A Scientific Assessment of the Validity of Mystical Experiences

Understanding Altered Psychological and Neurophysiological States

Andrew Papanicolaou

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781000356939
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Social Psychology
• Index: Psychology

In this book the approach of the natural sciences is adopted to confront the ontological question of how far mystical experiences can be considered as reports of an objective reality rather than reports of subjective delusions.

Moving beyond traditional philosophical or cultural and theological interpretations of mystical phenomena, the author uses inductive inference to analyze claims made by secular and religious mystics, highlight links between altered states of consciousness and neurochemistry, and counters reductionist claims that mystical states are exclusively products of neurochemical, neurophysiological, or psychopathological factors. The text also considers the positive long-term effects of proper use of psychedelics and meditation.

This fresh approach to mystical experiences will be of interest to scholars, researchers, and postgraduate students working in the areas of psychology and neuroscience, and with an interest in mysticism in religious studies and philosophy.

1Defining Mystical States and Experiences

What Is the Mystical State and What Is Not

For several millennia, the mystical experience was the exclusive purview of the select few: the shamans, the medicine men, the religious zealots and those philosophers who desired direct knowledge of an ultimate reality hidden behind the veil of appearances. In contrast, today, with the relatively easy access to psychotropic substances nearly anyone has a chance to attain that knowledge. In addition, this fact facilitates assessment of the reliability or the repeatability of the mystical state and promotes its systematic study in laboratories and clinics. On the other hand, it lends credence to the notion that the mystical knowledge that was always considered by the mystics as absolute and absolutely certain regarding the essence of the veiled reality is nothing more than a transient and reversible change of the neurochemistry of the brain of no greater significance than any other common, drug-induced, delusion.

It is a well-known fact that these experiences have a sudden onset when they arise spontaneously or with the aid of behavioral and psychological procedures such as yoga, meditation or prayer, whereas when they are drug-induced or drug-facilitated¹, their emergence follows the rhythm specific to the particular psychotropic substance. With rare exceptions, like that of St. Gregory Palamas², who was said to be in the state of grace for one night and most of the next day or of the Buddha, who was said to be perpetually in that state, they are of short duration extending from few to several minutes and rarely to hours. The description of the rest of their features is based on the testimony of the mystics and on the verdict of the commentators (some of whom were also mystics) who have studied and systematized them over the centuries.

1 I am calling the mystical state drug-facilitated rather than drug-induced in recognition of the fact that the substance ingested or otherwise introduced in the body is only one of the three factors that account for the mystical experience—if it occurs at all—the other two being the «set» and the «setting», that is, the personality of the individual and the circumstances or the context in which the drug is taken.

2 St. Gregory Palamas—Άγιος Γρηγόριος Παλαμάς— (1296–1357/59) Bishop of Thessaloniki and apologist of the importance and validity of the mystical experience.

Mystical experience is known by many other names such as “cosmic consciousness”, “objective mystical experience”, “illuminated vision of the world”, “nature ecstasy”, “unifying vision”, “oceanic feeling”, “natural, panenhenic”—meaning “All in One”³, “unitive mystical state”, “Satori”, “Nirvana”, “Kensho”—meaning “to see essence in Nature”⁴, “universal consciousness”, “illumination”, “Uncreated Light” and many others. The names, however, provide only glimpses of some aspects of the experience or its object (or its content or referent)⁵ so that to grasp its nature it is necessary to identify its defining or essential features and separate them from those that are incidental to it.

But to do so while aspiring to perfect classification accuracy would require that all reports alleging it be examined, no matter the era and the culture of their origin and the ways they were achieved. It would also require that the question regarding the similarity or identity of drug-facilitated experiences and those achieved through behavioral means be settled. This has in fact been attempted in the past in the context of the notoriouw “Good Friday” experiment, discussed in chapter 3, and in that of more recent studies all of which are discussed in chapter 3.

Moreover, the basic methods leading up to the mystical experiences will be briefly described along with reports of such experiences associated with each method. The latter cannot be but a small sample of the relevant testimonies in the same chapter selected from a vast literature for purposes of illustration only. To juxtapose the thousands of reports of all mystics in order to avoid selection bias in attempting to separate the reliable from the variable features of the mystical state is clearly impractical in that it would require several volumes and competence of a kind I do not possess. Even in that ideal case, though, the selection would have been, once again, only a small sample of the millions of never reported incidences of mystical illuminations that must have gone unreported or unregistered throughout the ages.

I, therefore, resorted to using mainly the verdicts of highly respected authorities that have summarized what they have deemed to be the essential features of the mystical experience having studied the mystics' reports, either in translations or in the original, in the literatures of different ages and cultures. Then, in chapter 5 and 6 of the book, I have juxtaposed and compared these verdicts with the results of contemporary studies in order to derive the final list of essential features the validity of which is examined in chapters 5 and 6.

