| Titel: | The innate capacity: Mysticism, psychology and philosophy |
|---|---|
| Autor: | Forman, RKC |
| Mediengruppe: | books |
| Herausgeber: | --- |
| Zeitschrift: | --- |
| Jahr: | 1998 |
| Band: | xiv |
| Heft: | --- |
| Seiten: | --- |
| Sprache: | englisch |
| Abstract: | (from the jacket) This book is the sequel to R. Foreman's The Problem of Pure Consciousness (1990). The essays in the earlier volume argued that some mystical experiences do not seem to be formed or shaped by the language system--a thesis that stands in sharp contradistinction to deconstruction in general and to the 'constructivist'' school of mysticism in particular, which holds that all mysticism is the product of cultural and linguistic process. This book puts forth a hypothesis about the formative causes of these 'pure consciousness'' experiences. All of the contributors agree that mysticism is the result of an innate human capacity, rather than a learned, socially conditioned and constructive process. This innate capacity is spoken of and understood differently by each of them. The contributors look at mystical experience as it is manifested in a variety of religious and cultural settings, including Hindu Yoga, Buddhism, Sufism, and medieval Christianity. Taken together, the essays constitute an important contribution to the ongoing debate about the nature of human consciousness and mystical experience and its relation to the social and cultural contexts in which it appears. |