What a superlative organization of Eckhart's thought regarding the experiential side of his mysticism! While we should be wary of the hair splitting and eel wriggling of theologians, philosophers and Scholars, Mr. Forman's elucidation of the stages of Eckhart's mystical path is orderly, sensible, scholarly, and convincing. Since we are all enlightened to some degree or other, there seems little point in debating wether or not Eckhart had the mystical experience of which he spoke. If the depth of the "birth in the soul" or the level of enlightenment could somehow be definitively measured, There seems little doubt that many would be amazed at who is and is not, and who is more and who is less, spiritually developed. In this regard, we might remember Christ's teaching, "But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first". That being said, Forman supports, in his introduction, the notion that Eckhart undoubtedly spoke from deep, legitimate, religious experience. This reviewer finds numerous expressions in Eckhart's sermons which do lend support to that probability. Forman writes with perspective and humility, never making large claims or long reaches. This skillfully crafted and well researched book is a must read for anyone with more than a passing interest in arguably the greatest mystic in the western tradition. Where was Forman when I was reading Dogen?
Don

The great Christian mystic, Meister Eckhart, has puzzled scholars for 650 years. Robert Forman has found a way to unlock his writings. In "high ramification" or stilted language, Eckhart develops his philosophical ideas. But in "low ramification" or ordinary language, Eckhart communicates his mystical experience. By using this method of sorting out Eckhart's writings, Forman is able to chart out the stages in Eckhart's mystical development. At the highest mystical level, Eckhart elaborates ideas that are a great achievement for the Christian tradition - letting go, living in the eternal Now, and being empty and free. Eckhart's ideas have provided fruitful ground for dialogue with other religious traditions. We should be thankful that Robert Forman has made Meister Eckhart understandable to all.

In this ambitious study, Professor Forman attempts to provide a philosophical basis for mysticism. He tries to show that mystical experience is not simply a product of the time, place, and background of the individuals claiming such experience. Those holding that mystical experiences are the product of such considerations are called "constructivists". Their philosophical ancestor, for Professor Forman, is Kant. In opposition to constructivism, Professor Forman argues that mysticism in its most basic form is a "pure consciousness event" (PCE) -- the mind knowing itself in a nonlinguistic manner involving pure awareness of mind as such.

Professor Forman relies in large part on reports of the mystical experience from people far removed from each other in terms of time and culture. He discusses his own experiences, those of contemporary Christian, Hindu, and Buddhist mystics,and ancient texts by Buddhist and Hindu contemplatives reporting on the mystical experience. He states that he has been greatly influenced by the transcendental meditation of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Ram Dass, and Meister Eckhart; and the first and third of these are discussed in the book. In addition to Eckhart, Professor Forman's book is also heavily influenced, I find, by William James's "Varieties of Religious Experience" and by Jean Paul Sartre.

In addition to discussing and attempting to describe the nature of the mystical experience (no small task in itself), Professor Forman takes issue with philosophers such as Kant, Husserl and a contemporary writer on mysticism, Steven Katz, who see the mystical experience as conditioned by language. (The constructivists are juxtaposed against the "perennialists" who, we learn, have no sensitivity to the nuances of language, time, and place.)

The philosophic argument of the book is found in a dense discussion in chapter 4 "Non-Linguistic Mediation" which is a critique of the philosophy of Kant. Although Professor Forman allows the nonphilosophically inclined to skip this chapter it is pivotal to his philosophical argument. I was unable, at any rate, to agree with Professor Forman's description of the Kantian philosophy or with its critique. It turns on an argument that Kant's Transcendental Aesthetic was not intended to apply to mystical experience and that the restrictions it would place on human knowledge do not apply to the mystical experience. Unfortunately, I found that this argument does not meet Kant's argument which was squarely directed against unmediated experience as well as unmediated philosophizing.

