On Mysticism: The Experience of Ecstasy by Simon Critchley
I’ve downloaded the eBook. After reading about 7 per cent of it, my first impression is that its author’s subconscious, unbeknown premise, is that MER is all about humans!
It’s not, not in my experiences of MER. But that’s this book’s angle.
You can’t domesticate Reality!
Also, Critchley’s persuasion that reading, writing, music and theology can be self-willed keys to the experience of MER contradicts the unchallengeable spontaneity of my MERs.
The reading, writing and music Critchley writes about as self-willed gateways to MERs are emotional mind stuff – mere shadows of the Reality mystics experience.
In my case the MERs brought me to my true identity in which nothing human exists.
My real identity is as a particle of Reality. I am now a what not a who – only partly and temporarily human. (I intuit this applies to all humans however presently dormant).
Nonetheless the book’s comprehensive take on mysticism piqued my interest, despite its secularity, especially where it correctly indicates, in my opinion, mysticism is only given to individuals, the implication being religions and theology are irrelevant to Reality’s still hidden purpose. That does seem to be the present evolutionary human trend.
Anyway, as birth rates continue dropping around the world are AI robots destined to take over evolution from humans?
Will Reality choose fully developed AI robots eventually as much more capable than humans of maintaining Reality’s as yet unknown cosmically evolutionary purposes?
Is science getting nearer to that conclusion?
As a result, will humanity become extinct? (Some science says 90 per cent of all earth’s species already are).
Food for thought.
Mystical Experiences of Reality 
I’d read a review of the book recently which wasn’t very enthusiastic. Pretty hard to beat Evelyn Underhill frankly; I can’t believe there is much more to be said. On the one hand I realise the world must have seemed even darker in 1914 and 1939 but sadly we seemed to have learned no lessons. I have a hope (probably a vain one) that any truly advanced AI would appreciate the futility of endless conflict and act out of goodness and well meaning. Who knows what will transpire. But in an ethical and moral sense our species as a whole has been a disaster. Some might say, and not without justification, that it deserves to expire. So if reality can find something better to replace us, then I applaud Reality.
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