Agehananda Bharati
Swāmī Agehānanda Bhāratī (अगेहानन्द भारती) (Vienna, April 20, 1923 – New York, May 14, 1991) was the monastic name of Leopold Fischer, professor of Anthropology at Syracuse University. His book The Light at the Center' was written from his dual perspective as a professional anthropologist and a professional and practicing mystic.
List of Mystics
Mystics > Agehananda Bharati, Alan Watts, Bernard of Clairvaux, Emanuel Swedenborg, Howard Thurman, Ibn al-'Arabi, Julian of Norwich, Maria Sabina, Martin Prechtel, Michael Harner, Oscar Ichazo, Romain Rolland, Shihäb al-Din al-Suhrawardi, Thomas Merton
Notes
Chairman of Anthropology Dept. at Syracuse University during the 70s.[1]
"Being both a self-professed mystic and an anthropologist, Bharati offers us a methodology of "participation rather than 'participant observation'"—a radical anthropology (p. 11)."[2]
A practicing mystic, and author of The Light at the Center[3].
Takes an "emic" or insider's approach, as opposed to an "etic" or outsiders approach.[4] Suggests that the best way to approach research is via the perspective of the insider, "...by one who is an insider, an initiate, a professional in the field of mysticism, but who is also a professional social scientists and hence a social critic."[5].
Had three Zero Point experiences, recalled in The Light at the Center.[6]. One when he was twelve (p. 39), another as an older adult (p. 40) that provided the aham brahmaami experience (Ascension Experience), .
Says that the ability to connect, the "mystical experience is part of a pan-human skill, which some reject and suppress, others kindle and manipulate....I find all human beings have the same innate competence for the ecstatic-mystical experience. But just as in language, where by the time the child is six it has effectively blocked out all forms of speech the community does not recognize, the child also loses his ability to implement his innate competence for the "zero experience" of mysticism." [7].
Footnotes
- ↑ Katz, N. “The Light at the Center: Context and Pretext of Modern Mysticism.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 45, no. 2 (June 1977): 260–61.
- ↑ Quoted in Katz, N. “The Light at the Center: Context and Pretext of Modern Mysticism.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 45, no. 2 (June 1977): 261
- ↑ Bharati, Agehananda. The Light at the Center: Context and Pretext of Modern Mysticism. Ross Eriikson, 1976.
- ↑ Saliba, John A. “The Light at the Center: Context and Pretext of Modern Mysticism.” Horizons 4, no. 1 (1977): 150–51.
- ↑ Bharati, Agehananda. The Light at the Center: Context and Pretext of Modern Mysticism. Ross Eriikson, 1976. p. 11.
- ↑ Bharati, Agehananda. The Light at the Center: Context and Pretext of Modern Mysticism. Ross Erikson, 1976. p. 39-47.
- ↑ Bharati, Agehananda. The Light at the Center: Context and Pretext of Modern Mysticism. Ross Erikson, 1976. p. 5-6.