Professor Forman also is critical of the arguments of Edmund Husserl on the intentional nature of consciousness, finding in Husserl a restatement of the constructivist claim of Kant. I am not sure if Professor Forman is correct in considering Husserl a constuctivist. Much of Husserl's phenomenology, which focuses as I understand it on a description of experience (bracketed to avoid causual questions such as those Professor Forman addresses) is useful in an attempt to understand the nature of the mystical experience -- recognized by Professor Forman in a backhanded way, I think.

As a philosophical critique, the book is less than successful. As a description of the mystical experience and as a statement of why such experiences may be valuable and important it does much better. The subject richly deserves attention, as does the nature of the spiritual life and Professor Forman has much to say.

I think the problem at bottom as the mysticism is not by its nature susceptible to philosophical analysis or justification. As the Buddha for one insisted it is experiential in character and can't be reached by philosophical argument. Again, Husserl and William James are helpful here. One must look and see for oneself If one engages in a contemplative practice and looks and sees, the nature of the path becomes opened by the process and practice. The issue of "constuctivism" is irrelevant one way or the other to the nature of the experience. Both the "constructivist" approach and Professor Forman's critique are off the mark in that they both attempt to put in words what is undescribable and experiential.

The word "mysticism" means different things todifferent people. To many it connotes heightened sensory or cognitiveexperiences such as visions, voices or revelations. To others, mystical experiences are silent fusings of the conscious self with eternity, infinity, oneness, unbounded awareness. In this book Dr. Forman, a professor of religion at Hunter College, carefully restricts his use to the latter type of mysticism--consciousness events not describable in terms of the senses. Of these he distinguishes two stages: the short-lasting "pure consciousness event" and the longer-lasting or permanent "dualistic mystical state."

The two opening chapters define the "pure consciousness event" (PCE) in detail. The author describes his own PCE experiences (strictly speaking they are not subject-object experiences at all but simple periods of awareness without thought) and cites accounts of similar experiences by contemporary, medieval and ancient writers. The thesis he will develop is that the PCE is universal and the same for everyone, an innate ability analogous to the experience of hot or cold, light or dark and not the product of a person's previous experience, culture, or expectations--a model called "constructivism" that pervades today's academic world.

Chapters 3-5 explore the philosophical basis of constructivism and show convincingly that constructivist models, no matter how valuable in explaining ordinary subject-object experience, cannot account for pure consciousness events. Although the arguments are rigorous, Forman's style is lively and readable. Chapter 4 deals with the epistemology of Kant, Brentano and Husserl. Here the going is somewhat tough and the author gives the less philosophically inclined reader permission to skip ahead. Chapter 5 examines the writings of Paramartha, a 9th century Buddhist thinker who invoked constructivist models similar to those of contemporary writers to explain ordinary experiences, but rejected them as unsuitable for mystical (pure consciousness) phenomena.

Having dealt with the constructivists, Forman explains in Chapters 6-7 that mystical phenomena are actually products of "de-construction"--of letting go, forgetting, "unknowing," and introduces the principle of "knowledge by identity" whereby the mystic knows his state not through concepts, words or transitory acquaintance but by direct unmediated experience.

Now comes the most interesting part. Moving beyond simple "pure consciousness events" Forman discusses the more significant "dualistic mystical state" (DMS). Unlike the short-lived PCE, the DMS is a long-lasting or permanent state in which pure consciousness persists along with ordinary relative consciousness. Some have described it as a great silence within, a void, a cosmic vastness that persists in the midst of ordinary day-to-day life. Others feel it as loss of ego or personal self that is sometimes distressing. This paradoxical state has been experienced and lived by mystics throughout the ages, but no western writers (although Bernadette Roberts, Franklin Merrell-Wolff, and Suzanne Segal come close) have analyzed it as formally and clearly as the present author.

He knows whereof he speaks; in Chapter 8 Dr. Forman quietly tells us that he has lived the dualistic mystical state since his twenties when it came upon him during an extended meditation retreat. It has never left. Deep conscious inner silence, he writes, persists during daily activity and even during sleep. This book, then, is the result of his attempts over the years to make philosophical sense of the mystical (some would say "contemplative") state that is now his everyday reality.

