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Late-life effect of early mystical experiences: A cross-cultural comparison
LATE-LIFE EFFECT OF EARLY MYSTICAL EXPERIENCES: A Cross-Cultural Comparison
L. EUGENE THOMAS* University of Connecticut ABSTRACT: This article examines the effect of early mystical experiences on two elderly men who were among the most spiritually mature persons found in a larger study of optimal personality development in India and England. After having had deeply moving mystical-type experiences as young men, each went through the stages of spiritual development suggested by Collins (1991): Awakening, Purgation, Illumination, and Transformation. The Indian culture appeared to make transition along this path much easier than was found to be the case with the English respondent. The fact that despite differing cultural influences, they both came to a remarkably similar spiritual state provides supportfor William James’ argumentfor the transcultural nature of mystical experiences, and their long-term effect.
This article examines the effect of early mystical experiences on two elderly men I had the privilege to get to know. These interviews are part of a larger research project, in which I interviewed elderly men and women from India and England, seeking to understand optimal personality development. I won’t go into the details of the project, since this research is described elsewhere (Thomas 1991; Thomas 1994). Suffice it to say that on the basis of nominations of knowledgable informants, I conducted extensive interviews and did participant observation with a fascinating group of individuals in Varanasi, India, and Birmingham, England, some of whom had had profound mystical experiences. Popular accounts of near-death experiences, and reports of the effect of psychedelic drugs have often implied that the effects of these peak-type experiences on an individual’s person-
*Direct all correspondence to: L. Eugene Thomas, School of Family Studies, Box U-58, University Connecticut,
Stows, CT 06269.
JOURNAL OF AGING STUDIES, Volume 11, Number 2, pages 155-169. Copyright 0 1997 by JAI Press Inc. Ail rights of reproduction in any form reserved. ISSN: 0890-4065.
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ality were instantaneous. The classical literature on mysticism indicates that, on the contrary, the effects of mystical experiences take time to “seep in.” Julian of Norwich (1978), for example, spent the rest of her life reflecting on and trying to understand the mystical awakening she had in connection with a near-death experience at age 30. And preliminary work with persons who have undergone ecstatic religious experiences while under the influence of psychedelic drugs indicates that it takes time, and the proper conditions, for these insights to be integrated into their lives (Pahnke and Richards 1969; Doblin 1991). Theologian John Collins (1991), in one of the best contemporary analyses of mystical experiences, identifies four stages in the transformation of self-understanding that is associated with mysticism. The sequence begins with “awakening,” in which “one catches a glimpse of the nature of transformed reality, of transformed consciousness, of transformed self’ (p. xx). This is followed by a time of “purgation,” which Collins describes as “the process by which one state of consciousness, the ordinary state, is destabilized’ (p. 235). Given the right conditions, and proper motivation and discipline, this is followed by the state of “illumination,” which is “the process by which another state, the mystic state, is stabilized” (p. 235). This in turn leads to a “transformed state,” which is “the final result of the mystic process and is the primary source of ethical, religious and spiritual ideals and models for action.” The transformed individual, Collins suggests, “becomes a valuable moral and religious asset to his/her community, and potentially to all humanity” (p. xxi}. It should be noted that Collins argues that in order for any of the subsequent stages to occur after the awakening experience, it is necessary that individuals undertake a spiritual discipline. Along this line, it is interesting that psychologist Abraham Maslow (1971) believed that almost everyone had “peak experiences,” but that only certain persons were open to making use of them. Sociologist Robert Wuthnow (1978) found empirical support for Maslow’s claim that peak-type experiences are common. In a survey conducted in the San Francisco Bay Area he found that over 80% of his respondents reported having had peak experiences of one type or another, but a far smaller percent reported that they had been changed by the experience. This accords with the conclusion that Pahnke and Richards reached from their study of drug-induced mystical experiences: “If a person has a religious framework and discipline in which to work, the integrative process is encouraged and stimulates’ (Pahnke and Richards 1969, p. 89). Many of the individuals I interviewed in England and India described mystical experiences which occurred in their early years, which influenced them for the rest of their lives. For this article I would like to focus on two of the most spiritually mature individuals I met, and to analyze how their early awakening experiences affected their lives. Since these two men come from markedly different cultural settings, this will afford us an opportunity to examine the effect of cultural influences on the way these experiences were integrated into their lives. Moreover, the lives of these men provide us the opportunity to examine the process by which their lives unfolded after their early awakening experience.
THE SPIRITUAL
AWAKENING
OF TWO REMARKABLE
MEN
In some ways Sudesh Kiran and Henry Bancroft (names and circumstances have been altered to insure confidentiality) couldn’t be more different. Sudesh grew up in a wealthy
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family in Eastern India, the son of a prominent lawyer, and was provided with every material advantage. Henry, on the other hand, was the son of an itinerant laborer, and grew up in poverty in the slums of East London. But both, in young adulthood, underwent a transforming spiritual awakening, in the form of a mystical experience, which changed the direction of their lives. Although the course their lives took was quite different, there was a remarkable similarity in their eventual spiritual development.
Sudesh Kiran Despite his privileged social and economic situation, Sudesh’s childhood was far from happy. He did not do as well in school as his older brothers, and was looked on as the family failure. Throughout his childhood and youth Sudesh was extremely sensitive to pain and suffering, and was haunted by the specter of death. When he was 11 his maternal grandmother died. As was usual in his culture, no attempt was made to shield him from the reality of death; awareness of his own mortality was almost unbearable for him afterwards. A cameo event stands out in his memory when later, as a youth, he was on a train in which a prisoner was being transported to Calcutta to be put to death for murdering his wife. Sudesh was unable to sleep for days following this experience, and it haunted him for years afterward. As with many idealistic young men of his generation, Sudesh responded enthusiastically to Gandhi’s campaign to free India from British colonial rule, despite the cynicism and discouragement of his father. And, like many of his generation, he found himself sentenced to jail for his political beliefs. While he was engaged in the Freedom Movement Sudesh had been introduced to the spiritual writings of the Bengali mystic, Sri Aurobindo. In fact, he had committed long passages of Aurobindo’s writings to memory, and passed the time while he was in solitary confinement reciting Aurobindo’s spiritual poetry. Being in prison allowed Sudesh to spend more time practicing yoga and meditating. It was during this time his former fears began to subside and he began to feel the presence of the divine more and more. Sudesh explained, “Sitting in meditation I sensed what felt like snow falling on my head. I would say to myself, ‘No, there is nothing there, only peace descending.’ I was very happy.” But these feelings proved to be intermittent. “I would feel their presence, and then I would feel like a fish out of water. I would wonder what I had done to lose them.” His father was highly skeptical of Sudesh’s religious leanings and did everything he could to discourage him from taking them seriously. After much soul-searching Sudesh determined to leave home and go to the Sri Aurobindo Ashram to live. Once this decision was made, things changed for him: Once I actually boarded the train for Delhi, in my heart it was decided. Suddenly that experience became constant. All the time I was going about with that soul. Even if I am talking with you, if there were two minutes of silence, God’s love would be there. Then this spiritual awareness came to be more constant. I was having very powerful experiences because day and night I was aspiring to God for light, and it was coming. But still there were difficulties to be overcome. Not daring to tell his parents of his ultimate goal of joining the ashram, Sudesh got their permission to go to New Delhi to search for a job. There he knew a devotee of Sri Aurobindo, Dr. Chatterjee, whom he hoped would
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help him make the transition. But it wasn’t easy for a boy who had lived a privileged and sheltered life, and who now was committed to a serious spiritual path, to make his way in a strange city. Based on his new religious convictions. as well as his earlier Gandhi~ training, Sudesh resolved to take no job that would require him to lie in any way. This proved to be quite a handicap at a time when jobs were scarce. He ended up teaching English literature in the college of which Dr. Chatterjee was the principal. Even here he found it difficult to follow the spiritual path. Sudesh described his experience at this time in his life: If yau are leading a spiritual life, you are always surrounded by unspiritual suggestions; there is no support. Everywhere you are considered a crank. And even though I was teaching in a college, all the other colleagues looked upon me as an eccentric who is following the spiritual path. Therefore I felt isolated.
Within three years Sudesh had married a woman who was also a spiritual seeker, and together they visited Sri Aurobindo Ashram in South India. Although he felt an immediate attraction to ashram life, he was cautioned to wait until he was more ready to enter. Finally, over Christmas vacation in 1949, he was given permission to enter the Ashram with his wife and young son. Here he found the spiritual support that was missing in his secular work. Concerning the Ashram, Sudesh observed, “Here I was in the right atmosphere. I felt very happy. I did not want to go from here a single day.” When I asked if Sudesh if he had changed over the years, he observed: Yes, surely. I have. If you live more and more in your soui, you are very calm, peaceful. I feel tkat tke greatest happiness that a man can have is a calm and serene mind, which Iooks at life steadily and sees things wkoie. Nature, everything changes after your psychic (soul) opens. Then there is a freskness in life. The flowers are calling you, “Look at us.” And supposing it is summer, and there is a gust of fresh breeze. You don’t say that this is natural, but you see God’s presence in the breeze. Heraclitus says that it is a new sun that rises every day. That truth you can know if you are growing spiritually.
