I offer you a few recent musings, to consider. I'm not trying to make statements of facts or argue for a set of beliefs, or anything of the sort. I guess I'd just really like to discuss the subject of the mind without getting entrenched positions on the various subjects surrounding it. I offer some statements to tease and tear apart, as a starter-for-ten.
Wish me luck - here goes:
Mysticism predominantly occupies the mind. It holds that in addition to the rational conscious mind there is a subconscious mind that does a little more than just keep the heart ticking and regulate the tearducts. This is the mind that surfaces in dreams, and disappears below the surface again, taking with it the wisps of forgetfulness.
In our day-to-day life the rational mind is often powerfully engaged, commandeering our actions with the force of logic (to the extent that our minds have been trained to apply it). Meanwhile the subconscious mind bubbles along quietly awaiting an opportunity to make it's presence felt. A hidden operating system, upon which the bulletin-board of rationality operates.
Many of the key tools of mysticism amount to parlour tricks to distract the rational mind and let intuition and potentially the avoided truth of a situation to shine through. Usually we don't want to hear it because it might not fit in with our plans. It disturbs us, though we have become well practised at subduing it.
It forces us to look at our constructed "life" from a different angle, one which would ultimately amount to a JamesThomas-style perspective of observation of the flowing processes of our mind and environment.
Oh, how I wish Bradley was here now! Discuss...