In his final chapters Forman examines the nature of consciousness itself in light of the PCE and DMS, drawing on Sartre and the Zen philosopher Hui Neng to buttress his conclusions that pure consciousness is non-linguistic, non-intentional and "utterly translucent," a "pure watching presence" that "can tie things--and itself--together through time." "One knows it only because one is it," he writes. The book ends with the suggestion that "this nonverbal presence has a great deal to teach about the nature of human life and intelligence."

Mysticism, Mind, Consciousness is a groundbreaking book that could well become a classic in the field--vital reading for anyone interested in the twin phenomena of consciousness and mysticism. Those looking for warm New Age fuzzies however, might be disappointed; Forman is a scholar writing primarily for other scholars (although he keeps lay readers in mind throughout). His thoughts and carefully reasoned arguments, drawing on a wide variety of thinkers both ancient and modern, take the mystery out of mysticsm and establish the PCE and DMS as valid subjects for further inquiry and research.

This short book (214 pages, 36 of which are notes and bibliography) raises many questions. Why do mystical experiences come easily to a few people and not to most others? Is there a physiological basis to these states? (Forman details some interesting physical sensations associated with his transition.) Could pure consciousness phenomena perhaps be verified by brain wave patterns? What is "enlightenment"? (Forman suggests that the DMS represents a beginning stage to it.) Many mystics claim that pure consciousness phenomena are "salvific"; why does Forman disagree? What type of meditation did he practice that brought him to the dualistic mystical state? ("Neo-Advaitan" is all he will say.) What did he learn from spiritual teachers Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and Ram Dass (both briefly acknowledged in the Preface but scarcely mentioned thereafter)? What is the relationship between religion and mysticism? Hopefully we will hear more from Dr. Forman on these questions in the near future.

Meanwhile, if you are at all interested in the topics of mysticism, mind or consciousness, pick up a copy of this book. You will probably want to read it several times.

Rober K. C Forman is the foremost philosopher of mysticism (mysticist) of our time. In Mysticism, Mind and Consciousness, Forman discusses the pure consciousness event (PCE), a new model of pure consciousness, and what Forman calls the "dualistic mystical state" (DMS). The pure consciousness event is a state of awareness wherein the mystic experiences nothing. There is no thinking, no willing, no sensing, no remembering. The mystic has no sense of the self or the world. There is no sense of place or of time passing. But the mystic is not asleep or unconscious. The mystic is aware that they are aware throughout the event. Accounts of pure consciousness events are found in all religious traditions. The PCE is a frequent concomitant of meditative practices. But it needn't be. Sometimes non-religious people experience pure consciousness events. I am aware of one person, for example. who experienced a PCE as a result of concentrating on her breathing. To account for how the mystic is aware of the PCE, Forman proposes a new model of pure consciousness. Foreman says that the mind of the mystic is reflexively aware of itself, even when there is no content to the consciousness. Although this may sound strange, it is what mystics report. Mystics know that they have been aware throughout the pure consciousness event, even though there has been no sense of self or the world. After a PCE, a mystic is often at a loss in how to understand the event and express it to others. A PCE doesn't link well to language, as it has no content. So what does one say about it? An experience of nothing is ineffable. All the same, mystics often place interpretative categories on what they have experienced. They may say that they have experienced the presence of God, or the ground of being (the Tao) or a silence within or their self-nature. A mystic might say that they have experienced a level of themselves wherein they are most real. Irregardless of how a mystic interprets a PCE, the language used to talk about it should be taken as figurative at best. The language is not the experience and can only point to it. Some mystics go on from the experience of the PCE, to have a continuing sense of the experience during ordinary, wakeful consciouness. Forman calls this the dualistic mystical state (DMS). A person might have a sense of the "silence within", for example, at the same time that they are going about their ordinary daily routines. A person might have a sense of the "self-nature " that they experienced during the PCE, at the same time that they see themselves as a person having roles, responsibilities, activities and so on. As a result of this, mystics often feel less attached to themselves and the things of the world. They are enlightened. As a philosopher of mysticism, Forman describes the dualistic mystical state (DMS) as one where two distinct epistemiological modalities are operating at the same time. In this state, the mystic has a sense of the experience of the PCE - awareness per se (awareness without content) and, at the same time, the mystic is aware of themselves and the world. Forman refers to this as a new modus operandi of human living. Mysticism, Mind and Consciousness is essential reading for all students of mysticism.

