Mar 7, 2025
In this terrific episode, Terri Petersen
interviews Jana Spangler and usual LDF host
Dan Wotherspoon about "mysticism." The ultimate
goal of their conversation was to take this word and topic and drop
it down from the clouds (how many people imagine it) and into our
lives here and now.
Through great questions from Terri and sharing their personal
experiences, Jana and Dan emphasize that mysticism basically means
getting in touch with the Divine/God/the Universe directly. Instead
of staying in the realm of talking about God with
words that can't capture the depth and wideness of of the Divine,
when we give ourselves permission and imagine that what underlies
and gives life to all things can be accessed directly we are never
again the same. When we are able to touch it, everything in the
foreground changes. As the mystic and spiritual teacher James
Finley says, what happens isn't that we can see more of the nature
of things as much as it is we are able to see all things by
utilizing more of ourselves. Mystical experience
teaches us directly about our actual depths.
A fun part of the discussion focuses on the question, "Can Mormons
be mystics?" The answer, of course is a resounding "yes," but the
perspectives everyone brings to that question reveal various layers
to that answer.
Listen in! You are a mystic, after all, just like everyone
is, you just may just not know it yet.