The False, “Unitive” Model of Mysticism Held by Everyone

Michael Hoffman, 7:30 a.m. August 21, 2025

Crop by Michael Hoffman

Contents:

links work on desktop Chrome/Edge:

My First Post Rebutting the Unity Model of Transcendent Knowledge, in Favor of Fatedness/ Determinism: Nov. 21, 2001

Egodeath.com lacks dates, and dups Egodeath Yahoo Group 2001-Feb 14 2004. Therefore this post from 2001 is there. 1997 spec lacks “unit”.

determinism [as i redefined it] = fatedness = eternalism

The word ‘eternalism’ properly includes personal control aspects/implications.

Proof: Wm James objected to when he rebutted “determinism”. in article 189x “The Dilemma of Determinism” which actually rebuts eternalism, not ultimately rebutting determinism.
https://egodeaththeory.org/2025/04/10/the-dilemma-of-determinism-james-1897-is-against-eternalism-not-causal-chain-determinism/

https://egodeathyahoogroup.wordpress.com/2021/01/09/egodeath-yahoo-group-digest-6-2001-11-11/#message297
Find: unity

“the unity feeling, or the new identification of the mind with stationary
consciousness rather than mental constructs in motion, is not the
fulcrum driving revelation.

The one-word answer for “What is hidden at first, but then revealed
by loose cognition?” is “determinism” or “Fatedness”, not “unity”
or “consciousness”.

The word “determinism” lends itself better to having these ideas attached, than the word “unity” or “love” or “consciousness” or “enlightenment”.

Enlightenment amounts to determinism, more than enlightenment is unity or consciousness.

What is revealed is determinism and its concomitants.

All other proposed single answers leave room for confusion. What
word most forcefully shuts out possibility of
confusion? “Determinism”. Determinism is usually mis-defined as
predictionism and domino-chain causality, instead of the non-
branching singleness, fixity, and even pre-existence of the future.
Still, after correction, “determinism” implies far more principles of
High Religion than do the terms “unity”, “love”, “enlightenment”,
or “truth”.

“Unity” is not the key to high religion. Neither is “consciousness”
or “love”. “Determinism” is the key to the knowledge revealed in
high religion.”

/ end of excerpt from my 2001 post

Latest Kitchens emails

hi-lev goal/mission: 

i wish to make Christian, relational mysticism victorious over Eastern, nondual type mysticism.

* relational model of mysticism  (eg Christian mysticism)  2-level, dependent control.

* unitive model of mysticism <– blecch, i don’t think the actual, psychedl. control-transformation dynamics support this being the central focus, despite ALL writers (other than Christian mystics). 

the Unitive model is related to (a product of) egoic, “monolithic, autonomous control” model. 

This is the poor type of, or model of, “mystical experience” that is expected, by people who merely have the mundane, untransformed, “monolithic, autonomous control” model.

the old theory: unitive.  expected by ppl who have monolithic, autonomous control.  presupposition, foundation of sand.  Greek myth does not at all support this!  neither does art!

the new theory: relational.   end up with “2-level, dependent control” model.  transformed, redeemed.  Greek myth agrees with this.  Art depicts this.

“Solid mission.

“Griffiths et all want a global mono-religion that solves all conflicts, sounds horrific.”

Differentiate: Religious Particularism; Perennialism; Essentialism; Unitive; Relational; Universalist – Stop the False Dilemmas and Limited Options/Groupings

I bleieve universal – a kind of perennail – and a kind of essentiallism. BUT NOT Unitive, that’s the massive difference, like between ‘determinism’ vs. very different ‘eternalism’. Their universal peren. essen. model is WRONG.

I do not believe in J or Christian particularism – though/ but I am saved by blood of Christ in a esoteric way. fear of God, check. 2-level, dependent control

relational mysticism not unitive. but, ‘relational” does not mean particularistic.

MY SCIENTIFIC MODEL IS NOT Christianity PARTI’IC. Nor Jewish particularist as Strass advocates – I reject that aspect of Strass pdf.
Yet I am saved by the blood of Christ. I sat as child in Jewish temple.
No lambs or messiahs – violent or not – were harmed in the making of this theory.

Not their bogus “esotericism”;
esotericism per psychedelic eternalism per the Egodeath theory, rather.

distinct: do not conflate:

My #1 complaint after rereading Strassman pdf: he conflates the hell out of these concepts.

