Revelations, realisations and epiphanies

We are spiritual beings, although in our materialistic and increasingly secular modern world, fewer and fewer people experience themselves this way, or own it if they do. We have inherited and are still heavily influenced by 18th century Enlightenment Cartesian models of  ‘reality’and a biomedicine which regards mysticism and its associated experiences within the domain of psychopathology and psychosis. Owning up to or actively pursuing altered states of consciousness is seen as the purview of so called ‘new age’ people, often assisted by different substances such as hashish,  LSD or the South American hallucinogen ayahuasca (1).

The point is that this is an experience that many people at some point in their life course might experience themselves, whether following a particular school or not. How is it to be understood? Within what framework of interpretation?

Another control over the experiences of spiritual people is membership of a particular religion which, the more conservative and fundamentalist it is, exerts immense pressure on its followers to experience the numinous in particular ways. Anything outside of prescribed canon may be frowned upon as being heretical, or even associated with the diabolical. The infamous Holy Office of the Inquisition, of which there were several incarnations from the 14th until the mid 19th centuries, notoriously policed people in this way, with famous mystics such as Jeanne d’Arc, Meister Eckhart, Saint Theresa of Ávila  and St. John of the Cross attracting the unfavourable attention of the Inquisition of their day. Scientist Galileo and artist Goya were victims of its later manifestations in Spain. The Sufi mystical wings of Islam across history regularly fell afoul of the more conventional prescriptions and proscriptions of that religion.

The eastern theological and yogic traditions have certainly been much freer of restrictive dogmas, encouraging critical enquiry (jnana yoga), existing essentially to reconnect humanity disconnected from its original source, a process generally understood as Self Realisation. Through following a set of integrated practices, including study of relevant literature and meditation, the seeker is brought to a point where they may spontaneously experience an epiphany, itself beyond the scope of the mere cognitive rational processes, whereby they experience themselves as fundamentally identical to the Supreme Self (God). Conventional religions such as most Christian schools and Islam generally see this as heretical, although it is the goal of the Sufi mystical pathway, and in the Advaitist (3) schools of the highly heterodox Hindu religious traditions, the accepted state of our being as the individual soul (jivatman) being identical to Brahman (Paramatman, God). Atheism and scientism are merely other religions, which is to say dogmas policed by their own restrictive mindsets about what constitutes reality, what ‘counts’ and what doesn’t.

Possibly more especially pernicious however is the modern world order capitalist system the majority of us live within now, with its own set of religious prescriptions, the principal being the profit motive and monetisation of your talents, possessions and experiences. Great, so you’ve had a religious, spiritual or mystical experience. Now what are you going to do with it?

 

What indeed do you do with it? I don’t know of any formal research ever conducted into the matter, although there is certainly a prodigious academic literature dealing with so called mystical experiences in a way that shows modern biomedicine making an effort to be more liberal and accepting in its understandings of these experiences, that many may be postive and definitely not pathological, whether experienced within a formal religious context or not (4).

It seems increasingly to be the case that, in these days of online everything, people set themselves up as life coaches, spiritual guides and new age gurus, developing slick websites offering courses and mentoring targetting a generality of people who feel lost and are seeking solutions to give their lives meaning, or get it back on track (5). Whilst not all spiritual entrepreneurs are likely to have had mystical experiences or epiphanies, several of the more high profile gurus clearly have. So what has happened that these sacred gifts that elevate the experiencer of them to a quasi numinous state, are taken and then marketed? Perhaps the argument offered would be the need to make a living. If you write a book it is generally priced to cover costs of its production at least, together with the royalty. But the spiritual entrepreneurs I am thinking of are making far greater profit than simply cost covering. With some, whole spiritual empires are built, whether along more classic Indian sage/saint lines with the original experiencer sat at the summit as its supreme guru, or more generally reflective of the non denominational commercial world.

Perhaps I should offer examples, but anyone reading this is likely to be aware who I am referring to,  plus the fact that there are legions of these characters, I discover new examples regularly, so naming a few higher profile ones leaves out a vast generality of others.

It puzzles me. If you have had one of these extraordinary epiphanies or self realisation experiences, and I have had several, each unique yet each elevating me to a profound gnostic experience of the Higher Self from a slightly different perspective as it were, I have never understood it as a calling to go out and sell it to the masses, or to set myself up as some guru, and thereby build a comfortable, self promoting spiritual empire for myself, attracting millions in currency and of adoring or desperate followers.

My personal belief is that these experiences are rather like signposts along the spiritual pathway, to encourage the experiencer to continue the journey to the higher elevations. Also, given we are those spiritual beings referred to earlier, it shouldn’t be so unusual to have, on occasion, these kinds of experiences.  Perhaps, too, they are a test of sorts, of a sheep from goats order (6). Those who respond to these experiences with the kind of psychological ego inflation that encourages them to see themselves as ‘God’, or who feel that having such an experience itself legitimises them taking it into the market place and enjoying its profits, in my view have failed the test. Know them by their fruits (7)!

 

 

 

 

 

1. https://elizabethcurrie.info/use-and-abuse-of-psychoactive-substances/

2. https://www.catholic.com/magazine/online-edition/are-all-religions-equal

3. See: https://elizabethcurrie.info/eastern-theologies-and-western-mysticism/

5. See https://turbulentpriest.net/2024/02/17/come-buy-come-buy

4. Elizabeth Currie and John Schofield. 2024 ( forthcoming) Indigenous Concepts of Health and Healing in Andean Populations. Understanding the Relevance of Traditional Medicine in a Changing World. Routledge Taylor and Francis. See chapter The Tale of Juana Icha. A trial by three models. https://rb.gy/afu99z

5. See https://turbulentpriest.net/2024/02/17/come-buy-come-buy/

6. Matthew 25. 32.

7. Matthew 7. 15-20