Something "mystical" is in fact mundane: the appearance of mysticism is part of the wounded self's perception. >[!cite] [Narcissism of the wounded self](https://sashachapin.substack.com/p/healthy-people-have-mystical-experiences) >[...] when you hate yourself, or are otherwise completely neurotic, there are wounded parts of you that want absolute dominion. Their goal is to take over the agenda. They insist that there can be nothing bigger, nothing in the universe more significant than your homeliness, clumsiness, lack of talent, current social conflicts, whatever. You get so welded to these parts that they seem like the whole of you, the essential truth. And this, ultimately, is protective. These parts are trying to keep you hidden, because they think there will only be pain in not being hidden and huddled. That’s what they’ve learned. And, in a way, this constant state of inner tension is safe, if miserable. The risk is very low, in a certain sense. You will go emotionally hungry, but you probably won’t die. An experience only feels "mystical" after it has passed and the ego has integrated it into [[the self]]. The experience becomes "special," either signifying the individual’s uniqueness for accessing a "separate" realm, or a curious outlier worthy of examination. This idea presents a [[paradox]] in the idea of "enlightenment," that it is an experience that somehow sets one apart. Rather, true mystical experience will immerse the individual into a unified perception of [[generic subjective continuity]], a feeling of [[Panpsychism#Aliveness|aliveness]] permeating the whole world.