

Project: Branding the Species The Five Steps to Mysticism

Evelyn Underhill, a renowned & recognized author on Christian mysticism, as well as a mystic herself, identified five steps in the mystical process. They are listed below:



1. Awakening - Subject starts to become aware of the presence of something supernatural. Their heart is filled with joy and they have never felt this kind of joy before, yet they cannot see this supernatural being, and they hunger for more.



2. Purgation - Where subject strips away their ego, their self, their whole existence. They give up everything in this life and in the next. They start to become aware of their faults & imperfections, and try to compensate for those with self-discipline.



3. Illumination - This is often the final stage for some mystics. The subject sees the visual representation of eternity as heaven & earth, reality & mysticism meet. For our purposes this is most likely the ecstatic moment, so therefore one that should be given more emphasis by me in my research & final deliverable.



4. The Dark Night of the Soul - Extraordinary mystics go beyond the third step onto this one. These mystics have experienced mysticism so fervently, that when they "come back down to earth" they start to have what we can refer to as "withdrawal symptoms" of God's presence. They feel deprived, vulnerable, helpless & confused. It is the ultimate un-selfing, and the ultimate submission to God's Will.



5. Union with The Other - Having gone through the other steps, the subject now finds themself in the Eternal, they are at union with God forever, and act as a liason between the things on Earth and the things in Eternity.

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