We Are all Mystics

We’re all mystics, whether we know it or not.

Mirabai Starr, a gifted author, scholar and translator, entered more deeply into the spiritual life after several experiences of tragedy and deep grief. Her older brother, Matty, died of a brain tumor when he was 10 and Mirabai was 7. “Death has always been my doorway to the sacred and continues to be for better or worse,” she said in an open and honest conversation on “The Spiritual Life” podcast. “Matty’s death felt-the only way I could describe it is holy. It felt holy to me, even though it was incredibly sad.”

In all my years as a Jesuit, I’ve heard only a few people describe a particular death as “holy.” Certainly, I have heard people speak of death with reverence and speak about God’s presence during grief, but rarely like what Mirabai shared about her brother’s death.

another searing moment came at the terrible death of her daughter, Jenny, from a car accident, at the age of 14. Through some strange providence, Jenny died on the very day Mirabai’s translation of Dark Night of the Soul, by St. John of the Cross, was published. “Something in me recognized that because I love my child,” Mirabai said, “I didn’t want to turn away from her even in death, that I would be present for the experience of losing her as an act of loving her, as an act of devotion to her.”

Not everyone who has painful experiences like these finds their way to God.Some people shut God out, naturally angry at a seemingly cruel and inhuman God. Others are simply unaware of god’s presence. Moreover, my conversation with Mirabai Starr covers aspects of life beyond pain and grief. We talk, in essence, about her whole rich spiritual life, which has inspired thousands of readers and students over the years.

Both Mirabai and I agree that mystical experiences are not the exclusive province of saints and mystics. you don’t have to be st. John of the Cross or St. Teresa of Ávila, to take two of Mirabai’s favorite saints, to enjoy a mystical union with