The Mysticism of Ordinary and Extraordinary Experience

The Mysticism of

Ordinary and Extraordinary Experience

Harry L. Serio

Foreword by Dale E. Graff

The Mysticism of Ordinary and Extraordinary Experience

Copyright © 2021 Harry L. Serio. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers, 199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3, Eugene, OR 97401.

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09/17/15

Scripture quotations are from New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

LOST IN THE STARS. Words by MAXWELL ANDERSON. Music by KURT WEILL. © 1946 (Renewed) CHAPPELL & CO., INC. and TRO–HAMPSHIRE HOUSE PUBLISHING CORP. All Rights Reserved. Used by Permission of ALFRED MUSIC.

LOST IN THE STARS. From the Musical Production Lost In The Stars. Words by Maxwell Anderson, Music by Kurt Weill. TRO- © Copyright 1944 (Renewed) 1946 (Renewed) Hampshire House Publishing Corp., New York, NY and Chappell & Co., Los Angeles, CA. International Copyright Secured. Made in U.S.A. All Rights Reserved Including Public Performance For Profit. Used by Permission.

Table of Contents

Title Page

Foreword

Preface

The Nature of Mystical Experiences

The Conscious Universe

Things That Go Bump in the Night

Episodes in the Life of a House

Spirits among Us

Seance in the Sanctuary

Unexpected Visitors

Deathbed Visions and Near-Death Experiences

The Exorcist

Born Again . . . and Again . . . and Again

Death of a Young Girl in Springtime

Liminality at the Time of Death

I Told You So!

The Future Is Not What It Used to Be

Time and Again

Sacred Places

From Deep to Deep

American Poustinia

Dasein

Breath of God

Room of Contemplation

In the Breaking of Bread

One without a Name

Objects

Emmanuel

Mysticism of Jazz

Sexual Mysticism

Folk Spirituality of the Pennsylvania Dutch

Parataxic Totemization

The Defenestration of the Soul

Avatar

Walkers between Worlds

Entering the Cloud of Unknowing

Make Light of Yourself

To See Ourselves

Lost in the Stars

Killing the Buddha

Bibliography

Foreword

When reading Dr. Harry Serio’s book, The Mysticism of Ordinary and Extraordinary Experience, you become a time traveler, an explorer through space and time. In these excellent pages, you are privileged to experience a wide range of cultural and religious history including those regions described by the poets, writers, philosophers, mystics, and theologians, along with others who venture between the boundaries of the seen and unseen.

Dr. Serio’s thorough description of the roots of religion spanning many diverse cultures and the impact these had on the Christian-Judaic tradition places this heritage into a global historic context. This is valuable for bringing together, for re-uniting, all of us regardless of specific creed, as we search for understanding our connections with the great mysteries of life and for discovering our essence at deep levels of being.

Dr. Serio explains how religion and science are searching into the same mystery, and acknowledges how ancient understanding of energy and vibrations are compatible with modern concepts in quantum physics with its interconnectedness of all things. He reviews current findings in physics and brainwave research that illustrates his scope of interest and how science and religion can be understood as different ways of describing the mysteries of creation.

He includes many of his personal experiences that help the reader understand his struggles with reconciling them within the traditional understandings. Some of these experiences clearly illustrate the potential that we all have for accessing these mysteries and benefitting from them in practical situations, such as perceiving information from the future in premonitions. He considers chance and its meaningful counterpart, synchronicity, and that intentionality of a universal design is subtlety evident in the events of our lives and the evolving universe. Throughout his book, Dr. Serio interjects humor to illustrate the importance of humility for our understandings and for our relationships. His detailed accounts of Celtic historic connections provide a context for those of us who resonate with bridge building, whether it be between various religions perspectives or between science and religion. This follows from a consistent theme throughout his book; the unity of all things and the realization that a universal consciousness is everywhere. We are part of the Whole. He weaves this perspective with a theological framework and a naturalistic worldview. Dr. Serio’s thoughtful discussion of time and river metaphors, that often appear in literary works, and the connection between heroic journeys from the Odyssey to classic myths for modern times illustrates the immense scope of his writings. Dr. Serio’s deep connection with jazz, and his role in bringing jazz to the Reading, PA area through a two-week annual event attests to the power of music and that spirituality can be found in the spaces where music from the soul resides. The natural rhythm of such music resonates with our deep psyche and is a unifying experience, bringing together, re-uniting us with our ancient roots and the creative principles of the universe.