I could make a page containing a copy of Strassman’s critical review of 2015 book by Wm Richards “Sacred Knowledge”, then show how Strassman, many times, conflates and wrongly equates & groups these concepts:

  • universalism/ist
  • particularism
  • perennialism which kind
  • essentialism/ist “
  • Unitive != universalist
  • relational mysticism

sometimes mysticism = Unitive

sometimes mysticism = neutral; both Unitive and Relational

eg: he says Relational mysticism = Judaism — and implies wrongly:
Christianity != relational mysticism.

Instead, against Strass, seems simple and clear to me:

Jewish & Christian mysticism = Relational mysticism, NOT unitive mysticism.

If Richards equates Christian mysticism = Unitive mysticism, that is misrep./invention.

also Strassman like everyone, wrongly contrasts: DMT vs. traditional traditional methods of the mystics.

false dilemmas, galore; the article is an exercise in false dilemmas & groupings/ conflations. So, Richards fails to handle Relational mysticism (like the Egodeath theory’s 2-level, dependent control from eternalism), and, Strassman fails to group things in a viable way to enable my scientific, universalist, perennial of a sort, essentialist of a sort (non-Unitive; my Relational essentialism).

My Science theory of mental model transformation = Relational, not Unitive. It is Relational AND Universalist. Strassman wrongly shuts out that combination. He wrongly says Relational != Universalist — but Greek myth shows he is wrong.

Greek myth, & religious art (the good kind that matches my theory) is Relational mysticism and is Universalist.

Greek myth is Relational mysticism and is Universalist.

Strass acts like Jewish owns Relational. That’s conflation.

First of all, obv, Christianity mysticism is Relational mysticism. immed destroying his wrong way of dividing / grouping the concepts in play.

Really strange, that Strass doesn’t point out the obvious: that Christian mysticism is Relational mysticism eg per R C Zaehner against Huxley’s brand of universalist perennist essentialism.

  • UNITIVE universalist perennist essentialism.
  • RELATIONAL universalist perennist essentialism.

two differeent groupings thus are possible.

The Egodeath theory = the RELATIONAL-mysticism version of universalist perennist essentialism = Scientific, model of mental model transformation from Psilocybin loose cognition.

psychedelic pseudo science = the UNITIVE-mysticism version of universalist perennist essentialism, which is not how Psilocybin transformation actually works. Psilocybin gives a little unitive, then crushes w/ demon/angel teeror-teaching giving producing evanuetually 2-level, dependent control which is relational.

also horrible cliche stupid fallacy:

  • psychedelics = instant expereincee of mysticism
  • tradition traditional methods of the mystics = long-term, difficult.

total false dichot. why not combine options?

  • within a structured Christian framework, do long-term 10 sessions of Psilocybin, do the very hard work to reconfigure mental model about personal control system in relation to the uncontrollable hidden source of control-thoughts.
  • I have one recent printout of 1 article (the only one) that says to consider this “unthinkable” combination that breaks that baloney false dilemma that everyone parrots unthinkingly – ie,
  • The method that mystics ACTUALLY used: repeated/ long-term 10 sessions of Psilocybin within Christian framework to do hard work of mental model transformation, giving 2-level, dependent control model of control and world.
  • mysticism vs. science? which sense?

email 1 to Kafei

Find “Kafei” in new page:
https://egodeaththeory.org/2025/08/21/idea-development-page-31/
and in:
https://egodeaththeory.org/2025/06/11/idea-development-page-30/ – especially see the section:
https://egodeaththeory.org/2025/06/11/idea-development-page-30/#kafeis-initial-total-misunderstanding-of-the-egodeath-theory

… last night’s draft for Kitchens, about your initial thinking the Egodeath theory = domino-chain determinism instead of block-universe eternalism which I think you call The Absolute.Glad to have your contact. 

Need you to weigh in on Unity model of mystical experience.  vs. potential new foundation in psychedelic pseudo science — a control-centered, Balsekar’s no-free-will centered, model of mystical experience instead.  

Balsekar = Advaita, but, Wilber and Andrew Cohen (also Advaita ppl, probably) recoiled b/c only Balsekar put focus on no-free-will.

