266.
ABSTRACT This paper examines the literary prose of the Yiddish poet Debora Vogel (1900–1942) and shows that her modernist poetry was deeply informed by Jewish mystical traditions. Through close analysis of Vogel’s 1935 collection Akatsyes Blien (Acacias Bloom), I show that Vogel’s systematic use of Hebrew-derived terms reveals a deliberate engagement with Jewish mystical concepts. Crucially,...
This paper examines Whereabouts of the Anonymous: Explorations of the Invisible by Rajorshi Patranabis as a distinctive contribution to contemporary Indian writing in English that reconfigures the genre of supernatural memoir. Blending lyrical prose with episodic narration, the text resists sensationalist representations of the paranormal and instead foregrounds an introspective,...
Abstract: The vast majority of modern Western scholars agree that, despite differences across cultures and religious traditions, "mystical experience" can be described in light of two important categories, namely "extrovertive" and "introvertive" mystical experiences. The former emphasizes the sense of ineffability and transcendence, and the latter accentuates the role of immanent sensory...
The Radha-Krishna tradition in South Asian devotional literature provides a significant space where divinity, love, and emotional intensity converge. Within this framework, Kazi Nazrul Islam reconfigures devotional expression through a sensuous and psychologically nuanced poetic idiom. His selected songs foreground Madhura Bhava as a devotional mode in which longing, anticipation, and embodied...
This paper examines whether direct perception of the Divine occurs through the Protestant sacraments—bread, wine, and water—and what this implies for Christian education. Integrating theological, philosophical, psychological, and mystical perspectives, it explores how sacraments function beyond rational comprehension as symbolic and transformative vehicles. Theologians debate their role in...
Islamic mysticism and spirituality have long constituted a central dimension of Muslim religious life, with Sufism serving as a primary vehicle for cultivating inner piety, ethical refinement, and experiential knowledge of the Divine. In contemporary Muslim societies shaped by modernization, globalization, and shifting religious expressions, the relevance and function of Sufism continue to be...
Studies on Sufi poetry indicate that symbolism functions not only as an aesthetic expression but also as a medium of complex spiritual experience. However, previous research often separates religious symbols from existential imagery, resulting in fragmented interpretations of meaning. This study aims to analyze the symbols of the Beloved and the sea in the poetry of Ahmadun Yosi Herfanda using...
Objectives: For English, the validated part of Psychedelic Experience Scale (PES48) is a four-factor structure called the Mystical Experience Questionnaire (MEQ30). The other validated part of the PES48 consists of four more factors: two more mystical factors (paradoxicality and connectedness, which together with the MEQ30 form the MEQ40), and two more non-mystical factors (visual experience...
Bu çalışma, Şehbenderzâde Filibeli Ahmed Hilmi’nin ruh anlayışını İslâm düşünce geleneği’nin Batı felsefesiyle kurduğu eklektik ve eleştirel ilişkiler bağlamında incelemeyi hedeflemektedir. Araştırmanın temel amacı, müellifin ruhu bireysel bir varlık ilkesi olmasının yanında metafizik bir cevher ve ahlâkî bir fail olarak nasıl konumlandırdığını çözümlemek ve bu tasavvurun dönemindeki...
Background: In Indonesia, the treatment of the phenomenon of Possession Trance Disorder (PTD) and visual hallucinations is often hampered by the dichotomy between medical and spiritual approaches. Many interventions fail because they rely solely on theoretical assumptions without sufficient empirical field evidence. Objective: This study aims to dissect the etiology, mechanisms, and...
This article examines the phenomenology of al-Hallaj’s ma‘rifat through an interpretation of the phrase “Anā al-Ḥaqq” in the context of the contemporary spiritual crisis. The main research questions include: how al-Hallaj’s ma‘rifat is understood as a transformation of mystical consciousness, how “Anā al-Ḥaqq” is interpreted phenomenologically, and how this experience is relevant in addressing...
Psychedelic medicine is a rapidly growing, billion-dollar industry poised to transform mental health care by incorporating spiritual experiences into clinical psychiatry. However, while the blending of psychiatry and mystical experience has long made this field unique, the blurred boundaries between science and spiritual practice have sparked increasing public debate. What does the entanglement...
In contrast to organically driven models of distress and disease, psychoanalysis shows that psychotic symptoms tell a story that cannot otherwise be told. The roots of madness are best understood in relation to the intergenerational transmission of trauma that impedes development in spite of otherwise good parenting. Such data invite us to consider ‘madness’ as a socially constructed...
Scholars of religion have had a long-standing interest in the study of mystical experiences (Schmidt, 2003), dating back to the work of William James (James, 1902). James listed ineffability, noeti...
Henry Corbin (1903–1978), through his extensive contributions to Islamic and Iranian studies, introduced a paradigm shift in modern Western scholarship on Iran and Islam. As a counternarrative to classical Orientalism’s relegation of Islamic societies, Corbin’s construction of “Iranian Islam” generated a comprehensive body of knowledge that valorized Iran as a model for the West. He depicted...