Mystical Experience

Mystical experience is best understood not as a special kind of consciousness but as the removal of the factors that construct ordinary, standard consciousness. Standard consciousness is built from the mutual connectedness of mental contents; when those connecting factors are suppressed, the resulting experience is largely negative—defined by what is absent rather than by positive content. This account explains why mystical experiences are often described as ineffable and provides a framework for assessing their epistemic status. It also suggests implications for how we think about mind, consciousness, and the self, by showing that ordinary consciousness is a constructed phenomenon that can be dismantled.

Study at a glance

Abstract

This paper proposes to study mystical experience by contrasting it with “ordinary” experience, i.e., with standard consciousness. It emphasises the construed nature of standard consciousness and the role that the mutual connectedness of mental contents plays in its construction. It then shows that removal of the factors that are responsible for the “making” of standard consciousness accounts for the principal features of mystical experience; these features are, therefore, mainly negative. Understanding mystical experience as the suppression of factors that contribute to the construction of standard consciousness, along with a discussion of the mechanism that makes this possible, permits answers to some frequently asked questions, such as: Why is mystical experience ineffable? What is its epistemic status? Does it have implications for our understanding of mind, consciousness, and self?