On Mysticism

Why mysticism? It has been called “experience in its most intense form,” and in his new book the philosopher Simon Critchley poses a simple question to the reader: Wouldn’t you like to taste this intensity? Wouldn’t you like to be lifted up and out of yourself into a sheer feeling of aliveness? If so, it might be worthwhile trying to learn what is meant by mysticism and how it can shift, elevate, and deepen our sense of our lives and those around us. Mysticism is not primarily a theoretical issue. It's not a question of religious belief but of felt experience and daily practice—a way of systematically freeing yourself of your standard habits, your usual fancies and imaginings so as to see what is there and stand with what is there ecstatically.

Critchley’s Mysticism is a book about trying to get outside oneself, to lose oneself, while knowing that the self is not something that can ever be fully lost. It is also a book about Julian of Norwich, Anne Carson, Annie Dillard, T.S. Eliot, and Nick Cave. It is a book of learning and puzzlement, that also shows how listening to music can be secular worship. It opens the door to mysticism not as something unworldly and unimaginable, but as a way of life.

Join us for a special launch of Mysticism, featuring a conversation between Critchley and Cornel West. Books will be for sale at the event, and available for signing.

Simon Critchley has written over twenty books, including works of philosophy and books on Greoek tragedy, dead philosophers, David Bowie, football, suicide, and many other subjects. He is the Hans Jonas Professor of Philosophy at the New School for Social Research in New York and a Director of the Onassis Foundation.

Dr. Cornel West is the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Chair at Union Theological Seminary. Dr. West is the former Professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy at Harvard University and Professor Emeritus at Princeton University. He is best known for his books Race Matters and Democracy Matters, and for his memoir, Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud. His most recent book is Black Prophetic Fire, about nineteenth and twentieth-century African American leaders and their visionary legacies.

This program is part of PW Broadcast's Author Talks, a series highlighting authors and thinkers across disciplines.

Pioneer Works Broadcast is supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Program in Public Understanding of Science and Technology, bridging the two cultures of science and the arts.