Mysticism

Mysticism, from the Greek {{polytonic|???}} (mueo, "to conceal"), is the pursuit of achieving communion with, or conscious awareness of ultimate reality, the divine, spiritual truth, or God through direct, personal experience (intuition or insight) rather than rational thought; the belief in the existence of realities beyond perceptual or intellectual apprehension that are central to being and directly accessible through personal experience; or the belief that such experience is a genuine and important source of knowledge. In the Hellenistic world, ?mystical? referred to "secret" religious rituals.

Mysticism and epistemology

In the context of epistemology, mysticism refers to using non-rational methods to arrive at belief and assuming that belief to be knowledge. For example, believing that something is true based on emotion would be regarded as epistemological mysticism, whereas believing based on deductive logic or scientific experiment would not.

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