Mystical God

Each of the major religions has its mystical sub-group. Mysticism, in the context of belief in God, frequently involves the experience of union or direct communion with "ultimate reality", and the belief that direct knowledge of God, spiritual truth, or ultimate reality can be attained through subjective experience as intuition, revelation, or insight.

Judaism

Kabbalists believe that God is neither matter nor spirit, but is the creator of both. In their study of Divine nature Kabbalists envision two aspects of God: God Himself, who is ultimately unknowable and beyond perception, and the revealed aspect of God that created the universe, preserves the universe, acts on the universe, and interacts with mankind. Kabbalists speak of the first aspect of God as "the infinite", "endless", or "that which has no limits". In this view, nothing can be said about the essence of God. This aspect of God is impersonal. God's second aspect, however, is at least partially accessible to human thought. Kabbalists believe that these two aspects are not contradictory but complement one another.

Kabbalists believe that all of creation and existence is a part of God - the part that we humans can see, but that there is much more invisible and imperceptible to us. Similarly, Hasidic Jews believe that God contains creation, but not vise- versa. They are not synonymous. In this, it seems to be panentheistic.

Islam

The history of Islam has its mystics, but in modern Islam, Sufi encompasses most of Islamic mysticism. Sufism, a centuries old tradition within Islam, sprang up largely in reaction to the worldliness that infected Islam when its leaders became the powerful and wealthy rulers of multitudes of people and were infected by the influences of foreign cultures. Sufism is a mystical, ascetic approach to Islam that attempts to provide direct personal experience of God by making use of "intuitive and emotional faculties" that one must be trained to use. Sufis believe that it is possible to draw closer to God and to more fully embrace the Divine Presence in this life, and not have to wait for the afterlife for this to happen.

Sufi practitioners engage in several important rituals involving meditation, chanting, and rhythmic dancing movements. During meditation, disciples repeats the attributes of God until they become saturated with god. This ritual supposedly shatters and transforms them. As they spin and whirl around for hours, they reach a state of ecstasy, purity, and probably dizziness where the heart is only conscious of god. The seeker surrenders his or herself to total abandonment -- a total emptying of self.

Christianity

Whereas traditional Christian doctrine maintains that God dwells in all Christians and that they can experience God directly through belief in Jesus, Christian mysticism aspires to apprehend spiritual truths by emulation of Christ. It is traditionally practiced through the disciplines of prayer, meditation, fasting, asceticism, and service to others.

A book written in the middle ages, The Cloud of the Unknowing, advises that one should seek God, not through knowledge and intellect, but through contemplation, motivated by love, and stripped of all thought - in other words, prolonged meditation.

Modern Christian mystics seek direct, non-intellectual communion with God. They may honor the scriptures, the traditional teachings, and the community of worship, but primarily seek to know God directly through their own mystical experience, much as Paul did on the road to Damascus.