How New is New in Mysticism?

Ancient Origins
I was asked, “Why is this new mysticism so prevalent in the local church?” Mysticism and asceticism are not new. From shamanism to other demonic influenced activities, it is as old as the Garden of Eden. Perhaps the oldest mystic Eastern Religions that we have records of are Hinduism and Buddhism. The twentieth century, which has seen so many revolutions, is now witnessing the rise of a new or revitalized mysticism within Christianity. But the question is ‘Can we find God or enhance our experience of Jesus by entering into an altered state of consciousness?’ The centuries past have all had their share of Oracles, Seers and Shamans. The few that others usually feared were respected or were burned at the stake. Sadly, the situation today is not confined to the gypsy at the local fair, with everyone and his brother jumping on the bandwagon. Fools rush in where angels fear to tread. I fear for the truth of Scripture when mysticism replaces the clear Word of God.

With our newly found ‘Spirituality’ and all manner of meditation, visualization, channeling, spirit guides, goddess worship and Gaia, all we have succeeded in doing is throwing the doors open to demonic activity of every kind. Some charismatic movements have become more and more mystical in the past century. We have openly invited evil to cross the threshold. Consider the past as obtained from several online sources:

Hinduism has perhaps the oldest tradition of mysticism. In Hindu philosophy hundreds of years before Christ, and particularly in the metaphysical system known as the Vedanta, the self or atman in a person is identified with the supreme self, or Brahman of the universe. The apparent separateness and individuality of beings and events are held to be an illusion (Sanskrit maya), or convention of thought and feeling. This illusion can be dispelled through the realization of the essential oneness of atman and Brahman. When the religious initiate has overcome the beginningless ignorance (Sanskrit avidya) upon which depends the apparent separability of subject and object, of self and not-self, a mystical state of liberation, or moksha, is attained. The Hindu philosophy of Yoga incorporates perhaps the most complete and rigorous discipline ever designed to transcend the sense of personal identity and to clear the way for an experience of union with the divine self. Mysticism has traditionally been the province of the sadhus, who sometimes go to extremes of asceticism in the course of their devotions, for example by standing for years on one leg or eschewing clothing. Such pursuits are held to be a necessary corollary of the spiritual struggle to achieve mystic liberation.

Developing out of Hindu traditions and building on Hindu concepts, Buddhism perpetuates the mystical strain of Hinduism by its founder Gautama (c. 560-480 B.C.). The historical Buddha himself practiced Yoga for years, before abandoning it for a more moderate regime, and Buddhism can be seen as a reform movement opposing the severest excesses of traditional Hindu mysticism. Buddhism can properly be styled a purely mystical religion, since its sole purpose is to enable all its practitioners to achieve mystical transcendence in the state of nirvana, either in their present incarnation or in a future one. Buddhism has no secular clergy in the Christian sense, only monks and nuns, who strive to achieve enlightenment through spiritual exercise and right living, thus shedding the burden of karma which keeps them in the world of perpetual reincarnation.

Though all Buddhism is mystical in emphasis, some sects are notably more so than others. This condition partly arose out of traditional Buddhist emphasis on the transmission of doctrine in voluminous sutras and on elaborate metaphysics, whereas mystical experience is often felt to transcend language and rational distinctions. The Zen school of Buddhism, which first arose in China in the 6th century AD, partly as a result of cross-fertilization with Daoism, and later spread to Japan and other countries, concentrates on immediate realization of the voidness of things by the demolition of conceptual structures. Zen teaching thus often uses apparently meaningless riddles (koans) or even blows in order to break the mold of the recipient's mind and free them for nirvana in the present life. Esoteric Buddhism, especially Buddhist Tantra, also developed a mystical discipline in which masters lead disciples to enlightenment by rigorous physical and mental exercises, creation and contemplation of mystic designs or mandalas, and the communication of secret truths through gestures and postures known as mudras.

In China, Confucianism, which dominated Chinese life almost from its beginnings until the 20th century, is formalistic and anti-mystical, but Daoism, as expounded by its traditional founder, the Chinese philosopher Laozi (Lao-Tzu), has a strong mystical emphasis. Daoism emphasized the relativity and fallibility of the rational distinctions developed through thought and language in order to understand and control the world, and advocated their removal to restore the mind to undifferentiated unity with the universe, a condition called the “Uncut Block”. A Daoist adept would thus achieve mystical harmony with the way of things, possessing a mirror-like heart which would spontaneously reflect the universal order. The Daoist sage Zhuangzi (3rd century B.C.) compared such a state in his ecstatic writing to that of a swimmer able to navigate torrents like a fish or a skilled cook able to dice up an ox with perfect ease. Daoism thus developed organized monasteries and a tradition of genuine mystical contemplation, but in contact with early Chinese chemical science it also spawned pseudo-mystical alchemists who sought elixirs of immortality rather than just union with the Infinite.

