The Consolatory Power of Mystical Experience
Palgrave Macmillan UK eBooks January 1, 1992 DOI: 10.1007/978-1-349-12653-8_9 via Semantic Scholar
Summary
AI-generated from the abstractMystical experiences can provide a powerful consolatory force that reduces or eliminates the negative force of evil, often portraying evil as non-reality or nothingness. However, as R. C. Zaehner points out, this perspective can have horrible consequences, illustrated by Charles Manson, who passed beyond good and evil in realizing a harmonious unity of cosmic consciousness. Zaehner likens Manson's experience to non-theistic mysticisms of ancient Greeks and Zen Buddhism, where the discursive mind disintegrates and right is wrong, good is evil. The paper argues that such amoral perspectives challenge theistic teleology and personal love.
Study at a glance
| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Keywords | Philosophy |
| Key finding | Mystical experiences can reduce evil's force but may lead to amoral perspectives with horrible consequences, as exemplified by Charles Manson. |
Abstract
As we have seen in our introduction to mysticism and in Eckhart's theology, mystics claim in certain experiences to encounter a powerful consolatory force which significantly reduces or eliminates the negative force of evil. In such experience evil is often referred to as a non-reality, non-being or nothingness which no longer has power or influence upon the enlightened mystic. As R. C. Zaehner has so provocatively pointed out in Our Savage God, this mystical perspective can in some cases have horrible consequences. To illustrate he refers to Charles Manson who apparently 'passed beyond good and evil' in the realisation of the harmonious unity of cosmic consciousness.1 Likening Manson's experience to non-theistic mysticisms of the ancient Greeks and Zen Buddhism, Zaehner describes it as one where the 'discursive mind disintegrates and you see that right is wrong, and that good is evil': Once you have reached the stage of the eternal Now, all is One, as Parmenides taught in ancient Greece. "After all", Manson said, "we are all one". Killing someone therefore is just like breaking off a piece of cooky.2 KeywordsReligious IdealMystical ExperienceAmoral PerspectiveTheistic TeleologyPersonal LoveThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.