After further consideration, I believe it will be more to the point if we call this proposed course A Course in Biblical Mysticism.
As such, this course will be almost Cultural Anthropology. It is comparative civilization; I’m explaining the biblical approach by contrasting with that of the West. It’s meant to be more academic; it’s what men can know about it without getting too deeply involved. At the same time, it will be an invitation to become a part of it.
Most importantly, it will serve as the basis for a prophetic slap upside the head of Western Christianity, a warning that it has little in common with Christ of the Bible. We who are genuine Christian Mystics are aliens, ambassadors from another dimension. We have taken up residence in some bodies provided by our Lord so that we can participate in life on this plane, but we could never actually belong here. Whatever we were before our awakening isn’t really all that important. The new has come; the old is dead. There is some continuity on the human level of body, feelings and intellect, but there is now a higher faculty that is so completely larger, so utterly far beyond what we once were, it’s a radical departure.
But we need to explain it in terms that will allow someone else who has been awakened to recognize they are a part of us, and cannot remain attached to their old existence. The content of the new is already covered in another document (the Bible) so we have to make sure folks can understand it properly. It’s in an alien language arising from an alien thought process. So we attempt to describe the prison in which most people’s minds reside so they can see the exit.
We have to address them where they are in their current language. That’s what it means to attempt an academic course syllabus.