It is, of course, those who haven't "experienced" (clumsy, since the phenomenon is precisely the lack of an experiencer)what is here called "pure consciousness" who imagine that they can analyze it away with words. Those who have experienced it have no need to defend it; that which isn't made of words, concepts and the rest of the litter that the philosophers generate can never enter that divisive field anyway. The absolute has no relation with the relative. Nevertheless this book at least strikes a blow at the ignorance of the deconstructionists, symbolic interactionists and all the other "ists" and gives us some small satisfaction with one part of ourselves, at least until the inevitable counterattack is lauched.

A couple of decades ago, a backlash arose against the notion of a Perennial Philosophy/Psychology (Aldous Huxley, Ken Wilber, et al.) or Primordial Tradition (Frithjof Schuon, Huston Smith, et al.) in the study of mysticism by the so-called "constructivist" camp of scholars, led by Steven Katz and Robert Gimello. This camp can actually be classified within the entire postmodern "deconstructivist" wave of academics who today dominate the humanities and social sciences in general. The postmodern constructivists/deconstructivists accuse perennialists of circular reasoning, naive hermeneutics, and unsound use of primary texts. This camp maintains that there are no cross-culturally shared features of mystical experience, no shared spiritual "core experience," but rather that each person's mystical experience is just his/her ordinary experience, not some true realization of God or Absolute Reality. Thus, mystical experiences are not at all veridical, they cannot point to any true spiritual "Reality" beyond themselves. Katz, et al., think that mystics' experiences are strongly colored by or actually caused and produced by a superimposition of their beliefs and conditioning upon arising experiences. All experience, in other words, is mediated by culture, language, and psycho-physiological factors. No experience is immediate. In response to this attack, Robert Forman and the other fine contributing authors to this volume-- Daniel Matt (The Essential Kabbalah, The Zohar), Anthony Perovich, Philip Almond, Donald Rothberg, Mark Woodhouse (Paradigm Wars, A Preface to Philosophy), Paul Griffiths, Christopher Chapple, et al., have advanced a powerfully persuasive set of arguments in favor of perennialism and the primordial tradition against the views of the postmodern constructivist/de-constructivist camp. They completely destroy the "constructivist" theory of Katz, Gimello and others, on both logical and empirical grounds. Mind you, the constructivist view is still quite useful in accounting for "visionary" experiences (e.g., the Christian seeing Jesus, the Hindu seeing Krishna) and what have sometimes been called "prophetic" states of consciousness, what Ninian Smart would call "numinous" experiences. Notwithstanding the fact that most religious experiences are "constructed" or mediated by cultural, linguistic, psychological and physiological conditioning, constructivists simply cannot adequately account for the deepest intuitive or contemplative mystical experience, what Forman calls "the Pure Consciousness Event" (PCE), which, because it is formless, has no "contaminating" influence from conditioned forms of thinking, perception or feeling. In other words, the Pure Consciousness Event--what I call "mystical realization of Spirit or Pure Awareness or Absolute Being"--is not shaped by concepts, theological dogmas, symbols, memories, emotions, diet, body type, patterns of social interaction, or anything else. It just is, in all its blessed simplicity and purity. Ostensibly, the PCE is an immediate intuition of the Divine Ground or Absolute Reality, that is, it is a radical form of de-conditioning or liberation and direct experiencing of the Real. Katz would disagree, saying that the perennialist dream of ultimate freedom and God-realization is mere delusion, bereft of evidence. Forman and I would strongly argue against this, on the basis of both direct experience and also the obvious, magnificent freedom of the most acclaimed sages in the sacred traditions whom one can meet or read about (e.g., Eckhart, Juan de la Cruz, the Buddhist and Advaita Vedanta masters, nondual Sufis and Kabbalists, contemplative Taoists, et al.). This freedom or de-conditioning makes a real difference: a method to easily test this is to seat Katz and any spiritual master together in the same meditation hermitage for a month without any distractions, and see who fares well in "the art of just being" and who does not. No contest. Monitoring their brain waves, stress hormone levels, and so forth would show even more clearly that the genuine mystic enjoys a tremendous state of ease under such "trying" circumstances that simply cannot be faked by anyone who has not awakened to the Real. --Timothy Conway, Ph.D., Pacifica Graduate Institute, author of *Women of Power and Grace: Nine Astonishing, Inspiring Luminaries of Our Time.*