3 From the Greek for Παν (All) and Εν (One).

4 Suzuki, DT. Zen Buddhism: Selected Writings of DT Suzuki. New York: Anchor Books, 1956, p. 103.

5 The mystical state or the mystical experience, much like any other type of experience has two aspects or it consists of two sets of features. First, features that characterize it as an event (such as time of onset, duration, intensity etc) and second, features that characterize its object or its content or referent, that is to say, what it is about. For example, a visual experience may be experience of (or knowledge of) a house; an emotional experience may the sentiment of anger, etc.

Meanwhile, a preliminary and general sketch of what constitutes the mystical experience or the mystical state is necessary at this point for the purpose of orienting the readers most of whom are likely expecting tales of phantasmagoric “visions”, of perceptual distortions, of extravagant imaginings, of strange synesthesias and of tempestuous emotions that are widely believed to form an essential aspect of the mystical experience. Visions, however, of any sort, are definitely not part of the mystical state because the mystics themselves do not consider them such, even though they may be temporally associated with it; usually by preceding its onset.

Parenthetically, visions are not to be confused with hallucinations. The latter appears to the person that has them as actual percepts—things that exist in the environment. Visions on the other hand are pseudo-hallucinations in that the person that has them knows that they are mental images. And, if they are considered real, as apparitions of holy personages often are, they are considered such only in the sense that they correspond to objects that exist in the spiritual world as defined by the visionary's theological convictions. Visions also differ from ordinary mental images in that they appear to the person that experiences them as if they are generated spontaneously, without his active participation, unlike the products of the conventional human faculty of imagination.

To resume, mystical experiences are not to be confused with parapsychological phenomena either. It is true that for many people “mystical” is synonymous with the “occult” in the fssollowing three senses of the word: First, in the sense of «unexplained» phenomena⁶ like those of telepathy, telekinesis, clairvoyance or precognition. Second, in the sense of the practices of “mediums” and of spiritualists' mystagogies and other religious rites. Third, in the sense of the fascinating phenomena of “out of body” and “near death experiences”, discussed in chapter 2, below. But the meaning of the word mystical and its cognates, at least as they will be used in this text, does not refer to any of the above. This is not to assert that mystical experiences and these phenomena are unrelated⁷. It is only to assert that, for the purpose of clarity, the question pursued here concerns only the former and not the latter.

6 Explanation of these phenomena would require radical revision of current psychophysiological and classical physical theory. See e.g. EF Kelly, A Crabtree and P Marshall (Eds) Beyond Physicalism. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield, 2015.

7 The relation among these phenomena is argued for most comprehensively in Kelly EF, Kelly EW, Crabtree A, Gauld A, Grosso M and Greyson B. Irredussible Mind. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield, 2007.

Visions and phantasmagoric imaginings are common accretions to the mystical state and are commonly associated with deep emotions, often extremely disturbing ones, no matter whether the mystical state is due to drugs—the “bad trip” is a well-known phenomenon in the popular psychedelic culture—or to mortification and prayer where they have been considered daemonic influences. But, as already noted, they are definitely recognized as alien to the mystical experience⁸. It is common that they should precede the mystical experience but sometimes they are mixed with it, especially when the experience is of lesser intensity (see below).

Now, there is no scale to assess directly and quantitatively what I just called “intensity” because with the word intensity I am here alluding to a magnitude that is less quantitative and more quality-like. There are, however, approximations to accurate quantitative scales that are used for assessing drug-facilitated experiences in laboratory experiments⁹. These consist of estimates, on the part of the experimental subjects, of the “strength” or the “depth” or the «intensity» or the degree of persuasiveness of the experience relative to other, ordinary, but extremely important ones in their life. Most drug-facilitated mystical states are not authentic or fully developed ones (see chapter 3, in particular) and only a small percentage of participants in such studies report that they reach the highest level of “intensity” the scales allow.

But there is another way to separate the fully developed experiences from less developed. And that is the presence of a small cluster of features with the knowledge of the organic union of “all that exist” being the chief among them. “The ones most important, the central characteristic in which all fully developed mystical experiences agree”, writes an eminent authority on mysticism, Walter Stace, “and which in the last analysis is definitive of them and serves to mark them off from other kinds of experiences, is that they involve the apprehension of an ultimate nonsensuous unity in all things, a oneness or a One to which neither the senses nor the reason can penetrate. In other words, it entirely transcends our sensory-intellectual consciousness.” and, he continuous, “It should be carefully noted that only fully developed mystical experiences are necessarily apprehensive of the One. Many experiences have been recorded which lack this central feature but yet possess other mystical characteristics. These are borderline cases, which may be said to shade off from the central core of cases. They have to the central core the relation which some philosophers like to call family resemblance” pp. 14–15¹⁰.

