I agree, Dave. It does look very interesting and I’ve been following the conversation here with interest as well.
(I like your new sig, too!)
I think most forum members will appreciate this bit from near the end of Joe’s final chapter, by the way:
Joe cites Moltmann’s The Crucified God: The Cross as The Foundation and Criticism of Christian Theology, and notes this view though not well-known has an ancient history going back to Origen “and other church fathers”. Considering Moltmann and Origen are referenced, members might be able to guess which kind of Fathers those “others” might turn out to be. 
People familiar with my writing (here and at the Cadre, where Joe once asked if I was referencing Moltmann – I wasn’t, I’ve never read him though I keep meaning to) may recognize this as being substantially similar to something I often talk about: Christ suffers on the cross in solidarity (a term I usually use in talking about this), not only with all victims of injustice, but also with all doers of injustice in any punishments given to them by Christ Himself. It’s penal solidarity, not only penal substitution (although there’s some of that going on, too, via the Abrahamic covenant).
I know this is a little outside the type of mystical experience Joe is talking about, but I just came across an interesting story on Randal Rauser’s blog regarding J.B. Phillips (a noted Bible translator) and his experience with…C.S. Lewis’s ghost! 
Here’s the link to Randal’s blog:randalrauser.com/2014/06/j-b-phillips-and-the-ghost-of-c-s-lewis/
thanks Jason, and everyone. I enjoyed it. I’m still going to comment on this thread and on others. I am going to hand around. I’ve been looking for a board for some time where I can find Christians who dig my kind of theology.
Anyway Peters has not put that up yet and I don’t know when he will.
Well I just read a little bit by Stace, and according to his definition, I would not have had mystical experiences. Mine had some sensory experience though nothing like a usual state of being. Although I’d like to take that test and see, because that experience did sort of evolve from a sensory state to a state of complete one-ness, thats when I lost time, which was my earlier beef.
All this time I may have been calling a cat a dog 
J.B. Philips was suffering a serious episode of bipolar psychosis when he had this experience according to A.N. Wilson. And I do remember picking up a book entitled ‘Through the year with J.B. Philips’ in which he talked much about reconciling his Christian faith with psychotherapy - obviously from a personal point of view. I’ve never seen Wilson criticised for his assertion - and he is actually very discrete in making it saying that Philips was a truthful man and obviously the vision consoled him but he was suffering a psychotic break down at the time. I also remember reading Alistair Hardy’s study on spiritual experiences long ago in which he included J.B. Philip’s account alongside that of the sister of the War Poet Wilfred Owen who - allegedly - on the day he was shot dead - the day before Armistice - had a similar vision of Wilfred. Hmm dunno 
Well that’s very interesting (and a bit disappointing as there are some ghosts I would love to meet. 
) Oh, well… I have heard enough similar stories of people seeing (usually) the newly dead, often when they didn’t know at the time they were dead to make me wonder.
Thanks, Dick! 
I think one thing we can say about these experiences is that again they can happen to anybody – they don’t have to be a Christian. I think too much dwelling upon such experiences obviously can lead down the cul de sac of spiritualism. Funny old thing spiritualism – it seems to have developed out of Swedenborg’s alleged visionary experiences of the afterlife. It was embraced by many intelligent people in the nineteenth century because of its eschatology that fits in with ideas of human progress – as in this life so in the afterlife - and it seemed to give an empirical basis for this hope. The American Universalist Church was very susceptible to the teachings of spiritualism and Adin Ballou was a believer. In a way the concentration on eschatology mixed with an overly optimistic social progressiveness found in the Universalist Church made it susceptible. I also note that Sadhu Singh featured at Tentmakers as a Christian Universalist - which he certainly was – and lionised during his day by ordinary evangelicals (through idealised missionary tracts) was a member of the Delhi Swedenborgian society and had a vision in which Swedenborg told him to renounce Brahmanism. Weird stuff. As for the Boehmenist whom McClymond slagged off as ‘spiritualists’’, they were actually unimpressed by spiritualists and Swedenborgian claims saying that people were simply getting in touch with psychic emotional stuff rather than doing anything of real spiritual benefit.