Ken Wilber never wrote anything on topic of free will vs. determinism (or way better, eternalism).  Wilber eventually in 1990s mag What Is Enlightenment? w/ Cohen, eventually they were shocked to find & recoil against the no-free-will pushed by Balsekar.

So, interesting! Same in East religion as West religion:

Pop rediscovery of eternalism in Western religion

* Western religion: 1997, I discover Reformed Theology / Hyper-Calvinism; then my author Dave Hunt and Christians –

amazingly they all had forgotten Reformed Theology / Calvinism! —

they, 2 years after me, re-discovered and were SHOCKED! SHOCKED! to discover history of theology = asserting no-free-will:

God is the author of evil. 

God is to blame for all bad things. 

Then, Reformed theology exploded.  into pop’y & controversial.

Hunt wrote What Love Is This? book, shocked at Hyper-Calvinism/Reformed theology. 

How could a Christian author never have heard of Reformed theology?! 

It was new to him so late, 1998-ish! 

Dave, thanks for failing to teach me in 1995, basic theology, as a “Christian writer”. 

Ignorant of no-free-will / Reformed theology – basic, for theology.

Pop rediscovery of eternalism in Eastern religion

* Eastern religion: In late 1990s, Wilber & Cohen were SHOCKED! SHOCKED! to find that Balsekar says the central focus of Transcendent Knowledge (mystical enlightenment) is no-free-will.

That’s my understanding, putting the pieces together.

— Cybermonk 

I wouldn’t have resumed using ‘Cybermonk’ except for you; except for Max saying “we are not mystics”, as he had to explain himself later.  

i was SHOCKED! SHOCKED! by Max saying “we are not mystics”, so i restored / reclaimed the use of “Cybermonk” for years.  First used when, 1995??  2000?

Lately moved back to “Michael Hoffman”, recently.  Must keep “Cybermonk” branding alive, not let it die out again.

email 2 to Kafei

thx for (re-) sending me that Strassman PDF.  

I had only read it like twice – now the pieces are coming together tighter.  

I wrote against the Unity model in “Sacred Knowledge” poor book by Richards, in 2015 when I pre-ordered it.

https://egodeathyahoogroup.wordpress.com/2021/01/09/egodeath-yahoo-group-digest-143/#message7377

91 hits on ‘unity’

3 hits on “Sacred Knowledge”

Travis Kitchens interviewed Richards and described him to me today as “a dyed-in-the-wool” follower of the Vivek/ James/ Stace/ Hood wrong, Unitive model of mystical experience.

Unitive experience is merely a component of the experience.  

The actual central focus of the transformation experience is control transformation, producing personal, relational, 2-level, dependent control.

You have read much more than me, of writings of the mystics.  You are the expert there.  I suppose I have read just enough.

2015: “Enlightenment is about cybernetics, not unity”

In 2015 I wrote:

https://egodeathyahoogroup.wordpress.com/2021/01/09/egodeath-yahoo-group-digest-143/#message7377

strassman pdf mentions his book i just got, DMT and the Soul of Prophecy. got it after our church book club had him as guest for autobio new book. club had suggested that book like 6 mo ago. jury is out.

Arnold, “Bullsh!t!”, in Mars Movie “Total Recall”

search youtube
“Total Recall” bullshit
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%22Total+Recall%22+bullshit
too short: but could be good general-use for my purposes, freq. needed:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NppTqCWp-MM

I want the scene from the Mars movie where he takes the hallucination journey pills, to experience a fantasy of being a spy, and then says “b.s.” about what’s real. I’m rusty on the scene/ story/ scenario.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4psKYpfnYs

I Preordered Sacred Knowledge and Fell Asleep, now i know b/c it uses wrong, Unity model

i posted about it
https://egodeathyahoogroup.wordpress.com/2021/01/09/egodeath-yahoo-group-digest-143/ 3x

such a snoozer, i hardly wrote about the book. I HAD HIGH HOPES! BUMMER BOOK FAILS TO DELIVER. b/c Unity model.

Strass review of it is good to read 3 times.

score! i actually say “unity” — 91x! https://egodeathyahoogroup.wordpress.com/2021/01/09/egodeath-yahoo-group-digest-143/#message7366

“sacred knowledge” – 3 hits there.