Now the COVID-19 virus has come into our contemporary lives. Dr. Serio’s discussion of being present considers the impact of social distancing on our lives. He wonders if holographic projection will become a new communication technique and if too much reliance on electronic means will bring us closer together, or lead to further separation.

There are many topics in this book that will inspire us to dig deeper into our own history and to ponder our destiny. Dr. Serio’s book brings us into a deeper understanding of ourselves and others and that the ordinary and extraordinary are an integral aspect of all us. He inspires us to explore and discover this for ourselves.

Dale E. Graff

Aerospace Engineer (ret.)

Founder and Former Director

United States Government’s

PROJECT STARGATE

Preface

Almost everyone has had mystical experiences but may not have recognized them as such. These include times of deep peace, total relaxation free from any cares or worries, an awareness of another reality or state of being that encompasses one’s total essence. There may also be extraordinary experiences, encounters with the paranormal, including beings not physically present. Some of these experiences may be revelatory in which information or insight is received without any reason or deliberate cognition. There may also be a profound sense of being loved, of being part of a universal consciousness which many mystics often regard as God. Each person has this potential and therefore anyone may be regarded as a mystic when he or she is open to a greater awareness of the presence of God.

There are persons who are regarded as mystics in all of the world’s religions, and there are groups within many spiritual expressions that deliberately seek to cultivate the mystical experience. Mysticism has been studied from various perspectives including historical, theological, psychological, and scientific.

As a pastor in the United Church of Christ I have tried to be sensitive to the reporting of unusual experiences by members of the congregations I have served and by those who were referred to me by my ministerial colleagues. I have encouraged my fellow clergy to listen to the stories of their parishioners with openness and to be prepared to discuss how these experiences may have impacted their lives and their understanding of the nature of reality and their relationship with God.

I have included in these pages accounts of my own experiences, times when I became more aware of the presence of God in my life and of my own relationship with a universal consciousness. My personal encounters with the paranormal have led me to further research. I became president of the Academy for Spiritual and Consciousness Studies. Inc. and have presented papers at their annual conferences. Some of the chapters in this book were offered at these conferences.

The first chapter, The Nature of Mystical Experiences, is adapted from my doctoral dissertation at Lancaster Theological Seminary: "Mysticism and Ministry: A Descriptive Inquiry Into the Varieties of Mystical Experiences Among United Church of Christ People in Berks County, Pennsylvania (1992).

I have attempted to cite all the references that I have used. However, I apologize if I have missed any.

I am grateful to those who have shared their experiences with me, whether normal or paranormal, and who have offered helpful suggestions, particularly my wife Mary Ann Serio, and children, Tasha, Stuart, and Matthew. I also appreciate the encouragement of friends and colleagues who read and endorsed the manuscript: Dr. Lee S. Barrett, professor of New Testament at Lancaster Theological Seminary; astrophysicist Dale Graff, with whom I have co-presented several lectures on related subjects; and Dr. Mark D. Rader, physician and long-time friend.

The Nature of Mystical Experiences

The direct apprehension of the divine would be a simple definition of mysticism, but mysticism is anything but simple to define. Its very nature and characteristics often lie beyond the limitations of words and the defined boundaries that words connote. However, definitions have been offered and characteristics common to mystical experiences have been listed by many philosophers, theologians, psychologists, and popular writers.

The etymology of the word itself is debated. Most agree that mysticism is derived from the Greek mueo—to initiate, as in the mystery religions where the initiate takes a sacred oath to protect the secrets of the religion. Thus, the derivation may also come from myein, to close the lips and eyes, referring either to the silence of the worshipper who stands before God or to the oath of the devotee not to reveal the sacred mysteries of the religion.

Evelyn Underhill wrote: Mysticism, according to its historical and psychological definitions, is the direct intuition or experience of God; and a mystic is a person who has, to a greater or lesser degree, such a direct experience—one whose religion and life are centered, not merely on an accepted belief or practice, but on that which he regards as first hand personal knowledge.¹

Georgia Harkness said that mysticism is the direct and immediate awareness of the presence of God.² Somehow, the words intuition of or experience of or awareness of God do not seem adequate, for these words imply some distance between the knower and the known. The ultimate goal of the mystic is to achieve union with God, so that the self is lost in the greater context of God. It is the participation of the soul in the life of God. And since the essence of God is love, the object of the mystic is the direct experience of the love of God.

