In Steven T Katz’s essay “Language, Epistemology and Mysticism”, the “pre-experimental conditions” he writes of are the circumstances surrounding a person who experiences a mystical occurrence. The argument is that mystical experience is a personal event that happens differently for any person who experiences it. If this is true, there is no “common core” to all mystical experience. This concept brings into view a problem with writing about or verbally communicating about mystical experience …showed first 75 words of 516 total…

…showed last 75 words of 516 total…able to say about the subject. It is fascinating that so many thick books have been written on the subject of mystical experience, and that in many, unless the author takes a strict claim on his/her own opinion, the problem of variation and communication of the experience exists. Unless we learn to communicate interculturally without using words, we will never know the true contents of mystical experience. Bibliography William James "Varieties of Mystical experience"