Comparison of "mystical experience" from William James and Walter Stace' point of view with Rumi's view

Abstract

This paper recognizes Rumi's views on the subjects that constitute the nature of mystical experiences, which has been less considered by researchers and has provided evidence to test the theory of researchers such as William James and Walter Stace in the field of mystical experiences. First, some explanations about mystical experiences are presented, then, respectively, the common characteristics of mystical experiences from the perspective of James and Stace, and by summing up the opinions of these researchers, eight attributes have been considered for mystical experiences and finally compared with Rumi's verses, which have either confirmed the existence of that characteristic in Rumi's mystical experiences or have been silent about that characteristic or this. These verses have shown the opposite of the feature in question. In each of these stages, the summation of Rumi's general opinions about it has been done as much as possible.