نشریه مطالعات معنوی
پیاپی 24 (پاییز و زمستان 1396)

The present study aims to discuss about positive psychology as the most important achievement of post-World War. Positive psychology has emerged as a result of increasing human pretentiousness dealing with difficulties of life in modern world. "Spirituality" - in century we are living in - has become such a gem that its ability for treatment has been proven. Mental health, through the use of positive thinking and through attention to the pleasant and good-natured aspects of life, has helped human mind in hardships. Wayne Walter Dyer, whose name is associated with positive psychology and spirituality, while considering the true aspect of man and soul, considered to the failures of life and the difficulty of the day as the supreme blessing that God, takes mankind to perfection and maturity by them. Although he succeeded in promoting his spiritual thoughts to the American community, by separating spirituality from religion, he ultimately converted to a subtlety toward the basis of spirituality, bringing together the material and transatlantic aspect without regard to the principle of similarity. The method of this research is descriptive-analytical. At the end of this research, the position of true spirituality, its structure and its role in treatment have been clarified.

Spirituality without Religion is expanding in its various sectarian and cultural forms. Identifying the various aspects of this phenomenon can be useful in understanding its distinctions with religious forms of spirituality. In the present article, after the typology of different types of new religions, we try to identify types of contemporary spirituality by using the language of metaphor. In this research, the Siobhan Chandler's typology of metaphors was introduced and analyzed. Then, using the findings of this typology, the status of one of the important types of contemporary spirituality, “Fluid Spirituality”, is identified among all kinds of spirituality. In the final part of the paper, in order to provide a clearer picture of this phenomenon, we attempt to distinguish its place among similar phenomena. The finding of the present study is that, firstly, the fluid spirituality in its present form is a completely new phenomenon; secondly, this type of spirituality, although widely spoken, is less widely seen and less studied due to its fluidity and its ability to formulate in different shapes.

The Jehovah's Witnesses movement is one of the contemporary religious movements in Christianity that has many claims about the reappearance of Jesus Christ (AS) and claims that only those who seek Jehovah's Witnesses movement will go to paradise. The present article aims to study a hypocritical critique on the one hand and a mystical critique of the pathology of the mystical-religious experiences based on the views of Ibn Arabi and his students criticizing the methods of mystical journey and the role of the leader in the Jehovah's Witnesses movement on the other hand. With a pathetic look on this movement, it can be obtained against monopoly claims and statements in movements such as Jehovah's Witnesses, the tradition of Islamic mysticism based on the teachings of Ibn Arabi, is capable of systematically processing the esoteric mystical journey. By preserving the main religious elements, he will place the seeker not only to leave in a semantic suspension, but also to bring him to the destination.

Since man has been called human has two dimensions: rational and emotional. In new ages, despite the availability of many possibilities in material life, the need to spirituality can be seen more than other periods in the history of human life. It’s because, although mankind received to the progressive technology in new centuries but it does not meet the spiritual needs of mankind. After having reduced their power to the most important human emotional need, the West countries that have removed or diminished religious attitudes from life and replaced instrumental rationality, import the spirituality from the East countries. Philosophical thought, in particular the transcendental philosophy of Sadra, which characterized by the arrangement of three categories of religion, spirituality and rationality, can be an appropriate and moderate response to the vital human need in present days and in the Iranian society. In line with the globalization of intellectual culture, Sadra's thinking system based on Iranian Islamic culture is one of the best models, especially for the knowledge of the society.

The mystical experience is important in terms of belonging to the religious and, in some cases, non-religious domain, and also because of its spiritual and epistemic consequence. This reason appears the necessity of discussing and understanding the Islamic mystical experience. The present paper, by asking the question "What is the nature of Islamic mystical experience and its characteristics," has tried to find an appropriate answer to it by analyzing the content and describing the mystical data. For this purpose, the nature of Islamic mystical experience is explained on the basis of ontology, cosmology, and anthropology of Islamic mysticism, and then its characteristics are defined. Accordingly, Islamic mystical experience is related to the outside world of empiricist. This Feature gives us the attribute of universality, although it has a differential property with respect to the individual capabilities of the empiricist. The equality of the existential levels of man with degrees of the universe yields the characteristic of the possession and realization of these experiences. Difficulty is another characteristic of the Islamic mystical experience, which is sometimes confused with Ineffability. Also, the context-based feature that exists only in formal experiences provides a field of error for the empiricist, but these errors are separated by certain measures. Thus, the present paper, by presenting a specific analysis and explanation of the Islamic mystical experience, provides different characteristics of other mystical experiences.

Explaining the path of mystical conduct and also the explanation of its components by approaching the verses and hadiths are infrastructure for a journey to God. Since we are faced with elements such as mystic, pathway, one the path is to him, and mystical journey, scientific-research on meaning and the components of the path of mystical journey and also answering to the central question that what components the path of mystical journey should have, is necessary. The present paper responds to this fundamental question that the nature of the path of mystical journey will be clear in its light. The outcomes of this paper are as follows: the essentiality and intensity of conduct in the way, there is only one right way that is multi-stage, the need for a seeker to a teacher or trainer in the path of conduct and its ultimate goal. It is obvious to say that the components of mystical journey are expressed in Quran, tradition, transcendent wisdom and also divine mysticism.

Practical mysticism as a method of mysticism is based on universal principles that includes all practical systems in various religions and denominations. There are also specific foundations in divine religions, including Islam, which in the first part of the article refers to these principles, the common aspects in all systems of practical mysticism, the common aspects of mystical religious systems, Islamic mystical systems and Shia mystical systems. Another important point is the relationship between practical mysticism and the basics foundations in theoretical mysticism. Accordingly, in the second part of the article, first, in general, and then, with the mention to three important examples we examined this influence. Three important examples are the effect of pantheism, divine appearance, and particular point in the practical Muslim mystics.