Mysticism is one of those words I think I know what it is, but if pressed for a definition, I'm not so sure. So I think about how I would define it before running to a dictionary:

Mysticism: a spiritual approach, often a branch of an established religious order, that emphasizes direct experience of the intangible, unknowable, and unseen, often involving esoteric learning and practices.

OK, I'm pretty happy with that. Let's see what Merriam-Webster says:

1. the experience of mystical union or direct communion with ultimate reality reported by mystics; 2. the belief that direct knowledge of God, spiritual truth, or ultimate reality can be attained through subjective experience (as intuition or insight) 3a. vague speculation; a belief without sound basis; 3b. a theory postulating the possibility of direct and intuitive acquisition of ineffable knowledge or power.

Dictionary.com says:
1a. Immediate consciousness of the transcendent or ultimate reality or God.
b. The experience of such communion as described by mystics.
2. A belief in the existence of realities beyond perceptual or intellectual apprehension that are central to being and directly accessible by subjective experience.
3. Vague, groundless speculation.

Hm, OK so maybe I did know what it means, but I had to put a lot of thought into coming up with my definition; that certainly wasn't off the cuff. And I'm willing to concede, at the risk of being unimaginative, that science, as a field, will never be considered "mystical".

The official definitions also explain the often derogatory use of the word.

I certainly don't consider myself a "mystic" by any stretch of the imagination, but I picked up a book on Kabbalah for the first time ever at a bookstore, and man, some things were worded almost exactly how I've worded them in this blog.

One thing that really jumped off the page was about a fourth level of understanding where reality is understood as completely symbolic. I know I've written that before, because that's what I feel physical reality is – all of it is merely symbolic of something else that is the Real.

I've found that most mystical beliefs from different religious or thought systems are pretty closely aligned. That's why when I pooped out on Zen Buddhism in college I gravitated towards Sufism for a refresher shot-in-the-arm. It was the same thing, just worded differently and in a different context. I don't know why Kabbalah wasn't covered in that seminar on Western religions I took in college. Considering the focus of it, it seems remiss of the professor not to have covered it.

But I really shouldn't be too surprised at how general Kabbalistic ideas are closely aligned to Buddhism. But damn, there was a chart in the book showing the mystical mechanics of the human body, and I went running to find the Robert Thurman translation of the Tibetan Book of the Dead which had basically the exact same chart in it! Only Buddhism presents it just as fact, Kabbalah roots the mechanics in Jewish theology and faith.

Anyway, it's fascinating stuff. I hadn't known that I had already been exposed to (and fascinated by) Kabbalistic ideas in the movies The Chosen and Pi, and The End of Evangelion (where it is taken completely out of context and used just as cultural fodder).

I guess cerebrally I tend towards mysticism, but I haven't touched it with passion, with my heart, and that's why I don't feel like a mystic. I haven't touched the understanding that I process cerebrally.