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Publication Date

5-2024

Keywords

Comparative Mysticism, Yoga, St. Teresa of Ávila, Patañjali, Trance State

Abstract

The study of mysticism is said to be the study of the ineffable, and thus by its nature, difficult to define. Yet the structured paths and trance states described by St. Teresa of Ávila in Interior Castle and Patañjali in the Yoga Sūtra demonstrate meticulous and thoughtful explanation of mystical practices and phenomena. This paper situates these texts, mystic guidebooks in their respective traditions, in conversation, examining and comparing the path towards, experience within, and the effect of mystical trances. It employs a balanced approach to essentialism and highlights the shared features of mystical life as a vantage point from which to examine trance. My research demonstrates that these descriptions of mystical life share core similarities: detach from the world, learn and deepen introspective practices, pass though ecstatic states of outward focus, and finally arrive to a version of enstasis within. I identify shared metaphor, imagery, and technique, while acknowledging the difference in language, dating, and literary style. My investigation demonstrates that although each tradition’s trances manifest differently, they result from a path of interiorization that leads to the awakening. After examining initial, outward-focused states of consciousness typified by absorption on an external object in the yogic path, and instances of visions and rapture in the Catholic, I move to their respective destinations, interiorly focused states of life-altering consciousness, which leave each mystic permanently transformed. Thus, this paper will argue that ultimately, the two mystical texts demonstrate remarkably similar processes which are molded by their own religious and cosmological contexts.

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