It is now 40 years since Sudesh and his family came to the Ashram. His son is a grown man and lives in New Delhi, but Sudesh and his wife still live in the Ashram. Since celibacy is a requirement of all residents, they live in different apartments and lead fairly separate lives. Although Sudesh is in frail health, he still works every day in the Ashram library, and maintains a busy schedule of reading, seeing visitors, and meditating. The following excerpts from the second interview I conducted with Sudesh give an idea of his present situation and outlook on life. Interviewer:
Sudesk, are you a mystic?
Sudesk: Yes. (pause) I am now 72, you see, and I have many diseases. Astkma, and there is lung trouble also. But young people come, and they feel happy in my company. Because that staleness doesn’t come; in spiritual life there is not staleness. Every day you get up with a new hope; you feel, ‘Well, I will explore some new things today.’ You
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don’t feel inner humdrum, routine. That is what Heraclitus meant when he said “a new sun rises every day.” Interviewer:
Are you optimistic about the final outcome of things?
Sudesh: Very. Very. For the world and for myself. It has been my experience that nothing happens by chance. Everywhere there is some grace behind it. These dark forces or tendencies in human nature-hatred, anger, lust-they are immense, but they are not infinite. I know this because I have experienced it myself. When I have lust in me it seems that I can’t stop indulging. But if I am able to dissolve it, I can turn it into higher things. I feel that there is a lot of inner work for me to do-“1 have miles to go before I sleep.” But if God chooses that in this life I can’t do much more, I know that my soul is in contact with God. I have no fear of death. Interviewer:
How do you picture death?
Sudesh: Death is not the end. It is only a change of consciousness. In the transition from this body, we enter completely into that higher consciousness. Seen in this light, death is not something to be feared. It is really a joke-a cosmic joke. Interviewer:
If you were asked to write your epitaph, what would you write?
Sudesh: (pause) We have only one epitaph, “Man’s happiness is in the growth of consciousness.” (pause) Spiritual things are a very concrete reality for me. Peace, wideness, calm. I feel them very concretely. That also fills me with gratitude, that God is so gracious. Before
commenting
on Sudesh’s experience,
I would like to move on to Henry Bancroft,
to provide a comparison.
Henry Bancroft As I indicated above, Henry grew up in an impoverished working class home in the poorer East End of London. Like Sudesh he remembers having a very unhappy childhood. A severe case of meningitis when he was 18 months old left Henry with a hearing impairment that has hindered him all his life. Compounding his hearing disability, his father’s intermittent employment led Henry to change schools frequently. Early on Henry’s mother suffered various illnesses, and spent two years in a hospital during his childhood. As if that wasn’t enough, there was continual conflict between his parents. By the time he was in his late ‘teens the family situation was so tense that his parents were threatening divorce, which destroyed any sense of security Henry might have had. By this time Henry had left school and was working as an apprentice for a large bakery in central London. It was at this time that a singular event took place that would change the course of his life dramatically. When I first approached Henry to see if he would be willing to take part in my study, he promptly told me of this turning point. This experience happened with I was 19. It happened in a smelly old butcher shop. I was taking a huge basket of bread, much too heavy for me, up some rickety stairs, in the busiest part of London. In the process of lifting this basket on my back, when it happened. Well, suddenly a load fell-not the heavy basket (chuckling)-off my existential state, if you like. From a dark night of the soul to a joyful assurance of adequacy. I remember coming down those stairs with an empty basket, walking along Shaftesbury Avenue,
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Vol. 1 l/No. 2/l 997 was full of glory. The goods
Henry did not tell his family or anyone else about this experience at the time. But from that moment on his whole outlook changed. Despite the skepticism, even derision of his family, he determined to study at the university and become a missionary. The enormity of this undertaking can scarcely be imagined now. This was back in the 1920’s when class lines in England were almost impossible to cross, and university education was difficult for anyone from the working class to achieve. On top of that, Henry had left school early because of his hearing problem. But while working long hours in the day to support himself, he studied in the evening to pass entrance exams for the university. During this time, with only skepticism from his family, he was often almost overwhelmed by doubts if he was doing the right thing: I remember sitting in an armchair and feeling, “I can’t do that. I can’t do it.” And then thinking, “Well, I’ll give it a go.” As I did, gates seemed to open, and I would think, “There you are. Now go to the next stage.” And I was scared of doing that, because I still had some of the anxiety, that I was inadequate, coming back. But I did keep on, and all along gates seemed to open and say, “Go on.” But it did require a great deal of courage to go on with it, because, you see, I was so backward in my education. I could hardly form a sentence. My English was atrocious. And I had to get my matrics in English and French, and Latin and Greek, and mathematics and geography. It was very hard work, because I was working very hard during the day.
Amazingly, Henry completed his secondary education, gained admission to the University of London, and earned a degree in theology, all within a seven-year time. Meantime he became active in a local church, teaching Sunday School and helping the vicar. By the time he completed his theological training Henry had decided to go to India as a missionary. He would have to be ordained to do that, so he persuaded the Archbishop of Canterbury to ordain him in the Church of England. When medical examinations revealed his hearing impaitment, the Missionary Society refused to sponsor him for work in a harsh climate such as India, where infection might cause the complete loss of hearing. So Henry reluctantly decided to serve a local parish in England. Three years later Henry met his wife, Ann, at a Student Christian Association conference. As they both remember the event, they were paired together by lot to play tennis. And almost literally they have not been separated in the 55 years since then. Ann was the first person that Henry ever shared his mystical experience with, and they have been spiritual confidants ever since. Over the years they have set aside a time of quiet together each day, and consider themselves as being on a joint spiritual path. Their spiritual path took an unusually sharp turn when Henry reached 67. At the time he was serving as a chaplain of a large psychiatric hospital. Group work was being widely accepted
as the most effective
way of working
with patients,
and Henry’s
hearing
disability
The chief psychiatrist at the hospital made it abundantly clear to Henry that a deaf chaplain was of limited use to the patients, and within a short time Henry reluctantly decided to retire. made
it almost
impossible
for him to do anything
but individual
counseling.
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With the children grown, and his wife retired from her job, they were free to explore new directions for their lives. They had never been happy with the formality of the Church of England, so they used their new-found freedom to explore other spiritual traditions. After several years of searching they happened to attend an unprogrammed Quaker worship service, and immediately felt comfortable. Since then they have moved into a Quaker retirement home, have joined a local Quaker meeting, and feel that finally they have come home spiritually. This, in very abbreviated form, is Henry’s spiritual odyssey. Before turning to an analysis of his experience, I would like cite interview excerpts which give a picture of Henry’s present spiritual outlook, at age 83. Interviewer: You mentioned the experience at age 19. Have you had similar experiences since then, Henry? Henry: Yes. Continually. This is a kind of indescribable experience. Because it is so deep that it is open to misunderstanding. Even by myself when I try to put it into conceptualization. It is a very deep, inner experience which continually reveals different spiritual implications. It is a unifying experience, essentially. It gives you the awareness that life and the spirit, God, is a living God, who is in the process of causing something to happen all the time. That it is a loving, adequate process; that it is a benign, gracious process. Even when the process seems to lead you into suffering, which it does, there is joy. There is a deep, a feeling of unity and wholeness, in spite of the sorrow or suffering. Interviewer:
Would you characterize
yourself as a mystic?
Henry: Yes. Because I have this feeling, the wholeness of everything. A monistic mystic, if you like. I had a tendency to be a deistic mystic at the first, but I think that this was largely because of my early conditioning. I am very sure of this, in the experience I had at 19, if I am truly honest about it, that it was a unitary experience; a deep inner experience of the wholeness of everything. Including myself and the divine. And it’s taken me a lifetime to interpret that and respond to it.
THE PROCESS
OF SPIRITUAL
TRANSFORMATION
We will now turn to a comparison of the way these two men progressed in their spiritual growth after their initial awakening experience. This will give us an opportunity to analyze the impact that their differing cultural settings had on this process. In particular, it will be useful to examine the ways in which their world views and cultural institutions facilitated or hindered their spiritual development.
