Mysticism in Many Forms
Horizontal and Vertical, Ecstatic and Everyday
see also Eight Forms of Mysticism
Mysticism
Sarah's Hope
“As process theology develops,” says Sarah, a professor of religious studies, “my hope is that it will help us understand and appreciate the many kinds of mysticism we find in the religions of the world: worldly and otherworldly, theistic and non-theistic, earth-centered and galactic, everyday and shamanic, pastoral and prophetic, horizontal and vertical. My worry is that it may continue to view everything through a Christian—and perhaps even a Protestant Christian—lens, rather than offering a truly interreligious way of appreciating and engaging the rich diversity of global spiritual experience. Process theology has so much potential—and we need it now more than ever.”
The Word Mysticism
The word mysticism has an interesting history in the English language. Its earliest recorded use, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, dates to the early 18th century. The word "mystic" itself traces back to the Greek word "mystikos," meaning 'secret' or 'mystic,' which is connected to "mystes," referring to 'one who has been initiated' into the mysteries. This etymology reflects the term's origins in secret religious rites and practices.
From the beginning, it has carried two basic meanings—one derogatory and one potentially positive. The derogatory sense emerged alongside Enlightenment rationalism, where mysticism was often used to dismiss spiritual experiences as irrational, obscure, or overly emotional—associated with cloudy thinking or escapism. The positive sense, however, refers to the pursuit or experience of direct communion with the sacred or ultimate reality, often involving a deep sense of presence, unity, or transformation that transcends ordinary perception.
In contemporary usage, this more affirmative meaning has become central for many, encompassing a wide range of intuitive and experiential forms of spiritual knowing—whether understood theistically, non-theistically, or metaphorically. What might seem, from a rationalist perspective, to be “cloudy” or “obscure” is, for the process thinker, an embodied sensitivity to the deeper patterns of becoming that shape our lives and the world. These patterns include moments of awe, quiet presence, deep empathy, and a felt sense of connection that transcends verbal articulation. Thus, mysticism, understood in this affirmative sense, becomes a way of knowing—a spiritual epistemology,
In what follows I offer a Whiteheadian way of thinking about this epistemology - one that, I hope, takes into account what Sarah says above. I offer two proposals.
Let the sacred be a name for what is most important and beautiful in human life. People experience the sacred in diverse ways, but these experiences often follow two broad spiritual orientations: the horizontal and the vertical. Each represents a distinct way of sensing, relating to, and being transformed by the sacred.
“As process theology develops,” says Sarah, a professor of religious studies, “my hope is that it will help us understand and appreciate the many kinds of mysticism we find in the religions of the world: worldly and otherworldly, theistic and non-theistic, earth-centered and galactic, everyday and shamanic, pastoral and prophetic, horizontal and vertical. My worry is that it may continue to view everything through a Christian—and perhaps even a Protestant Christian—lens, rather than offering a truly interreligious way of appreciating and engaging the rich diversity of global spiritual experience. Process theology has so much potential—and we need it now more than ever.”
The Word Mysticism
The word mysticism has an interesting history in the English language. Its earliest recorded use, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, dates to the early 18th century. The word "mystic" itself traces back to the Greek word "mystikos," meaning 'secret' or 'mystic,' which is connected to "mystes," referring to 'one who has been initiated' into the mysteries. This etymology reflects the term's origins in secret religious rites and practices.
From the beginning, it has carried two basic meanings—one derogatory and one potentially positive. The derogatory sense emerged alongside Enlightenment rationalism, where mysticism was often used to dismiss spiritual experiences as irrational, obscure, or overly emotional—associated with cloudy thinking or escapism. The positive sense, however, refers to the pursuit or experience of direct communion with the sacred or ultimate reality, often involving a deep sense of presence, unity, or transformation that transcends ordinary perception.
In contemporary usage, this more affirmative meaning has become central for many, encompassing a wide range of intuitive and experiential forms of spiritual knowing—whether understood theistically, non-theistically, or metaphorically. What might seem, from a rationalist perspective, to be “cloudy” or “obscure” is, for the process thinker, an embodied sensitivity to the deeper patterns of becoming that shape our lives and the world. These patterns include moments of awe, quiet presence, deep empathy, and a felt sense of connection that transcends verbal articulation. Thus, mysticism, understood in this affirmative sense, becomes a way of knowing—a spiritual epistemology,
In what follows I offer a Whiteheadian way of thinking about this epistemology - one that, I hope, takes into account what Sarah says above. I offer two proposals.
- From Whiteheadian point of view "the sacred" includes the horizontal sacred as well as the vertical sacred,
- These forms give rise to many forms of "mysticism" found in and beyond the world's religions.
Let the sacred be a name for what is most important and beautiful in human life. People experience the sacred in diverse ways, but these experiences often follow two broad spiritual orientations: the horizontal and the vertical. Each represents a distinct way of sensing, relating to, and being transformed by the sacred.
