The Mystical Experience
- What is the mystical experience ? Do some mystics achieve “direct contact” with the Divine ?
- From the ancient Jewish Kabbalah to the spiritual illumination of monastic contemplation, hear what the experts are saying.
Throughout history, the “mystical path” or the spiritual approach of achieving “direct contact” with the Divine has resulted in powerful spiritual experiences. While often bordering on the ineffable, some of these mystical experiences have actually led to the founding of a world religion, or spawned some of the most profound ecstatic poetry ever written.
For some thousand years, mystical practices have been a small but vital part of Christian, Jewish, Islamic, Hindu, and other faiths and native traditions. Yet those following the mystical path have so often been persecuted, being perceived as threatening to the power of the established religious orthodoxy. It has often been said that true mystics often have more in common with each other than with the more scripture-based adherents from within their own religions, and this Global Spirit program delightfully underscores that truth.
In this Global Spirit program, host Phil Cousineau joins Brother David Steindl-Rast, Rabbi Jonathan Omer-Man and Maata Lynn Barron to shed light on some of the common attributes of those who yearn for and reach, however momentarily, what they describe as a direct experience of God or the Divine. From the ancient Jewish Kabbalah and Islamic Sufi practices, to the spiritual illumination and epiphanies experienced through monastic contemplation, “The Mystical Experience” explores both experiential and analytical approaches to this rich subject.
Program Guests
Brother David Steindl-Rast was born in Austria, where he studied art, anthropology, and psychology, receiving an MA from the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts and a PhD from the University of Vienna. Brother David emigrated to the U.S., and in 1953 he joined a newly founded Benedictine community, the Mount Saviour Monastery, of which he is now a senior member. At present, Brother David serves a worldwide Network for Grateful Living, through www.gratefulness.org, an interactive website with several thousand participants daily from more than 243 countries.
Maata Lynn Barron received formal training in classical Sufism from a shaykh in Delhi, India. Maata Lynn founded the non-profit organization The Circle of Light as a vehicle for the transmission of the innate Wisdom, Beauty and Goodness of the divine feminine principle, SHE. Maata Lynn speaks and sits in meditation with people at retreats and conferences around the country.
Rabbi Jonathan Omer-Manis a teacher, writer and lecturer, devoting much of his professional life to the dissemination and promotion of Jewish spirituality. In 1985 he established Metivta: a center for contemplative Judaism, which sought to provide an integrated approach to Jewish religious life, centered on meditation and traditional spirituality. Rabbi Jonathan also created and launched the Institute for Jewish Spirituality. He lived in Jerusalem for over twenty years, and served as the personal editor and consultant to Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz.
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