Pm-Awakening
State
Despite wide cultural and social class differences between Sudesh and Henry, one is struck by the similarity of their childhood experiences. Due to entirely different circumstances, both were poor students in school-Sudesh because of poor motivation, and Henry because of frequent moves and a severe hearing impairment. And both experienced lonely
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and unhappy childhoods, marked by fear and insecurity. Again, similar experiences were due to quite different causes-for Henry this was caused by his hearing impairment, which distanced him from his siblings and made school more difficult; for Sudesh it seems to be due to temperamental differences from other family members, In any case, despite the fact that they lived half a world from each other, steeped in vastly different cultures, and growing up in different economic and social classes, they experienced similar childhoods marked by psychic stress and emotional despair. This similarity in their pre-aw~ening state reminds one of William James’ description of the “sick soul.” Such a person, he suggests, is “inclined to the more intimately pessimistic persuasion,” with “such sensitiveness and susceptibility to mental pain . . . a sort of psychic neuralgia wholly unknown to the healthy life” (1902/1958, pp. 117, 124, 126). Such persons are given to “religious melancholy,” and the only deliverance which is likely to overcome this psychic state is a “second birth,” of spiritual awakening. Geoffrey Ahern (1990), in his analysis of accounts of mystical experiences in the files of the Allister Hardy Research Centre at Oxford, found examples of this type of experience, which he termed the “rescue pattern.” Characteristic of this pattern was the fact that these persons viewed their mystical experiences as being more important than anything else in their lives, and most reported that the time prior to this experience had been one of negativity and darkness. These two cases, in concert with this other work, suggests that Collins’ typology might usefully be expanded to include a description of the ~~pre-awakening state.” As a matter of fact, in the numerous examples that Collins chose to illustrate the various spiritual paths (Buddha, Ignatius Loyola, etc.) all exhibit these pre-awakening characteristics. One might assume, then, that James’ “healthy-minded” individual, “whose soul is of sky-blue tint” (p. 77), would be unlikely to undergo a life-changing mystical experience. That is not to suggest that they wouldn’t undergo peak-type experiences, since the work of contemporary social scientists (Maslow 1971; Wuthnow 1978) suggests that almost everyone has such experiences at some time. But since there is little that these “healthy-minded” individuals feel a need to be “rescued’ from, it is likely that they will remain “once born” in their religious life, and not radically changed by mystical or other types of peak experiences.
Mystical Awakening Collins describes mystical awakening as an experience in which an individual, “catches a glimpse of the nature of transformed reality, of transcended consciousness, of transformed self’ (1991, p. xx). This perception is precisely what Sudesh and Henry described as they told of their early mystical awakening. From our knowledge of their pre-awakening state, we can surmise that they resonated to this glimpse of a “transformed self’ so strongly because it showed them a way out of their suffering and despair. Awareness of the pain of their previous life no doubt motivated them to work all the harder at making this glimpse into an ongoing reality. On closer inspection it is clear that, although their awakening experiences served the same purpose, the nature of their experiences was quite different. Sudesh’s experience was of the type that State (1960) calls “extrovertive,” which “looks outward and through the physical senses” (p. 15). Thus Sudesh vividly recalls the physical sensation of snow falling on his head while he was in meditation, and can readily describe this in everyday language.
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Henry, on the other hand, exhibited what State would term an “introvertive” type of mystical experience, which “turns inward, introspectively, and finds the One at the bottom of the self” (p. 15). And like introvertive mystics through the ages, Henry finds it hard to describe his experience in words, because it did not involve concrete sensory experience. State characterizes extrovertive mysticism as a “minor strand,” and of less importance than introvertive mysticism. This was certainly the belief of mystics such as St. John of the Cross, who claimed that the “highest raptures” only come when imagery falls away entirely (quoted by James 190211958, p. 312). William James cuts through the body of arcane literature on types and qualities of mysticism, however, and concludes that, “Consciousness of illumination is for us the essential mark of ‘mystical’ states” (f.n. 28, p. 313). To this criteria James added the test of pragmatism: “to pass a spiritual judgment on these states we must inquire into their fruits for life” (p. 317). On both counts it seems fair to conclude that Sudesh and Henry underwent a mysticaltype experience. They both considered their experience to have been one of “conscious illumination,” in which they had a glimpse of a different order of reality than that which they had known before. As I interviewed these men, and got to know them through participant observation in their community, I sensed something of the transforming power these experiences had had for them. This is reflected in the interview protocols, but perhaps more importantly in the respect with which they were held in their respective communities. Clearly their lives have borne fruit suggestive of a genuine mystical experience.
Purgation and Purification Collins suggests that for an individual to benefit from a mystical experience he or she must undergo a period in which this new world view is incorporated into their lives. And in order for this to proceed it is necessary that the individual undertake a spiritual discipline. On the basis of their study of drug-induced mystical type experiences, Pahnke and Richards (1969) came to a similar conclusion, adding to the need for spiritual discipline the importance of having a religious framework in which individuals could make sense of their experience. Indeed, it is hard to imagine how a person would undertake a spiritual discipline without having a meaningful religious framework within which to understand it. Again, our cases lead us to consider the importance of a congenial world view as a prior condition necessary for the individual to undergo the stage of purgation that Collins distinguishes. Here we find perhaps the greatest difference between Sudesh and Henry. Sudesh grew up in a religious Hindu family, and Henry in a non-practicing Protestant family. As was typical in India during Sudesh’s childhood, and is still the case in much of India today, Sudesh’s mother and grandmother were quite religious, while his educated father was more westernized and skeptical. Despite his father’s reservations, Sudesh imbibed the overarching Hindu religious world view, with its basic belief about the transitory nature of the everyday world and the unexamined assumption of reincarnation. Interestingly, this appears still to be the case in modem India. I remember in interviews I conducted with elderly householders in New Delhi, being startled to find that almost to a man their world views were still based on the bedrock assumption of reinc~ation (Thomas and Chambers 1989). This was true of even the most westernized among them, some of whom professed to be agnostic about the existence of God, but who still subscribed to the basic assumption of reincarnation.
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In Sudesh’s home, even with a secularized father, he was surrounded by reminders of his Hindu culture, from the daily domestic ritual to the flow of the religious seasons. All of these would combine to provide Sudesh with a spiritual view of the universe; one in which the everyday world was looked on as illusory, and in which the goal of life was to achieve enlightenment, and to see beyond everyday samsara to the eternal verities. Even though he may have hardly been conscious of it, from childhood Sudesh imbibed the religious framework that would form the context for his understanding of, and the basis for acting on his awakening experience. Henry’s parents had immigrated to London from Germany, and were nominal Lutherans, but seldom attended church. The children were left to their own devices when it came to religion. On his own Henry attended different churches throughout London as a young boy. Sometimes his brother went with him, but more often alone, Henry explored different religious traditions. He ended up attending a large Congregational church where a forceful preacher presented sermons reflecting the Free Church Protestant tradition, with its emphasis on sin and redemption. It was these sharply different backgrounds that Sudesh and Henry brought to their mystical awakening, and through which they no doubt sought to understand their experience. And it was from their unique religious backgrounds that they would undertake the discipline to integrate these experiences into their lives. Here, again, Sudesh had a distinct advantage. Since yoga and meditation were a part of his cultural heritage, he was able to draw on them for his spiritual practices. Protestantism of Henry’s childhood offered no such traditions. Writing at the turn of the century, William James noted that evangelical Protestantism had seemingly “abandoned everything methodical in this line” (p. 312). Henry was left on his own to find an appropriate spiritual discipline, since his religious tradition had little interest in such “papist” asceticism, nor did it offer much of a place for mysticism in its world view. Given the religious context in which he spent his formative years, it is not surprising that Henry was confused following his awakening experience. It changed his life, in that he determined to complete his education and become a missionary. But there was no religious framework within which he could make sense of the experience, and there was no one he could talk to about either this experience, or who was sympathetic to his vocational plans. Amazingly, he found the inner strength to move ahead with his plans, finding each time that gates opened when he persevered. It wasn’t until he met his wife, some ten years later, that he would have someone he could confide in about his earlier spiritual awakening. It is significant that his wife would continue with him on a joint spiritual journey up to the present time. Even with the spiritual company of his wife Henry continued to have times of doubt about his path, not the least of which occurred at age 67, when he had to leave his chaplaincy work because of his hearing impairment. Sudesh, on the other hand, surrounded with a religious framework and provided with a variety of acceptable spiritual practices by his culture, found his period of “purgation” far shorter and less trying. Thus he could reflect on the fact that once he made the decision to leave his family and begin moving toward ashram life, his sense of divine presence had remained constant. To be sure, there were times of trial, as when he lived among skeptics at the college where he taught, and he occasionally experienced times of uncertainty after he arrived at the Ashram. But here he could always consult with “the Mother, ” Sri Aurobindo’s consort, who personally supervised all
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Comparison
TABLE 1 of Development Sudesh
Level Henry
Pre-Awakening Duration
Unhappy Childhood 21 Years
Unhappy Childhood 19 Years
Awakening Duration
Extrovertive Several Weeks
Introvertive a Few Moments
Purgation Duration
Mild 3 l/2 Years
Severe 48 Years
Illumination Duration
Constant 40 Year
Intermittent 16 Years
Transformed Duration
State
Partial Remainder
Of Life
Partial Remainder
Of Life
aspects of the Ashram until her death in 1974. In addition to her spiritual direction Sudesh felt a personal, one might say psychic relationship with Sri Aurobindo, which provided him guidance when doubts arose. Here we find one of the greatest differences in the life experiences of these two men. In the Indian culture there was, and in many ways still is, support for the spiritual quest. The support is provided by a world view that has room for the transcendent dimension. And the presence of living traditions of spiritual discipline provide the interested Indian with direction for moving along the spiritual path. England of Henry’s youth, not too different from presentday England, provided little in the way of a supportive worldview, and almost nothing in the way of appropriate spiritual practices. There was little in the way of cultural resources to support a seeker through a period of purgation, when one’s received world view has been destabilized, and to suggest a way of moving to a new view of reality that has been glimpsed. As summarized in Table 1, it can be seen that, although Sudesh and Henry followed the same path of spiritual development, the timing varied markedly. The difference in time spent at the level of Purgation is particularly striking, with Sudesh experiencing only mild Purgation, which lasted less than four years, while Henry experienced a severe degree of destabilized consciousness, which lasted for almost half a century.