Since the object of mysticism is union with God, what this union means, or what happens when one achieves it, can have other ramifications such as the acquisition of knowledge inaccessible through normal perception or ordinary ways of knowing. Margaret Smith, in her study of the relation of Christian mysticism to the Islamic mysticism of the Sufis, says that the early mystics were true Gnostics whose goal was to rise above earthly knowledge to the contemplation of God and thereby gain through intuition an esoteric knowledge predestined for a chosen few who were found fit to receive it.³ God was the Source of Knowledge and the Fountain of Wisdom to which the Gnostics aspired, but it was the later Christian mystics who sought God for God’s own sake, for in not knowing, one knows and experiences God.

Mysticism is more often characterized not by knowing, but by feeling, and yet it is beyond emotion. The mystical state defies description, for mystical experiences cannot be confined to language since their very nature lies beyond the boundaries of words. The paradox seems to be that if one can talk about it, it’s not a mystical experience. However, the literature of mysticism is monumental; mystics have found ways to talk about their experiences.

If we remember that the map is not the territory—that words are also symbols—we may begin to understand the nature of the mystical experience. As Hans Penner points out,

[A]ll we have for understanding mysticism is language, not experience. It is not mystical experience which explains mystical traditions of languages; rather it is mystical language which explains mystical experience. In fact, it is useless to appeal to mystical experience as the basis of our explanation because it is precisely this experience that needs to be explained."⁴

Since language is the means that humans have developed to communicate knowledge and ideas, we can operate within that system as long as we understand its limitations.

The mystical way is one of three ways by which persons have sought to know God. In natural theology, God is known through the created order. In historical and dogmatic theology, God is known through history, tradition, and the record of past revelation. Mystical theology is the soul’s direct knowledge of God.⁵ No one method of knowing God should stand alone. While the mystic may know immediately and intuitively, the experience must be compared to tradition to determine its validity.

Mysticism tends far more to confirm rather than question traditional authority. In an essay on The Conservative Character of Mystical Experience, Steven Katz maintains that Western mystics do not experience God in neutral or monistic ways [as suggested by W. T. Stace] and then interpret this experience for expediency’s sake in theistic language, but rather, based on their prior study of canonical sources . . . , they have theistic and even more specifically, personal, intimate, theistic experiences.⁶

The mystic vision is framed within the context of the symbols and language that the mystic brings to the experience. God, so to speak, uses the tools in the mystic’s own bag. Consequently, the teaching of the classical mystics was seen as either (a) the older teachings in a new guise; (b) a personal confirmation of existing doctrine; (c) a legitimate extension of tradition teaching; or (d) a new, but authoritative, stage of tradition.⁷ In a series of interviews that I conducted in the 1980s, I noticed that much of the symbolic language and descriptions that were received through dreams or other means were consistent with the cultural milieu of the percipient.

There is a question of subjectivity and objectivity in determining the criteria by which mystical experiences are judged. We can study the lives of the mystics, which Evelyn Underhill did exceptionally well, and elicit from that study characteristics held in common by those who have been accepted as mystics, recognizing that there are exceptions to the criteria, that not all mystics share the same characteristics in common. The alternative is to describe the mystical experience with a rigid set of criteria and hold each experience up to that yardstick. The problem is that in most cases all we have is the mystic’s own story; third-person corroboration is extremely rare. In the past, the difference between madness and mysticism has rested with the acceptance of the community. Richard M. Bucke, a Canadian physician and author of Cosmic Consciousness, an early classic of mystical experience, wrote that the first thing each person asks himself upon experiencing the new sense is: Does what I see and feel represent reality or am I suffering from a Delusion?⁸ Society has determined that the ability to distinguish between a shared reality and a personal reality is a measure of one’s sanity. The validation of a mystical experience is therefore based on the individual’s own report of that experience.

Following his own mystical experience of a flame-colored cloud engulfing him within his cab on his way home, Bucke undertook a comparative study of experiences and concluded his own list of characteristics and factors:

A photism or cosmic light, an inner illumination, either a sense of being immersed in it or the mind being filled with light.

Moral elevation, ecstasy, the assurance of salvation.

Intellectual elevation, a clear conception of universal meaning, almost as a gestalt.

A sense of immortality.

Loss of the fear of death.

Loss of the sense of sin.

Instantaneous illumination.

The moral character of the person prior to the experience is a factor.

Age. Bucke believed that maturity was a factor in attaining cosmic consciousness and that the average age for this maturity was thirty-five. Consequently, youthful experiences would have to be verified by the way in which a person lived following the experience.

The personality of the person. There is an added charm to the person who has attained cosmic consciousness; a certain charisma is noted in the bearing of such a person.

