(Please excuse the email earlier today, which led to a dead end!)

In this episode, I offer an overview of the mystical path as I conceive it, beginning with what I call Beginner’s Bliss. This is a phase at the beginning of the awakened life where we may experience periods of spiritual happiness and ecstasy, known as “sensible consolation” in Catholic mystical theology.

Following Beginner’s Bliss is the Night of the Senses, which the first great experience of purgation. The beginning of this stage is marked by a sudden cessation of sensible consolations. The spiritual well runs dry, so to speak, leading the practitioner into the crucible of radical surrender to the divine. However, this transition eventually gives way to what St. Teresa of Avila called the Prayer of Quiet. Metaphorically, we can liken this subtle second awakening in the spiritual life to the first crocuses of spring poking through the winter snow.

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In this video, I map my fifteen stages on the spiritual path on the three classic mystical phases of Purification, Illumination, and Union. I then reduce these three phases to the two phases of Purgation and Illumination.

Before exploring each of the fifteen stages, which are posted below, I point out in the video that the first stage is not actually a stage on the spiritual path. It’s the standpoint of people who either don’t know about the spiritual path or who reject it as an illusion. After rejecting the belief that the so-called real world of frenetic activity is the actual real world, I indicate the three main ways that people transition from the stage of Unawareness to the stage of Awakening, which is the second stage in my itinerary.

You’ll have to tune in to find out what these three ways are and how they relate to the two types of souls described by philosopher and psychologist William James.

Note: The image above was generated by Notebook LLM. AI didn’t write this lecture but—as at a magazine’s art department—it produced a helpful illustration based on my ideas.

Fifteen Stages on the Spiritual Path

1. Unawareness: Living in “the Real World.”

2. Awakening: Seeing the Path.

3. Renunciation: Stepping onto the Way.

4. Rapture: Beginner’s Bliss.

5. Spiritual Presumption: The Drug of Spiritual Pride.

6. Sensory Purgation: A Well Run Dry.

7. Spiritual Standstill: Was it Only a Dream?

8. Radical Surrender: No Conditions.

9. Mystical Illumination: An Awakening Presence.

10. Mystical Effectiveness: Spirit without Boundaries.

11. Mystical Carelessness: Drifting Away.

12. Mystical Purgation: The Death of the Sacred.

13. Mystical Death: The Fire of Nothingness.

14. Mystical Awakening: The Fragrance of Nonduality.

15. Mystical Union: Remaining in the Presence.

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The Mystical Quest

 Episode 1: Introduction to The Mystical Quest

In this video, I introduce a new video series called "The Mystical Quest." Here I will talk about mystical itineraries, or spiritual roadmaps, in mystical Catholicism, Hinduism, and Buddhism. I have long studied and practiced these traditions, and I delight in talking about them. There is nothing visually innovative about this video. I didn't consult Notebook, Claude, Gemini, or ChatGPT--I just started talking into the camera the way I would in a seminar room at a university or in meeting room in an ashram or monastery! I look forward to sharing my insights with as we journey together on the mystical quest!

Here is my own itinerary.

As an assignment, see if you can map these fifteen stages on the classical Three Ways of Mysticism: purgatio, illuminatio, and unio.

Fifteen Stages on the Spiritual Path

1. Unawareness: Living in “the Real World.”

2. Awakening: Seeing the Path.

3. Renunciation: Stepping onto the Way.

4. Rapture: Beginner’s Bliss.

5. Spiritual Presumption: The Drug of Spiritual Pride.

6. Sensory Purgation: A Well Run Dry.

7. Spiritual Standstill: Was it Only a Dream?

8. Radical Surrender: No Conditions.

9. Mystical Illumination: An Awakening Presence.

10. Mystical Effectiveness: Spirit without Boundaries.

11. Mystical Carelessness: Drifting Away.

12. Mystical Purgation: The Death of the Sacred.

13. Mystical Death: The Fire of Nothingness.

14. Mystical Awakening: The Fragrance of Nonduality.

15. Mystical Union: Remaining in the Presence.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit kenrose51.substack.com

Recently copies of my latest book from Bloomsbury arrived at an ashram in northern Germany where I am engaged in intensive sādhana and research on yoga traditions in this country.