8 See e.g. Stace, WT. Mysticism and Philosophy. Los Angeles: Jeremy P. Tarcher, Inc., 1960.

9 See e.g. Barrett, FS, Bradstreet, MP, Leoutsakos, J-M S, Johnson, MW, and Griffiths RR. The Challenging Experience Questionnaire: Characterization of Challenging Experiences with Psilocybin Mushrooms. J Psychopharmacol. 2016, 30(12): 1279–1295.

Few people reach that pinnacle no matter what method they may have used for its attainment. For example, in the over one thousand year history of Mount Athos, the “Holy Mountain” of the Eastern Orthodox Christianity, a recent study found testimonies of 150 mystics, only forty of whom have had experiences that would definitely qualify as genuine and fully developed ones¹¹. Even allowing for the fact that many of the Eastern Orthodox mystics may have chosen not to leave testimonies—which is, in fact, the prevailing attitude among them—the number is still small considering the long history of the tradition.

Certainly, if it is indeed the case that one can attain genuine mystical experience with the aid of psychotropic substances, many more people will have the opportunity to become mystics, provided that they are willing to brave the chances of a “bad trip” the same way that those few that pursue the experience through mortification and prayer are willing to brave the “dark night of the soul” of which St. John of the Cross, a medieval Spanish mystic wrote so eloquently¹² or what in the tradition of the Eastern Orthodoxy is referred to as the “darkness of disrobement”¹³.

It is a matter of debate among commentators as to whether there is only one type of fully developed, genuine experience, or two. But it appears that the oriental mystics, the medieval ones of Islam and of Western (Catholic) Christianity along with the Athonite monks are inclined to consider the type Walter Stace has called «introvertive» and in the Eastern Orthodox tradition is called “ecstatic” as the one deserving the status of the fully developed and ultimate mystical state. All agree, however, that Stace's “extrovertive” type, that in the Eastern Orthodox tradition is called contemplation “through the physical eyes”¹⁴ also qualifies as a genuine mystical experience. Here is Stace's¹⁵ description and differentiation of the two types: «Both are apprehensions of the One, but they reach it in different ways. The extrovertive way looks outward and through the physical senses into the external world and finds the One there. The introvertive way turns inward, introspectively, and finds the One at the bottom of the self, at the bottom of human personality. The latter far outweighs the former in importance both in the history of mysticism and in the history of human thought generally. The introvertive way is the major strand in the history of mysticism, the extrovertive way a minor strand p. 15”.

10 Stace, WT. The teachings of the mystics. New York: Mentor Books, 1960.

11 Charalambidis, E Ch. The experience of Uncreated Light in the lives of Athonite saints. University of Thessaloniki, Greece, Doctoral Dissertations, 1999.

12 St. John of the Cross. Dark night of the soul. E A Peers translator from the critical edition of PS de Santa Teresa, CD. An electronic edition.

13 «γνόφος απεκδύσεως» whereby the soul sheds off all sensation, imagery and cognition. See Charalambidis E Ch. The experience of Uncreated Light in the lives of Athonite saints. University of Thessaloniki, Greece, Doctoral Dissertations, 1999.

14 «φυσικοίς οφθαλμοίς» See Charalambidis E Ch. The experience of Uncreated Light in the lives of Athonite saints. University of Thessaloniki, Greece, Doctoral Dissertations, 1999.

15 Stace, WT The teachings of the mystics. New York: Mentor Books, 1960.

Moreover, he explains: “The extrovertive mystic with his physical senses continues to perceive the same world of trees and hills and tables and chairs as the rest of us. But he sees these objects transfigured in such a manner that the Unity shines through them….It is suggested that the extrovertive type of experience is a kind of halfway house to the introvertive. For the introvertive experience is wholly nonsensuous and nonintellectual. But the extrovertive experience is sensory-intellectual in so far as it still perceives physical objects but is nonse...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Endorsements
• Contents
• About the Author
• Acknowledgements
• Preface
• 1 Defining Mystical States and Experiences
• 2 Unintentional and Deliberate Methods of Attaining Mystical States: Religious, Cultural, and Philosophical Perspectives
• 3 Mystical States achieved through Psychedelics: The Origins, Classical, and Contemporary Use of Psychedelics
• 4 Questioning the Reliability of Mystical States: Identifying Features
• 5 Questioning the Validity of Mystical States: Opinions and Objections
• 6 The Experiencing Subject and Mystical Object: Defining the Validity of the Mystical State
• References
• Index