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.

References

• Aldous Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy, Perennial 1945, ISBN 006057058X
• William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature (1902), ISBN 0300062559
• Rudolf Otto, The Idea of the Holy, Oxford 1923, ISBN 0195002105
• Gershom Scholem, Kabbalah, Meridian 1974, Plume Books 1987 reissue: ISBN 0452010071