Mystical Experience and Nature

Common Characteristics of Extrovertive Mystical States
From Mysticism and Philosophy, W. T. Stace (Jeremy P. Tarcher, Inc., 1960), p. 79

"1.  The unifying vision, expressed abstractly by the formula "All is One."  The One is, in extrovertive 
mysticism, perceived through the physical senses, in or through the multiciplicity of objects.
2.  The more concrete apprehension of the One as being an inner subjectivity in all things, described 
variously as life, or consciousness, or a living Presence.  The discovery that nothing is "really" dead.
3.  Sense of objectivity or reality.
4.  Feeling of blessedness, joy, happiness, satisfaction, etc.
5.  Feeling that what is apprehended is holy, or sacred, or divine.  This is the quality that gives rise 
to the interpretation of the experience as being an experience of "God."  It is the specifically religious 
element in the experience.  It is closely intertwined with, but not identical with, the previously listed
characteristic of blessedness and joy.
6.  Paradoxicality.
7.  Alleged by mystics to be ineffable, incapable of being described in words, etc."

"Crape myrtle, brilliant red, bursting forth;
Hiding the garden.
Some days, only the Garden, entire, serene;
Yet, hiding from sight, shy, single plants.  
Seeing Both, seldom, but as One: 
Sweat poured from my startled brow,
Dripping on the dry earth,
And all became Sunshine
And shadows of surprise unraveling."    
-   Michael P. Garofalo, Above the Fog

"What is divinity if it can come
Only in silent shadows and in dreams?
Shall she not find in comforts of the sun,
In pungent fruit and bright, green wings, or else
In any balm or beauty of the earth,
Things to be cherished like the thought of heaven?
Divinity must live within herself:
Passions of rain, or moods in falling snow;
Grieving's in loneliness, or unsubdued
Elations when the forest blooms; gusty
Emotions on wet roads on autumn nights;
All pleasures and all pains, remembering
The bough of summer and the winter branch,
These are the measures destined for her soul."
-    Wallace Stevens, Sunday Morning, 1915

 

"Speaking of today, I do not consider it intellectually respectable to be a partisan in matters of religion.  I see religion as I see other basic fascinations as art and science, in which there is room for many different approaches, styles, techniques, and opinions.  Thus I am not formally a committed member of any creed or sect and hold no particular religious view or doctrine as absolute.  I deplore missionary zeal, and consider exclusive dedication to and advocacy of any particular religion, as either the best or the only true way, as almost irreligious arrogance.  Yet my work and life are fully concerned with religion, and the mystery of being is my supreme fascination, though, as a shameless mystic, I am more interested in religion as feeling and experience that as conception and theory."
-  Alan Watts, In My Own Way, p. 61, 1972

Nature Mysticism: Quotations, Links, Books, Resources
Compiled by Michael P. Garofalo