Gene, I'm not sure what "genuine mysticism" means, but I suspect that whatever it means, I'd almost certainly agree with you that it's nonsense. Just between you and me, though: At the age of 21, when I was (much like today) 100% non-religious and 100% skeptical of anything lacking a firm grounding in evidence, I had an experience that was so remarkable that if my closest friend had had that experience instead of me, and had sworn to me that he'd had it, I'm sure I would not have believed him. It was such a totally different experience from anything else I'd ever heard of, no less experienced, that I never mentioned it to anyone else for a full year. About then, I picked up a friend's copy of William James's book "The Varieties of Religious Experience" and happened to read the chapter called "The Mystical Experience". So accurately was my experience described there, that when I read that chapter, I knew that other people had gone through essentially the same thing. I still have no idea (outside of a few wild, totally untestable possibilities) what to make of that experience. And I certainly did not become religious as a result of it. But I can assure you that the experience that James describes in that chapter is not fiction. (I hope you won't mind keeping this just between us.) --Dan ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------

The target audience for the books discussed in the this article consists of people who are looking for a mystical experience, but who are astute enough to appreciate that genuine mysticism is nonsense.