The Horizontal Sacred and the Vertical Sacred
The Horizontal Sacred
The horizontal sacred is very world, this very universe, this very multiverse. A sense for its sacredness is grounded in the immanent, relational, and this-worldly dimensions of life. It finds sacredness in human relationships, the natural world, daily routines, acts of compassion, and the interconnected web of life. It recognizes that each living being, human and more than human, has intrinsic value: that is, value in and for itself. People with this orientation may or may not use religious language. Many are agnostic or spiritual-but-not-religious; others may be deeply ethical or aesthetic in their sensitivities. What unites them is a reverence for life as it is—without appeal to a transcendent deity or higher power. The sacred is not found beyond the world but within it: in presence, connection, and the beauty of becoming.
The Vertical Sacred
The vertical sacred is a divine reality, understood as a higher power or a deeper source within yet beyond the universe. It is both transcendent (beyond the universe) and immanent (within the universe.) In relation to mysticism, a sense for the vertical sacred can longing for union with the transcendent, on the one hand, and also a recognition of the divine in the depths of ordinary life on the other. It can take the form of mystical ascent, contemplative stillness, prophetic revelation, or the experience of God’s nearness in the small and messy details of daily life. Vertical spirituality does not always mean looking up—it can also mean looking more deeply.
These two orientations are not mutually exclusive. Many people move between them or hold both together in creative tension. But distinguishing them helps clarify the different ways people experience the sacred and opens space for honoring diverse expressions of spiritual life.
Moreover, many who seek to be centered in the vertical sacred find its immanence what is most important. What is important to them is that the vertical sacred is a cosmic lure, calling presence, within yet beyond them, and that its sacramental energies can be found in the palpable presence of the natural world, in friendship and family life, and in the suffering of the world. For them, the importance of the vertical is in the horizontal.
Nevertheless, while many immanence-oriented theists combine the two, it is important to recognize their distinctiveness. Some may resonate only with the horizontal—especially agnostics, atheists, or those for whom the language of transcendence feels unhelpful.
Whitehead’s philosophy is especially valuable here: even apart from belief in God, it offers a spiritually rich vision of reality rooted in relatedness, creativity, beauty, and feeling. The horizontal sacred can be appreciated through his ideas that the whole of the cosmos is an interconnected and evolving whole, that intrinsic value lies in the self-enjoyment and self-creativity of each living being, that felt relationships (prehensive connections imbued with subjective form) are at the heart of life, and that there is something like creativity that underlies the whole of life. The vertical sacred can be appreciated through his notions of the primordial nature of God (a non-temporal reservoir of all that is potential", the consequent nature of God (a fellow sufferer who understands), and the superjective nature of God (a cosmic lure within each and every actuality). Here are some forms of mysticism that make sense from a Whiteheadian perspective.
The horizontal sacred is very world, this very universe, this very multiverse. A sense for its sacredness is grounded in the immanent, relational, and this-worldly dimensions of life. It finds sacredness in human relationships, the natural world, daily routines, acts of compassion, and the interconnected web of life. It recognizes that each living being, human and more than human, has intrinsic value: that is, value in and for itself. People with this orientation may or may not use religious language. Many are agnostic or spiritual-but-not-religious; others may be deeply ethical or aesthetic in their sensitivities. What unites them is a reverence for life as it is—without appeal to a transcendent deity or higher power. The sacred is not found beyond the world but within it: in presence, connection, and the beauty of becoming.
The Vertical Sacred
The vertical sacred is a divine reality, understood as a higher power or a deeper source within yet beyond the universe. It is both transcendent (beyond the universe) and immanent (within the universe.) In relation to mysticism, a sense for the vertical sacred can longing for union with the transcendent, on the one hand, and also a recognition of the divine in the depths of ordinary life on the other. It can take the form of mystical ascent, contemplative stillness, prophetic revelation, or the experience of God’s nearness in the small and messy details of daily life. Vertical spirituality does not always mean looking up—it can also mean looking more deeply.
These two orientations are not mutually exclusive. Many people move between them or hold both together in creative tension. But distinguishing them helps clarify the different ways people experience the sacred and opens space for honoring diverse expressions of spiritual life.
Moreover, many who seek to be centered in the vertical sacred find its immanence what is most important. What is important to them is that the vertical sacred is a cosmic lure, calling presence, within yet beyond them, and that its sacramental energies can be found in the palpable presence of the natural world, in friendship and family life, and in the suffering of the world. For them, the importance of the vertical is in the horizontal.
Nevertheless, while many immanence-oriented theists combine the two, it is important to recognize their distinctiveness. Some may resonate only with the horizontal—especially agnostics, atheists, or those for whom the language of transcendence feels unhelpful.
Whitehead’s philosophy is especially valuable here: even apart from belief in God, it offers a spiritually rich vision of reality rooted in relatedness, creativity, beauty, and feeling. The horizontal sacred can be appreciated through his ideas that the whole of the cosmos is an interconnected and evolving whole, that intrinsic value lies in the self-enjoyment and self-creativity of each living being, that felt relationships (prehensive connections imbued with subjective form) are at the heart of life, and that there is something like creativity that underlies the whole of life. The vertical sacred can be appreciated through his notions of the primordial nature of God (a non-temporal reservoir of all that is potential", the consequent nature of God (a fellow sufferer who understands), and the superjective nature of God (a cosmic lure within each and every actuality). Here are some forms of mysticism that make sense from a Whiteheadian perspective.
