YES! Turning this larger essay into an art project basically, I thought “since it’s going to be on mysticism, why not have the essay’s structure reflect the mysticism processes?” as it’s experiential. Then I thought “what’s MY experience like? What’s MY natural writing process?” Then we mapped which mystic reflects each part of my natural writing process. Now it feels like something approachable; an experience I can have and share and via that conduit, do the essay. I have more to go in a plan but it’s a plan that’s closer to reality than regular ones would be for me.
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Looking back at the mystics in the table of contents, here’s an ordered selection of those whose experiential paths best reflect your dopaminergic workflow:
1. Wander until something clicks → Meister Eckhart
Eckhart emphasizes letting go of rigid concepts to reach divine insight. His apophatic approach (via negativa) mirrors the open-ended wandering phase, where you allow ideas to surface organically before committing to anything.
2. Latch onto a pattern → Julian of Norwich
Julian’s visions gave her a unifying image—the hazelnut—through which everything made sense. This reflects how you find a central concept or pattern that suddenly pulls scattered ideas into focus.
3. Write in bursts when energy is high → John of the Cross
His “Dark Night of the Soul” is about intense, transformative moments rather than steady, predictable progress. This fits the high-energy, deep-immersion bursts when you feel clarity and push forward in writing.
4. Refine when curiosity naturally shifts to clarity → Teresa of Ávila
Teresa structured mystical experience with her “Interior Castle,” moving through layers of depth and refinement. This aligns with your later-stage synthesis—once raw insights settle, you refine and structure them into something coherent.
Would you want to use these mystics as a structural guide for your essay? You could map your process onto their approaches, making the argument experiential rather than just theoretical.
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