Is it possible to describe a mystical experience?

The following comes from Richard Rohr's daily email.  I am sure that my atheist friends will say that this is nothing to do with God, but with the exception of "Union" I would would expect agreement that these are good things and ask how they find them in their life?

To sum up these two weeks, mystical encounter always implies a dipping and even falling into a Great Love, and below are just some ways to describe it. It is first of all a momentary "state,” and with years of practice, the state becomes a permanent trait and a way of life. But know this is available to ALL of you! In fact, you are hard wired to receive it.

• Enlargement: You will become larger in your heart and attitudes, not smaller.
• Union: You will have a stronger sense of union with things, not disunion from things or others. You know you are not alone.
• Freedom: You will exhibit a deep sense of inner freedom, not constriction.
• Optimism: You will find a grounded hopefulness within yourself, not pessimism.
• Safety: You will feel a primal security and a “being held”, not anxiety.
• Rest: You will have found a deep and abiding resting place, deeper than any passing restlessness.
• Possibility: You will be filled with creativity and options, over any "all or nothing" thinking.
• Permission: You will wonder, "where does all this inner spaciousness come from?"

Following the Mystics through the Narrow Gate ... Seeing God in All Things

Obsession with money

In the past I have liked a lot of what David Taylor has written, and even attended one of his courses at my companies expense.  However just the title of this book makes me cringe.  His other books have been management books espousing openness and honesty in management.  I haven't read this one, but although the blurb says that it is still about being yourself the focus seems to have changed to be about making money rather than about being yourself/

Perhaps I have missed the point of the other books - after all if you become a successful manager then you usually make a lot of money - although this is not a necessary outcome.  The Bible says that "the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil" and it seems to me that this book encourages that love of money (by its title even if the content doesn't).

I do not believe that money makes you happy - I have had lots and little and there was no correlation with my happiness.  There have also been studies suggesting that extra money over £10,000pa makes you no happier - at least at the national level.

I even remember a spoof article in the trade press explaining why promotion was not a good idea!  You would get more money, but you would have to spend it on better clothes and take more expensive holidays and live in a bigger house (and you would work longer hours reducing the pay/hour).  I was even surprised to discover that at work those with the biggest incomes also had the biggest debts!

Do not get me wrong - not having enough money s a problem - but our definition of enough is perhaps skewed.  Jesus had something to say about this:

24 ‘No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.*  25 ‘Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink,* or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life?* 28And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, 29yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. 30But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31Therefore do not worry, saying, “What will we eat?” or “What will we drink?” or “What will we wear?” 32For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33But strive first for the kingdom of God* and his* righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
Matthew 6.24-33