A Great Question

What is mystical experience?

What mystics report, and how their reports should be read.

Framing

Mystics in many traditions describe moments of direct contact with, or union with, the ultimate: a vision, a silence, a unity in which the ordinary sense of self falls away. They often say that what they knew cannot be put into words, and yet that it was more real than anything else.

Modern scholars have asked what such reports describe. Are they experiences of a reality beyond the mind, or states of the mind itself? Are mystics of different religions having the same experience, interpreted differently, or different experiences, shaped by their beliefs and practices? And should mystical texts be read as reports of experience at all, rather than as guides to a way of life?

The perspectives below come from the modern study of mysticism and from the mystics themselves.

Perspectives

Voices from several traditions, each in its own terms. They are set side by side to be compared, not ranked.

Comparative mysticism, William James
Scholarship
Mystical states have four marks: ineffability, a noetic quality, transiency and passivity. They are authoritative for those who have them, and show that rational consciousness is not the only kind.
Sources: The Varieties of Religious Experience
Comparative mysticism, Evelyn Underhill
Scholarship
Mysticism is not a matter of passing experiences but of a whole life: the art of union with reality, developed through stages from awakening to union.
Sources: Mysticism
Comparative mysticism, Rudolf Otto
Scholarship
Behind mysticism lies the experience of the numinous, the holy as wholly other, awesome and fascinating, which cannot be reduced to morality or reason.
Sources: The Idea of the Holy
Comparative mysticism, W. T. Stace
Scholarship
The core experience is the same everywhere, in two forms: extrovertive, seeing all as one, and introvertive, a pure unity without content. Mystics differ in their interpretations, not their experiences.
Sources: Mysticism and Philosophy
Carmelite mysticism, Teresa of Ávila
Scholarship
Visions and consolations are not to be sought, and can deceive; the test of true prayer is its fruits, in humility, obedience and love of neighbour.
Sources: The Interior Castle
Comparative mysticism
Scholarship
Constructivist scholars reply that there are no unmediated experiences: a Christian’s union with God and a Buddhist’s realization of emptiness are different experiences, shaped from the start by their traditions.

Reflect

Has anything ever been more real to you than your thoughts about it?

Cite this entry

Chicago (bibliography): “What is mystical experience?” Question. The Library, Unitive Knowledge Society. Last modified November 7, 2026. https://www.unitiveknowledge.org/questions/what-is-mystical-experience.
Chicago (note): “What is mystical experience?” question, The Library, Unitive Knowledge Society, last modified November 7, 2026, https://www.unitiveknowledge.org/questions/what-is-mystical-experience.
MLA: “What is mystical experience?” The Library, Unitive Knowledge Society, 7 Nov. 2026, www.unitiveknowledge.org/questions/what-is-mystical-experience.
BibTeX: @misc{questions-what-is-mystical-experience, title = {{What is mystical experience?}}, howpublished = {The Library, Unitive Knowledge Society}, note = {Question. Last modified November 7, 2026}, year = {2026}, url = {https://www.unitiveknowledge.org/questions/what-is-mystical-experience} }

What is mystical experience?

Framing

Perspectives

Comparative mysticism, William James

Comparative mysticism, Evelyn Underhill

Comparative mysticism, Rudolf Otto

Comparative mysticism, W. T. Stace

Carmelite mysticism, Teresa of Ávila

Comparative mysticism

Reflect

Concepts involved

Traditions

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