A Sample of Mystical Sensibilities
Immersion in Divine Transcendence
This form of mysticism involves a profound yearning for union with a transcendent God or an infinite reality. It includes experiences of dissolving boundaries, merging with the divine, and achieving spiritual fulfillment. Practices such as prayer, meditation, and contemplative rituals help facilitate this immersion.
- Historical Examples: Teresa of Ávila, Meister Eckhart, Rumi.
Revelatory spirituality involves receiving divine messages or visions that direct individuals toward justice, transformation, or personal change. These revelations are often seen as calls to engage in social or spiritual action. Such experiences inspire deep commitment to the divine will, often accompanied by a sense of urgency and purpose.
- Historical Examples: Moses, Hildegard of Bingen, Martin Luther King Jr.
This path sees God as a transformative force, guiding individuals toward greater authenticity and personal growth. It emphasizes spiritual evolution through a creative, divine influence that fosters wholeness and integration. The individual is invited to reflect, heal, and become more authentic in alignment with divine guidance.
- Historical Examples: Augustine of Hippo, contemporary 12-step programs.
Resting in a sense of God's love
This mysticism focuses on the deep peace and assurance found in God's unconditional love. It invites individuals to rest in the divine embrace, cultivating trust, surrender, and contentment. The practices often involve quiet contemplation, receptive prayer, and trust in the divine presence.
- Historical Examples: Julian of Norwich, the Hesychast tradition.
The imaginal realm refers to a visionary or symbolic space where divine truths are encountered through dreams, symbols, and archetypes. This mysticism emphasizes the role of creative imagination as a pathway to divine insight and spiritual guidance. It encourages engagement with the inner world and its symbols as expressions of deeper spiritual realities.
- Historical Examples: Henry Corbin (Mundus Imaginalis), William Blake.
In this path, divinity is encountered in the most mundane aspects of daily living. Ordinary tasks like cooking, cleaning, and having conversations are seen as opportunities to connect with the sacred. Through mindfulness and gratitude, the individual finds profound spirituality in everyday moments.
- Historical Examples: Brother Lawrence ("The Practice of the Presence of God"), Thérèse of Lisieux.
This path centers on the reverence and awe felt in the face of the divine's ineffable and incomprehensible nature. It involves acknowledging that the divine is beyond full human understanding, evoking wonder, humility, and profound respect. Practices typically include contemplative silence and prayer, emphasizing the mystery of the divine.
- Historical Examples: Moses (burning bush), Meister Eckhart.
This mysticism values intense, ecstatic experiences of divine joy and rapture, often facilitated by music, dance, or spontaneous mystical encounters. These ecstatic states bring the individual into deep union with the divine, transcending ordinary experience. It is through this rapture that one might experience divine presence most fully.
- Historical Examples: Sufi whirling (Mevlevi dervishes), Dionysian mysteries, St. Francis of Assisi.
This path connects the individual with the sacredness of nature, recognizing the divine in ecosystems, animals, plants, and natural cycles. Spirituality is deeply rooted in ecological responsibility and reverence for the Earth as a living, interconnected being. Nature is seen as a direct reflection of the divine, and communion with it fosters spiritual growth.
- Historical Examples: Indigenous spirituality, Celtic Christianity.
This form of mysticism finds holiness in everyday interactions and activities, from caregiving to conversations to acts of kindness. By cultivating mindfulness and presence, individuals recognize the sacredness in each moment, valuing simplicity and interconnectedness. The focus is on seeing beauty in others and in ordinary actions.
- Historical Examples: Dorothy Day (Catholic Worker Movement), Thich Nhat Hanh.
This mysticism involves being fully present to the inherent qualities and nature of things as they are, without conceptualization or mental projection. It emphasizes mindfulness and the direct experience of reality as it is, without judgment or interpretation. Practicing a deep awareness of the present moment leads to an appreciation of the "suchness" of all existence.
- Historical Examples: Zen Buddhism, Dogen's teachings on "suchness" (Tathata).
This spirituality fosters a deep sense of belonging to the universe, recognizing the vast interconnectedness of all creation. It includes feelings of awe and wonder at the cosmic order and our place within it. Scientific understanding of the universe enhances the sense of spiritual connection to the cosmos.
- Historical Examples: Carl Sagan, Thomas Berry.
This form of mysticism finds the sacred through creative expression in art, music, literature, and performance. Artistic endeavors are seen as deeply spiritual practices that connect individuals to divine inspiration. The experience of beauty and creativity is viewed as transformative and spiritually enriching.
- Historical Examples: Vincent Van Gogh, Johann Sebastian Bach.
Shamanic mysticism involves entering altered states of consciousness through practices like drumming, trance, and ritual to connect with spiritual realms. This path emphasizes communication with spirit beings, ancestors, and the use of visionary experiences for healing. The journey into these realms is seen as a source of wisdom and personal transformation.
- Historical Examples: Indigenous shamanic traditions, Mircea Eliade’s studies.
This mysticism emphasizes the profound realization that all elements of existence are deeply interconnected, where boundaries between self and other, or between individual and the cosmos, dissolve. It fosters an awareness of the unity and interdependence of all beings, encouraging compassion and holistic thinking. Practices may include contemplative reflection, mindfulness, and ecological responsibility to embrace the oneness of creation.
