ABSTRACT
In assembling this issue I have had in mind a distinction between religious experience and mysticism. Naturally the two are aspects of a similar phenomenon, but while the former occurs in connection with a revealed tradition of systematic wisdom, the latter is a perception of the unity of multi-dimensional worlds of experience that transcends tradition. Even allowing for semantic distinctions it’s significant that religious experience comes with an evolved vocabulary (implying involvement of the left hemisphere of the brain) whereas mysticism doesn’t (implying the right hemisphere). Nevertheless both are semi-volitional, involving the subject’s active participation or mental assent. Beyond either lie the altered states of trance, varieties of automatism and ultimately ecstatic frenzy-whether induced by psycho-physiology or drugs.
