Allen Ginsberg and the Theology of Eclectic Mysticism
Allen Ginsberg and the Theology of Eclectic Mysticism

Summary/Abstract: Allen Ginsberg’s contribution to the crystallization of the spiritual awareness of the Beat Generation was one of his life-time projects stirred by his becoming increasingly interested in deciphering more meaningful relationships between mind and body, microcosm and macrocosm, between the world experienced through senses and the incognoscible world. Ginsberg’s appreciation of Judaism, Buddhism and Krishnaism represented the incipit of an Eastward trend in American faith. From Judaism and Blakean revelation to consciousness-expanding drugs and Buddhist principles, from Indian gurus to Krishnaism, Ginsberg developed a new type of spiritual revelation of eclectic nature. Abel to reconcile apparently opposed concepts such as sacred and profane, body and soul, matter and spirit, nirvana and samsara, the poet created not only a philosophy of spiritual insight but also some of America’s best known profane works which contain the most energetic affirmation of the sacred .

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