- Historical Examples: Advaita Vedanta, Teilhard de Chardin.
This mysticism involves a profound awareness of the universe as an unfolding, creative force from which all things emerge and return. It is marked by the experience of all creation as interconnected manifestations of a deeper, limitless source or abyss, often leading to insights of ultimate creativity and divine potential. Practices may involve contemplation of the infinite nature of creation and the surrendering of the ego to the vastness of the creative process.
- Historical Examples: Heraclitus, process theology, Henri Bergson’s concept of "élan vital."
Three Forms of Vertical Mysticism
The Infinite, the Compassionate, the Invitational
Whitehead’s understanding of God provides a nuanced and deeply relational framework for exploring vertical mysticism. Rather than envisioning God as a single, static being, Whitehead offers a threefold conception: the primordial nature, the consequent nature, and the superjective nature. Each corresponds to a distinct kind of mystical experience.
The mysticism of the primordial nature arises from encounter with the timeless realm of possibility—the abstract, infinite ground from which all potentialities emerge. In mystical experience, this may be felt as a vast, formless spaciousness, a sense of being suspended in the silent order of the cosmos. It evokes awe and stillness, often leading to contemplative states where words fall away and the self dissolves into the infinite. This kind of mysticism is reflected in traditions such as Neoplatonism, Advaita Vedanta, or the “Cloud of Unknowing,” where the divine is encountered as ultimate depth or metaphysical silence.
The mysticism of the consequent nature, by contrast, is relational and tender. It involves a deep sense of being known, accompanied, and understood. This is God as the “fellow sufferer who understands”—a divine presence that receives every joy and sorrow of the world. Mystical experiences grounded in this nature often occur in moments of grief, vulnerability, or compassion, when one feels met by a divine empathy that shares in the burden of existence. It is the mysticism of companionship and care, of prayer and lament. Traditions that emphasize divine intimacy—such as the Psalms, Julian of Norwich’s visions, or the loving God of Sufi poetry—express this dimension of mysticism.
Finally, the mysticism of the superjective nature is experienced as a divine lure toward wholeness, creativity, and new possibilities. This is God as inward calling—present within each moment as the gentle but persistent impulse toward the best possible future. Mysticism in this mode often feels like inner prompting or inspired direction: an alignment with sacred purpose, the experience of being called, urged, or guided from within. It is dynamic and improvisational, deeply tied to ethical action, artistic expression, and vocational clarity. One might associate it with the Quaker sense of “inner light,” the prophetic imagination, or the call to discernment in Ignatian spirituality.
These three dimensions of God—the infinite, the compassionate, and the invitational—are not mutually exclusive. Mystical experience often involves movement among them. A contemplative sense of vastness may give way to a feeling of divine intimacy, which then leads to a renewed sense of purpose in the world. Taken together, Whitehead’s vision offers a richly layered theology of vertical mysticism: one that affirms God not as distant or detached, but as a living presence who is infinite possibility, tender companionship, and a lure toward creative transformation.
Whitehead’s understanding of God provides a nuanced and deeply relational framework for exploring vertical mysticism. Rather than envisioning God as a single, static being, Whitehead offers a threefold conception: the primordial nature, the consequent nature, and the superjective nature. Each corresponds to a distinct kind of mystical experience.
The mysticism of the primordial nature arises from encounter with the timeless realm of possibility—the abstract, infinite ground from which all potentialities emerge. In mystical experience, this may be felt as a vast, formless spaciousness, a sense of being suspended in the silent order of the cosmos. It evokes awe and stillness, often leading to contemplative states where words fall away and the self dissolves into the infinite. This kind of mysticism is reflected in traditions such as Neoplatonism, Advaita Vedanta, or the “Cloud of Unknowing,” where the divine is encountered as ultimate depth or metaphysical silence.
The mysticism of the consequent nature, by contrast, is relational and tender. It involves a deep sense of being known, accompanied, and understood. This is God as the “fellow sufferer who understands”—a divine presence that receives every joy and sorrow of the world. Mystical experiences grounded in this nature often occur in moments of grief, vulnerability, or compassion, when one feels met by a divine empathy that shares in the burden of existence. It is the mysticism of companionship and care, of prayer and lament. Traditions that emphasize divine intimacy—such as the Psalms, Julian of Norwich’s visions, or the loving God of Sufi poetry—express this dimension of mysticism.
Finally, the mysticism of the superjective nature is experienced as a divine lure toward wholeness, creativity, and new possibilities. This is God as inward calling—present within each moment as the gentle but persistent impulse toward the best possible future. Mysticism in this mode often feels like inner prompting or inspired direction: an alignment with sacred purpose, the experience of being called, urged, or guided from within. It is dynamic and improvisational, deeply tied to ethical action, artistic expression, and vocational clarity. One might associate it with the Quaker sense of “inner light,” the prophetic imagination, or the call to discernment in Ignatian spirituality.
These three dimensions of God—the infinite, the compassionate, and the invitational—are not mutually exclusive. Mystical experience often involves movement among them. A contemplative sense of vastness may give way to a feeling of divine intimacy, which then leads to a renewed sense of purpose in the world. Taken together, Whitehead’s vision offers a richly layered theology of vertical mysticism: one that affirms God not as distant or detached, but as a living presence who is infinite possibility, tender companionship, and a lure toward creative transformation.
