Samādhi and Peter Wimsey: Mysticism,reading and Bruce Janz

Abstract

Professor Janz (SR, 24, 1 [1995]: 77) proposes an explanation of mystical experience based on an analogy with the hermeneutical process of reading a book. While this model has its advantages, it represents an attempt to analyze non-intentional mysticism on the basis of intentional experiences. Such mysticism, an experience of our own consciousness, is very different from thinking and sensing; it involves dropping the intentional processes that are involved with both. This non-intentional approach represents what the texts and descriptions of mystical experiences themselves frequently say.