DISCUSSION In considering the implications of these findings, I would and differences which were found in the experiences of would like to discuss the seeming paradox that cultural difference in the way they they lived out the implications while there is striking similarity of their eventual spiritual
like to focus on the similarities these two men. Specifically, I differences led to considerable of their mystical experience, development.
The Perennial Philosophy I was struck first of all by the overall similarity of the experiences that Sudesh and Henry reported. Their pre-awakening condition of suffering and isolation was similar, despite the
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fact that they came from markedly different cultures and social classes. This set the stage for what Ahern (1990) has termed the “rescue pattern” of awakening, in which their mystical experience was seen as a radical turning point in their lives, “rescuing” them from their former sad condition. Even more striking is the similarity between these two men in the quality of their spiritual state which they exhibited years later. Though half a century or more has elapsed since their awakening experience, they are both now singularly happy men, whose lives show the distinct marks of that earlier “mystical glimpse.” Clearly their world views have been permanently changed, such that they view outward events as a reflection of a spiritual drama that is going on around them. Consequently they look on life as an unfolding adventure, and rather than fearing death, they look on it as simply a change in consciousness to another arena of adventure. This change in world view was reflected in the lives that they lived, which was clearly visible to those who knew them. Hence they were admired, and looked to for spiritual and everyday guidance. As mentioned earlier, William James suggested that the best way to judge mystical experiences was by the fruits they produce in everyday life. Using this criteria, Sudesh and Henry certainly qualify as being mystics. Their respective philosophies also reflect the “directions” which James identified as the “distinct theoretical drift” of those who had experienced mystical states, namely “optimism” and “monism” (p. 3 19). The first of these characteristics, optimism, is understandable in view of the fact that their experiences led them from their depressed pre-awakening state to one of hope and anticipation. Perhaps more surprising is the fact that both of these men came to hold world views that are clearly “monistic.” That Sudesh should come to such a philosophical position is not surprising, since there is ample room for monism in the Hindu tradition, particularly in the Vedanta tradition. But Henry’s evangelical Protestant background, in which the emphasis was on sin and redemption, with its dualistic notion of good and evil, would provide very unpromising soil for the cultivation of a monistic world view. The universalistic thrust of the mystical experience seems the only way to explain how they came to such similar philosophical views. In sum, the similarities in religious experience of these two men provide strong support for the existence of a “perennial philosophy” which undergirds mystical awakening (Huxley 1944). Coming from such divergent cultures as they do, the similarities of their experiences provides strong argument for a mystical tradition, which, to use William James’ terms, “has neither birthday nor native land,” and which is “hardly altered by differences of clime and creed” (p. 321).
Cultural Differences Having considered evidence for the existence of a “perennial” tradition of mysticism, it would be an oversimplification to suggest that the cultural and social setting in which Sudesh and Henry grew up had no influence on their lives. Quite the contrary, there is ample evidence that these environmental differences had considerable influence in the way their lives were lived out, even if they ended up remarkably similar in old age. To put it simplistically, these cultural differences allowed Sudesh to parlay a less intense awakening experience into a spiritual life equal to that resulting from Henry’s profound mystical experience.
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As suggested earlier, Hinduism, which pervades the Indian culture, provided a soil much more amenable to growth of Sudesh’s mystical awareness. There was, and still is in India, a long tradition of spiritual practices which he could draw upon. It is significant that Sudesh was engaged in meditation at the time his spiritual awakening occurred (“snow falling on my head’). And there is in India institutional provision for mystical exploration, in the form of spiritual teachers and ashram communities, where seekers can have a protected environment in which to pursue their spiritual path. Henry, of course, had none of this. His evangelical Protestant tradition not only failed to provide him with a spiritual discipline which would help him develop his mystical experience, it tended to be disinterested, if not hostile to this type of spirituality. Nor did it provide an institutional retreat setting where he could devote himself to spiritual exploration. Ironically, in following up on his spiritual resolve to become an ordained missionary, Henry plunged into a frantic pace of work and study; it’s hard to imagine a situation more different from the ashram setting to which Sudesh soon retired. The effect of the difference in settings on the two men can be seen in the relative short-lived time of indecision that Sudesh went through, compared to the protracted time of trial that Henry experienced (as indicated, for example, by his self-designated “dark night of the soul” at age 67, almost half a century after his initial awakening). Underlying these social differences which impinged on their spiritual paths lies an even greater cultural and religious difference-i.e., in the overarching world view of their respective cultures. I have already alluded to the fact that despite encroachments of westernization, Sudesh grew upin a society in which the cyclical Hindu belief in reincarnation was simply assumed. Connected with this basic assumption was the set of beliefs about the purpose of life, i.e., to achieve enlightenment and release from attachments that tie one to the wheel of re-birth. This belief is embodied in the pervasive Hindu teaching concerning the normative stages of life, which move from the attachments of householder to the spiritual pilgrimage of the renunciate in late life (Klostermaier 1989). Hence old age is considered a time when one can have the quiet and privacy to engage in meditation and the pursuit of the spiritual path. Everyone, of course, doesn’t become a renunciate, but there is legitimization for those who are inclined to spirituality. Moreover, there appears to be very little in Indian society that idealizes activity and middle-age pursuits as the goal for the retirement years, which we find in the West. I think we tend to underestimate the corrosive effect of our materialist and reductionist western world view on spiritual matters. This one-dimensional view of reality tends to look on mystical-type experiences as aberrant at best, if not outright pathological. Thus it provides little help in making sense of mystical-type of awakenings, other than labelling them as “crazy.” It was probably this concern that led Henry to keep his mystical experience to himself, only daring to share it with his spiritually-inclined wife years later. In effect, it was only through the support of his wife, on their joint spiritual journey, that Henry was able to continue on his spiritual path, given the lack of institutional support and a congenial world view. I might add that in my earlier interviews in England, which were conducted with randomly selected elderly men, I came across several respondents who had had various types of peak experiences (Thomas and Chambers 1989). In fact, there turned out to be a fairly large subsample whose attachment to gardening and the outdoors bordered on nature mysticism. Almost none of these men were religious, and few were spiritual (making a
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distinction between the latter and institutional affiliation of the former). This reflected, I think, the fact that they simply did not have a congenial world view in which to place these experiences. So they tended to minimize them, or compartmentalize them from the rest of their life, particularly their spiritual life. Amazingly, Henry, who grew up in this same cultural context, was able to take his mystical awakening seriously, and redirect his life to the implications that it carried for him.
CONCLUSION Analysis of the mystical experiences of these two remarkable men provides support for Collins’ claim, and the message of mystics through the ages, that such awakening experiences do not result in instantaneous transformation of lives. The importance of dedication and discipline, by means of which the individual incorporates the new world view into his or her everyday life, seems to be an integral part of the spiritual life of such individuals. The use of late life interviews provides a particularly good opportunity to examine the changes wrought by such experiences and practices. Moreover, these cases illustrate the interplay of cultural norms and institutions with the playing out of the effect of a mystical experience over the years. It is clear that the more supportive Hindu culture rendered Sudesh’s spiritual journey far smoother than what Henry experienced in his evangelical Protestant tradition. Indeed, it is doubtful that Henry would have been able to continue on his spiritual path over the years without the support of his wife, who travelled with him as co-pilgrim on their spiritual journey. Finally, the cultural gulf that separated the worlds that Sudesh and Henry grew up in provides support for the universality of the perennial philosophy. The fact that these two men were able to end up at essentially the same spiritual level, despite such differences in institutional support and world view, strongly suggests that there is an intrinsic similarity in the mystical experience that, as William James suggested, “transcends clime and creed.” This article is a revised version of a paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Gerontological Society of America, Atlanta, GA, November, 1994. Support for this research was provided by a Fulbright Senior Research Fellowship and a grant from the University of Connecticut Research Foundation. The author wishes to thank Dr. B.S. Gupta, Head of the Psychology Department of Banaras Hindu University in Varanasi, and Om Prakash Sharma, who served as research assistant and translator, for their help in facilitating research in India, and to John Punshon, then at Woodbrook College, for assistance in identifying respondents in Birmingham, England. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS:
REFERENCES Ahem, J. 1990. Spiritual/Religious Experiences in Modem Society. Oxford: The Allister Hardy Research Centre. A Long- Term Follow-up and Doblin, R. 1991. “Pahnke’s ‘Good Friday’ Experiment: Methodological Critique.” Journal ofTranspersona1 Psychology 23( 1): l-28. Collins, J.E. 1991. Mysticism and New Paradigm Psychology. Savage, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. Huxley, A. 1944. The Perennial Philosophy. New York: Harper & Row. James. W. 1902/1958. The Varieties of Religious Experience. New York: New American Library. Julian of Norwich. 1978. Showings. (E. Colledge and J. Walsh, translators) New York: Paulist Press.
