Humans are probably the only species that has the neurological capacity for mysticism. Those neurological circuits are critical for such thought processes as wonderment, reflection, search for meaning and without them much philosophical thought would never occur. This capacity for mysticism is expressed in many different ways. Religious belief and ritual has been until relatively recently the primary mystical expression for Western civilization. Recently pagan earth and celebrity worship complete with objects of veneration such as red carpets, annual feasts such as award ceremonies, anthropomorphic projections on animals, astrology, yoga, UFO fixations, ghosts, voodoo etc. has replaced traditional religion as the modalities in which mysticism is expressed in a neo pagan hedonistic culture.
“It’s so hard to believe in anything anymore. I mean, it’s like, religion, you really can’t take it seriously, because it seems so mythological, it seems so arbitrary...but, on the other hand, science is just pure empiricism, and by virtue of its method, it excludes metaphysics. I guess I wouldn’t believe in anything anymore if it weren’t for my lucky astrology mood watch.”
-Steve Martin