Religious Disillusionment Due to Loss of the Mysterious

I first wrote this essay August 1, 2001 when I was 17 and studying at Cambridge University in Cambridge, England. I was taking two courses, World Religions and Philosophy. Fortunately, I was blessed with the same professor for both, Dr. Margie Tolstoy. Her World Religions class was the first step towards my choice of major (Religious Studies). I've been meaning to come back to this essay for years to see with how much of it I still agree and to edit the parts I wanted to keep. I must say that in retyping it I did change a few word selections or phrasing to minimize redundancy and make the language more concise. However, I did not feel the need to omit anything and feel that this is more of a guiding point to where I'd like to go with my degree. The following foreword was included and written directly to my teacher.

Religious Disillusionment Due to Loss of the Mysterious

FOREWORD: First, I would like to say how very much I enjoyed this class. I believe that broadening my own faith with the wisdom of other religions will help me to deepen my spirituality and open myself to The Great Mystery. Increasing my knowledge and understanding of these religions has made this class an exciting stepping-stone in my journey of faith. Due to my personal mystical experiences, which increased somewhat after the death of my brother 4 years ago, I feel it is vital to appreciate the mystical links between most major world religions and then hopefully to spirituality in general.

I would like to explain that my goal in writing this paper was to present a religiously unbiased opinion or viewpoint. Therefore, I’d like to take this opportunity to clarify that, as a Christian, I by no means feel that Jesus Christ should be put in the same category as other forefathers of various religions. I do feel that Christ is the only man sent to Earth as “God Incarnate.”

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All major religions have a mystical origin that usually begins with a particular experience of one person connecting with the divine. Abraham, Jesus, Muhammad, and the Gurus of Hinduism all had firsthand, life-changing experiences with the mystical and went on to start belief systems and ways of life based on the enlightenment they were able to take away from these occurrences.

Such encounters are impossible to truly describe to others. Only through the actual experience can one fully comprehend the incredible power and feeling of it. For example, the smell of a rose: how would one describe it to another person? Or even the color red, for that matter – one could only say, “It is sort of like this,” or, “It is like that.” These weak descriptions, however, are ultimately ineffectual when it comes to imparting this experience to the inexperienced. These are things that cannot be taught or even put into words (perhaps because things like smell and color are themselves part of the Great Mystery). These ineffable encounters and intimate experiences are too profound and words, therefore, are inadequate. Getting a sense of the mystical is strictly experiential.

The early fathers of mysticism, therefore, were faced with an impossible task when trying to build an entire religious structure based on these profound brushes with the inherently sacred. How would people truly appreciate the beliefs and lessons of the religion if they could not understand the origin? Thus, the founding fathers of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism incorporated their cultural and societal ideas in order to make their religions more accessible and “user-friendly” to their followers.

Through the years, the hierarchy and devotees of most of these religions have continued to over-simplify, over-intellectualize, over-rationalize, and over-culturalize that which they cannot understand. On the quest to make their religion more attractive to all people and to protect their positions of power, the religious authorities have sought to rid themselves of the mystery instead of teaching others how to find it for themselves. Each religion claims that they know what God is, Who God is. The fact of the matter, however, is that the more one thinks he or she knows What or Who God is, the farther away from God they drift. Before acknowledging anything else about the Divine, one must first admit that it is a Mystery.

People often get to a point when their lives seem meaningless and their religions seem irrelevant. They are hungering for the profound. But how can one find something they cannot see? Without having developed the proper eyes, these people are usually unable to find the meaning for which they are searching and their religions seem empty and childish. They turn away from their faith, thinking they have outgrown it. It is not until they become open to the gift of the mystical that they are able to go back to a structured religious system and appreciate the beliefs and traditions within it.

In the world today, more and more people are becoming increasingly disillusioned with their faith. Less people are able to see anything sacred in their everyday lives. Religious organizations will continue to lose members due to jading and disappointment unless they begin to teach their followers to get in contact with the Mystery themselves instead of trying to be sole mediators for the mystical. That is to say, religious authorities must cease trying to tell other people about their own mystical experiences or those of people who lived centuries ago and start teaching people how to encounter God firsthand.