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Klostermaier, K.K. 1989. A Survey of Hinduism. Albany: State University of New York Press. Maslow, A. 197 1. The Farther Reaches of Human Nature. New York: Viking. Pahnke, W.N. and W.A. Richards. 1969. “Implications of LSD and Experimental Mysticism.” Journal
of Transpersonal
Psychology
19(1):69-102.
State, W. 1960. The Teachings of the Mystics. New York: Mentor. Thomas, L.E. 1991. “Dialogues with Three Religious Renunciates International -.
Journal
of Aging and Human Development
32(3):
on Wisdom
and Maturity.”
21 l-227.
1994. “Reflections on Death by Spiritually Mature Elderly.” Omega 24: l-9. Thomas, L.E. and K.O. Chambers. 1989. “‘Successful Aging’ Among Elderly Men in England and India: A Phenomenological Comparison.” Pp. 183-204 in Research on adulthood and Aging: The Human Science Approach, edited by L. E. Thomas. Albany: State University of New York Press. Wuthnow, R. 1978. “Peak Experiences: Some Empirical Tests.” Journal of Humanistic Psychology 18(3):59-75.
L. EUGENE THOMAS* University of Connecticut ABSTRACT: This article examines the effect of early mystical experiences on two elderly men who were among the most spiritually mature persons found in a larger study of optimal personality development in India and England. After having had deeply moving mystical-type experiences as young men, each went through the stages of spiritual development suggested by Collins (1991): Awakening, Purgation, Illumination, and Transformation. The Indian culture appeared to make transition along this path much easier than was found to be the case with the English respondent. The fact that despite differing cultural influences, they both came to a remarkably similar spiritual state provides supportfor William James’ argumentfor the transcultural nature of mystical experiences, and their long-term effect.
This article examines the effect of early mystical experiences on two elderly men I had the privilege to get to know. These interviews are part of a larger research project, in which I interviewed elderly men and women from India and England, seeking to understand optimal personality development. I won’t go into the details of the project, since this research is described elsewhere (Thomas 1991; Thomas 1994). Suffice it to say that on the basis of nominations of knowledgable informants, I conducted extensive interviews and did participant observation with a fascinating group of individuals in Varanasi, India, and Birmingham, England, some of whom had had profound mystical experiences. Popular accounts of near-death experiences, and reports of the effect of psychedelic drugs have often implied that the effects of these peak-type experiences on an individual’s person-
*Direct all correspondence to: L. Eugene Thomas, School of Family Studies, Box U-58, University Connecticut,
Stows, CT 06269.
JOURNAL OF AGING STUDIES, Volume 11, Number 2, pages 155-169. Copyright 0 1997 by JAI Press Inc. Ail rights of reproduction in any form reserved. ISSN: 0890-4065.
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ality were instantaneous. The classical literature on mysticism indicates that, on the contrary, the effects of mystical experiences take time to “seep in.” Julian of Norwich (1978), for example, spent the rest of her life reflecting on and trying to understand the mystical awakening she had in connection with a near-death experience at age 30. And preliminary work with persons who have undergone ecstatic religious experiences while under the influence of psychedelic drugs indicates that it takes time, and the proper conditions, for these insights to be integrated into their lives (Pahnke and Richards 1969; Doblin 1991). Theologian John Collins (1991), in one of the best contemporary analyses of mystical experiences, identifies four stages in the transformation of self-understanding that is associated with mysticism. The sequence begins with “awakening,” in which “one catches a glimpse of the nature of transformed reality, of transformed consciousness, of transformed self’ (p. xx). This is followed by a time of “purgation,” which Collins describes as “the process by which one state of consciousness, the ordinary state, is destabilized’ (p. 235). Given the right conditions, and proper motivation and discipline, this is followed by the state of “illumination,” which is “the process by which another state, the mystic state, is stabilized” (p. 235). This in turn leads to a “transformed state,” which is “the final result of the mystic process and is the primary source of ethical, religious and spiritual ideals and models for action.” The transformed individual, Collins suggests, “becomes a valuable moral and religious asset to his/her community, and potentially to all humanity” (p. xxi}. It should be noted that Collins argues that in order for any of the subsequent stages to occur after the awakening experience, it is necessary that individuals undertake a spiritual discipline. Along this line, it is interesting that psychologist Abraham Maslow (1971) believed that almost everyone had “peak experiences,” but that only certain persons were open to making use of them. Sociologist Robert Wuthnow (1978) found empirical support for Maslow’s claim that peak-type experiences are common. In a survey conducted in the San Francisco Bay Area he found that over 80% of his respondents reported having had peak experiences of one type or another, but a far smaller percent reported that they had been changed by the experience. This accords with the conclusion that Pahnke and Richards reached from their study of drug-induced mystical experiences: “If a person has a religious framework and discipline in which to work, the integrative process is encouraged and stimulates’ (Pahnke and Richards 1969, p. 89). Many of the individuals I interviewed in England and India described mystical experiences which occurred in their early years, which influenced them for the rest of their lives. For this article I would like to focus on two of the most spiritually mature individuals I met, and to analyze how their early awakening experiences affected their lives. Since these two men come from markedly different cultural settings, this will afford us an opportunity to examine the effect of cultural influences on the way these experiences were integrated into their lives. Moreover, the lives of these men provide us the opportunity to examine the process by which their lives unfolded after their early awakening experience.
THE SPIRITUAL
AWAKENING
OF TWO REMARKABLE
MEN
In some ways Sudesh Kiran and Henry Bancroft (names and circumstances have been altered to insure confidentiality) couldn’t be more different. Sudesh grew up in a wealthy
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family in Eastern India, the son of a prominent lawyer, and was provided with every material advantage. Henry, on the other hand, was the son of an itinerant laborer, and grew up in poverty in the slums of East London. But both, in young adulthood, underwent a transforming spiritual awakening, in the form of a mystical experience, which changed the direction of their lives. Although the course their lives took was quite different, there was a remarkable similarity in their eventual spiritual development.
Sudesh Kiran Despite his privileged social and economic situation, Sudesh’s childhood was far from happy. He did not do as well in school as his older brothers, and was looked on as the family failure. Throughout his childhood and youth Sudesh was extremely sensitive to pain and suffering, and was haunted by the specter of death. When he was 11 his maternal grandmother died. As was usual in his culture, no attempt was made to shield him from the reality of death; awareness of his own mortality was almost unbearable for him afterwards. A cameo event stands out in his memory when later, as a youth, he was on a train in which a prisoner was being transported to Calcutta to be put to death for murdering his wife. Sudesh was unable to sleep for days following this experience, and it haunted him for years afterward. As with many idealistic young men of his generation, Sudesh responded enthusiastically to Gandhi’s campaign to free India from British colonial rule, despite the cynicism and discouragement of his father. And, like many of his generation, he found himself sentenced to jail for his political beliefs. While he was engaged in the Freedom Movement Sudesh had been introduced to the spiritual writings of the Bengali mystic, Sri Aurobindo. In fact, he had committed long passages of Aurobindo’s writings to memory, and passed the time while he was in solitary confinement reciting Aurobindo’s spiritual poetry. Being in prison allowed Sudesh to spend more time practicing yoga and meditating. It was during this time his former fears began to subside and he began to feel the presence of the divine more and more. Sudesh explained, “Sitting in meditation I sensed what felt like snow falling on my head. I would say to myself, ‘No, there is nothing there, only peace descending.’ I was very happy.” But these feelings proved to be intermittent. “I would feel their presence, and then I would feel like a fish out of water. I would wonder what I had done to lose them.” His father was highly skeptical of Sudesh’s religious leanings and did everything he could to discourage him from taking them seriously. After much soul-searching Sudesh determined to leave home and go to the Sri Aurobindo Ashram to live. Once this decision was made, things changed for him: Once I actually boarded the train for Delhi, in my heart it was decided. Suddenly that experience became constant. All the time I was going about with that soul. Even if I am talking with you, if there were two minutes of silence, God’s love would be there. Then this spiritual awareness came to be more constant. I was having very powerful experiences because day and night I was aspiring to God for light, and it was coming. But still there were difficulties to be overcome. Not daring to tell his parents of his ultimate goal of joining the ashram, Sudesh got their permission to go to New Delhi to search for a job. There he knew a devotee of Sri Aurobindo, Dr. Chatterjee, whom he hoped would
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help him make the transition. But it wasn’t easy for a boy who had lived a privileged and sheltered life, and who now was committed to a serious spiritual path, to make his way in a strange city. Based on his new religious convictions. as well as his earlier Gandhi~ training, Sudesh resolved to take no job that would require him to lie in any way. This proved to be quite a handicap at a time when jobs were scarce. He ended up teaching English literature in the college of which Dr. Chatterjee was the principal. Even here he found it difficult to follow the spiritual path. Sudesh described his experience at this time in his life: If yau are leading a spiritual life, you are always surrounded by unspiritual suggestions; there is no support. Everywhere you are considered a crank. And even though I was teaching in a college, all the other colleagues looked upon me as an eccentric who is following the spiritual path. Therefore I felt isolated.