I remember the first time I saw any mention of Swedenborg. As with (perhaps) many others here, it was in C.S. Lewis’s The Great Divorce where the character, George MacDonald says:
I had no idea of who Swedenborg was at the time, but the implication was obviously negative. Knowing the real MacDonald better now (at least the one I meet in his writing) and having read some of the MacDonald scholars’ work, I’m pretty sure MacDonald was quite familiar with Swedenborg and probably influenced to some degree by his universalism. MacDonald was a canny Scot, of course, and he seems to have “separated the wheat from the chaff” so to speak. Though open to the possibility of ghosts, “the second site” etc., he was definitely no spiritualist and uses the credulousness of some other Victorians regarding “Spiritualism” to good effect in some of his novels.
Ah yes ‘the second sight’ - that’s a very Celtic thing
just reading Stace doesn’t predict the score on the M scale. But there is the extrovertive version where it is indexed by viewing nature. so just having an image associated with it is not proof it’ not mystical.
You know something Joe - one experience that is very broadly ‘religious’ and relates to what Jeremy is saying is the sense of changed experience foe time. I can certainly remember as a child that an afternoon or a morning or whatever could seem to just last forever and every detail in the time to which I gave attention was opened to me, and I would notice so many different things happening their own timeless moment (not as ‘one bloody thing after another’ - but almost as if tick tock sequence was rendered irrelevant). Time was slow, time would even stand still. The memory of this is poignant but it’s a state that I very rarely experience these days in my bookishness and bustle. I’ve heard reports that some people regain this sense of time when they are dying.
Sobor, that sense of time-slow also occurs in combat stress for some people.
Joe’s publisher (specifically the editor Tim Wood) has sent information on other reviews and articles about the book:
Somehow I have found myself reading this thread & my attention has been caught by the occurrence of the word “bipolar” quite a few times.
I am bipolar & wrestle with how to accept or reject the highly significant experiences I have had re GOD (or C.O.A.T.I. as I personally refer to God). There was one very unique experience that will forever be the highlight of my whole life. Yet I know that being bipolar can lead to quite a range of engagement with the supposed Divine … So I do wonder, what if bipolar people can have exceptional access to the mystical? Or … Are they all delusions? Or can they be bit of both? Plus is it dangerous for us to give into them or should we dismiss them all?
I have read the reviews of Joe Hinman’s trace of God on Amazon. I am not sure if I would be able to follow it as I am not an academic. I just know that God is & am constantly trying to work out just how to relate to that reality esp. with regard to what Jesus set out to show us … Soooo confusing as per the New Testament anomalies … Hence why I am intrigued by Evangelical universalism.
I hope this post is not too off topic,
Pru Joy
Hey Pru Joy, welcome to the forum!
I think [tag]Joe Hinman[/tag] (whom I’m tagging for attention) would say that just as some kinds of chemicals can open up receptors to outside influence, the chemicals involved in bipolar could also open receptors to outside influence. That doesn’t mean the outside influence is always benign however, and interpreting the influence could also be strongly hampered by the neurosis or psychosis effects. (This applies to drug induced receptor-opening also.)
I’m no expert on numerology. Not by a long shot. I am to be a popularize. I may just be too academically encrusted to break out of the ivory tower speak but I tried to write it to be accessible to educated layman, like myself. Just guessing but it is entirely possible that your experiences of God are not related at all to your bipolar.you are person, so God has equipped you with the same God finger equipment that he gives us all. Whatever else you have to cope with in your individual walk is not necessarily related to that. Just as my dyslexia is not caused by the God receptor chemicals. I don’t think it is. I dont think my dyslexia is related to my experiences of God. Even though I do love my dog as well. dog, God, Dyslecia…that’s why I’m writing books about dray academic stuff and not doing comedy. never mind.
I think this has been fairly positive. one thing you do to help promote teh book, if you are of a mind to, is view my book trailer on Amazon to help get it up in a higher level, so more people will see it.
youtube.com/watch?v=0tGmDnyI7Aw
this is just a little minute long trials with some blurb quotes, but the more people who see it the more available it is.
Thank you all for your thoughts re bipolar connections to the Divine.
That has definitely sparked my interest, to know more about these chemical receptors to outside influences. Plus it is also comforting to think that the experiences may not be connected to the bipolar brain but I can’t help feeling there is some correlation. Remember when scientists said they had found the God spot in the brain, was it the amygdala, I can’t quite recall.
Ok, as you point out Joe, perhaps I could read your book with good comprehension. Now to see if I can afford to have it sent to Australia. I buy e-books mostly to avoid the shipping costs.
I think I recall hearing Tim say an ebook version was on the way; but it wouldn’t hurt to use Amazon to request one either.