Marcus opens with a series of lighthearted Church announcement bloopers.
Marcus opens the main part of his talk with a prayer from the Jewish tradition. “Days pass and the years vanish and we walk sightless among miracles. God, fill our eyes with seeing and our eyes with knowing, let there be moments when your presence like lightning illumens the darkness in which we walk help us to see wherever we gaze, that the bush burns unconsumed and we clay touched by God will reach out for holiness and exclaim in wonder how filled with awe is this place and we did not know it.”
Part 1 Mysticism and Defining Religious Experiences
In today’s English, Mysticism often has a negative connotation, referring to something vague and fuzzy and not worth being taken seriously. Marcus quotes two prominent theologians of the 21st century and their dismissive treatment of mysticism as well as the rejection of an evangelically authored and published book on prayer in evangelical book stores because “mysticism” appeared in the title categorizing the book as occult. Marcus defines mysticism as union or communion with the sacred, mystical experiences are ecstatic experiences of God, the sacred or reality. For people who have mystical experiences, God is not a belief but a reality known, these experiences are known.
Marcus references “The Varieties of Religious Experience” by William James which is a nonfiction book which interviews people with firsthand accounts of mystical experiences and researches literature written by mystics. The author concluded that there were two defining features of a mystical experience. First, a sense of union with God, the sacred and what is. Second, a non-ordinary state of consciousness. Mystics are ecstatic or outside their usual state. Mystical experiences involve a momentary lapse in the self-world distinction. When the boundary between ourselves and the world around us softens we feel our connections to our surroundings more than our separation.
The second defining feature of a mystical experience, is a sense of illumination. Sometimes this literally involves an experience of light but the meaning is of enlightenment, of seeing, of knowing. Mystics see differently, they see reality, the world and their lives differently.
There are two kinds or categories of mystical experiences, extrovertive and introvertive. An extrovertive or eyes-open experience is one in which you see your ordinary surroundings differently, often your surroundings are suffused with light. Introvertive experiences are eyes-closed experiences. Sometimes they include visions but also a sense of the sacred sometimes in the silence of contemplative prayer.
Other features of mystical experiences. These experiences are very difficult to put into words and are transient from seconds to hours. You cannot make them happen, you passively receive them. You know them, they are not a strong feeling they are a knowing.
Part 2 Why Mystical Experiences Matter
Mystical experiences are foundational to the world’s religions. In Christianity, Moses, Jesus and Paul are central figures who experienced God. Every founder of a major world religion that we know about, for example, Buddha and Muhammad are portrayed as mystics. In Eastern Orthodoxy, worship is shaped around mystical experiences and they are expected, salvation is linked with enlightenment. Mystical experiences have nurtured the lives of ordinary Christians for centuries. Marcus points out how in the last 100-150 years we have moved our lives inside, when we travel we travel inside of a vehicle. We have also added illumination to everything, light pollution has disconnected us from the stars. The conditions of modern society may impede some mystical experiences.
Not all Christians have mystical experiences and that’s ok, there’s no superiority for those who have mystical experiences. Marcus illustrates this with a story of doubting Thomas. In the story there is no condemnation of Thomas. The story goes, 10 of the disciples are together and all experience Jesus and tell Thomas about it later. Thomas’s response is that until he sees with his own eyes and feels with his own hand he will not believe. Thomas desires to have his own experience and is granted it a few days later, in his vision, Jesus tells him how blessed are those who believe without seeing.
Mystical experiences are the most compelling reason to take the reality of God seriously, because these experiences happen they are a reason to believe in a non-material layer of reality. Without mystical experiences the notion of God remains a hypothesis or a possibility. Karl Rahner a noted theologian of the 20th century said that “the Christianity of the future will be mystical or it will not be at all”. Historically Christianity has been something that has been taken for granted but as we question the status quo of things Christianity will need an experiential basis or it will have no future.
Mystical experiences effect our understanding of what the word God refers to, what we are thinking of or imagining when we use the word God. Often a mystical experience will transform one’s thinking away from supernatural theism- where one believes that God is a supernatural being separate from the universe that created the universe and intervenes in it from the outside. Marcus candidly rejects this understanding of God and subscribes to Panenthesism which means everything is in God and infers that God is more than the space time world matter and energy. We are in God like fish are in water and when we talk about God we are talking about a glorious radiant mystery that is right here and is occasionally glimpsed.
A single mystical experience might not change someone significantly but multiple or a very vivid experience is likely to be a source of empowerment or courage. For example the story of Martin Luther.