The philosophical ideas of the ancient Greeks were predominantly naturalistic and rationalistic, but an element of mysticism found expression in Orphism, the Eleusinian mysteries and other rites. A late Greek movement, Neoplatonism, was based on the philosophy of Plato and also shows the influence of the mystery religions. Plotinus was perhaps the most gifted exponent, and his thought exercised considerable influence on early Christianity! Mysticism of the pre-Christian period is evidenced in the writings of the Jewish-Hellenistic philosopher Philo Judaeus.

Islamic Sufism embraces a form of theistic mysticism closely resembling that of the Vedanta. A relatively early development in Islamic history, Sufism focuses on personal union with Allah. Through ascetic and contemplative disciplines, Sufi mystics seek direct union with God achieved through divine favor. The ecstatic language of unity with the Divine with which Sufis describe their experiences, and the positively pantheistic doctrines developed by some, have led to charges of heterodoxy. In 922 the Sufi al-Hallaj, who was accused of having asserted his identity with God was executed in Baghdad. It was left to the 11th-century philosopher al-Ghazali to reconcile Sufism and orthodox Islam. Doctrines of Sufism found their most memorable expression in the symbolic works of the Persian poets Mohammed Shams od-Din, better known as Hafiz, and Jalal-ad-Din Muhammad Din ar-Rumi, and in the writings of the Persian al-Ghazali.

British Professor F. F. Bruce writes, "If there was one eastern religion more than another cultivated by Romans in Britain as elsewhere, it was Mithraism and not Christianity, Mithra was the god of light and truth in Iranian mythology; his cult was introduced to the Romans towards the middle of the first century B.C. and by the middle of the third century A.D. it had spread so widely that an impartial observer might have concluded that Mithraism and not Christianity would become the dominant religion throughout the empire. It envisaged the world as a battleground between light and darkness; worshippers of Mithra must take part in this warfare in order to attain union with him. Those who did attain it were purified by mystic rites in which he was believed to escort them through the seven planetary spheres to the highest heaven, where they might expect to live in eternal light. Mithraism made a special appeal to serious-minded men, and particularly to soldiers, as is perhaps natural when we consider the military language in which its principles were expressed. Three temples on Hadrian's Wall (in Britain by the occupying Romans), and Mithraic inscriptions and symbols there and at York and other places in the north of England indicate that it had its votaries in the Roman army in Britain. No such evidence exists for the knowledge of Christianity there, even in the fourth century A.D."

The monastic movement in Christianity produced both somewhat mystics and wholly ascetic monks. Among the principal contemplatives of Christianity from post-Apostolic times to the Reformation are Clement of Alexandria , Origen , St. Augustine , the false Dionysius the Areopagite , Cassian , St. Gregory I , Erigena , St. Peter Damian , St. Anselm , St. Bernard of Clairvaux , Hildegard of Bingen , Joachim of Fiore , Richard of Saint Victor , Hugh of Saint Victor , Hadewijch , St. Gertrude, St. Francis , Jacopone da Todi , St. Bonaventure , Thomas Aquinas , Ramon Lull , Dante , Eckhart , Tauler , Suso , Ruysbroeck , Groote , Thomas à Kempis , Nicholas of Cusa , Rolle of Hampole , Walter Hilton , Juliana of Norwich , Margery Kempe , St. Bridget of Sweden , St. Catherine of Siena , Gerson , St. Bernardine of Siena , and St. Joan of Arc . The Catholic tradition was continued by St. Ignatius of Loyola , St. Theresa of Ávila, St. John of the Cross , St. Francis de Sales , and St. Theresa of Lisieux. Orders that have given their name to types of mysticism are Carmelites , Carthusians , and Cistercians . Among great Protestant mystics are Jakob Boehme and George Fox , founder of Quakerism, the foremost Protestant mystical movement. In the 17th and 18th century, much literature of the contemplative life was written by the metaphysical poets and by Henry More , William Law , and others. Extremes in post-Reformation mysticism are seen in Jansenism and in quietism ; and Emanuel Swedenborg may be regarded as a Protestant mystic. Also included in the mystic tradition were the Hermetic philosophers and the Alchemists. In Judaism the mystical tradition represented by the kabbalah was continued in the modern Hasidism .