Highways of the Mind: The Art and History of Pathworking by Ashcroft-Nowicki Dolores

Author:Ashcroft-Nowicki, Dolores [Ashcroft-Nowicki, Dolores]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: BookSurge
Published: 2011-07-19T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHT

The Mystical Experience

Because we are looking at the entire range of pathworkings, from the guided imagery employed by psychologists, through the fever- and drug-induced nightmares of illness and drug abuse, to the highly complicated inner journeys of the trained magician, we must also look at the mystical and ecstatic experiences of the saints and visionaries. That a few of them were induced by fasting, self-inflicted pain, and a somewhat warped idea of what was asked of them by God, does not invalidate the fact that some of them were genuine, and truly mystical inner journeys. As such they have a special place in this book.

The narrow confined life of the convent and monastery in the Middle Ages was very conducive to the use of mental imagery. The habitual practice of meditation and contemplation in quiet and often solitary surroundings made for an introspective viewpoint. When that viewpoint was aligned to a deeply held religious fervour and either a certain degree of natural psychism (which opened the door to the true vision) or a tendency to self-induced hysteria (such as occurred at Loudun), the outcome was inevitable.

With the modern trend away from church dogma and towards a more open and questioning outlook it is not surprising that many people today look with a skeptical eye upon the visions of the saints. In doing so they make the same mistake as those who take all such things literally and without question. To use one of W. E. Butler’s favourite idioms, ‘They throw the baby out with the bath water.’

We must look upon the true religious vision in the same way that we look upon the inspired hunch of the biochemist that resuits in a medical breakthrough. Or the intuitive leap made by an investigator who, when faced with several alternatives, unerringly picks the right one, or the inspiration of a writer, artist, or poet that strikes to the very core of the psyche. It is at such moments that the spirit, mind, and heart of a human being are fully and completely aligned with a creative force of immense power, and not just aligned but, far more importantly, the human channel is clear of the usual debris that blocks the way. This was the way we were intended to think all the time but against which we are continually erecting barriers, denying our inherent divinity and making ourselves slaves to centuries of wrong thinking.

The inmates of the medieval cloister were there for a variety of reasons: they had been ‘promised’ to the Church by their parents from birth; they had a genuine and true vocation to the religious life; they had experienced some kind of mental of physical trauma and had withdrawn from contact with the mass of humanity; they simply wanted a quiet life in which to study and work; or, like Bernadette of Lourdes, it seemed the best place to put someone you didn’t quite know how to deal with in terms of belief. The stillness, the feeling of

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.