Among the prevailing types of theories that attempt to account for the existence of love there are: psychological theories, the vast majority of which consider love to be very healthy behavior ; there are evolutionary theories which hold that love is part of the process of natural selection ; there are spiritual theories which may, for instance consider love to be a gift from God ; there are also theories that consider love to be an unexplainable mystery, very much like a mystical experience.

Traditional historians ( for example, the 17th century Tibetan Tāranātha ), aware of the chronological difficulties involved, account for the anachronism via a variety of theories, such as the propagation of later writings via mystical revelation.

The prevailing types of theories attempting to account for the existence of humour include psychological theories, the vast majority of which consider humour-induced behaviour to be very healthy ; spiritual theories, which may, for instance, consider humour to be a " gift from God "; and theories which consider humour to be an unexplainable mystery, very much like a mystical experience.

In 1969 the writer John Michell revived the term " ley lines ", associating it with spiritual and mystical theories about alignments of land forms, drawing on the Chinese concept of feng shui.

Revelation of the Veiled was written in response to the request of one Abu Sa ' eed Al-Hujwiri who put the following questions to him: " Explain to me the true meaning of the Path of Sufism and the nature of the stations ' ( maqamat ) of the Sufis, and explain their doctrines and saying, and make clear to me their mystical allegories, and the nature of Divine Love and how it is manifested in human hearts, and why the intellect is unable to reach the essence thereof, and why the soul recoils from the reality thereof, and why the spirit is lulled in the purity thereof ; and explain the practical aspect of Sufism which are connected with these theories.

It ranged from theories of mystical forces to mere descriptions of a general trend in development due to natural limitations of either the germinal material or the environment ... By 1910, however most who subscribed to orthogenesis hypothesized some physical rather than metaphysical determinant of orderly change.

In the same line of thinking Alfred Rosenberg, the Nazi ideologue, stressed the other-worldly, spiritual aspect of Hitler's racial theories: ` The life of a race does not represent a logically-developed philosophy nor even the unfolding of a pattern according to natural law, but rather the development of a mystical synthesis, an activity of soul, which cannot be explained rationally .`

Thus, it is no mystical intuition, but an analyzable conception to say that man and his tradition can `` fall out of existence ''.

One of the stronger influences is her love of the mystical and mysterious.

Elfhame or Elfland, is portrayed in a variety of ways in these ballads and stories, most commonly as mystical and benevolent, but also at times as sinister and wicked.

In the fictional world of Ghosts of Albion, Queen Bodicea is one of three Ghosts who once were mystical protectors of Albion and assists the current protectors with advice and knowledge.

A special characteristic common in these mystical denominations is the belief in reincarnation.

A component of panendeism is " experiential metaphysics " – the idea that a mystical component exists within the framework of panendeism, allowing the seeker to experience a relationship to Deity through meditation, prayer or some other type of communion.

Doctor Angelicus, St. Thomas Aquinas ( 1225-1274 ), considered by the Catholic Church to be its greatest medieval theologian, is girded by angels with a mystical belt of purity after his Chastity | proof of chastity.

The spiritual tradition of Dominic's Order is punctuated not only by charity, study and preaching, but also by instances of mystical union.

Although the ultimate attainment for this type of mysticism is union with God, it is not necessarily visionary, nor does it hope only for ecstatic experiences ; instead, mystical life is successful if it is imbued with charity.

It is important to understand, however, that for these mystics it was possible to pursue mystical life without the visions and voices that are usually associated with such a relationship with God.

The center of all mystical experience is, of course, Christ.

The elf makes many appearances in ballads of English and Scottish origin, as well as folk tales, many involving trips to Elphame or Elfland ( the Álfheim of Norse mythology ), a mystical realm which is sometimes an eerie and unpleasant place.

The mystical microcosmic, of which Elizabeth David and M. F. K. Fisher are the masters, is essentially poetic, and turns every remembered recipe into a meditation on hunger and the transience of its fulfillment.

Far from glorifying its subject, it is a mystical contemplation, a horrified warning, and a prayer for salvation.

During the Middle Ages, passages from the Sefer Yetzirah ( Book of Creation ) were studied as a means to attain the mystical ability to create and animate a golem, although there is little in the writings of Jewish mysticism that supports this belief.

Some identify two forms of gematria: the " revealed " form, which is prevalent in many hermeneutic methods found throughout Rabbinic literature, and the " mystical " form, a largely Kabbalistic practice.

The reversal is also a fallacy ( not to be confused with the inverse gambler's fallacy ) in which a gambler may instead decide that tails are more likely out of some mystical preconception that fate has thus far allowed for consistent results of tails.

This process as described by Gregory is the public manifestation of the process of deification ( theosis ), which leads to a spiritual elevation and mystical union with God.

Indeed there is not a single mention of a mystical illness in the entirety of the Hippocratic Corpus.

