Arthur Versluis, professor of religious studies at Michigan State University, is the author of many books and an expert on Western mysticism and esotericism, especially the Christian theosophic tradition. He's also an expert on the intellectual origins of totalitarianism, the subject of his excellent 2006 book,
The New Inquisitions.
Today on MindMatters we talk with Arthur about a range of subjects: totalitarianism, ponerology, gnosis, Christian mystics, decentralization, and the "mystical state," a vision of politics informed not by dualistic and secular philosophy, but the mystical center of the spiritual life - the topic of his
2011 book of the same name. Arthur also talks about
his latest book, a conversation with psychologist and Christian theosophist Robert J. Faas.
MindMatters on LBRY
Running Time: 01:14:08
Download: MP3 — 68 MB
Harrison Koehli
Harrison Koehli co-hosts SOTT Radio Network's MindMatters, and is an editor for Red Pill Press. He has been interviewed on several North American radio shows about his writings on the study of ponerology. In addition to music and books, Harrison enjoys tobacco and bacon (often at the same time) and dislikes cell phones, vegetables, and fascists (commies too).
Elan Martin
Born and raised in New York City, Elan has been an editor for SOTT.net since 2014 and is a co-host for MindMatters. He enjoys seeing and sharing what's true about our profoundly and rapidly changing world.
Adam Daniels
Adam joined the editorial team in 2014 and is a co-host of MindMatters. His particular interests include philosophy, history, exercise science, and technology. He particularly dislikes Critical Race Theory and people who're so afraid of death that they prevent others from living. He also knows kung fu.
Academe and clinical psych seem unduly ill-informed on the topic of mysticism, and hence they typically make much ado about nearly nothing when they do look beyond -- meaning beyond what's allowed in/out by the strict gate-keeping of their respective professions. It is a vast topic, but not so secret.
Frances Yates, Peter Kingsley, Stephan Hoeller, Jeffrey Raff, The Eranos Series (edited by Joseph Campbell), Jung (and von Franz, Neumann, Eddinger), and many, many more have contributed very competent and accessible work on matters of mysticism, in history, in the culture, and in fact.