State University of New York Press Applied Mysticism: Studies of Meditation and Psychedelics in Secular Contexts

Today is an exciting time for mysticism. Interest in mysticism today often involves what Aldous Huxley called "applied mysticism"—that is, taking mystical practices and experiences out of their traditional contexts, where the focus was on the total transformation of the individual, and applying them (often within a secular framework) to help other people with more limited this-worldly problems, such as a person's well-being in society or general social change. Neuroscientists are taking mystical experiences seriously, studying meditators and psychedelic subjects to gain knowledge of how the brain works. Cognitive scientists are exploring mystical altered states of consciousness to expand the spectrum of consciousness states—in particular, whether there is a state of "pure" consciousness. Buddhist meditation is being taken out of its religious contexts and adapted by psychotherapists to help with problems such as depression or addiction. The use of psychedelics in psychotherapy is also gaining traction while New Age thinkers are extolling the alleged merger of post-Newtonian science with mysticism. Mystical ideas are being adapted to problems on the social level—for example, in "socially-engaged" Buddhism. This is the first book to explore all these varieties of applied mysticism together and to examine the current state of the field (with a focus on philosophical issues) in a readily accessible manner.