Practical Mysticism

The ideas of Practcial Mysticsim were embodied in the eponymous 1915 work of Evelyn Underhill. In that work Underhill sets out her belief spiritual life is part of our human nature and as such is available to every human being. Underhill's practical mysticism is secular rather than religious since "it is a natural human activity."Underhil defines her meaning of Practical Mysticism in the following paragraph:“ Therefore it is to a practical mysticism that the practical man is here invited: to a training of his latent faculties, a bracing and brightening of his languid consciousness, an emancipation from the fetters of appearance, a turning of his attention to new levels of the world. Thus he may become aware of the universe that the spiritual artist is always trying to disclose to the race. This amount of mystical perception---this 'ordinary contemplation', as the specialist call it,---is possible to all men: without it, they are not wholly alive. It is a natural human activity ”Underhill's book was written at the outbreak of World War I, at a time of "struggle and endurance, practical sacrifices, difficult and long continuous effort" when practical mysticism was the activity needed most.