I have just reread the book and am happy to say that it was so well proofread that I found virtually no typos in the book.

Because this is an academic book—a monograph, as such books are named—it is expensive. (The price was set by the publisher, not by me!) Samples are available at all of the major online booksellers. It’s available in hardcover and various ebook and PDF formats:

Here is the book’s Amazon link

And Google Books

And the Bloomsbury website

And at Google Play

So far 55 academic libraries have added it to their collections globally, as shown on WorldCat. Perhaps one is close to you and you have borrowing privileges? Or perhaps you would like to ask your library to order it?

Here is the publisher’s overview of Reviving Intellectual Intuition:

Calling for a revival of intellectual intuition in metaphysics long after its banning by Kant, Kenneth Rose overcomes the forgetfulness of being through contemplative ontology. Rose argues for the reinstatement of intellectual intuition in metaphysics long after its banning by Kant. His claim is not merely the conclusion of a thought-experiment or of an exercise in conceptual analysis. It is the result of the contemplative recognition of being with a meditatively concentrated intellect: nous in Greek and buddhi in Sanskrit. Recognizing intellectual intuition as a long-neglected faculty of philosophical insight, Rose shows how it can result in an immediate, intuitive discerning of being. He discusses how being parcels itself out into the intellectual forms providing the underlying nonphysical arrangement of the physical and mental worlds. By reviving the use of intellectual intuition in metaphysics, Rose draws upon historical sources across multiple Asian and Anglo-European philosophical schools. This is a work of contemplative constructive philosophy that breaks down divisions between science, philosophy, and religion and between diverse cultures and divergent worldviews.

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Thanks for reading Outtakes and Fresh Starts!

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Hi, this is Ken Rose from Outtakes and Fresh Starts on Substack. This week’s episode includes the introduction and two extracts from a book that I am working on called Burning Toward Transcendence. This is a collection of entries from my journals focusing on spiritual insights and meditation experiences.

(To be continued.)

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Translations are the author’s unless otherwise indicated.

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Hi, this is Ken Rose from Outtakes and Fresh Starts on Substack. This week’s podcast is an excerpt from chapter two of The Neural Mystic, a book that I am writing based on courses that I have taught at the college level and on Embodied Philosophy, an online yoga and alternative spirituality platform.

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The information presented in this post is the author’s opinion and does not constitute any health or medical advice. The content of this post is for informational purposes only and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any condition or disease. Please seek advice from your healthcare provider for your personal health concerns.

Notes for This Podcast (See the post on Substack for the context of the footnotes):

1 Chris Walsh, “Mindfulness Training,” www.cwalsh.com.au; Carolyn Schatz, “Mindfulness meditation improves connections in the brain,” Harvard Health Blog,  April 8, 2011; Michael D. Mrazek, Michael S. Franklin, Dawa Tarchin Phillips, Benjamin Baird, and Jonathan W Schooler, “Mindfulness Training Improves Working Memory Capacity and GRE Performance While Reducing Mind Wandering,” Psychological Science, Mar 28, 2013 DOI: 10.1177/0956797612459659; Kimberly Sarah Tay, “Effects of Breathing Practice in Vinyasa Yoga on Heart Rate Variability in University Students,” University of Arizona BA Thesis, 2015, http://hdl.handle.net/10150/579419; Yi-Yuan Tang, Qilin Lu, Hongbo Feng, Rongxiang Tang and Michael I. Posner, “Short-term meditation increases blood flow in anterior cingulate cortex and insula,” Frontiers in Psychology June 2015 (212), doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00212; A. Nesvold, M. W. Fagerland, S. Davanger, et al., “Increased heart rate variability during nondirective meditation,” European Journal of Preventive Cardiology 19(4) (2012): 773-780, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21693507/.

2 Chiesa, A. and A. Serretti. 2010. “A Systematic Review of Neurobiological and Clinical Features of Mindfulness Meditations,” Psychological Medicine 40.8: 1239-52, doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291709991747, and https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/systematic-review-neurobiological-clinical/docview/577669987/se-2?accountid=10100.

