This exchange is a microcosm of what I’ve said and seen in hundreds of less formal conversations. Often, people have talked to me about a mystical experience they have had, or a person will express a desire to have mystical experiences, but they believe that such experiences are only for a select few, they are historical anomalies, or they are somewhat suspect for one reason or another. Such a persistence of this mentality of scarcity concerning mystical experiences was the first glimmer for me of the need for a method of mystical reflection. Mystical experiences occur far more often than most people think, as often as one out of every five persons2 or, perhaps, even as commonly as one out of two.3 My personal story above showed me a bit of a disconnection between common understandings of the term mystical experience (or, specifically, baptism of the Holy Spirit in that case) and our own common everyday experience. In other words, many think that mystical experiences are something that used to happen more often, but they are infrequent now.

Honestly, my subsequent experiences in talking to people about mysticism and mystical practices have demonstrated two unique camps of people that group around this misunderstanding. The first group, which is typically a bit smaller, consists of people who have had mystical experiences, but they feel inhibited—or perhaps even ashamed—to talk about them. They often feel that people will think that they are crazy or at least weird. These “experience-ers” don’t feel like anyone else has had an experience like their own. The second group, which is typically larger, but not as much as one might think, consists of people who do not have mystical experiences, or at least they are not having mystical experiences so fantastic that they label them in that way. These persons are asking questions much like the person in my story—why doesn’t the spiritual realm break into our world anymore? What’s wrong? Why is God silent? That interview encounter started me looking at the common misunderstandings concerning the frequency of mystical experiences, but it has taken the intervening years for me to work out the reason why these issues bother me so intensely.

Why share mystical experiences in a group? There are many avenues to share and savor mystical experiences with a spiritual director, clergyperson, or therapist on an individual basis. That pathway can be of immeasurable help to the experiencer in interpreting his/her own experiences. I do not advocate that these mystical reflection groups try to interpret the mystical experience for the one who experienced it; rather, it is about how new experiences of shared relationship can deepen members of the group spiritually through hearing the story of that mystical experience. This group method is not at odds with interpretation of mystical experience in one-to-one spiritual direction; rather, it is a supplementary method. The two types of relational interaction (one-to-one and group) have different purposes in looking at the same experience. On the one hand, the spiritual direction relationship builds spirituality on the individual level, and, on the other hand, a mystical reflection group builds spirituality on the communal level. Both are necessary for a full and multitextured spirituality. A last point here is the possibility that group mystical reflection, which does not require the presence of a spiritual director, may also help the individual who has had a mystical experience when a one-to-one spiritual direction relationship is not possible. After all, there are many places where spiritual directors are in short supply.

It is vital that mystical experiences do not remain unshared and uninterpreted completely, for these experiences are so powerful, yet so dissimilar from other types of experience, that people need support in interpreting and integrating them into their lives. Mystical experience by its very definition is an out-of-the-ordinary type of experience, though often in a subtle way. It speaks more loudly than everyday experience; it cries out to be noticed. Without some type of outlet for this type of experience, whether individually or corporately, the experience sits there in a person’s psyche with nowhere to go. If this happens, then it is all too easy for a person to just disregard the experience, interpret it entirely idiosyncratically, or explain it away as a meaningless coincidence.4 On the other hand, it is equally tempting to begin to think that her/his mystical experience is the only type of experience in life that counts.5 Everything else in life is gray in comparison to that bright, shining moment lost in nostalgic memory.6 The reason for this method of mystical reflection is to have an option for what to do with a mystical experience other than lock it away in the labyrinthine corridors of our minds, unable to be shared with another living human being as more than a charming anecdote. It is this reason, as much as the foregoing story, that led me to conclude that there needs to be a way to discuss mystical experiences with each other in such a way that every person’s spirituality may be enriched and deepened through that sharing—and to be able to do so in a group rather than only in one-on-one spiritual direction.