Shamanic Mysticism
Shamanic mysticism is among the oldest and most cross-cultural forms of mystical experience, emerging in Indigenous traditions across every inhabited continent. It is rooted in the belief that reality consists of visible and invisible worlds that interpenetrate one another, and that certain individuals—shamans—are able to navigate these worlds for the sake of healing, guidance, and communal balance.
In shamanic mysticism, the sacred is encountered through altered states of consciousness, often brought on by drumming, chanting, fasting, dancing, or the use of plant-based medicines. These experiences are not escapes from the world but deep plunges into its spiritual depths, allowing the practitioner to receive visions, communicate with ancestors or spirits, retrieve lost parts of the self, or diagnose and treat illness. The mystic here is not only a seer but a healer and mediator—someone who journeys into other realms on behalf of others.
From a Whiteheadian perspective, shamanic mysticism can be understood as a heightened form of relational perception—an intensified participation in the web of prehensions that links all beings. What a shaman discerns through trance or vision might be interpreted not as fantasy, but as deep feeling-responses to the actualities of the more-than-human world, including animals, elements, ancestors, and archetypes. These experiences are prehensive encounters with a cosmos that is alive, communicative, and sacred in its many dimensions.
Importantly, shamanic mysticism resists strict divisions between the sacred and the profane, the natural and the supernatural. Everything is part of the same field of sacred activity. This orientation aligns with process thought’s rejection of dualism and its affirmation of a world where every event is connected and meaningful. In honoring shamanic forms of mysticism, we recognize that spirituality is not always about ascent or withdrawal, but about deep engagement, ritual participation, and the healing of both individuals and communities through sacred imagination.
Today, renewed interest in shamanic practices—both within Indigenous communities and in broader spiritual circles—offers a reminder that mysticism is not limited to contemplation or theology. It is also ecstatic, embodied, and communal. It speaks to the deep needs of our time: the need to reconnect with the Earth, to listen to the wisdom of ancestral memory, and to mend the broken relations between human beings and the more-than-human world.
Shamanic mysticism is among the oldest and most cross-cultural forms of mystical experience, emerging in Indigenous traditions across every inhabited continent. It is rooted in the belief that reality consists of visible and invisible worlds that interpenetrate one another, and that certain individuals—shamans—are able to navigate these worlds for the sake of healing, guidance, and communal balance.
In shamanic mysticism, the sacred is encountered through altered states of consciousness, often brought on by drumming, chanting, fasting, dancing, or the use of plant-based medicines. These experiences are not escapes from the world but deep plunges into its spiritual depths, allowing the practitioner to receive visions, communicate with ancestors or spirits, retrieve lost parts of the self, or diagnose and treat illness. The mystic here is not only a seer but a healer and mediator—someone who journeys into other realms on behalf of others.
From a Whiteheadian perspective, shamanic mysticism can be understood as a heightened form of relational perception—an intensified participation in the web of prehensions that links all beings. What a shaman discerns through trance or vision might be interpreted not as fantasy, but as deep feeling-responses to the actualities of the more-than-human world, including animals, elements, ancestors, and archetypes. These experiences are prehensive encounters with a cosmos that is alive, communicative, and sacred in its many dimensions.
Importantly, shamanic mysticism resists strict divisions between the sacred and the profane, the natural and the supernatural. Everything is part of the same field of sacred activity. This orientation aligns with process thought’s rejection of dualism and its affirmation of a world where every event is connected and meaningful. In honoring shamanic forms of mysticism, we recognize that spirituality is not always about ascent or withdrawal, but about deep engagement, ritual participation, and the healing of both individuals and communities through sacred imagination.
Today, renewed interest in shamanic practices—both within Indigenous communities and in broader spiritual circles—offers a reminder that mysticism is not limited to contemplation or theology. It is also ecstatic, embodied, and communal. It speaks to the deep needs of our time: the need to reconnect with the Earth, to listen to the wisdom of ancestral memory, and to mend the broken relations between human beings and the more-than-human world.
The Intrinsic Value of Life
The Intrinsic Value of Life
While Whitehead's philosophy includes a vision of God, it does not require belief in a personal deity for spiritual meaning to emerge. One of the remarkable features of Whiteheadian thought is its openness to non-theistic spirituality—a form of reverence and depth of experience grounded not in divine relationship, but in the inherent value of the world itself.
From this perspective, each moment of experience matters. Each living being—human or more-than-human—is a center of subjectivity, a unique locus of feeling, creativity, and self-expression. Every actual entity is an instance of becoming, and what it becomes matters to the universe. This intrinsic value is not bestowed from above; it arises from within. Even in the absence of a transcendent God, life is still sacred because it is felt from the inside—it matters to itself.
Such spirituality affirms that every life is worthy of respect and care, not because it serves a divine purpose, but because it is alive, relational, and capable of joy, suffering, growth, and beauty. The moral and spiritual impulse to protect the vulnerable, to foster community, and to live with integrity flows not from obedience to a higher power but from the deep structure of reality itself—a world of interconnection, creativity, and feeling.