Within three years Sudesh had married a woman who was also a spiritual seeker, and together they visited Sri Aurobindo Ashram in South India. Although he felt an immediate attraction to ashram life, he was cautioned to wait until he was more ready to enter. Finally, over Christmas vacation in 1949, he was given permission to enter the Ashram with his wife and young son. Here he found the spiritual support that was missing in his secular work. Concerning the Ashram, Sudesh observed, “Here I was in the right atmosphere. I felt very happy. I did not want to go from here a single day.” When I asked if Sudesh if he had changed over the years, he observed: Yes, surely. I have. If you live more and more in your soui, you are very calm, peaceful. I feel tkat tke greatest happiness that a man can have is a calm and serene mind, which Iooks at life steadily and sees things wkoie. Nature, everything changes after your psychic (soul) opens. Then there is a freskness in life. The flowers are calling you, “Look at us.” And supposing it is summer, and there is a gust of fresh breeze. You don’t say that this is natural, but you see God’s presence in the breeze. Heraclitus says that it is a new sun that rises every day. That truth you can know if you are growing spiritually.
It is now 40 years since Sudesh and his family came to the Ashram. His son is a grown man and lives in New Delhi, but Sudesh and his wife still live in the Ashram. Since celibacy is a requirement of all residents, they live in different apartments and lead fairly separate lives. Although Sudesh is in frail health, he still works every day in the Ashram library, and maintains a busy schedule of reading, seeing visitors, and meditating. The following excerpts from the second interview I conducted with Sudesh give an idea of his present situation and outlook on life. Interviewer:
Sudesk, are you a mystic?
Sudesk: Yes. (pause) I am now 72, you see, and I have many diseases. Astkma, and there is lung trouble also. But young people come, and they feel happy in my company. Because that staleness doesn’t come; in spiritual life there is not staleness. Every day you get up with a new hope; you feel, ‘Well, I will explore some new things today.’ You
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don’t feel inner humdrum, routine. That is what Heraclitus meant when he said “a new sun rises every day.” Interviewer:
Are you optimistic about the final outcome of things?
Sudesh: Very. Very. For the world and for myself. It has been my experience that nothing happens by chance. Everywhere there is some grace behind it. These dark forces or tendencies in human nature-hatred, anger, lust-they are immense, but they are not infinite. I know this because I have experienced it myself. When I have lust in me it seems that I can’t stop indulging. But if I am able to dissolve it, I can turn it into higher things. I feel that there is a lot of inner work for me to do-“1 have miles to go before I sleep.” But if God chooses that in this life I can’t do much more, I know that my soul is in contact with God. I have no fear of death. Interviewer:
How do you picture death?
Sudesh: Death is not the end. It is only a change of consciousness. In the transition from this body, we enter completely into that higher consciousness. Seen in this light, death is not something to be feared. It is really a joke-a cosmic joke. Interviewer:
If you were asked to write your epitaph, what would you write?
Sudesh: (pause) We have only one epitaph, “Man’s happiness is in the growth of consciousness.” (pause) Spiritual things are a very concrete reality for me. Peace, wideness, calm. I feel them very concretely. That also fills me with gratitude, that God is so gracious. Before
commenting
on Sudesh’s experience,
I would like to move on to Henry Bancroft,
to provide a comparison.
Henry Bancroft As I indicated above, Henry grew up in an impoverished working class home in the poorer East End of London. Like Sudesh he remembers having a very unhappy childhood. A severe case of meningitis when he was 18 months old left Henry with a hearing impairment that has hindered him all his life. Compounding his hearing disability, his father’s intermittent employment led Henry to change schools frequently. Early on Henry’s mother suffered various illnesses, and spent two years in a hospital during his childhood. As if that wasn’t enough, there was continual conflict between his parents. By the time he was in his late ‘teens the family situation was so tense that his parents were threatening divorce, which destroyed any sense of security Henry might have had. By this time Henry had left school and was working as an apprentice for a large bakery in central London. It was at this time that a singular event took place that would change the course of his life dramatically. When I first approached Henry to see if he would be willing to take part in my study, he promptly told me of this turning point. This experience happened with I was 19. It happened in a smelly old butcher shop. I was taking a huge basket of bread, much too heavy for me, up some rickety stairs, in the busiest part of London. In the process of lifting this basket on my back, when it happened. Well, suddenly a load fell-not the heavy basket (chuckling)-off my existential state, if you like. From a dark night of the soul to a joyful assurance of adequacy. I remember coming down those stairs with an empty basket, walking along Shaftesbury Avenue,
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Vol. 1 l/No. 2/l 997 was full of glory. The goods
Henry did not tell his family or anyone else about this experience at the time. But from that moment on his whole outlook changed. Despite the skepticism, even derision of his family, he determined to study at the university and become a missionary. The enormity of this undertaking can scarcely be imagined now. This was back in the 1920’s when class lines in England were almost impossible to cross, and university education was difficult for anyone from the working class to achieve. On top of that, Henry had left school early because of his hearing problem. But while working long hours in the day to support himself, he studied in the evening to pass entrance exams for the university. During this time, with only skepticism from his family, he was often almost overwhelmed by doubts if he was doing the right thing: I remember sitting in an armchair and feeling, “I can’t do that. I can’t do it.” And then thinking, “Well, I’ll give it a go.” As I did, gates seemed to open, and I would think, “There you are. Now go to the next stage.” And I was scared of doing that, because I still had some of the anxiety, that I was inadequate, coming back. But I did keep on, and all along gates seemed to open and say, “Go on.” But it did require a great deal of courage to go on with it, because, you see, I was so backward in my education. I could hardly form a sentence. My English was atrocious. And I had to get my matrics in English and French, and Latin and Greek, and mathematics and geography. It was very hard work, because I was working very hard during the day.
Amazingly, Henry completed his secondary education, gained admission to the University of London, and earned a degree in theology, all within a seven-year time. Meantime he became active in a local church, teaching Sunday School and helping the vicar. By the time he completed his theological training Henry had decided to go to India as a missionary. He would have to be ordained to do that, so he persuaded the Archbishop of Canterbury to ordain him in the Church of England. When medical examinations revealed his hearing impaitment, the Missionary Society refused to sponsor him for work in a harsh climate such as India, where infection might cause the complete loss of hearing. So Henry reluctantly decided to serve a local parish in England. Three years later Henry met his wife, Ann, at a Student Christian Association conference. As they both remember the event, they were paired together by lot to play tennis. And almost literally they have not been separated in the 55 years since then. Ann was the first person that Henry ever shared his mystical experience with, and they have been spiritual confidants ever since. Over the years they have set aside a time of quiet together each day, and consider themselves as being on a joint spiritual path. Their spiritual path took an unusually sharp turn when Henry reached 67. At the time he was serving as a chaplain of a large psychiatric hospital. Group work was being widely accepted
as the most effective
way of working
with patients,
and Henry’s
hearing
disability
The chief psychiatrist at the hospital made it abundantly clear to Henry that a deaf chaplain was of limited use to the patients, and within a short time Henry reluctantly decided to retire. made
it almost
impossible
for him to do anything
but individual
counseling.
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With the children grown, and his wife retired from her job, they were free to explore new directions for their lives. They had never been happy with the formality of the Church of England, so they used their new-found freedom to explore other spiritual traditions. After several years of searching they happened to attend an unprogrammed Quaker worship service, and immediately felt comfortable. Since then they have moved into a Quaker retirement home, have joined a local Quaker meeting, and feel that finally they have come home spiritually. This, in very abbreviated form, is Henry’s spiritual odyssey. Before turning to an analysis of his experience, I would like cite interview excerpts which give a picture of Henry’s present spiritual outlook, at age 83. Interviewer: You mentioned the experience at age 19. Have you had similar experiences since then, Henry? Henry: Yes. Continually. This is a kind of indescribable experience. Because it is so deep that it is open to misunderstanding. Even by myself when I try to put it into conceptualization. It is a very deep, inner experience which continually reveals different spiritual implications. It is a unifying experience, essentially. It gives you the awareness that life and the spirit, God, is a living God, who is in the process of causing something to happen all the time. That it is a loving, adequate process; that it is a benign, gracious process. Even when the process seems to lead you into suffering, which it does, there is joy. There is a deep, a feeling of unity and wholeness, in spite of the sorrow or suffering. Interviewer:
Would you characterize
yourself as a mystic?
Henry: Yes. Because I have this feeling, the wholeness of everything. A monistic mystic, if you like. I had a tendency to be a deistic mystic at the first, but I think that this was largely because of my early conditioning. I am very sure of this, in the experience I had at 19, if I am truly honest about it, that it was a unitary experience; a deep inner experience of the wholeness of everything. Including myself and the divine. And it’s taken me a lifetime to interpret that and respond to it.
THE PROCESS
OF SPIRITUAL
TRANSFORMATION
We will now turn to a comparison of the way these two men progressed in their spiritual growth after their initial awakening experience. This will give us an opportunity to analyze the impact that their differing cultural settings had on this process. In particular, it will be useful to examine the ways in which their world views and cultural institutions facilitated or hindered their spiritual development.
