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If the mystical perspective offers a vision of unity or oneness with whatever in a nonmystical perspective seems to be separated or alienated from the self, then one possible interpretation of the modern—and postmodern—sense of alienation and absence is the loss of this perspective. This observation appears to be valid in the context of popular culture as well as on the level of theoretical academic thinking. As far as popular culture is concerned, in his book titled Mysticism: Guide for the Perplexed, Paul Oliver explains that contemporary interest in different versions and trends of mysticism has to do with the anxiety of living in a world "which is fragmenting more and more and showing more and more signs of diversity." The remedy for this, he says, is not yet more fragmentation, but, on the contrary, a feeling of unity or unification. "It may be," he notes, "that people are trying to find confidence and reassurance in the idea that they are linked to the rest of humanity, and that they are linked to the rest of the natural world on the planet. This idea of connection and linkage is central to mysticism." "For many of us," he adds, "the idea that we are part of something greater, which is also a part of us in return, is a reassuring idea."

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-45069-8_19

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