Non-theistic mysticism, in this light, may arise as a felt unity with the cosmos, an ethical commitment to justice and compassion, a sense of wonder at the complexity of life, or a contemplative presence rooted in the here and now. It includes moments of silence in a forest, the dignity of caregiving, the grief of loss, or the joy of creation. These experiences are no less spiritual for lacking divine referent—they are spiritual because they touch what is most real and valuable.
Whitehead’s cosmos is not cold or indifferent. It is a web of becoming in which each being affects and is affected by others. Even if one brackets out God, what remains is a relational universe in which every act matters, every being counts, and the pursuit of beauty, connection, and harmony remains a sacred calling.
In this sense, process philosophy provides a foundation for spiritual life with or without God. It offers a vision of reality in which wonder, reverence, and care are appropriate responses to the world—not as duties imposed from above, but as awakenings from within. It calls us to live with mindfulness, compassion, and gratitude, simply because life is valuable in and of itself.
The Intrinsic Value of Life
While Whitehead's philosophy includes a vision of God, it does not require belief in a personal deity for spiritual meaning to emerge. One of the remarkable features of Whiteheadian thought is its openness to non-theistic spirituality—a form of reverence and depth of experience grounded not in divine relationship, but in the inherent value of the world itself.
From this perspective, each moment of experience matters. Each living being—human or more-than-human—is a center of subjectivity, a unique locus of feeling, creativity, and self-expression. Every actual entity is an instance of becoming, and what it becomes matters to the universe. This intrinsic value is not bestowed from above; it arises from within. Even in the absence of a transcendent God, life is still sacred because it is felt from the inside—it matters to itself.
Such spirituality affirms that every life is worthy of respect and care, not because it serves a divine purpose, but because it is alive, relational, and capable of joy, suffering, growth, and beauty. The moral and spiritual impulse to protect the vulnerable, to foster community, and to live with integrity flows not from obedience to a higher power but from the deep structure of reality itself—a world of interconnection, creativity, and feeling.
Non-theistic mysticism, in this light, may arise as a felt unity with the cosmos, an ethical commitment to justice and compassion, a sense of wonder at the complexity of life, or a contemplative presence rooted in the here and now. It includes moments of silence in a forest, the dignity of caregiving, the grief of loss, or the joy of creation. These experiences are no less spiritual for lacking divine referent—they are spiritual because they touch what is most real and valuable.
Whitehead’s cosmos is not cold or indifferent. It is a web of becoming in which each being affects and is affected by others. Even if one brackets out God, what remains is a relational universe in which every act matters, every being counts, and the pursuit of beauty, connection, and harmony remains a sacred calling.
In this sense, process philosophy provides a foundation for spiritual life with or without God. It offers a vision of reality in which wonder, reverence, and care are appropriate responses to the world—not as duties imposed from above, but as awakenings from within. It calls us to live with mindfulness, compassion, and gratitude, simply because life is valuable in and of itself.
So What?
Why does it matter that we recognize and affirm the many forms of mysticism and spiritual experience—whether theistic or non-theistic, vertical or horizontal, prophetic or poetic, cosmic or earthly?
Because the world we now inhabit is in the midst of profound transitions—ecological, social, technological, and spiritual. The old certainties are crumbling, and new possibilities are emerging. In this liminal space, we need spiritual frameworks that are open, pluralistic, and life-affirming—frameworks that help us navigate difference with compassion and creativity rather than fear or dogmatism. An openness to diverse forms of mysticism is essential to this task.
A constructively postmodern world—one that moves beyond the isolated individualism and mechanistic thinking of modernity—must take delight in diversity even as it nurtures our shared humanity. This means honoring the mystical experiences of Christians and Buddhists, agnostics and animists, artists and activists, scientists and shamans. It means seeing spiritual insight not as the exclusive property of any one tradition, but as the birthright of all who are capable of wonder, empathy, and inner depth.
Such openness does not imply relativism or the absence of conviction. Rather, it invites a deeper humility—an acknowledgment that no single path exhausts the sacred, and that we have much to learn from one another. It fosters a climate of mutual recognition and shared search, which is essential for peaceful coexistence in an increasingly pluralistic world.
More than this, openness to mystical variety supports the cultivation of a spirituality suited to the needs of our time: a spirituality that can inspire ecological civilizations and compassionate communities. As we face ecological collapse, species extinction, social fragmentation, and economic injustice, we need spiritual resources that awaken us to the interconnectedness of all life, deepen our reverence for the Earth, and ground us in habits of care, simplicity, and relational justice.
The mystic, in any form, is someone who listens—to the stars, to the soil, to the suffering, to the silence. We need this listening now more than ever—not only in monasteries or mountaintops, but in neighborhoods, classrooms, hospitals, prisons, farms, and city halls. We need mystical openness as a source of moral imagination and as a practice of soul-tending in the midst of planetary crisis.
Process theology, with its wide embrace of spiritual plurality, its grounding in relationality and becoming, and its affirmation of both God and world, both transcendence and immanence, offers a unique and generative path forward. But its promise will only be fulfilled if it resists narrowing its vision to a single religious lens, and instead becomes a truly interreligious, intercultural, and interspecies theology of life.
