ABSTRACT
This chapter briefly indicates the significance of mystical elements in human life from some basic approaches to a theoretical understanding of intuitive meaning-making and their potential application to religious, political, and natural contexts. To speak of a mystical worldview is unusual because mystical elements are often relegated to life's margins rather than to organisational mainstream of a group, and because of the difficulty in defining ‘mystery' and ‘mystical'. Mysticism is one style of meaning-making, rooted in impact of emotional awareness upon a person's grasp of the significance of life, even if of a single or infrequent occurrence. Although mystics speak much of it, they regularly describe their experience as ineffable – or being unable to capture in words. Schweitzer is grasped by notion that a person's ethical life is dependent upon life at large becoming ‘sacred', whether ‘of plants and animals' or other people, and coming when a person becomes devoted ‘to all life that is in need of help'.
