The inexpressibility of mysticism; a study of the arguments concerning the object of mysticism, the experiencer and experience

The inexpressibility of mystical intuitions and experiences refers to the impossibility of expressing mystical experience in words. The following are some of the arguments that have been posed in order to prove this claim: the existential non-transferability of feeling, the symbolic nature of mystical language, the metaphorical theory, the non-conceptuality of mystical experience, the indefinability of mystical experience, the non-restrictedness of mystical experience, the lower rank of the meanings of the purports of words in relation to intuitional meanings, spiritual annihilation, the impossibility of homonyms and shared meanings and transience with approaches concerning the essence of the experiencer, the essence of experience and the essence of the object of experience. This article describes, analyzes and assesses the abovementioned arguments. The conclusion drawn from this study is that the arguments are mostly unable to present a correct meaning of inexpressibility and some issues within them have rendered them void and despite their similarity to inexpressibility, they have some fundamental with it; likewise some of
the premises were false and some others had some critical issues. Therefore one cannot assume the impossibility of inexpressibility of mysticism according to these arguments.