THE INTERPRETATION OF COSMIC AND MYSTICAL EXPERIENCES By ROBERT CROOKALL B.Sc. (Psychology), D.Sc., Ph.D. (Formerly Lecturer in Botany, University of Aberdeen; late Principal Geologist, H.M. Geological Survey, London.) Member of the Society for Psychical Research; Hon. Life Member, Indian Society for Psychic and Yogic Studies; Member of the Churches’ Fellowship for Psychical and Spiritual Studies. Foreword by REV. CANON J. D. PEARCE-HIGGINS (Vice-Provost of Southwark, Vice-Chairman Churches’ Fellowship for Psychical and Spiritual Studies.) JAMES CLARKE & CO. CAMBRIDGE & LONDONAlbert Schweitzer said, “All the problems of religion ultimately go back to the one — the experience I have of God within myself differs from knowledge concerning Him which I derive from the world . . . In the world He is impersonal Force ; within me, He reveals Himself as Personality”. In his earlier books, Dr. Crookall dealt with the most important of psychical experiences, namely, out-of-the-body experiences, popularly called astral projections (see, for example, kis Intimations of Immortality, James Clarke & Co. Lid., 1965). They were shown to be natural and normal to mankind. This work is concerned with cosmic and mystical experiences, the “highest? and most Significant of which we are capable. These also are natural and normal to mankind. In the First Part, a large number of experiences of at-one-ment are assembled and classified, preparatory to a consideration of their incidence and nature. Some people have felt at-one with inanimate objects, others with animate objects (nature), still others with people, and many with God. These various groups are shown to overlap — there is, in fact, a complete and unbroken spectrum beginning with minerals and ending with God. It is clear that at-one-ment with God is not, as some writers have supposed, essentially distinct from at-one-ment with nature. On the basis of the facts (of experience) adduced, the author agrees with Dr. Raynor Johnson and the Revd. Sidney Spencer : the latter concluded, “ ‘Cosmic consciousness’ is the natural complement of the experience of union with God”. The Second Part of the book deals with descriptions of at-one-ment that have hitherto been entirely neglected by writers on this important subject, namely, those of “communicators” — the supposed dead. At is seldom possible to determine the status of a given “communicator” — whether he is a‘ split” from the mind of the medium concerned or, as he usually claims, a personality who has survived the (continued on back flap)‘(continued from front flap ) death of his body, or, of course, some admixture of the two. In many cases a suspension of judgment is necessary, but in some there is a more or less strong indication of a surviving Soul. Some supposed dead “communicators” are shown to describe at-one-ment with inanimate objects (nature), others with people and still others with God. Again these groups overlap so that the ‘spectrum from at-one-ment with minerals to at-one-ment with God is complete and unbroken. There is clearly a strong suggestion of surviving Souls. In point of fact, mystical experiences seem to be more frequent among the dead than the living! This, of course, might have been expected. Human experiences are here considered, for the first time, in relation to the suggested correlation that was envisaged in the author’s first book (The Supreme Adventure, James Clarke & Co. Lid., 1961, pp. 49,73, 110 and 228) according to which, in addition to the familiar physical body (which gives “normal” experiences (with instinct, emotion and reason) , man possesses a “super-physical” Soul Body (with telepathy and clairvoyance) and a transcendent Spiritual Body (with cosmic and mystical experiences).) From another angle, it may be said that we get telepathic and clairvoyant experiences when one of our “veils”, the physical body, is temporarily removed, and we get cosmic and mystical experiences when the Greater or Eternal Self has been relieved of two “qeils”, the physical body and the Soul Body. These matters are summarised in a Correlation table at the end of Appendix II. The writer further suggests that the differences between natural sleep, trance and hypnosis — hitherto unexplained by either psychologists or medical men — are primarily due to the bodily constitution prevailing at the time. There are five Appendices, including one in which the various conditions that favour mystical experiences are reviewed.