Mysticism is based on an experience of reality or self- that may or may not be true, but at least is experiental so we can proceed on that basis. Mysticism, if it stays in that realm, is open to change based on new experiences.

However most mystical experiences simply get moved into the faith area- an idea one knows everything of or from the experience- and as such all possible doorways to answers close

I agree, there are many in the world which try to hold a story which they were told as true. Some will even lay their lives on the line to defend the story as true. But on the other side of that coin there are those which understand that the religious stories are really just a distortion of ancient “teaching” which definitely integrates with what we understand about psychology. You can sit or lie down and meditate and place your attention in your own body for a period of time, and you may begin to notice sensations in your own body…not through your senses, but your sense of yourself expanding or contracting within your normal boundaries of your body. Not always, but sometimes. This is a shift in the state of consciousness. Typically you may find that there are a kind of “energetic” movement. I don’t understand what it is, and many have told me that you can’t explain what is happening. I’ve only seen that those which practice this enough notice improvements in their quality of life.

“Faith”, as opposed to certainty gained via logic (as opposed to perception), necessarily requires that one understand that one could never verify the claim, yet chooses to regard it as, and live as if it is, true nevertheless.

It is true that you can regain the sense of life you had in your youth, but the way to do it isn’t through “altered states of consciousness.” Psychological techniques which are commonly called “spiritual therapy” are not altered states of consciousness. They are in kind the same consciousness employed during one’s most intense abstract reasoning. The only kind of consciousness – employed in a different direction. To alter one’s state of conscious – to take drugs, or to let any random notion that might impinge one’s attention have the status of valid (not unreal, but valid) simply because it occured – is, strictly speaking, not consciousness. It is neurological momentum – similar to the twitching of snake’s body after it has been beheaded.

“Spiritual therapy” can be, and for virtually everyone must be, an essential component of maintaining or regaining the sense of life common to youth, but ultimately they are still psychological techniques. By themselves – apart from a strict, rigorous, precise, and unrelenting commitment to reality – or is given equal placement on one’s epistemological hierarchy – they are nothing but a guarantee that, sooner or later, the opposite will occur. This usually starts with sloppy thinking and speaking, proceeds to flirtations with over-generosity, and ends with a feeling of helpless because of, or shame for, being rational when one is surrounded by the irrational – all in the name of remaining “spiritually vibrant.”