Mysticism in all its forms—horizontal and vertical, ecstatic and everyday—can help lead the way. It reminds us that we live in a sacred universe, that beauty and meaning are real, and that new possibilities are always emerging. In honoring the diversity of mystical experience, we help build a world where love is more than a feeling—it is a way of being, a way of seeing, and a way of becoming.
Immersing in Divine Transcendence
This form of mysticism involves a profound yearning for union with a transcendent God or an infinite reality. It includes experiences of dissolving boundaries, merging with the divine, and achieving spiritual fulfillment. Practices such as prayer, meditation, and contemplative rituals help facilitate this immersion.
Revelatory spirituality involves receiving divine messages or visions that direct individuals toward justice, transformation, or personal change. These revelations are often seen as calls to engage in social or spiritual action. Such experiences inspire deep commitment to the divine will, often accompanied by a sense of urgency and purpose.
This path sees God as a transformative force, guiding individuals toward greater authenticity and personal growth. It emphasizes spiritual evolution through a creative, divine influence that fosters wholeness and integration. The individual is invited to reflect, heal, and become more authentic in alignment with divine guidance.
Resting in a sense of God's love
This mysticism focuses on the deep peace and assurance found in God's unconditional love. It invites individuals to rest in the divine embrace, cultivating trust, surrender, and contentment. The practices often involve quiet contemplation, receptive prayer, and trust in the divine presence.
The imaginal realm refers to a visionary or symbolic space where divine truths are encountered through dreams, symbols, and archetypes. This mysticism emphasizes the role of creative imagination as a pathway to divine insight and spiritual guidance. It encourages engagement with the inner world and its symbols as expressions of deeper spiritual realities.
In this path, divinity is encountered in the most mundane aspects of daily living. Ordinary tasks like cooking, cleaning, and having conversations are seen as opportunities to connect with the sacred. Through mindfulness and gratitude, the individual finds profound spirituality in everyday moments.
This path centers on the reverence and awe felt in the face of the divine's ineffable and incomprehensible nature. It involves acknowledging that the divine is beyond full human understanding, evoking wonder, humility, and profound respect. Practices typically include contemplative silence and prayer, emphasizing the mystery of the divine.
This mysticism values intense, ecstatic experiences of divine joy and rapture, often facilitated by music, dance, or spontaneous mystical encounters. These ecstatic states bring the individual into deep union with the divine, transcending ordinary experience. It is through this rapture that one might experience divine presence most fully.
This path connects the individual with the sacredness of nature, recognizing the divine in ecosystems, animals, plants, and natural cycles. Spirituality is deeply rooted in ecological responsibility and reverence for the Earth as a living, interconnected being. Nature is seen as a direct reflection of the divine, and communion with it fosters spiritual growth.
This form of mysticism seeks to find holiness in everyday interactions and activities, from caregiving to conversations to acts of kindness. By cultivating mindfulness and presence, individuals recognize the sacredness in each moment, valuing simplicity and interconnectedness. The focus is on seeing beauty in others and in ordinary actions.
This mysticism involves being fully present to the inherent qualities and nature of things as they are, without conceptualization or mental projection. It emphasizes mindfulness and the direct experience of reality as it is, without judgment or interpretation. Practicing a deep awareness of the present moment leads to an appreciation of the "suchness" of all existence.
This spirituality fosters a deep sense of belonging to the universe, recognizing the vast interconnectedness of all creation. It includes feelings of awe and wonder at the cosmic order and our place within it. Scientific understanding of the universe enhances the sense of spiritual connection to the cosmos.
This form of mysticism finds the sacred through creative expression in art, music, literature, and performance. Artistic endeavors are seen as deeply spiritual practices that connect individuals to divine inspiration. The experience of beauty and creativity is viewed as transformative and spiritually enriching.
Shamanic mysticism involves entering altered states of consciousness through practices like drumming, trance, and ritual to connect with spiritual realms. This path emphasizes communication with spirit beings, ancestors, and the use of visionary experiences for healing. The journey into these realms is seen as a source of wisdom and personal transformation.
This mysticism emphasizes the profound realization that all elements of existence are deeply interconnected, where boundaries between self and other, or between individual and the cosmos, dissolve. It fosters an awareness of the unity and interdependence of all beings, encouraging compassion and holistic thinking. Practices may include contemplative reflection, mindfulness, and ecological responsibility to embrace the oneness of creation.
This mysticism involves a profound awareness of the universe as an unfolding, creative force from which all things emerge and return. It is marked by the experience of all creation as interconnected manifestations of a deeper, limitless source or abyss, often leading to insights of ultimate creativity and divine potential. Practices may involve contemplation of the infinite nature of creation and the surrendering of the ego to the vastness of the creative process.
This form of mysticism involves a profound yearning for union with a transcendent God or an infinite reality. It includes experiences of dissolving boundaries, merging with the divine, and achieving spiritual fulfillment. Practices such as prayer, meditation, and contemplative rituals help facilitate this immersion.
- Historical Examples: Teresa of Ávila, Meister Eckhart, Rumi.
Revelatory spirituality involves receiving divine messages or visions that direct individuals toward justice, transformation, or personal change. These revelations are often seen as calls to engage in social or spiritual action. Such experiences inspire deep commitment to the divine will, often accompanied by a sense of urgency and purpose.
