'Philosopher Simon Critchley's painstaking attempt to explore transcendent experience provides
a fascinating overview of Christianity's great outliers' 'Book of the Day' Guardian 'A
playful profound new study of mysticism ... generous and animated' Brian Dillon Mysticism is
about existential ecstasy - an experience of heightening one's senses and self into a sheer
feeling of aliveness. Mystical experiences offer us a practical way to open our thoughts and
deepen the sense of our lives whether through a mainstream connection to God or by taking part
in mind-altering experiences. Here Simon Critchley explores the history and practice of
mysticism from its origins in Eastern and Western religion through its association with
esoteric and occult knowledge and up to the ecstatic modernism of T.S. Eliot and others.
Through a discussion of the lives of famous mystics like Julian of Norwich and Jesus Christ
Critchley reveals how embracing the spectrum of mystical experience can refresh our thinking
and help us live deeper and freer lives. Philosophical and playful analytical and inventive
On Mysticism is a definitive account of humanity's quest to understand the divine and a call
to thinkers everywhere to broaden our minds to life larger than our selves.
