MYSTICAL STUDIES OVERCOMING EGOCENTRIC CONSCIOUSNESS AND TRANSFORMATION OF MAN AND SOCIETY

The object of the research in this article is a mystical phenomenon. The interest in the mystical phenomenon has been increasing in the conditions of the modern spiritual crisis in the face of national, religious, political, and other conflicts. One of the universal features of the mystical experience is a qualitative transformation of the mental life of a man. There are two direction vectors of mystical experience - psychological (introvertive) and social (extravertive). At the heart of the mystical experience is a gradual transition from egocentric consciousness to enlightening, which contributes to the transformation of the human person. Mystical practice can be considered as “transegocentric” (“the one who overcomes the Ego”). The consequence is to educate a mental sane self-actualized person. Mystical traditions offer four basic methods of mystical psychopractice of overcoming egocentric consciousness: disciplinary asceticism, psychosomatic exercises, meditative contemplation and love-trust to the Absolute. Egocentric consciousness acquires several massive social forms: national, racial, religious, social, and others. Mystical experience presupposes tolerant relation to the representatives of another culture, religious confession and nationality. It sets the limits of tolerance, which is caused by the need to limit the egocentric consciousness.