- Historical Examples: Moses, Hildegard of Bingen, Martin Luther King Jr.
This path sees God as a transformative force, guiding individuals toward greater authenticity and personal growth. It emphasizes spiritual evolution through a creative, divine influence that fosters wholeness and integration. The individual is invited to reflect, heal, and become more authentic in alignment with divine guidance.
- Historical Examples: Augustine of Hippo, contemporary 12-step programs.
Resting in a sense of God's love
This mysticism focuses on the deep peace and assurance found in God's unconditional love. It invites individuals to rest in the divine embrace, cultivating trust, surrender, and contentment. The practices often involve quiet contemplation, receptive prayer, and trust in the divine presence.
- Historical Examples: Julian of Norwich, the Hesychast tradition.
The imaginal realm refers to a visionary or symbolic space where divine truths are encountered through dreams, symbols, and archetypes. This mysticism emphasizes the role of creative imagination as a pathway to divine insight and spiritual guidance. It encourages engagement with the inner world and its symbols as expressions of deeper spiritual realities.
- Historical Examples: Henry Corbin (Mundus Imaginalis), William Blake.
In this path, divinity is encountered in the most mundane aspects of daily living. Ordinary tasks like cooking, cleaning, and having conversations are seen as opportunities to connect with the sacred. Through mindfulness and gratitude, the individual finds profound spirituality in everyday moments.
- Historical Examples: Brother Lawrence ("The Practice of the Presence of God"), Thérèse of Lisieux.
This path centers on the reverence and awe felt in the face of the divine's ineffable and incomprehensible nature. It involves acknowledging that the divine is beyond full human understanding, evoking wonder, humility, and profound respect. Practices typically include contemplative silence and prayer, emphasizing the mystery of the divine.
- Historical Examples: Moses (burning bush), Meister Eckhart.
This mysticism values intense, ecstatic experiences of divine joy and rapture, often facilitated by music, dance, or spontaneous mystical encounters. These ecstatic states bring the individual into deep union with the divine, transcending ordinary experience. It is through this rapture that one might experience divine presence most fully.
- Historical Examples: Sufi whirling (Mevlevi dervishes), Dionysian mysteries, St. Francis of Assisi.
This path connects the individual with the sacredness of nature, recognizing the divine in ecosystems, animals, plants, and natural cycles. Spirituality is deeply rooted in ecological responsibility and reverence for the Earth as a living, interconnected being. Nature is seen as a direct reflection of the divine, and communion with it fosters spiritual growth.
- Historical Examples: Indigenous spirituality, Celtic Christianity.
This form of mysticism seeks to find holiness in everyday interactions and activities, from caregiving to conversations to acts of kindness. By cultivating mindfulness and presence, individuals recognize the sacredness in each moment, valuing simplicity and interconnectedness. The focus is on seeing beauty in others and in ordinary actions.
- Historical Examples: Dorothy Day (Catholic Worker Movement), Thich Nhat Hanh.
This mysticism involves being fully present to the inherent qualities and nature of things as they are, without conceptualization or mental projection. It emphasizes mindfulness and the direct experience of reality as it is, without judgment or interpretation. Practicing a deep awareness of the present moment leads to an appreciation of the "suchness" of all existence.
- Historical Examples: Zen Buddhism, Dogen's teachings on "suchness" (Tathata).
This spirituality fosters a deep sense of belonging to the universe, recognizing the vast interconnectedness of all creation. It includes feelings of awe and wonder at the cosmic order and our place within it. Scientific understanding of the universe enhances the sense of spiritual connection to the cosmos.
- Historical Examples: Carl Sagan, Thomas Berry.
This form of mysticism finds the sacred through creative expression in art, music, literature, and performance. Artistic endeavors are seen as deeply spiritual practices that connect individuals to divine inspiration. The experience of beauty and creativity is viewed as transformative and spiritually enriching.
- Historical Examples: Vincent Van Gogh, Johann Sebastian Bach.
Shamanic mysticism involves entering altered states of consciousness through practices like drumming, trance, and ritual to connect with spiritual realms. This path emphasizes communication with spirit beings, ancestors, and the use of visionary experiences for healing. The journey into these realms is seen as a source of wisdom and personal transformation.
- Historical Examples: Indigenous shamanic traditions, Mircea Eliade’s studies.
This mysticism emphasizes the profound realization that all elements of existence are deeply interconnected, where boundaries between self and other, or between individual and the cosmos, dissolve. It fosters an awareness of the unity and interdependence of all beings, encouraging compassion and holistic thinking. Practices may include contemplative reflection, mindfulness, and ecological responsibility to embrace the oneness of creation.
- Historical Examples: Advaita Vedanta, Teilhard de Chardin.
This mysticism involves a profound awareness of the universe as an unfolding, creative force from which all things emerge and return. It is marked by the experience of all creation as interconnected manifestations of a deeper, limitless source or abyss, often leading to insights of ultimate creativity and divine potential. Practices may involve contemplation of the infinite nature of creation and the surrendering of the ego to the vastness of the creative process.
- Historical Examples: Heraclitus, process theology, Henri Bergson’s concept of "élan vital."
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