One of the points the authors suggest in the early pages of The Mystic Mind is that Western Christian mysticism, at least in medieval times, was hampered by the lack of a body of knowledge as to how prayer and meditation actually work. This may have made ascetic practices more appealing, because you don’t need to understand very much to apply them.

What they’ve done is to take the modern psychological understanding of altered states of consciousness, and the known effects of the ascetic practices of pain, fasting, and sleep deprivation, and then attempt to apply this knowledge to the lives of the medieval mystics. In particular, they describe the lives of four of the less well-known medieval ascetics and mystics: Radegund, Beatrice of Nazareth, Beatrice of Ornacieux, and the better-known Henry Suso.

It’s a very good book, enjoyable, thoughtful, and well written, but I found its focus frustratingly narrow. There’s a lot more to mysticism than temporarily altered states of consciousness, and there’s a lot more to the lives of the mystics than mortification of the flesh. For example, the authors don’t delve into the effects on the psyche of solitude, celibacy, and prayer. And even with their narrow focus, they aren’t able to go so far as to propose a technology of mysticism: do A, B, and C, and X percent of people will get result Y, where X is a function of grace.

Still, it’s an interesting book, and if you’re willing to accept that its subject matter is much narrower than the title suggests, then I’d recommend it.

Jerome Kroll and Bernard Bachrach. The Mystic Mind: The Psychology of Medieval Mystics and Ascetics. New York: Routledge, 2005. Paperback. 288 pages. ISBN 9780415340519. $35.95.

From my blog at http://true-small-caps.blogspot.com