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Religion and Psychoactive Sacraments:
An Entheogen Chrestomathy
Thomas B. Roberts, Ph.D. and Paula Jo Hruby, Ed.D.
Author Index | Title Index
What Are They Saying About Mysticism?
Egan, Harvey. (1982).
New York: Paulist Press.
ISBN: 0-8091-2459-9
Description: Paperback,
vi + 134 pages.
Contents: Introduction,
9 chapters, epilogue, chapter notes.
Excerpt(s): Neumann
argues for a great variety of mystical experiences: theistic,
pantheistic, panentheistic, materialistic, idealistic, extraverted,
introverted, personal, and transpersonal. What they all have in
common, however, is the psychological experience of numinous elements
threatening the ego's conscious life. It would seem,
therefore, that the great variety and quality of archetypes, or
psychic possibilities, which are part of the inherited structure
of the psyche, might explain shamanistic experiences, the world
of Carlos Casteneda, and psychedelic drug
experiences. For Neumann, however, the supreme form of mysticism
preserves the greatest tension between the ego and the self.
Mystical experience is, for Neumann, intrinsically
heretical, anti-dogmatic, anti-collective, and in opposition to
the dominant, conscious contents of the "cultural canon."
Peter paradigmatic
of those scholars who hold the counter-position. He writes:
In fact mystics of a particular tradition have no
more of a tendency to heterodoxy than do the non-mystics within
that tradition. Indeed mystics are often notable for their defense
of tradition against heterodox beliefs and practices. It is, however,
implausible to suppose that mystics of any tradition should find
their experiences incompatible with the doctrines
of the instit ution in which their experiences
have been cultivated. (pages 22-23)
This compilation by Thomas B. Roberts & Paula Jo Hruby, © 1995-2003 CSP
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