Question

How does Lund argue against the loss of the separate self interpretation of mystical experiences?

Answer 1

Note: This response is in UK English, please paste the response to MS Word and you should be able to spot discrepancies easily. You may elaborate the answer based on personal views or your classwork if necessary.

(Answer) David Lund is an American thinker on the consciousness and the self. He states that one’s personal identity after death is unambiguously preserved and that his examination of various such phenomena points out to the idea that a person actually might survive in some way after physical death. Lund believes that the mind is actually something that might survive and transcend to the next world and continue to have experiences.

Lund feels that the “self” account should not be totally disregarded when witnessing mystical experiences. However, he feels that when the mystical experience is analysed, it is best described by the person who is actually experiencing the situation. He believes that straightforward interpretations are generally not a good idea when it comes to mystical experiences.

According to Lund, they are not just “his” or “her” experiences but it would make sense to suppose that they are simply the experiences of “someone.” This is because he says that the mystic attempts to go through these experiences not particularly for themselves but for someone else. He concludes that the consciousness is basically a phenomenon that cannot be experienced from without but rather from within. He says that even though we judge others externally, the concept of the “self” is not based on these observations. Therefore, he suggests that there shouldn’t be a loss of the “self” when discussing mystical experiences.

(Source: Death and Consciousness By David H. Lund – Google Books)