I like to think of mysticism as the art of meeting reality, or the art of richer and deeper awarenesses. ... It is an experience that comes unbidden ... [It is] a very special experience ... of that Oneness, a rare and wonderful realization of what always is but of which we are seldom aware, flooding in to overwhelm the illusion of aloneness, separateness. ... There are moments when life seems vivid and resplendent, when a more than mortal splendor breaks in, when there is a touch of grandeur and of glory in just being alive. ... In our experience ... of those moments when we're rapturously one with the wonder of all that is, we have some indication of what has been meant by the mystic experience.
-- Rev. Jacob Trapp
This topic of mysticism is a not an easy one to discuss among us -- for two reasons. One reason is that we UUs are rationalists, logical, science-oriented. And mystical occurrences are considered something outside that realm, that can't be proven. They are an experience of just a single individual. It is hard for us to believe they are real. It is easier for us to consider them hocus-pocus and insanity. Which leads me right to the other reason it is so hard to talk about mysticism: We are a culture that believes that mystical experiences, hearing voices, seeing visions, having hunches or having "that feeling" are signs of a person's mental instability. If we have a vision or hear a voice, we sure as heck don't want to tell anybody about it. We know that they will think we are crazy or on drugs or hallucinating.
This notion that you are crazy if you see visions or hear voices has been studied. The research from the Southern Virginia Mental Health Institute has shown that the voices and visions of the psychotic are similar to those of religious contemplatives. The difference between the two groups, which was shown in personality testing, is that the psychotics were more narcissistic and needed to control their environment. The psychotics had marked differences in personality structure and maturity. The contemplatives were similar to the control group in their personality and maturity. The study did not say what it takes to have a mystical experience. But it does conclude that not all mystics are crazy and that there are experiences from religious and contemplative activities that occur among the mentally healthy.
Today, I am going to take us further into a discussion about mysticism and the Unitarian Universalist faith.
I know that what is needed first among us is a definition of mysticism. Henry Nelson Weiman, a process theologian who later became a Unitarian, wrote in the late 1920s about mysticism in his book, Religious Experience of Daily Living. He listed 11 types of mystical experiences. For Weiman, there was a wide range of experiences that he recognized as mystical, but only two did he consider valuable. He did not believe that visions or voices were of value and he thought they were possibly destructive. His view of a type of valuable mystical experience was when one had the sense of well-being, a sense of a flood of grace, or peace. This sounds very similar to the "flooding" and "glory of being alive" from Jacob Trapp. (It might be possible that Trapp had read some Weiman, but I do not know whether he did.) Another valuable mystical experience from Weiman is the creative Ah-Ha. This Ah-Ha is a solution to a difficult problem or a creative insight that could not have been arrived at from just looking at things logically. These two types of experiences would move the person into another place, according to Weiman. They are a stimulus for growth, for expanding the personality, for transformation. And growth was not a requirement for Trapp. He needed us to feel "one with the wonder of it all." So our Unitarian forefathers didn't agree on the exact definition of mysticism -- not much of a surprise.
In addition to logic and rationalism informing our faith, we believe that our own experience informs us. Now, let's look at some personal experiences and see what we might conclude from them about mysticism and about our faith.
This first example is about mothers' intuition -- I wasn't going to leave out moms in this sermon. This is a true story that was in news reports in March of this year. From The Guardian of Friday, March 12, 2004:
It was a dimple on a child's cheek that made the [woman] draw [her] breath. Luzaida Cuevas was watching the face of a girl playing at a birthday party when something clicked. ... [The] girl could be none other than her daughter, the baby she was told had died six years ago.
Calling her over, Cuevas told the girl she had bubble gum stuck in her hair and she was going to fix it. Quickly, she pulled out five strands [of hair], placed them in a napkin and put them in a plastic bag. ...
Tests proved that her instinct was right, the little girl ... was in fact Delimar ... [her daughter]. And just as the 31-year-old had always suspected, the baby who was supposed to have died in a fire aged just 10 days had been alive all this time.
Cuevas has said that she never believed firemen when they told her that her daughter had perished in the fire. They said the baby's body had been so consumed by the flames that they could find no remains. But her mother remained suspicious. ... The hysterical mother screamed at the firemen that she thought her baby had been stolen, but she was told "maybe it [is your] nerves." A death certificate was never issued because a body was never found. Cuevas says she wanted the matter investigated by police at the time, but on learning what lawyers would cost she realized that she could not afford to pursue the matter.
Despite all that, Cuevas had always held on to the feeling that her daughter had not died. On January 24, at the children's birthday party, she told her friend that she was sure the little girl was her child, Delimar. ...
This is an example of mother's intuition as a mystical experience. But not all people believe that it is mystical. T. Berry Brazelton, the famous Harvard pediatrician, the Dr. Spock for my kids, would say that it is not. He believes mothers have a heightened sense of observation, not unlike animals with a great sense of sight or smell. And this keen sense cannot be measured, but it can be trusted, since it does exist. Was the mother crazy? No, because the scientific DNA analysis in the end proved her intuition was correct. What if this had happened before DNA testing? Would she have been considered crazy then? The firefighters sure did think she was not being rational.
