Letters - 25 January 2013
From mystical experiences to drone warfare
Mystical experiences
I was so impressed by the article ‘The Road to God’ (11 January) and admired Noël Staples’ courage in writing it. I have had several mystical experiences in my life but have always found trying to talk about them very discouraging. At best I’ve been met by blank incomprehension, at worst by outright hostility or accusations of lacking humility!
My first significant experience was a vision of cathedrals and angels at about the age of seven. This turned my life around. From being almost autistic at school I went on to have a significant academic career. When I tried to tell my parents about it I was told to forget it; any experiences that you need are already to be found in the Bible. In my late thirties I had several experiences of almost psychotic intensity. By this time I had learnt not to say anything for fear of being thought mad: yet they transformed my social awareness to such an extent that I was able to get married; something that I found quite impossible in my twenties.
So transformative have my mystical experiences been that I long for some kind of community of mystics that would transform the world and make it a less violent place. Such an attempt was made by PW Martin in his book Experiment in Depth (Routledge 1955, which is still available on the second hand market). The book seems to have had very little effect in the past fifty years but I wonder, with growing openness about such matters, whether its time has come.
Barrie Rowson
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