Stace for example , in a wide survey of reported mystical experience , puts forward seven main re-occurring features :
� Unitary Consciousness , with all empirical content excluded (‘ this is the one basic , essential , nuclear characteristic ’) � Non-spatial and non-temporal � Sense of objectivity or reality � Feelings of blessedness , joy , peace , happiness , etc . � Feeling that what is apprehended is holy , sacred or divine � Paradoxicality � Alleged to be ineffable . 8
The quotations below , taken from different spiritual and philosophical traditions , are put forward as examples to support the idea of universal features . The first is from the Mandukya Upanishad , describing a state of consciousness beyond the usual states of waking consciousness , dream sleep , and dreamless sleep :
The Fourth [ Turya ], say the wise … is not the knowledge of the senses , nor is it relative knowledge , nor yet inferential knowledge . Beyond the senses , beyond the understanding , beyond all expression , is the Fourth . It is pure unitary consciousness wherein awareness of the world and of multiplicity is completely obliterated . It is ineffable peace . It is the Supreme Good . It is One without a second . It is the Self . ( Mandukya Upanishad , 7 ) 9
Writing in the 3 rd Century AD , the Neoplatonist Plotinus tells us :
The man formed by this mingling with the Supreme must – if he only remember – carry its image impressed upon him : he is become the Unity , nothing within him or without him inducing any diversity , no passion , no outlooking desire , once this ascent is achieved ; reasoning
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