Mysticism: A Study in the Nature and Development of Spiritual Consciousness Paperback – March 12, 2002

Evelyn Underhill has catalogued numerous biographies, autobiographies, and texts to define mysticism and its 5 stages. Kindle identifies the paragraphs by number (I think) instead of page numbers. Kindle also does not clearly delineate chapters. The book would be easier to understand.

Evelyn Underhill was no stranger to mystical experience. In her book she not only gives a long history of mysticism, in itself fascinating, but goes even deeper into the strangeness of mystical experience. Many people, myself included, consider this the book to read if you, or anyone you know, undergoes a mystical experience.A drawback for many will be her writing style, which is exactly correct when she wrote the book. I have no patience with people who cannot read a book written before 1950 because of the style. Content is and always has been, King. Underhill was no dilettante, she researched this book, and wrote other books on mystical experience, but Mysticism is her magnum opus.If you are not a believer, then just leave this book on the shelf. Neither Underhill, nor I, am interested in conversion based upon mystical experience. That really is the lesson: mystical experience comes and you must let it go just as easily as it comes.

As a matter of book keeping, I note that the various editions listed by Amazon vary widely in the number of pages, from 260 to 616. Some shorter editions must be abridged. They are all listed under the same title and I found it confusing as to which edition to order. In the end, I bought the edition that I had seen on the bookshelf at a retreat house. I recently received this edition published by Oneworld Publications, Oxford, which is copyrighted 1999 and is a 2008 reprinting. It is 519 pages (not 544 as listed) and is apparently a reprinting of the 12 th edition, 1930. Part 1 is "The Mystic Fact", and part 2 is "The Mystic Way". Starting p. 505 is a "Bibliographical note to the Thirteenth edition". The publisher of this edition has not given any "introduction" to further place this publication in context. I look forward to reading this important work.

This book is not what I am reviewing for it has been well done above.{though it is wonderful in my opinion}.What I am reviewing is the C.D. audiobook.Upon recieved mine I dicovered Every c.d. would gargle at specific spots.This was not SKIPPING or scratches on the discs but a BLEEDING of other tracks all at once kind of thing.Also,I fully checked it on many players so its not a equipment thing.No,,,I felt stongly that it is defective,almost bootlegg quality manufacturing that was the problem.I contacted the seller{the only one selling the c.d.} and they refunded my money.yet they did not return my e mail in coment for i wanted a working set,then stranger still the very morning my refund concluded,the price of the c.d.set was changed from 49.95 to 149.95.So,I did not try another set.weather this is shoddy,bootlegg stuff or just a ordinary defect I do not know.But you will at least be prepared if you have the same problem.Good luck..

Elaborately and complex written in the fashion of pre-TV scholars and word lovers, Underhill can weave the essence of experiential reverie in with various doctrinaire perspectives. This book is not for the light reading moments. It also is not for the skeptic looking for heuristic debatable perspectives. Instead, this book helps disclose the journey of the would-be mystic, the newbie mystic, and the profoundly experienced mystic. Accordingly, Underhill reveals revelations of an ever-evolving mystical soul who forever spins into the next amazing discoveries of mystical practices and consciousness. Enjoy

This book is titled "Mysticism" but the contents are from Evelyn Underhill's book "Practical Mysticism" written in 1914. The book "Mysticism - A Study of the Nature and Development of Man's Spiritual Consciousness" was written in 1911 and is a much larger volume than "Practical Mysticism."

The essential book on classical mysticism from all traditions. Old but good. Not about psychics, mediums, or magical beliefs. Includes lots of quotes from original sources, both well-known and obscure. If you're interested in what real mysticismis, or are a mystic, or are just curious about this consistent human experience, get this book. 99¢. What a deal. I wish the table of contents was linked, but you can't have everything and its being on Kindle is a wonderful advantage in itself.

A powerful mystic I knew years ago in Miami gave me this book and I lost it, so I bought this edition. I have had "mystical" experiences all my life. I do not claim the title of mystic. All I know is what I know and I do not proselytize. Underhill's book is a truly great introduction to the variables that often ordinary people encounter throughout our lives, as well as simply being a great primer on the subject. It's also a good book for skeptics to use to broaden their horizons. Five stars.

This is a scam, the book is a cheap print of a scanned original book that at time of scanning was anything but new. The printed copy that I bought contains pages with underlines and notes. This so called "publisher" Forgotten Books pretends to reprint books that are not easy to find today but they jump the editing process and they just scan and print in the cheapest way possible.Its a shame that Amazon is collaborating with such seller. I'm returning the book and prefer to have a second hand exemplar of a proper edition than this.Buyer Beware.A "publisher" by the name of Forgotten Books has just gave us another reminder that there is enough money in ebooks to attract scammers.Forgotten Books supports a website where it claims to publish public domain works. It then puts adverts up next to the (poor quality) ebooks, and tries to entice you into signing up for a paid membership. While FB claims to have a half million titles in its catalog, there's nothing here worth paying for.If you haven't heard of this "publisher" before (I had not), Forgotten Books says that it was founded in 2007 with the goal of "rediscovering and republishing formerly out of print books" (it's rediscovered 484,473 titles so far, and plans to discover another half million).To put it another way, Forgotten Books scrapes books uploaded to Project Gutenberg, and titles posted to Google Books, and republishes them under its own imprint.FB is not the only ones to do that; many sites, including Feedbooks and MobileRead forums, host collections of public domain titles. Few sites, however, charge you to download those ebooks or can claim to produce such abysmally poor ebooks.While other sites make efforts to create legible ebooks, Forgotten Books has hit upon the easy way to publish half a million books with no effort.I spent a few hours browsing the Forgotten Books website this morning and I can report that none of the ebooks on that site would meet most people's definitions of ebooks - they would not even be allowed in the Kindle Store.The titles I saw were made from the scanned print editions (like what you might find in Google Books) and did not contain text. The books were marginally readable at best; most had artifacts from the scanning process blurring the text on one page or another. And to top things off, Forgotten Books also slaps adverts inside the ebooks they "publish".

Mysticism is the most important and fundamental part of any religion. It has nothing to do with magic or the occult. It has everything to do with working one's way towards the reality behind this world of appearances and illusion. Mysticism is at the heart of all the great religions: Buddhism, Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, etc.Having read many books on mysticism over the past 50 years I can say that the two books - 'Mysticism' and 'Practical Mysticism' by Evelynn Underhill - are by far the clearest, best researched and most profound that I have come across.

Wonderful book and extremely informative. However, the reading experience was a nightmare! Talk about experiencing eye-strain? The font was so small on all the pages that nothing short of spectacles issued by Jodrell Bank would suffice.A real put-off for me and those I showed it to. Ruined the whole idea of relaxing with a book. And yes, before you ask - I DO have 20/20 vision.Come on publishers. Do the book justice and produce a "readable" version!

Very strange - the first part of this book is actually part of a different book completely! I started reading it thinking it was an unusual beginning but quickly realised it has no connection whatever with the book of the title. The actual book 'Mysticism' is there too and very interesting though the print is a little small. The publishers need to sort this strange combination out with a new edition.

This book is fantastic for those wanting that first introduction to Mysticism, students, or anyone having Mystical experiences of their own that they need help to understand. I found the book was enlightening, well researched and thorough. If you are looking for a book on Mysticism this is definitely one to buy!