A change in the person following the experience such as profound joy or a transfiguration—or in Dante’s terms a transhumanization.⁹

Bucke’s list has been criticized by W. T. Stace, who also took issue with William James’ definitions (as well as D. T. Suzuki’s list of common characteristics of satori) as too haphazard and lacking in correspondence.

William James, in the Gifford Lectures at Edinburgh in 1901–1902, proposed four marks of the mystical state of consciousness. These are:

Ineffability—the impossibility of adequately describing the experiences which are more like states of feeling than like states of intellect.¹⁰ Words are insufficient vehicles of representation. One must experience it directly. It is like trying to understand love without ever being in love.

Noetic quality—mystical states of consciousness are those in which awareness, revelation, knowledge, and insight are received by means other than normal perception or intellectual processes. James makes three points about this insight: it is extrasensory; it is of value; it is authoritative.

Transiency—mystical states are of short duration. James estimated that the maximum would be about two hours with most experiences about a half hour in duration. My own experience, and those of persons I have interviewed, indicate that many of these experiences are momentary. They are also transitory in that they fade from consciousness as a dream fades the moment one’s awareness is diverted to the normal routines of the day. However, the experience exists imperfectly in memory and can be recalled.

Passivity—the mystical consciousness feels caught up by another power greater than itself. There is a suspension of the will and at times a sensation of separation from bodily consciousness. One is aware that one is not there, wherever there is or was. James connected this with certain definite phenomena of secondary or alternative personality, such as prophetic speech, automatic writing, or the mediumistic trance.¹¹

James said that the first two marks, ineffability and noetic quality, were not only essential but sufficient in defining mystical experiences, where the other two are less sharply marked but usually present.¹²

Evelyn Underhill found William James’ four marks unsatisfactory and proposed four other tests for mystical experiences:

Active and practical—the entire self is involved in the experience, not only the mind or intellect; it is participation and not merely reception.

Transcendental and spiritual—the object of mysticism is God; not what God can give. The difference between magic and mysticism, says Underhill, is that the object of magic is to get, while the object of mysticism is to give. The mystic does not seek occult wisdom or power, but only God.

Love is the primary objective. This is the driving force of the mystic; it is the total dedication of the will which moves the soul to the Source of all love. This separates the true mystic experience, as far as Underhill is concerned, from merely paranormal experiences of the spiritual world.

Living Union with the One—arrived at through the psychological and spiritual process known as the Mystic Way.¹³

The classic mystical process involved purgation, illumination, and union. Underhill defined five stages of the mystic way. Since mystics may differ in what they bring, not all may be experienced by any one mystic, but most will vary between states of pleasure and states of pain. The states may be sharply defined, or they may be blurred and confused. These stages are:

The Awakening of the Self to Consciousness of Divine Reality—a well-defined experience of short duration usually accompanied by feelings of intense joy and exaltation or importance. This is the typical conversion experience that moves the person to a higher level of consciousness and greater awareness of God’s presence.

The Purgation of the Self—the attempt to rid oneself of temptations and material desire through discipline and self-mortification as preparation to moving towards union with God. It is a state of pain and effort, a state of kenosis, of getting rid of the dross of the life, the impediments to unity.

Illumination—a state of apprehension of the Absolute, a sense of the Divine Presence. It is being blinded by the Light in order to see—the emergence from the cave of illusion to the knowledge of reality. It is a state of happiness and contemplation, but not true union. Many who have had mystic experiences never get beyond this state.

The Purification of the Self—the most terrible of mystic experiences, mystic death is the dark night of the soul. It is the sense of divine dereliction, of cosmic abandonment. It is a second stage of kenosis, but whereas in Purgation the outward and material aspects of life are purged, here the self is emptied and prepared for surrender. If purgation is simply taking out the trash, purification is getting the house ready for the new owner.

Union—the ultimate goal of the mystic quest. It is not only a perception of the Absolute, but a merging, a becoming at one with the Divine. It is a state of equilibrium, of purely spiritual life; characterized by peaceful joy, by enhanced powers, by intense certitude.¹⁴ It is a state of ecstasy in which the mystic loses all awareness of the physical world and is satisfied with the contemplation and enjoyment of the divine vision. While states of ecstasy may appear in other stages, the state of union, which is the true goal of the mystic’s progress, establishes a transcendent environment in which states of ecstasy give a foretaste to the soul.¹⁵

Eastern mysticism goes one step beyond to a total annihilation of the self and a complete loss of identity of the person. In Western spirituality, union is the absorption of the self