Quotes to Get Started

​"In a ‘pure physical feeling’ the actual entity which is the datum is objectified by one of its own physical feelings."

Whitehead, Alfred North. Process and Reality 

"One occasion feels the emotion of the previous occasion and thus appropriates it. There is an energy flow from one to the next. This is the basis of causality in the world...Pure physical feelings are feelings of the physical feelings of antecedent occasions. These are the causal feelings that transmit energy from occasion to occasion."

Cobb Jr, John B. Whitehead Word Book: A Glossary with Alphabetical Index to Technical Terms in Process and Reality 

Relationality

How are the countless events in the universe held together, such that they form a universe? It is tempting to say that they are held together by mathematical axioms, or by God, or by an ultimate substratum of which they are all expressions. But Whitehead offers another answer. They are held together because, as they emerge in the immediacy of the moment, they feel the feelings of other actual entities through "pure physical feelings," and as this happens, those other entities become part of the entity itself. The many "become one" in the emerging entity.

This means that the actual glue of the universe is something like empathy: a feeling of the feeling of others. There is no need to appeal to mathematics or to God or to an ultimate substratum; it is enough to appeal to feeling and, more specifically, to simple physical feelings. The interconnected universe is, in fact, an inter-emotional universe. Or, if you prefer, an inter-energetic universe, because emotions are forms of energy and energy is a form of emotion. The point, however, is that relationality is not at all abstract. It is concrete, specific, and in its own way physical.

Relational Mysticism

Relational mysticism is the feeling of being connected with, and inseparable from, others: human and natural and divined. It is a kind of mysticism found in Zen Buddhism and, so I suggest, in God as understood in open and relational theology. Even the living whole of the universe, even God, enjoys the experience of being physically connected with the multiplicity of the world. This doesn't mean that God has a distinguishable body. But it does mean that God has a physical side. Whitehead calls it the consequent nature of God.

Ouch

I was once visiting with a Zen master as he served me a cup of hot coffee. So focused was I on our conversation that I quickly took a sip and discovered, in a single instance, that it was way too hot for my tongue. Throwing away all ideas of Zen, I said "Ouch." After it was over, he said: "Jay, when you said ouch, that was enlightenment. There was no 'you,' just the 'ouch.' I think he was right. In that moment there were there was the subjective immediacy of a moment of experience as affected by a simple physical feeling of the coffee. Body and mind dropped away - or least my consciousness of them. In that moment I was not "Jay." I was Ouch. Buddhists would add that in this Ouch, this moment of concrescence, the entire universe was enfolded. 

​Physical Feelings Everywhere

Whitehead's philosophy suggests that the basis for heightened and allegedly 'mystical' experiences are simple physical feelings. These feelings connect all creatures with the rest of the world and likewise connect God with the rest of the world. They serve as the experiential glue that holds the world together and form the foundation of what some call a panentheist understanding of God.

Panentheism is the view that the world is immanent within God even as it transcends God, and that God is immanent in the world even as God transcends the world. The two—God and the World—are together in their differences and different in their togetherness. Their togetherness occurs through simple physical feelings.

In this framework, every moment of experience, whether quantum or divine, involves a subjective or prehensive gathering of the entirety of the past actual world into a momentary unity. This process starts with simple "physical" feelings of past entities' emotions and subjective forms, which are forms of energy. This begins what Whitehead calls a vector transmission of energy or feeling. This vector transmission of feelings from the past to the present constitutes a causal influence that integrates past occasions into the present experience, making the past partly constitutive of the present. Thus, each present experience is not simply one entity, but a "many" becoming "one" in the immediacy of the moment. It is, in its own way, both many and one or, if you prefer, neither many nor one. And yet it is filled with self-creativity and self-enjoyment that begin with the simple physical feelings.

Broadening the Concept of Physicality

Whitehead's broadened sense of physicality also applies to human and other sentient experiences, including memory, quite apart from questions of God.

When we perceive the world through our senses, our experiences are simultaneously influenced by memories from the past, personal and collective, conscious and unconscious, which act as causal presences within our present experience, aiding our interpretation. The objects of these memories—the experiences remembered—are not objects of sensory experience. We cannot touch them with our hands or smell them with our noses. Although they may have numerous sensory associations (especially visual and auditory), they are not themselves directly perceived in a bodily way. And yet, they are real and actual to us. They are not sensory, but filled with vitality.

The same applies to our anticipations of the future. We anticipate possibilities for what can happen or might happen, sometimes with fear and sometimes with hope, but the possibilities themselves are not sensory. Similarly, our emotions are extra-sensory but vivid and actual.

