In my work as a mystic, I have been exploring a new kind of activism – Mystical Activism. Evolving from the experience of divine Self-realization discovered in the New Aging, it has been foretold in the archetypes, myths and prophecies of the world and must now become a lived reality if we are to survive on Earth. This blog describes the nature and place of Mystical Activism in Creation Spirituality theology and human transformation.
 
Activism in general may be broadly defined as efforts to utilize social, scientific, political, and environmental resources to remediate human suffering and support the flourishing of life on this planet. Sacred Activism complements these efforts adding religious, spiritual and mystical resources to our shared efforts, inspiring our work and directing transcendent energies toward healing the planet. Finally, Mystical Activism contributes a radical new dimension to this mix, suggesting that persistently awakened Mystical Consciousness can transform both our collective consciousness and our work in the world. I believe that Mystical Activism will eventually be the key to our survival and a new era of Creation Spirituality.
 
Mystical Consciousness, a skill progressively elaborated throughout my writing, represents one of three kinds of Mystical Experiences and the only one that can be intentionally awakened. Mystical Consciousness involves a heightened state of here-now-now sensory-perceptual awareness free of thought and intensified by awe. In this state, the self-idea is replaced by pure consciousness, which the mystics have long told us is in fact divine consciousness, radically transforming our experience of self and world. What’s left when personal identity disappears and the chattering mind silences, they say, is God’s presence and being as Creation itself and our own spiritual nature. We discover that we are literally made of God and dwell in the divine ground of being known as Heaven on Earth right where we are. As Matthew Fox observes, “The creation-centered spiritual tradition…rejects the dualism of heaven/earth…That is what Jesus was trying to tell us: the kingdom is already here, it is among us! In the Western theological tradition, this is called ‘realized eschatology.'”
 
Mystical Consciousness erases the spell of identity, time and story to uncloak the infinite beauty, perfection and holiness of Creation exactly as it is, including you, me and everything around us, a realization representing the very essence of Creation Spirituality. Now we act from an immense, first-hand and life-affirming revelation of the Sacred Earth as Sacred Being – the Via Positiva – in our everyday lives, work, creativity and service. With an overwhelming affection, like a mother to her new infant, we fall in love with Creation over and over. Moreover, in Mystical Consciousness our boundaries enlarge so fully that the suffering of another happens to me as well for we are one. These dynamics create the synergy that transforms the mystic into the prophet, the everyday world into Heaven on Earth, and each of us into Mystical Activists. Then, witnessing first hand the ugliness humanity imposes on the divine world, we seek to support, serve and protect Creation as our home and our very nature.
 
John C. Robinson is a clinical psychologist with a second doctorate in ministry, an ordained interfaith minister, the author of nine books and numerous articles on the psychology, spirituality and mysticism of the New Aging, and a frequent speaker at Conscious Aging Conferences across the country. You can learn more about his work at www.johnrobinson.org.