Timothy Paul Winters Barfoot REL 301 23 April 2016 Final Thoughts on Mysticism In the book, “Mysticism Its History and Challenge” I found Part one: The Phenomenon of Mysticism on the chapter of the Mystical Experience to be fascinating. As mysticism has many definitions which make it ambiguous. That mysticism is assessable from all religions because mystical experiences derive from a single source regardless of the faith. The author Bruno Borchert asserts that a mystical experience is like “being in love”. For it is an experience that feels like a long term union. However, being in love is ambiguous as well, since there are many different symptoms. For example, a person could have an erratic heartbeat, blushing cheeks, and euphoric …show more content…
The chapter mentioned a man named Zoroaster who was a mystic that arrived shortly before Moses did. Zoroaster was considered a religious prodigy as he has greatly impacted western mysticism. In addition, Zoroaster was the founder of the religion called Zoroastrianism and articulated his mystical experiences in hymns. As Zoroaster was a shaman that lived at a milieu that held some of the Vedic text from the Aryans. At Zoroaster’s milieu shamanism was regarded as some form of magic, which Zoroaster detested. For Zoroaster did not want to be labeled as a prophet. Zoroaster wanted to be known as a mediator that heard from God and to share what he had learned. Moreover, Zoroaster viewed the other priests as incompetent as he regarded them as mutterers for reciting the same formulas. In comparison, Zoroaster wrote the mantras from his personal mystical experiences that led to writing the Gathas from his encounters with who referred as the All-Highest. The Gathas writings contained hymns that he would recite to achieve a mystical experience. As Zoroaster was an apocalyptic writer that desired the end of the world as he believed that the Earth would be destroyed