Characteristics of some mystical experience:
- Noesis: something experienced as fundamentally real, proven, obvious or not needing proof.
- Ineffability: beyond being conveyed in language.
- Timelessness: The experience is outside of time, or at least, during the experience, clock time and calendar time feel irrelevant and make no sense.
- Paradox: The binary of true vs. false, so central to modern civilized thinking, breaks down.
Sometimes people choose to pursue mysticism using ceremony, or other practices, other mystical experiences occur spontaneously.
Mysticism can form the basis of a mystic's conception of reality and their sense of themself. The quality and content can vary dramatically among individuals or even over time for one individual. A resilient, inclusive, regenerative culture finds ways of honouring unique experiences.