Dr. Jay Forrest

Mystical experiences concern union with Ultimate Reality. They are consciously unitive and should not be confused with spiritual experiences more broadly. William James identified four marks that justify calling an experience “mystical,” and his framework has aged remarkably well.

First is ineffability: the experience cannot be adequately expressed in words. Like the taste of tea, it must be directly encountered to be understood.

Second is the noetic quality: the experience carries a sense of insight or revelation. It presents itself as disclosing something true about the nature of reality.

Third is transiency: mystical experiences are temporary. The heightened awareness fades, though its aftereffects may endure.

Fourth is passivity: while one may prepare for such an experience, one cannot produce it at will. It arrives unbidden—often unexpectedly—and is traditionally described as a gift of grace.

A fifth mark, often overlooked, is self-transcendence. The experience breaks—or at least cracks—the shell of the ego, opening the person to a larger Reality. This can be both liberating and destabilizing.

There is a need for an umbrella term to encompass all experiences that alter consciousness, from simple illumination to full mystical union. “Spiritual experiences” serves best for this range.

Spiritual experiences include all experiences that affect consciousness. Mystical experiences, by contrast, are a subset: they are unitive. They involve an experience of oneness with Ultimate Reality.

Dreams, visions, and similar phenomena fall under spiritual experiences, but they are not mystical in themselves. This distinction helps separate the wheat from the chaff, since not all spiritual experiences lead to the same outcome.

Because the Mystic’s goal is union with Ultimate Reality, visions, dreams, and revelations are not central and are often distractions. The aim is to fix one’s gaze on Ultimate Reality so as to become like it; the goal is transformation.

Ultimate Reality is described by Gotama as the “unborn, unbecome, unmade, unconditioned.” He does not view it as a supreme being, but as Being itself: something permanent, unchanging, and endless bliss. The deathless.

But Ultimate Reality is described in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam as a personal God. In all three, he is portrayed as a male deity: Father, Ruler, and King. Only the mystics in these traditions dare to challenge this picture, because they have encountered this deity directly, whereas others know it only at second hand.

Advaita Vedānta has a helpful distinction. It divides Brahman with attributes from Brahman without attributes. The idea of a personal God is a useful fiction. It is hard for humans to relate to something so foreign as Ultimate Reality. Such a Wholly Other entity is beyond thought and imagination. It can be off-putting.

So we dress up God in an image and likeness we can relate to. But eventually you will have to experience Ultimate Reality for yourself. When you do, the fiction will dissolve. God is so far beyond us that all our language fails.

Reincarnation, or rebirth as Buddhists call it, is the idea that consciousness goes from one incarnation to another until it reaches Nirvana. Versions of this view were taught by Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato, Gotama Buddha, Mahavira, Śāṅkara, Plotinus, and a number of modern thinkers. There are in fact good reasons to believe that some such process is true.

The first is the fact that many people experience déjà vu. We sometimes feel we have lived through a moment before in exactly the same way. This could be interpreted as a residual impression from a previous life.

We also know that there is spiritual energy and physical energy. And we know that physical energy is neither created nor destroyed, according to the first law of thermodynamics. If physical energy is neither created nor destroyed, why would spiritual energy be any different? It is neither created nor destroyed, but transmigrates from one incarnation to another.

Near-death experiences also give evidence that there is an afterlife, and many of these suggest that the good we do in this life follows us into the next.

Finally, there are children who remember their previous lives. Scientists have studied this and argued that there is no good explanation except that they actually did reincarnate.

The cure for self-indulgence is self-discipline. But we do not like discipline. Asceticism is a bad word, and those who recommend it are seen as killjoys.

We live in the most self-indulgent time in world history, and I live in one of the most self-indulgent countries in the world: the United States. We seek comfort, pleasure, and indulgence in all kinds of entertainment. We even make a sport of seeing how much food we can fit in our bellies at all-you-can-eat buffets.

So when I suggest self-discipline, it goes against the grain. The truth is that the self has become our god, and we are enslaved to it. Whatever the self wants, we give it—which is the worst possible thing we can do.

We must deny ourselves and take up our cross. That means we must die to the self. The ego is not a friend but an enemy—a harsh master that destroys our lives and harms those around us. We must resist the ego. We must put it to death. It is the only way to live a spiritual life.

Many of us struggle with our weight. Unfortunately, the food that is available today lacks nutrition but is loaded with calories. It’s engineered to be addictive.

Let’s face it, overeating is one of the hardest addictions to overcome, first of all because you can’t go cold turkey. You have to eat. The key is to eat to live, and not live to eat.

Another problem is that we don’t like to be uncomfortable. And hunger is uncomfortable. Unfortunately, there’s no other way but to embrace the discomfort. The fact is, if you’re not hungry, you’re not in a deficit.

Detach from hunger; let it pass like a cloud. I eat two vegetarian meals a day, and fast between meals. This is called intermittent fasting. The key is not to snack between meals. If you feel hungry, drink some water. Many times we mistake thirst for hunger. And most importantly, if it’s not healthy, don’t eat it.

As always, consult a doctor before starting any weight loss plan.