Pamphlet 16: ‘A Universal Sense of the Numinous’, Jack Mongar, 1989

This essay gathers together thoughts on human spirituality and tries to relate them to scientific thinking.

For Jack Mongar mystical experience is seen as the immediate intuitive knowledge of a God or equivalent. This experience is unanalysable and , while it cannot be completely expressed in any language , the writings of past and present mystics are a treasure house .

With relativity and quantum theory modern science may be seen as a jewel with many facets; likewise can religion, with mystical sensitivity being seen as a normal response of mature people around the world.

Mystics, scientists and philosophers ( Russell, Eddington, Heisenberg, Schroedinger, Planck, Bohr, Maslow) are discussed and the contrast between the variety of religious thought and the unity of mystical religious feeling is exposed .

The history of Quaker discussions of this , and developing Quaker attitudes, are outlined.

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