Pm-Awakening
State
Despite wide cultural and social class differences between Sudesh and Henry, one is struck by the similarity of their childhood experiences. Due to entirely different circumstances, both were poor students in school-Sudesh because of poor motivation, and Henry because of frequent moves and a severe hearing impairment. And both experienced lonely
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and unhappy childhoods, marked by fear and insecurity. Again, similar experiences were due to quite different causes-for Henry this was caused by his hearing impairment, which distanced him from his siblings and made school more difficult; for Sudesh it seems to be due to temperamental differences from other family members, In any case, despite the fact that they lived half a world from each other, steeped in vastly different cultures, and growing up in different economic and social classes, they experienced similar childhoods marked by psychic stress and emotional despair. This similarity in their pre-aw~ening state reminds one of William James’ description of the “sick soul.” Such a person, he suggests, is “inclined to the more intimately pessimistic persuasion,” with “such sensitiveness and susceptibility to mental pain . . . a sort of psychic neuralgia wholly unknown to the healthy life” (1902/1958, pp. 117, 124, 126). Such persons are given to “religious melancholy,” and the only deliverance which is likely to overcome this psychic state is a “second birth,” of spiritual awakening. Geoffrey Ahern (1990), in his analysis of accounts of mystical experiences in the files of the Allister Hardy Research Centre at Oxford, found examples of this type of experience, which he termed the “rescue pattern.” Characteristic of this pattern was the fact that these persons viewed their mystical experiences as being more important than anything else in their lives, and most reported that the time prior to this experience had been one of negativity and darkness. These two cases, in concert with this other work, suggests that Collins’ typology might usefully be expanded to include a description of the ~~pre-awakening state.” As a matter of fact, in the numerous examples that Collins chose to illustrate the various spiritual paths (Buddha, Ignatius Loyola, etc.) all exhibit these pre-awakening characteristics. One might assume, then, that James’ “healthy-minded” individual, “whose soul is of sky-blue tint” (p. 77), would be unlikely to undergo a life-changing mystical experience. That is not to suggest that they wouldn’t undergo peak-type experiences, since the work of contemporary social scientists (Maslow 1971; Wuthnow 1978) suggests that almost everyone has such experiences at some time. But since there is little that these “healthy-minded” individuals feel a need to be “rescued’ from, it is likely that they will remain “once born” in their religious life, and not radically changed by mystical or other types of peak experiences.
Mystical Awakening Collins describes mystical awakening as an experience in which an individual, “catches a glimpse of the nature of transformed reality, of transcended consciousness, of transformed self’ (1991, p. xx). This perception is precisely what Sudesh and Henry described as they told of their early mystical awakening. From our knowledge of their pre-awakening state, we can surmise that they resonated to this glimpse of a “transformed self’ so strongly because it showed them a way out of their suffering and despair. Awareness of the pain of their previous life no doubt motivated them to work all the harder at making this glimpse into an ongoing reality. On closer inspection it is clear that, although their awakening experiences served the same purpose, the nature of their experiences was quite different. Sudesh’s experience was of the type that State (1960) calls “extrovertive,” which “looks outward and through the physical senses” (p. 15). Thus Sudesh vividly recalls the physical sensation of snow falling on his head while he was in meditation, and can readily describe this in everyday language.
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Henry, on the other hand, exhibited what State would term an “introvertive” type of mystical experience, which “turns inward, introspectively, and finds the One at the bottom of the self” (p. 15). And like introvertive mystics through the ages, Henry finds it hard to describe his experience in words, because it did not involve concrete sensory experience. State characterizes extrovertive mysticism as a “minor strand,” and of less importance than introvertive mysticism. This was certainly the belief of mystics such as St. John of the Cross, who claimed that the “highest raptures” only come when imagery falls away entirely (quoted by James 190211958, p. 312). William James cuts through the body of arcane literature on types and qualities of mysticism, however, and concludes that, “Consciousness of illumination is for us the essential mark of ‘mystical’ states” (f.n. 28, p. 313). To this criteria James added the test of pragmatism: “to pass a spiritual judgment on these states we must inquire into their fruits for life” (p. 317). On both counts it seems fair to conclude that Sudesh and Henry underwent a mysticaltype experience. They both considered their experience to have been one of “conscious illumination,” in which they had a glimpse of a different order of reality than that which they had known before. As I interviewed these men, and got to know them through participant observation in their community, I sensed something of the transforming power these experiences had had for them. This is reflected in the interview protocols, but perhaps more importantly in the respect with which they were held in their respective communities. Clearly their lives have borne fruit suggestive of a genuine mystical experience.
Purgation and Purification Collins suggests that for an individual to benefit from a mystical experience he or she must undergo a period in which this new world view is incorporated into their lives. And in order for this to proceed it is necessary that the individual undertake a spiritual discipline. On the basis of their study of drug-induced mystical type experiences, Pahnke and Richards (1969) came to a similar conclusion, adding to the need for spiritual discipline the importance of having a religious framework in which individuals could make sense of their experience. Indeed, it is hard to imagine how a person would undertake a spiritual discipline without having a meaningful religious framework within which to understand it. Again, our cases lead us to consider the importance of a congenial world view as a prior condition necessary for the individual to undergo the stage of purgation that Collins distinguishes. Here we find perhaps the greatest difference between Sudesh and Henry. Sudesh grew up in a religious Hindu family, and Henry in a non-practicing Protestant family. As was typical in India during Sudesh’s childhood, and is still the case in much of India today, Sudesh’s mother and grandmother were quite religious, while his educated father was more westernized and skeptical. Despite his father’s reservations, Sudesh imbibed the overarching Hindu religious world view, with its basic belief about the transitory nature of the everyday world and the unexamined assumption of reincarnation. Interestingly, this appears still to be the case in modem India. I remember in interviews I conducted with elderly householders in New Delhi, being startled to find that almost to a man their world views were still based on the bedrock assumption of reinc~ation (Thomas and Chambers 1989). This was true of even the most westernized among them, some of whom professed to be agnostic about the existence of God, but who still subscribed to the basic assumption of reincarnation.
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In Sudesh’s home, even with a secularized father, he was surrounded by reminders of his Hindu culture, from the daily domestic ritual to the flow of the religious seasons. All of these would combine to provide Sudesh with a spiritual view of the universe; one in which the everyday world was looked on as illusory, and in which the goal of life was to achieve enlightenment, and to see beyond everyday samsara to the eternal verities. Even though he may have hardly been conscious of it, from childhood Sudesh imbibed the religious framework that would form the context for his understanding of, and the basis for acting on his awakening experience. Henry’s parents had immigrated to London from Germany, and were nominal Lutherans, but seldom attended church. The children were left to their own devices when it came to religion. On his own Henry attended different churches throughout London as a young boy. Sometimes his brother went with him, but more often alone, Henry explored different religious traditions. He ended up attending a large Congregational church where a forceful preacher presented sermons reflecting the Free Church Protestant tradition, with its emphasis on sin and redemption. It was these sharply different backgrounds that Sudesh and Henry brought to their mystical awakening, and through which they no doubt sought to understand their experience. And it was from their unique religious backgrounds that they would undertake the discipline to integrate these experiences into their lives. Here, again, Sudesh had a distinct advantage. Since yoga and meditation were a part of his cultural heritage, he was able to draw on them for his spiritual practices. Protestantism of Henry’s childhood offered no such traditions. Writing at the turn of the century, William James noted that evangelical Protestantism had seemingly “abandoned everything methodical in this line” (p. 312). Henry was left on his own to find an appropriate spiritual discipline, since his religious tradition had little interest in such “papist” asceticism, nor did it offer much of a place for mysticism in its world view. Given the religious context in which he spent his formative years, it is not surprising that Henry was confused following his awakening experience. It changed his life, in that he determined to complete his education and become a missionary. But there was no religious framework within which he could make sense of the experience, and there was no one he could talk to about either this experience, or who was sympathetic to his vocational plans. Amazingly, he found the inner strength to move ahead with his plans, finding each time that gates opened when he persevered. It wasn’t until he met his wife, some ten years later, that he would have someone he could confide in about his earlier spiritual awakening. It is significant that his wife would continue with him on a joint spiritual journey up to the present time. Even with the spiritual company of his wife Henry continued to have times of doubt about his path, not the least of which occurred at age 67, when he had to leave his chaplaincy work because of his hearing impairment. Sudesh, on the other hand, surrounded with a religious framework and provided with a variety of acceptable spiritual practices by his culture, found his period of “purgation” far shorter and less trying. Thus he could reflect on the fact that once he made the decision to leave his family and begin moving toward ashram life, his sense of divine presence had remained constant. To be sure, there were times of trial, as when he lived among skeptics at the college where he taught, and he occasionally experienced times of uncertainty after he arrived at the Ashram. But here he could always consult with “the Mother, ” Sri Aurobindo’s consort, who personally supervised all
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Comparison
TABLE 1 of Development Sudesh
Level Henry
Pre-Awakening Duration
Unhappy Childhood 21 Years
Unhappy Childhood 19 Years
Awakening Duration
Extrovertive Several Weeks
Introvertive a Few Moments
Purgation Duration
Mild 3 l/2 Years
Severe 48 Years
Illumination Duration
Constant 40 Year
Intermittent 16 Years
Transformed Duration
State
Partial Remainder
Of Life
Partial Remainder
Of Life
aspects of the Ashram until her death in 1974. In addition to her spiritual direction Sudesh felt a personal, one might say psychic relationship with Sri Aurobindo, which provided him guidance when doubts arose. Here we find one of the greatest differences in the life experiences of these two men. In the Indian culture there was, and in many ways still is, support for the spiritual quest. The support is provided by a world view that has room for the transcendent dimension. And the presence of living traditions of spiritual discipline provide the interested Indian with direction for moving along the spiritual path. England of Henry’s youth, not too different from presentday England, provided little in the way of a supportive worldview, and almost nothing in the way of appropriate spiritual practices. There was little in the way of cultural resources to support a seeker through a period of purgation, when one’s received world view has been destabilized, and to suggest a way of moving to a new view of reality that has been glimpsed. As summarized in Table 1, it can be seen that, although Sudesh and Henry followed the same path of spiritual development, the timing varied markedly. The difference in time spent at the level of Purgation is particularly striking, with Sudesh experiencing only mild Purgation, which lasted less than four years, while Henry experienced a severe degree of destabilized consciousness, which lasted for almost half a century.