Some caveats: Some of the authors of these studies point out that it’s unclear whether these outcomes are due to meditation or other factors. They also note that the studies are weakened by inadequate methodologies. For a comprehensive metastudy of research on meditation, see Richard Davidson and Daniel Goleman, Altered Traits: Science Reveals How Meditation Changes Your Mind, Brain, and Body (also published as The Science of Meditation: How to Change Your Brain, Mind and Body).

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit kenrose51.substack.com

Hi, this is Ken Rose from Outtakes and Fresh Starts on Substack. This week’s podcast is an excerpt from chapter one of The Neural Mystic, a book that I am writing based on courses that I have taught at the college level and on Embodied Philosophy, an online yoga and alternative spirituality platform.

If you liked this post, consider sharing it.

If you haven’t already subscribed, you can here:

More of my writing in written and spoken form is available on Amazon

The information presented in this post is the author’s opinion and does not constitute any health or medical advice. The content of this post is for informational purposes only and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any condition or disease. Please seek advice from your healthcare provider for your personal health concerns.

A Suggested Reading for Chapter 1 of The Neural Mystic

As background to this chapter, I would suggest reading a classic and still influential book by William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature (New York, 1902). Particularly relevant for our topic are Lectures I, XVI, and XVII. This book is in the public domain, and is widely available. Here is a link to the original print edition: https://archive.org/details/varietiesofrelig00jameuoft).References for This Podcast

Notes for This Podcast

See the post on Substack for the context of the footnotes:

* Matthew A. Killingsworth and Daniel T. Gilbert, “A Wandering Mind Is an Unhappy Mind,” Science 330, no 6006 (November 12, 2010): 932, http://science.sciencemag.org/content/330/6006/932.

* Judson A. Brewer, Patrick D. Worhunsky, Jeremy R. Gray, Yi-Yuan Tang, Jochen Weber, Hedy Kober, “Meditation experience is associated with differences in default mode network activity and connectivity,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 108 no. 50 (December 2011): 20254-0259, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1112029108.

* Tracy Brandmeyer and Arnaud Delorme, “Reduced mind wandering in experienced meditators and associated EEG correlates,” Experimental Brain Research 236 (September 2018): 2519–2528, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-016-4811-5.

* Jonathan Smallwood and Jonathan W. Schooler, “The Science of Mind Wandering: Empirically Navigating the Stream of Consciousness,” Annual Review of Psychology 66 (2015): 487–518, https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-010814-015331.

* Michael S. Franklin, Michael D. Mrazek, Craig L. Anderson, Jonathan Smallwood, Alan Kingstone, and Jonathan W. Schooler, “The Silver Lining of a Mind in the Clouds: Interesting Musings are Associated with Positive Mood while Mind-Wandering,” Frontiers in Psychology 4 (8/27/2013), http://0-dx.doi.org.read.cnu.edu/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00583.

* Shaghayegh Konjedi and Reza Maleeh, “A Closer Look at the Relationship Between the Default Network, Mind Wandering, Negative Mood, and Depression,” Cognitive, Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience 17:4 (August 2017):  697-711, https://doi.org/10.3758/s13415-017-0506-z. 

* In Sanskrit: yogaś citta-vṛtti-nirodhaḥ (Yoga-Sūtra 1.2).

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Hi Outtakes and Fresh Starts Subscribers,

As the summer draws to a close, I would like to take a short break from posting in order to allow time for rest and for new inspirations to arise.

I’ll be back soon.

Be well,

Ken Rose

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Hi, this is Ken Rose from Outtakes and Fresh Starts on Substack. This episode, “Saints on the Horizon,” is adapted from my online course, Wisdom from World Religions, which was funded by a grant from the Templeton World Charity Foundation.

Visit the free online course, Wisdom from World Religions, which was funded by a grant from the Templeton World Charity Foundation.

An audio version of this course and of my course on mystics, sages, yogis, and saints is available from Learn 25

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Image: Approaching India by Air, July 2, 2012 (Kenneth Rose)

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Hi, this is Ken Rose from Outtakes and Fresh Starts on Substack. This episode, “Revelatory Bursts of Higher Insight,” has been adapted from Fragments of Contemplation, where I share insights from my contemplative and meditative practice.

Image: Rishikesh, India, March 27, 2007 (Kenneth Rose)

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Fragments of Contemplation and more of my writing in written and spoken form is available on Amazon

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit kenrose51.substack.com