This suggests that any sentient being, anywhere in the universe, and in any dimension, experiences this extra-sensory kind of physicality. This includes angels or devils, spirits and living ancestors, and entities in faraway space or other dimensions of the space-time continuum. In this broader view, there are forms of physicality—that is, forms of simple physical feelings—everywhere.

Varieties of Localized Bodies

Whitehead's philosophy invites us to reconsider and broaden our understanding of what it means to be physical, stretching our imaginations beyond a simple identification of physicality with sensory experience as we know it.

There are many different kinds of localized bodies in biology. For example, bacteria and archaea are single-celled organisms with complex structures. Plants and animals have specialized cells and tissues, like roots and leaves in plants or organs and systems in animals. Fungi have unique forms like mycelium and mushrooms. Insects have segmented bodies with specialized appendages, while aquatic organisms like fish and jellyfish are adapted to life in water. Birds have bodies built for flight, mammals have fur or hair and complex brains, and extremophiles thrive in extreme environments. These examples show the diversity of physical forms in the biological world. They may well have sensory experiences of some kind, which are often much more advanced than human sensory experience.

A more controversial idea, but worthy of consideration, is the existence of spiritual bodies: that is, bodies that are not available to human sense-perception such as those identified above, but which have their own unique kinds of spatiality in the time-space continuum. In Whitehead's philosophy, the space-time continuum is called the extensive continuum, and it consists of countless "regions" that may or may not be occupied by actual entities or concrescing subjects. There is no reason in principle not to believe that forms of localized bodies exist in other regions of the space-time continuum.  Examples of such apparitions include reports of ghosts, sightings of deceased loved ones, encounters with angelic beings, or experiences of otherworldly entities in religious or spiritual contexts. Dream experiences may provide another option here. The question for a Whiteheadian is not an ontological one, but rather an empirical one: what does the evidence suggest?

Divine Non-Dual Experience

It is conceivable that human beings might occasionally partake in the divine experience, transcending the limitations of localized bodies while simultaneously embodying localized physical experiences. In these moments, individuals would still enjoy simple physical feelings, and through which, as supplemented by consciousness, they would experience a profound sense of radical connectedness with, and dependence on, the entirety of the universe. According to Whitehead, this participation would occur in a spirit of love because, in Whitehead's philosophy, the simple physical feelings are imbued with empathy: God feeling the feelings of all living beings with tender care.

Such an experience would involve a dual awareness: on one hand, the immediate and localized physical sensations that come with having a body, and on the other hand, a non-localized, expansive awareness that connects them to the whole of existence. This state of being reflects a union of the finite and the infinite, where personal physical experiences are intimately linked with the universal and eternal.

In this view, human beings can momentarily transcend their individual boundaries, achieving a sense of unity with the cosmos. This transcendent experience, characterized by love and interconnectedness, echoes the divine mode of existence described by Whitehead. It suggests that the potential for experiencing reality in a profoundly interconnected and holistic way is inherent in human nature, allowing for moments of sublime insight and unity with the greater whole.

All Mystical

Mysticism has many forms, and ecstatic experiences are just one form. Another form is found in our daily activities. When we are deeply engaged in these activities without thinking of ourselves as separate individuals, we encounter a form of mysticism—the mysticism of ordinary life. This also occurs when we are so absorbed in music that we lose the sense of being a distinct listener.
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In Zen Buddhism, all experiences, not just the extraordinary ones, are grounded in simple, physical feelings that connect everything. All experiences are rooted in the basic sensation of "ouch." This grounding is not limited to human experiences but extends to animals, plants, minerals, and even the divine. If mysticism refers to emerging from connections with others, becoming a unity from multiplicity, and existing as a pure state of becoming that is neither singular nor plural but both, then mysticism is at the core of reality. It is intrinsically physical, underscoring the interconnectedness and unity of all existence.

Viscerality

I close by adding that much of what has been said above can also be articulated in non-theistic ways. In non-theistic mysticism the boundaries between self and other are fluid, allowing for an exchange of experiences and emotions that enriches the understanding of one’s own existence and the existence of others. This empathetic resonance means that the joy, pain, and states of being experienced by one entity can be tangibly felt by others, fostering a sense of unity and compassion that transcends individual isolation. The physical way in which entities feel each other’s feelings implies a tangible, almost palpable connection that is not merely metaphorical but experienced as a real, visceral phenomenon.

As a theist myself, I cannot help but wonder if God, understood as the living whole of the universe, isn't best understood in this non-theistic way. Surely what makes God "God" is not that God is spiritual but not visceral, but that viscerality is part of the divine life. This, it seems to me, is what Christians mean, or ought to mean, by incarnation. Incarnation is not a rising above finitude but an immersion in finitude - which is there the infinite is found.