This example doesn't meet the criteria of growing and expanding the individual as stated by Weiman. From the quotes, it does not seem like Cuevas was feeling at one with the wonder of it all. Yet there is something about this experience that is magical and a wonder. Is mother's intuition a gift of the Divine, especially for Cuevas? I think all human abilities are gifts, and a mother's intuition is just one of them. And we should celebrate and be thankful for a mother's intuition, no matter what we call it.
Let's move on to another example. This is about George de Benneville. He was born in 1703 in France. Due to religious persecution, his father moved his family to England after the invitation of William III. His mother had nine children in five years and died during the birth of her youngest son, George. George was raised by Queen Anne, in the finest schools. He was in the Royal Navy. While in Tangiers, he had a profound conversion experience. He saw two Moors caring for another who had a badly injured leg. In that moment, he realized there was no predestination and only universal salvation. He told everyone his good news and moved to France to preach at the age of 17. The French were very suspicious. They demanded a confession of his faith. He was imprisoned for a month and also ordered beheaded. Just as he was kneeling in front of the executioner, a courier came with his reprieve. He was finally released due to the intercession of the queen, and he moved to Germany.
He preached in Germany for many years. He worried so about the salvation of people that he developed a fever and became gravely ill. He fell into a coma for hours, and was assumed dead. "Exactly at midnight my soul was separated from my body, and I saw the people occupied in washing it according to the custom of the country." De Benneville was in a coma for 42 hours and had extraordinary visions. A messenger "clad in robes whiter than snow" told him that "the most Holy Trinity" -- de Benneville was a Universalist, not a Unitarian -- "always works wonders in all times within his poor creatures, and he will order, for a time and a half time, that you shall return to your earthly tabernacle, to proclaim and publish to the people of the world an universal Gospel, that shall restore, in time all the human species, without exception, to the honor and glory of the most Holy Trinity." After his visions and miraculous recovery, he believed that his God had called him to preach the universal Gospel in America. He arrived in America 25 years before John Murray at the age of 38. He wrote his memoirs at the age of 79.
It is hard to believe that our Universalist heritage is based on visions from a man in a coma. To Weiman, these visions are no different than those of Joan of Arc, and are possibly destructive. Trapp would believe that this experience of the wonder and Oneness is mystical. But what do we think? Here is a mystic who has a vision and preaches a new religion? I know I found this a bit shocking. It is part of our Universalist history and we don't talk about it.
My last example is a personal one. There was a time in my life when I was struggling with a decision about whether to stay in a relationship or to get out. I was frustrated and distraught for days. I couldn't figure out a solution, a logical conclusion. One afternoon while I was listening to music with my headphones, in a slight meditative state, I heard a voice loud and clear: "GET OUT." I bolted upright and was in an immediate state of wide-awake alertness.
For hours, I tried to ignore the experience, telling myself it was not logical. But I knew deep in my soul that I had been told the right thing, the decision that I would make. I was no longer conflicted. I was certain and have not regretted the decision. That voice led me to a place that was right for me.
Weiman would say that the voice was a mystical experience, but it was of no value. He would also say that realizing the solution to a problem, the knowing that couldn't be deduced from logic was a valuable experience. For me, it doesn't matter how we categorize it. That experience and others similar to it have been a source of guidance for me. I do not know where it came from, and I do not really care. The occasional voices and visions have been a source of information to me that have helped me live my life.
Trapp has a poem that I think is a metaphor for my experience. From "Song Quest: poems -- religious and irreligious":
Denying himself food, pleasure,
the future medicine man
sits alone on cliff's edge,
a stone oven in the heat of day,
at night re-echoing the coyote's call.
Leaning against a cool night boulder to rest,
he looks up to a poem written by the stars.
There is stillness before dawn,
then daybreak and bird song.
Four days, four nights, he waits
quietly in the midst of mystery,
seeking words where there are no words,
listening for a song yet to be sung.
Then, knowing against knowing,
he returns to his own.
The villagers gather around.
He sings his healing earth-song.
For days and nights, I couldn't sleep, or eat, as I pondered, and worried about the decision I needed to make. I was in the world between worlds and needed to move to a place of decision and peace. I didn't realize it at the time, but I was waiting to hear the words, the song, my song. And after I heard the words, I could sing my song.
Mystical experiences can be a source for our inspiration, so we can sing our song. De Benneville's song was to preach Universalism in America. Cuevas' song was one of motherhood for a child who she knew was still alive. Jacob Trapp's song was that of a poet that has inspired us all and still inspires us. These words from John Buehrens about Trapp: "Poets, as Jake demonstrates, have been another source of renewal for the human spirit, because they, like mystics, break open form and tradition and language and help us return to the freshness of original experience."
So maybe we are all poets, all mystics, singing our song.
The sermon in a Unitarian Universalist setting is never the last word on any subject, but rather an invitation to further dialog.
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