Mysticism and Psychology
By: Dr. Denise Renye
Mystics are people who have particularly vivid experience of collective unconscious. Mystical experience is experience of the archetypes. -CG Jung
People have had mystical experiences for as long as humans have been in existence. However, most circles of modern-day folx don’t have much space or time for such topics. Yet, some people travel to far-flung lands to seek out mystical experiences while others find them in their own backyards.
And, a component of the psychedelic renaissance we’re currently undergoing is a renewed interest in spiritual or mystical experiences. That could be because as William James put it, “Mystical states cannot be sustained for long. Except in rare instances, half an hour, or at most an hour or two, seems to be the limit beyond which they fade into the light of common day." Meaning, psychedelics create a spiritual or mystical experience that lasts longer than two hours. But what is a mystical experience? It’s characterized by an altered state of consciousness that is not directly attached to religion.
Psychologist Dr. Abraham Maslow coined these altered states “peak experiences” and described them as sudden, intense increases in the sense of well-being, wonder, and awe along with awareness of a transcendental or transpersonal element of a higher truth. Peak experiences are awe-inspiring states of consciousness that may be entered into through deep meditation, an intense feeling of love, an overwhelming experience of nature, art, poetry, music, or through the use of psychedelics.
"Practically everybody reports peak experiences if approached and questioned and encouraged in the right way,” Maslow said in 1962.
If practically everybody has peak experiences, that means you have had at least one in your lifetime too, if not more than one. (So have I.) Despite their pervasiveness, generally, psychoanalysis says science and the mystical cannot coexist. Michael Eigen writes in his book The Psychoanalytic Mystic that, "Most psychoanalysts tend to be anti-mystical, at least non-mystical. Psychoanalysis is allied with science. If allied with the humanities and the arts, it is thought too ironical, too aware of multiplicity, ambiguity, complexity to be mystical.”
Why then would I, a psychologist trained in psychoanalytic psychotherapy, be interested in mystical experiences? First off, because they’re common occurrences generally among many people and, more specifically, patients, clients, and students with whom I work. Spiritual/mystical/peak experiences come up in sessions and classes. I talk about them with patients as they can reveal deep insights about the person and/or explain why an issue they struggled with for so long can suddenly evaporate.
Secondly, some forms of psychotherapy do hold space for spirituality, such as Jungian psychotherapy. I’m in the last portion of a two-year training program that combines mystical experiences and analytic thought not as two separate entities, but rather subjects that richly interact with and inform the other.
We see this with dreams, which can be mystical and psychoanalytic (as well as archetypal). Dreams help us connect with ourselves. They support our processing of general events in the world while also making sense of our personal life events, traumas, and familial patterns. An excellent example of the intersection of dreams, psychoanalysis, and healing comes from the book The Varieties of Religious Experience, authored by the so-called “father of American psychology,” William James.
In his 1901-1902 lectures at Edinburgh, he recounted the example of a woman who felt she was coming down with flu-like symptoms during an epidemic. She said the following:
“I went to bed immediately, and my husband wished to send for the doctor. But I told him that I would rather wait until morning and see how I felt. Then followed one of the most beautiful experiences of my life.
“I cannot express it in any other way than to say that I did ‘lie down in the stream of life and let it flow over me.’ I gave up all fear of any impending disease; I was perfectly willing and obedient.
“There was no intellectual effort, no train of thought …. The creative life was flowing into me every instant, and I felt myself allied with the Infinite, in harmony, and full of the peace that passeth understanding …. I do not know how long this state lasted, nor when I fell asleep; but when I woke up in the morning, I was well.”
Pretty incredible, right? But also, again, commonplace. Integrating mysticism even more deeply into psychology and recognizing science and spirituality can work in tandem instead of being diametrically opposed to one another is a necessary path forward. That's because to deny mystical experiences is to deny a part of our selves. In the journal toward wholeness, every part must be seen and heard: the spiritual side too.
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References
Eigen, Michael. The Psychoanalytic Mystic. London: Free Association Books, 1998.
James, William. The Varieties of Religious Experience. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1902/1985.
Maslow, Dr. Abraham. “Lessons from the peak experiences.” Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 1962; Vol. 2(1): 9-18.
Maslow, Dr. Abraham. Religions, Values, and Peak Experiences. New York: Penguin Books,
1964.