Psychology of Mystical Consciousness

Carl Albrecht (1902-1965), a German medical doctor, psychotherapist developed an innovative method of meditation (based on `Autogenic Training’) which allowed practitioners to speak while immersed in altered states of consciousness. When practising the method himself, “a path towards the secret within” was opened up to him, culminating in several profound mystical experiences. As a scientist he endeavoured to give account for the phenomenon rationally. He compiled the recorded `spontaneous utterances’ obtained from subjects (and his own, recorded by his wife), intending to recapture the domain of mystical consciousness that is accessible to empirical investigation, i.e. within the confines imposed by language and method, by employing the method of psychological phenomenology. Psychology of Mystical Consciousness offers a vibrant and sincere account of Albrecht’s meticulous empirical research into the nature of human consciousness, resulting in one of the most comprehensive psychological phenomenologies of mystical (and non-mystical) states currently available.Franz K. Woehrer, was associate professor of English Literature and Cultural Studies at the University of Vienna, Austria (until his retirement in 2015). He studied English, psychology and philosophy at the University of Vienna (MA 1977, PhD 1982). His doctoral thesis Thomas Traherne: The Growth of a Mystic’s Mind was published in 1982. He spent two years in England as a lecturer and research student when working on his doctoral and post-doctoral theses. His habilitation was approved in 2000 and earned him the post of associate professor at the University of Vienna. His interdisciplinary study on the varieties of mystical experience in 17th c. English religious poetry was published in 2003 entitled Phänomenologie Mystischer Erfahrung in der Englischen Lyrik des 17. Jhdts. Versuch einer Interdisziplinären Hermeneutik Erlebnismystischer Texte. His methodological approach was mainly based on the studies of Carl Albrecht. In 2013 he edited (jointly with John Bak, University of Lorraine) British Literature and Spirituality: Theoretical Approaches and Transdisciplinary Readings. He is currently working on the English edition of the sequel to Albrecht’s Psychology of Mystical Consciousness, Das Mystische Erkennen, which will be published in 2019.