The Problem of Pure Consciousness is essential reading for all students of mysticism. Mystics often report that they experience pure consciousness events, that is, events of consciousness wherein they think nothing, feel nothing and will nothing. The problem is that scholars of mysticism have denied that such events are possible. Scholars argue that all mental events, even mystical ones, are never "pure" -- but always show traces of the individual's intellectual and cultural heritage. By quoting from the great Christian mystic, Meister Eckhart, Robert Forman shows that the pure consciousness event is quite clearly described. Other contributors discuss other examples of the pure consciousness event, from various religious traditions. Hats off to Robert Forman and his colleagues, for letting mystics, rather than just scholars of mysticism, speak for the realities of mystical experience!

This book is a reprint of the November/December 2000 issue of the Journal of Consciousness Studies. I read it looking for something that I will continue to wait for, a science that goes beyond descriptions and speculation regarding the nature of religious experience. Are those who say cognitive psychology and atheistic assumptions are enough to explain religion correct in that? I don't believe so. Religious experience is data waiting for a way of analysis that would convince a skeptic of that. Maybe the wait will be beyond what anyone can wait. This book does not provide anything new along these lines, but it is a good summary of some areas.

The difficulty is not for lack of effort. Jensine Andresen does a good job summarizing 50 years of research on physical effects of meditation. The autonomic effects are well documented, including how different meditation styles and different degrees of experience can induce relaxation or activation. Brain imaging studies are described, though it remains to be seen if findings noted there are actually adding anything to the meaning of autonomic effects measured peripherally. The greatest obstacle to doing more with this is not anything subjective about the experience. It's a matter of how limited neuroscience remains to answering certain questions. The simplest theory of how meditation lowers blood pressure is easy to state in terms of reducing input to the sympathetic nervous system, but what are the details? What inputs are there as we go about our lives in an ordinary state of consciousness? What aspect of meditation is necessary to change that? What aspects make the effect optimal? How might the benefit of lower blood pressure be extended further into states of normal consciousness? What is actually going on here? This book describes how crude studies relevant to such questions have been done across many types of meditation, but it is neuroscience itself that is still lacking techniques to connect cause and effect in a way that such studies can say anything more than, "There's something there." Maybe more experience with functional brain imaging will change that, but it remains to be seen.

Much of what else is described in this book suffers from the same problem, only more so, because the effects being addressed by other authors include perception, cognition, and motivation, transcendent or otherwise, where it's even harder to talk about brain mechanisms in a detailed way. Other authors are also less systematic than Andresen and prone to speculative models of experience and consciousness that don't necessarily have anything to do with natural or spiritual principles.

This book may be useful to those who are interested in learning more about the phenomenology of religious experience. It does provide multiple approaches to choose from. Other authors who are notably conscientious about their subjects include Phillip H. Wiebe writing on Christic visions and James H. Austin on the neuroanatomy and neurophysiology of consciousness. Don't expect any useful conclusions. Until neuroscience becomes even more detailed or experiments such as those regarding the power of prayer in medicine become more impressive, this sort of thing is still going to be a matter of preaching to the choir.