ABSTRACT
In discussing a mystical experience (ME), psychoanalysts are sure to cross the threshold of psychoanalytic theory immediately and drift into the mention of God or call upon the statements found in religious and spiritual traditions. The attribution of a ME to a divine source cannot be criticised but it has the effect of removing it from the probability that there was a breakthrough into consciousness of a profound message from the unconscious that deserves enquiry. Of the three elements – the experience itself, the meaning event, and the effect on consciousness – emphasis in reported MEs in mystical or religious traditions is primarily on the event of realisation, and less on the effect on consciousness. The analytic steps developed by Bion and the levels expressed in the Zohar are forms of experience not characterised or defined by a sudden, unbidden experience that is of sufficient force that it can create a change of consciousness by its occurrence.
