Mysticism versus Psychosis

 Mysticism versus Psychosis

Mysticism is the practice of tactical experience from which transcendent knowledge can be gained. To the mystic, all forms of knowledge are transcendent. To the mystic, knowledge is a limit that must be pushed forward by tactical experience. 

The mystic stands on time like Christ walking on water. The goal of the mystic is to transcend time, to find truths beyond time, to know the eternal and the infinite through direct experience achieved through altered states of consciousness.

The question of whether or not mystics induce psychosis in order to see things from a novel vantage is of particular interest to someone who likes to think about mysticism and has experienced psychosis.

The major difference between a mystic and a psychotic is that the mystic is not harried by the experience. So, when mystics would deprive themselves of sleep and/or take substances to induce an altered state of consciousness, they were doing so with the intent of inducing a mystical/psychotic experience. 

Psychotics tend to have delusions related to themselves. Mystics have imaginative experiences that relate to something larger than themselves. Mystics are those who believe experience is an experiment; that their experience of the world, no matter how difficult to communicate, can be communicated using specific types of reference. Psychiatry has a term for this called “delusions of reference.” The mystic can operate in the delusional headspace while simultaneously compartmentalizing it when dealing with others. 

This requires holding two contradictory truths as equally true: Just because someone else can’t see it doesn’t mean it isn’t real, the real is a product of the consensus delusion of the majority of others.

The mystic, ostensibly, isn’t harmed by the experience. The psychotic is, perhaps, because the psychosis lasts for too long and starts to condition the brain to think in a way that isn’t particularly helpful for living in a society of those with other notions of the real. It seems to impact executive functioning and requires a relearning of reality the longer the psychotic episode lasts. In other words, psychosis can cause brain damage.

Ultimately, the mystic can use the experience in a way that is beneficial to self and other while the psychotic harms both self and other. There may not be much more difference than that.