Halakha is often contrasted with Aggadah, the diverse corpus of rabbinic exegetical, narrative, philosophical, mystical, and other " non-legal " literatures.

At the same time, since writers of Halakha may draw upon the aggadic and even mystical literature, there is a dynamic interchange between the genres.

The story of the Wounded King's mystical fasting is not unique ; several saints were said to have lived without food besides communion, for instance Saint Catherine of Genoa.

The schism was between the various ' group thinks ' within the kabbalistic mystical communities of the descendants of the French and German Jews called at some point Ashkenazi, but more accurately should be described as the diverse Yiddish speaking world.

Psilocybin mushrooms have been reported as facilitating profound and life-changing insights often described as mystical experiences.

Francisco Vázquez de Coronado assembled an enormous expedition at Compostela in 1540 – 1542 to explore and find the mystical Seven Golden Cities of Cibola as described by Fray Marcos de Niza.

If the Florentines had any doubt that the promise of worldly power and glory had heavenly sanction Savonarola emphasized this in a sermon of April 1, 1495, in which he described his mystical journey to the Virgin Mary in heaven.

In this respect, the Amber series could perhaps be best described as a philosophical, metaphysical, magical, mystical, fantasy soap opera.

Santino described one method of changing Christian lyrics as a process that transformed “ lyrics that sang of the mystical love of God into lyrics that celebrated the earthly love of woman ”.

When Eliade was 21 years old and publishing his Itinerar spiritual, literary critic Şerban Cioculescu described him as " the column leader of the spiritually mystical and Orthodox youth.

The syllable " om " is first described as all-encompassing mystical entity in the Upanishads.

An early reference to the Gremlin is in aviator Pauline Gowers The ATA: Women with Wings ( 1938 ) where Scotland is described as " gremlin country ", a mystical and rugged territory where scissor-wielding gremlins cut the wires of biplanes when unsuspecting pilots were about.

Czartak's program may be described as a mystical naiveté that joined a love of nature with a disgust for modern civilization.

Nikodemos, in his introduction, described the collected texts as " a mystical school of inward prayer " which could be used to cultivate the inner life and to " attain the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

Although derived from his experience of Hindu mysticism, and referred to as ' mystical socialism ', his thoughts parallel those of several writers in the field of psychology and sociology at the start of the twentieth century, such as Boris Sidis, Sigmund Freud and Wilfred Trotter who all recognised that society puts ever increasing pressure on the individual that can result in mental and physical illnesses such as neurosis and the particular nervousness which was then described as neurasthenia.

Romain Rolland described the mystical states achieved by Ramakrishna and other mystics as an "' oceanic ' sentiment ", one which Rolland had also experienced.

The idea is rooted in common worldwide religious accounts of the afterlife in which the soul's journey or " ascent " is described in such terms as " an ecstatic .., mystical or out-of body experience, wherein the spiritual traveller leaves the physical body and travels in his / her subtle body ( or dreambody or astral body ) into ‘ higher ’ realms ".

Abulafia ’ s Kabbalah inspired a series of writings which can be described as part of his prophetic Kabbalah, namely, as striving to attain extreme forms of mystical experiences.

His lyrics have been described as intensely personal and mystical, incorporating recurrent themes from his own personal mythos, and his songwriting and singing have been compared ( usually favourably ) to Syd Barrett and early Pink Floyd, referred by Ka-Spel, as being more a folk coincidence, not a direct influence ... Ka-Spel have mentioned so diverse influences and musical references as: Xenakis, Beatles, Otomo Yoshihide, Radiohead, Nurse With Wound, ( early ) David Bowie, Brainticket, Can, ( early ) The Residents, Magma, Ilicht, Es, Throbbing Gristle, etc.

The nature of these powers has been described in various ways, including the superficial " alien radiation " explanation of his early appearances, the reconstruction of his body by aliens with " morphogenetic grafts " at the cellular level, and currently, mystical access to a " morphogenetic field " created by all living creatures, also known as " the Red ".

Countless observers described how patients in such a condition displayed what was perceived by contemporaries as psychic abilities, including intuitions in general, hypersensitivity, precognition, clairvoyance and supposed mystical visions of higher worlds and divine realities, and a vast literature ensued.

Vector Sigma is described as a repository of mystical power, vital to restoring Optimus ' memories after he used the Matrix of Leadership to defeat Unicron.

In addition, fidchell, as described in the legends, often has a mystical or divinatory aspect to it.

Psychologist and Philosopher William James described four characteristics of religious / mystical experience in The Varieties of Religious Experience.

Dark Night of the Soul further describes the ten steps on the ladder of mystical love, previously described by Saint Thomas Aquinas and in part by Aristotle.

The purpose of these practices were explained by John Cassian, a Desert Father, who described the goal of psalmody ( the outward recitation of scripture ) and asceticism as the ascent to deep mystical prayer and mystical contemplation.