What is mysticism?

Mysticism is relatively simple and straightforward.. Anything which you do not understand, or are unaware of, or which is mysterious to you, that is mysticism from your perspective. This is why mysticism isn't any particular area of knowledge, because it's a fancy term for ignorance. But see the word ignorance in popular usage means stupid, dull, lacking in intelligence, or awareness, but see actually ignorance is an oblique, neutral term.

All existence is change, all existence is relationship

Reality cannot ever be fully understood, explained, known or taught. The universe is coming at you in a vast multi-dimensonial continuum of sensation and experience. In other words everything is happening everywhere all the time. By contract the human focus of conscious attention, which is the equivalent of the Ego, is extremely narrow and limited. Most people can only focus on one, two or three things at the same time without needing to write something down and make notes.

I could be wrong, I could be right
I could be black, I could be white
I could be right, I could be wrong
I could be white, I could be black

Public Image Limited, 'Rise'

The process of socialization we are all put through is based on external authority, the Ego and tradition. Our cultural reality, based on tradition and repetition of various beliefs and truths reinforced through language. The vast majority of people on this planet, through no fault of their own, are clueless and ignorant about the simple basic mystical principles which govern their existence. Throughout your whole life you've been surrounded by all kinds of people telling you who and what you are, what you should think, what you should know, how you should behave and what you should do.

We all go through life developing these vast mind nets. We tell ourselves the same stories repeatedly to remind ourselves who we are and constantly seek assurances from our experiences as if to say "This is who I am. This is who I am. This is who I am." By the same token we're constantly telling ourselves "This is who he is. This is who she is. This is who they are."

Which brings us to the fundamental and basic principle of the social contact.

I will make believe you are who you think you are, if you make believe I am who I think I am.

The basic principle of the Social Contract

I'm a mystic not because I have any weird or spooky esoteric 'special knowledge'. In fact in terms of cultural or social reality I'm actually quite ignorant. My education was fucked up due to my traumatic childhood so I didn't get any real qualifications outside of a handful of GSCE O Levels at the age of 16 when I officially left school. Truth be told I dropped out of school around the age of 13 and successfully ran away from home at 15 where I lived on the streets of central London.

What makes me a mystic is the fact that when I want to know something I will dig, and dig, and dig, and dig, and keep digging until I reach what I feel is the fundamental truth. I make up my beliefs as I go along. I'm profoundly anti-authoritarian and I have problems inasmuch that when I communicate unfiltered, coming from a completely different level of awareness to most people, eyes glaze over and my words fly over people's heads like birds in the sky. But I'm working on it.

"My point here is that many people, in fact the vast majority of people, say things and hold certain beliefs and never ever really question if they're wrong or their beliefs are outdated, and especially people in positions of authority. I can remember attending council meetings some years ago and yelling "Bullshit!" at the councillors. It was rude, it was not polite, not tactful, but see also it was right.

Today, as I'm older and really want to get through the remaining years of my life with as much cohesion, comfort and minimal confrontation as possible, I'm more inclined to just play along. Sure I can strip away a lot of false beliefs and notions quite pleasantly through conversation and I tend to impress people with my shamanistic work, but if the mind isn't open, then what's the point?

Besides anyone can be a mystic just like me. All you need is an open mind and child like wonder and curiosity.

Further reading

This is a popular theme or topic as one of my favourite hobbies or pastimes is liberating people from the nonsensical and often delusional beliefs which influence our mainstream social and cultural values. Society and culture are two of my biggest categories by a country mile and then there's the e-books The Invisible Prison - about the issue of external authority. There's also The Tears of a Clown about social conditioning and development of the Ego. You can find more details about these and my other e-books in E-books & resources.