Gnosis: An Esoteric Tradition of Mystical Visions and Unions (Suny Series in Western Esoteric Traditions)

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I wanted to like this book, having found SUNY's monographs on Taoism excellent, I had high hopes when I purchased it that this one would be equally good. I find the thesis that there was a common meditative technique behind the visionary experiences recorded in a variety of Near Eastern holy books fascinating and likely. However Merkur provides almost no evidence to support that thesis, nor does he anywhere reveal what that technique might be. Even worse he devotes an entire chapter to calumnies against Mohammed and vilification of the Koran (don't the editors at SUNY concern themselves with this kind of thing?). Maybe if he had really studied the esoteric traditions of Islam he could have found some clues that would have supported his point.

Rating:
Summary: Critical Reading
Review: Merkur quietly puts together critical reading for those who wish to understand the source and style of mystical experiences. He gives us an invaluable key to classifying mystical experiences as we find them in literature and our own lives and he also points to the role of not divine intervention but the power of human imagination to bring these states about. A must reading for those interested in Jungian matters and mysticism.