Everyday Mysticism

"A civilization that denies the mystic is no civilization at all." ~ Matthew Fox

"The whole purpose of science and art is to awaken the cosmic religious feeling." ~ Albert Einstein

"We moderns are faced with the necessity of rediscovering the life of the spirit; we must experience it anew for ourselves. It is the only way in which to break the spell that binds us." ~ Carl Jung

One of the greatest deceptions of the modern era is the misbelief that science and spirituality are in any way whatsoever opposed or divergent realms of human knowledge and experience. This misbelief harms both sides of the equation, as well. Spirituality devoid of respect for, and a dynamic inclusion of, scientific knowledge sits on a slippery slope to wishful thinking and spiritual bypassing. Conversely, science severed from the innate mystical nature of humans and the living consciousness animating all physical matter risks becoming little more than a tool for oppressive and exploitative ends. It also shoots itself in the foot as a potential method of accurately appraising reality by ideologically blocking out one of the most vital and pervasive characteristics of the universe: the conscious intelligence inherent in the very fabric of time-space reality. Indeed, the traditional conception of science as an "objective" (detached, impartial, unbiased) method of inquiry is self-undermining and ironically unscientific in the sense that the sciences themselves have generated a massive amount of evidence revealing that the universe is not properly regarded as a conglomeration of lifeless, unconscious physical objects and material "stuff" (what a sad and unimaginative metaphor for conceptualizing an infinite multiverse of dynamic multidimensional consciousness!). Rather, the sciences have shown that the very notion of a "view from nowhere" (the objectivist's biased dream) is, in fact, a very specific, contingent, and parochial view generated within a particular social-historical context, and not itself anywhere close to a universal or "objective" perspective. But I digress.

From a longer historical, more diverse, and more inclusive perspective of human inquiry into reality, it is evident that a mystical quality of mind and being is not anathema to the scientific project; rather, it can play a unique and vital role in the optimization of human intelligence. This is especially true when we understand the mystical as an experiential engagement with the very cosmic intelligence that circulates through the bodies of all material beings inhabiting Earth. To exclude "the mystical" from human inquiry and knowledge endeavors is to enable and sustain the mechanical in human life, because "the mechanical" is, by definition, a condition and arrangement of physical matter functionally separated from the vital consciousness of life.

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My notion of the Everyday Mystic is driven by the commitment to immanence characterizing the Future Human.

Themes to expand here:

- mysticism is not to be reserved for a select few; we are all mystics at heart (Fox, others)
- this reflects the larger trajectory of the evolutionary shift we are beginning: spirit is entering matter, consciousness is awakening within and through matter, heaven and Earth are being synthesized into a realm of transimmanence (the dissolution of the duality of immanence-transcendence).
- a soul-centric consciousness perceives, projects, manifests, and experiences inclusive fields of reality rather than dividing reality into dualities, dichotomies, oppositions, or mere conglomerations of individual "parts" ("Under no circumstances is a biological phenomenon defined by the properties of its component elements." - Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela, Autopoiesis and Cognition: The Realization of the Living)

- life is inherently, naturally "spiritual" or "religious." I put these terms in quotes because our culture is so confused about these aspects of reality that their assumed and adopted meanings obscure more than they specify. For instance, many people today consider themselves "secular," in the sense of non-religious. But this makes no sense, because "the secular" is fundamentally a religious concept, originating within a Christian theological context and having substantive theological meaning. So, if you think within the "secular-religious" dichotomy, you are still thinking within a theological perspective.

- Even the most "secular" people today are deeply religious. People praise the saints of the economic church (the billionaires and capitalists who control industry and the stock market), they worship at the altars of money (investments, shopping centers, etc.), they pray to and trust in the deities of economics (the revered Market Forces, or "invisible hand of the market," or simply The Market, as if that is some singular, coherent, integral "thing," which it's not in any robust empirical or theoretical sense).