DISCUSSION In considering the implications of these findings, I would and differences which were found in the experiences of would like to discuss the seeming paradox that cultural difference in the way they they lived out the implications while there is striking similarity of their eventual spiritual
like to focus on the similarities these two men. Specifically, I differences led to considerable of their mystical experience, development.
The Perennial Philosophy I was struck first of all by the overall similarity of the experiences that Sudesh and Henry reported. Their pre-awakening condition of suffering and isolation was similar, despite the
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fact that they came from markedly different cultures and social classes. This set the stage for what Ahern (1990) has termed the “rescue pattern” of awakening, in which their mystical experience was seen as a radical turning point in their lives, “rescuing” them from their former sad condition. Even more striking is the similarity between these two men in the quality of their spiritual state which they exhibited years later. Though half a century or more has elapsed since their awakening experience, they are both now singularly happy men, whose lives show the distinct marks of that earlier “mystical glimpse.” Clearly their world views have been permanently changed, such that they view outward events as a reflection of a spiritual drama that is going on around them. Consequently they look on life as an unfolding adventure, and rather than fearing death, they look on it as simply a change in consciousness to another arena of adventure. This change in world view was reflected in the lives that they lived, which was clearly visible to those who knew them. Hence they were admired, and looked to for spiritual and everyday guidance. As mentioned earlier, William James suggested that the best way to judge mystical experiences was by the fruits they produce in everyday life. Using this criteria, Sudesh and Henry certainly qualify as being mystics. Their respective philosophies also reflect the “directions” which James identified as the “distinct theoretical drift” of those who had experienced mystical states, namely “optimism” and “monism” (p. 3 19). The first of these characteristics, optimism, is understandable in view of the fact that their experiences led them from their depressed pre-awakening state to one of hope and anticipation. Perhaps more surprising is the fact that both of these men came to hold world views that are clearly “monistic.” That Sudesh should come to such a philosophical position is not surprising, since there is ample room for monism in the Hindu tradition, particularly in the Vedanta tradition. But Henry’s evangelical Protestant background, in which the emphasis was on sin and redemption, with its dualistic notion of good and evil, would provide very unpromising soil for the cultivation of a monistic world view. The universalistic thrust of the mystical experience seems the only way to explain how they came to such similar philosophical views. In sum, the similarities in religious experience of these two men provide strong support for the existence of a “perennial philosophy” which undergirds mystical awakening (Huxley 1944). Coming from such divergent cultures as they do, the similarities of their experiences provides strong argument for a mystical tradition, which, to use William James’ terms, “has neither birthday nor native land,” and which is “hardly altered by differences of clime and creed” (p. 321).
Cultural Differences Having considered evidence for the existence of a “perennial” tradition of mysticism, it would be an oversimplification to suggest that the cultural and social setting in which Sudesh and Henry grew up had no influence on their lives. Quite the contrary, there is ample evidence that these environmental differences had considerable influence in the way their lives were lived out, even if they ended up remarkably similar in old age. To put it simplistically, these cultural differences allowed Sudesh to parlay a less intense awakening experience into a spiritual life equal to that resulting from Henry’s profound mystical experience.
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As suggested earlier, Hinduism, which pervades the Indian culture, provided a soil much more amenable to growth of Sudesh’s mystical awareness. There was, and still is in India, a long tradition of spiritual practices which he could draw upon. It is significant that Sudesh was engaged in meditation at the time his spiritual awakening occurred (“snow falling on my head’). And there is in India institutional provision for mystical exploration, in the form of spiritual teachers and ashram communities, where seekers can have a protected environment in which to pursue their spiritual path. Henry, of course, had none of this. His evangelical Protestant tradition not only failed to provide him with a spiritual discipline which would help him develop his mystical experience, it tended to be disinterested, if not hostile to this type of spirituality. Nor did it provide an institutional retreat setting where he could devote himself to spiritual exploration. Ironically, in following up on his spiritual resolve to become an ordained missionary, Henry plunged into a frantic pace of work and study; it’s hard to imagine a situation more different from the ashram setting to which Sudesh soon retired. The effect of the difference in settings on the two men can be seen in the relative short-lived time of indecision that Sudesh went through, compared to the protracted time of trial that Henry experienced (as indicated, for example, by his self-designated “dark night of the soul” at age 67, almost half a century after his initial awakening). Underlying these social differences which impinged on their spiritual paths lies an even greater cultural and religious difference-i.e., in the overarching world view of their respective cultures. I have already alluded to the fact that despite encroachments of westernization, Sudesh grew upin a society in which the cyclical Hindu belief in reincarnation was simply assumed. Connected with this basic assumption was the set of beliefs about the purpose of life, i.e., to achieve enlightenment and release from attachments that tie one to the wheel of re-birth. This belief is embodied in the pervasive Hindu teaching concerning the normative stages of life, which move from the attachments of householder to the spiritual pilgrimage of the renunciate in late life (Klostermaier 1989). Hence old age is considered a time when one can have the quiet and privacy to engage in meditation and the pursuit of the spiritual path. Everyone, of course, doesn’t become a renunciate, but there is legitimization for those who are inclined to spirituality. Moreover, there appears to be very little in Indian society that idealizes activity and middle-age pursuits as the goal for the retirement years, which we find in the West. I think we tend to underestimate the corrosive effect of our materialist and reductionist western world view on spiritual matters. This one-dimensional view of reality tends to look on mystical-type experiences as aberrant at best, if not outright pathological. Thus it provides little help in making sense of mystical-type of awakenings, other than labelling them as “crazy.” It was probably this concern that led Henry to keep his mystical experience to himself, only daring to share it with his spiritually-inclined wife years later. In effect, it was only through the support of his wife, on their joint spiritual journey, that Henry was able to continue on his spiritual path, given the lack of institutional support and a congenial world view. I might add that in my earlier interviews in England, which were conducted with randomly selected elderly men, I came across several respondents who had had various types of peak experiences (Thomas and Chambers 1989). In fact, there turned out to be a fairly large subsample whose attachment to gardening and the outdoors bordered on nature mysticism. Almost none of these men were religious, and few were spiritual (making a
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distinction between the latter and institutional affiliation of the former). This reflected, I think, the fact that they simply did not have a congenial world view in which to place these experiences. So they tended to minimize them, or compartmentalize them from the rest of their life, particularly their spiritual life. Amazingly, Henry, who grew up in this same cultural context, was able to take his mystical awakening seriously, and redirect his life to the implications that it carried for him.
CONCLUSION Analysis of the mystical experiences of these two remarkable men provides support for Collins’ claim, and the message of mystics through the ages, that such awakening experiences do not result in instantaneous transformation of lives. The importance of dedication and discipline, by means of which the individual incorporates the new world view into his or her everyday life, seems to be an integral part of the spiritual life of such individuals. The use of late life interviews provides a particularly good opportunity to examine the changes wrought by such experiences and practices. Moreover, these cases illustrate the interplay of cultural norms and institutions with the playing out of the effect of a mystical experience over the years. It is clear that the more supportive Hindu culture rendered Sudesh’s spiritual journey far smoother than what Henry experienced in his evangelical Protestant tradition. Indeed, it is doubtful that Henry would have been able to continue on his spiritual path over the years without the support of his wife, who travelled with him as co-pilgrim on their spiritual journey. Finally, the cultural gulf that separated the worlds that Sudesh and Henry grew up in provides support for the universality of the perennial philosophy. The fact that these two men were able to end up at essentially the same spiritual level, despite such differences in institutional support and world view, strongly suggests that there is an intrinsic similarity in the mystical experience that, as William James suggested, “transcends clime and creed.” This article is a revised version of a paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Gerontological Society of America, Atlanta, GA, November, 1994. Support for this research was provided by a Fulbright Senior Research Fellowship and a grant from the University of Connecticut Research Foundation. The author wishes to thank Dr. B.S. Gupta, Head of the Psychology Department of Banaras Hindu University in Varanasi, and Om Prakash Sharma, who served as research assistant and translator, for their help in facilitating research in India, and to John Punshon, then at Woodbrook College, for assistance in identifying respondents in Birmingham, England. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS:
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