{"schema_version":"bf_book_companion_v1","release_id":"20260416T232012Z","book":{"amazon_purchase_url":"https://www.amazon.com/dp/1681378248?tag=bookfrontier-20","asin":"1681378248","authors":["Simon Critchley"],"book_id":"9781681378244","canonical_url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/mysticism-1681378248","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781681378244.jpg?v=20260416T232012Z%3A2026-04-16T23%3A20%3A12Z","description":"A probing, inspiring exploration of mysticism not as religious practice but as a mode of experience and way of life by one of the most provocative philosophical thinkers of our time. Why mysticism? It has been called “experience in its most intense form,” and in his new book the philosopher Simon Critchley poses a simple question to the reader: Wouldn’t you like to taste this intensity? Wouldn’t you like to be lifted up and out of yourself into a sheer feeling of aliveness, both your life and those of the creatures that surround you? If so, it might be well worthwhile trying to learn what is meant by mysticism and how it can shift, elevate, and deepen the sense of our lives. Mysticism is not primarily a theoretical issue. It's not a question of religious belief but of felt experience and daily practice. A rough and ready definition of mysticism is that it is a way of systematically freeing yourself of your standard habits, your usual fancies and imaginings so as to see what is there and stand with what is there ecstatically . Mysticism is the practical possibility of the achievement of a fluid openness between thought and existence. This is a book about trying to get outside oneself, to lose oneself, while knowing that the self is not something that can ever be fully lost. It is also a book about Julian of Norwich, Anne Carson, Annie Dillard, T.S. Eliot, and Nick Cave. It shows how listening to music can be secular worship. It is a book full of learning, puzzlement, pleasure, and wonder. It opens the door to mysticism not as something unworldly and unimaginable, but as a way of life.","forthcoming":false,"isbn13":"9781681378244","publication_date":"20241029","publisher":"New York Review Books","slug":"mysticism","subtitle":"","title":"Mysticism"},"discovery":{"categories":{"all":[{"bisac_code":"OCC011020","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Prayer & Healing","score":0.7743,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"LIT025040","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Religion in Literature","score":0.7732,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"REL067020","confidence_band":"medium","label":"The Christian Soul","score":0.75,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"hint":[{"bisac_code":"OCC011020","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Prayer & Healing","score":0.7743,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"LIT025040","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Religion in Literature","score":0.7732,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"REL067020","confidence_band":"medium","label":"The Christian Soul","score":0.75,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"publisher":[{"bisac_code":"LIT025040","confidence_band":"high","label":"Religion in Literature","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"PHI035000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Philosophy Writing","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"REL047000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Mysticism","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"}]},"genres":[{"label":"Prayer & Healing","score":0.7743,"slug":"prayer-healing"},{"label":"Religion in Literature","score":0.7732,"slug":"religion-in-literature"},{"label":"The Christian Soul","score":0.75,"slug":"the-christian-soul"}],"reader_fit":["Good for readers who enjoy Prayer & Healing","Good for readers interested in personal development","Good for fans of Philosophy"],"related_lists":[],"series":null,"similar_books":[{"authors":["Simone Weil"],"book_id":"9780061718960","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780061718960.jpg?v=20260416T232012Z%3A2026-04-16T23%3A20%3A12Z","score":14.7448,"title":"Waiting for God","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780061718960"},{"authors":["Pierre Teilhard de Chardin"],"book_id":"9780060937256","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780060937256.jpg?v=20260416T232012Z%3A2026-04-16T23%3A20%3A12Z","score":14.6638,"title":"The Divine Milieu","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780060937256"},{"authors":["Ryan Holiday","Stephen Hanselman"],"book_id":"9798217414130","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9798217414130.jpg?v=20260416T232012Z%3A2026-04-16T23%3A20%3A12Z","score":13.7997,"title":"The Daily Stoic 10th Anniversary Edition","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9798217414130"},{"authors":["Ernest Holmes","Ernest Shurtleff Holmes"],"book_id":"9780399162244","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780399162244.jpg?v=20260416T232012Z%3A2026-04-16T23%3A20%3A12Z","score":12.322,"title":"Your Spiritual Power","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780399162244"},{"authors":["William James"],"book_id":"9798880922253","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9798880922253.jpg?v=20260416T232012Z%3A2026-04-16T23%3A20%3A12Z","score":12.292,"title":"Varieties of Religious Experience: a Study in Human Nature","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9798880922253"},{"authors":["Mark Vernon"],"book_id":"9781789041941","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781789041941.jpg?v=20260416T232012Z%3A2026-04-16T23%3A20%3A12Z","score":11.5632,"title":"A Secret History of Christianity","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781789041941"},{"authors":["Lyanda Lynn Haupt"],"book_id":"9780316426480","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780316426480.jpg?v=20260416T232012Z%3A2026-04-16T23%3A20%3A12Z","score":11.5036,"title":"Rooted","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780316426480"},{"authors":["René Girard"],"book_id":"9780801822186","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780801822186.jpg?v=20260416T232012Z%3A2026-04-16T23%3A20%3A12Z","score":11.3586,"title":"Violence and the Sacred","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780801822186"}],"topics":[{"evidence_refs":["keyword:philosophy"],"label":"Philosophy","score":0.1142,"slug":"philosophy"},{"evidence_refs":["keyword:literary criticism"],"label":"Literary","score":0.0955,"slug":"literary"},{"evidence_refs":["keyword:essays"],"label":"Essays","score":0.0469,"slug":"essays"},{"evidence_refs":["phrase_map_match"],"label":"Personal Development","score":0.0462,"slug":"personal-development"}],"what_you_get":["Themes: Philosophy, Literary, Essays.","Reading lane: Prayer & Healing and Religion in Literature.","Publisher: New York Review Books."]},"llm_signals":null,"source_presence":{"amazon":true,"book_detail":true,"goodreads":true,"llm_signals":false,"similarity_seed":true},"stats":{"amazon_ratings_count":0,"goodreads_ratings_count":588,"goodreads_reviews_count":123,"quality_score":0.9044}}