Simon Critchley has shared “five key insights” from Mysticism, his new work of philosophy from New York Review Books, in an article for the magazine of the Next Big Idea Club. The club selected Mysticism as one of its “October 2024 Must-Read Books.”
Critchley writes in the article:
“With mysticism, we’re offered a path: an itinerary from woe to well, from things being ill to things being better. We can be lifted from woe, pain, melancholy, and doubt into the sense of being saved. With mysticism, being saved means being saved from ourselves—from the hell that each of us carries within. We can push ourselves aside. I don’t believe that there is a place called hell where souls burn for eternity in damnation. But I do think the idea that we are hell, that we carry that pain and suffering within us, makes sense. To be saved is to push that self aside, to push that ego aside, and open to something else.”
To read the rest of the article and learn more about the Next Big Idea Club, click here.