Strassman Gets Credit, 2018, for Exposing Unity/ Neo-Advaita Model Infesting/ corrupting psychedelic pseudo science

https://www.rickstrassman.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/JPS_Strassman.pdf

i had already read this, and this is one of my sources for — Kafei in July also sent me this link – for name “Swami Vivekananda”.

My church book club had Strassman as a guest, for his new autobio book.

I watched 1-2 YouTube vids of Strassman.

I got his Old Testament = DMT reports book on audiobook, but it seems really choppy, not what I wanted:

I wanted him to present a list of Old Testament mythic/ psychedelic stories/analogies, and how his participants in DMT had same experiences.

Possible Titles for this Article

  • The Reigning False, “Unity” Model of Mysticism (Covert Neo-Advaita), vs. Control-Transformation
Crop by Michael Hoffman, Aug. 20, 2025: 2-Level, Dependent Control with Vulnerability

two other crops:

  • f177 — the above + below it, tower, ossuary, corpse, lifted by two guys
  • equiv: f107 — hand of god controls Jesus lifting guy from ossuary, threatened by demon

This junky draft not even filled in yet = Privileged Early Announcement for Elite Privy Followers

😕 😬 🥺 👀

easiest for me to publish this page first, then fill it in. consider the resulting junk-email to be a priviledge early announcement for high-paying exclusive members club

Breakthrough Announcement

What date, two weeks ago, did I – via Taves & Breau via Kitchens-crowd — suddenly majorly connecting all dots:

every writer, it turns out, makes same FUNDAMENTAL mistake: “mystical experience = nondual Unity oneness; cessation of mind constructing the usual expeirencee of a self/other boundary

  • explains my dislike of Wm Richards book Sacred Knowledge
  • explains my 1987 dissat w/ Ken Wilber (around 2023, I wrote his engine of his fwk is worthless – doesn’t fly off the ground — doesn’t deliver the goods – because it is really nothing but conventional Advaita
  • explains why M E Q and C E Q are trash questionnaires. and whole field of psychedelic pseudo science is aimed straight toward {shadow dragon monster}.

noticed sort of since Jan 1988 – assumes Unity model of mysticism, but – u konw how this goes – by leaps and bounds, a drastic sudden increase of network-connections a couple weeks ago. = breakthrough.

To Touch Upon

Everything, all my critiques of everything, fit exactly into this critique:

  • My Jan 1988 breakthrough against the Journal of Transpersonal Psychology & Ken Wilber exactly turns out to have been a rejection of their universally held “Unity” false model of mystical experience / enlightenment / Transcendent Knowledge / ego transcendence.
  • The other day, confirmed Wilber = Unity. (i think i confirmed that – or, I drew the connetions and I should formally prove that)
  • The other day, found or re-found… recount and write up: i posted that i glimpsed an article by a woman saying to stop saying “ego dissolution” – in field of psychedelic pseudo science — and I couldn’t figure who, ; I SUSPECT i glimpsed Taves article a few months ago, but maybe some other writer. CONFIRMED MY FINDINGS AND EXPANDED THEM/ substantiated.
  • The other day, i found – thanks to Travis and/or other whistleblowers — Breau article and the name Swami Vivek-ananda; the other day by searching web, for Vivek, or Breau, I found the Breau article. CONFIRMED MY FINDINGS AND EXPANDED by listing 3-4 swamis not just Vivek – those before him and after him.

Taves Article Exposing the Bogus “Unity” Model

Erik Davis Condensed Quote “Vouchsafed”

from email to Kitchens last night – see new, idea development page 31.

Breau Article Exposing Stace = Covert Neo-Advaita

link: Moving Past Mysticism in Psychedelic Science Debate Series

Name of the Old Theory and the New Theory, of Mystical Experience/ Transcendent Knowledge/ Ego Transcendence: 1st-Gen = Unity; 2nd-Gen = Control

  1. Unity – everyone else
  2. Control – the Egodeath theory

In 1986, I strategically said: to fix my personal control system, I need to learn ego transcendence from all the poor writers about mystical experience – should take two weeks (accomplished Jan 11 1988).

In 1986, I said: “Learning ego transcendence/ Transcendent Knowledge will not fix my personal control system, but is required, as a piece of knowledge toward that end.” Turns out, their model = merely the Unity model (false model) of ego transcendence.

My point in my early 1988 first drafts of the Egodeath theory — the Cybernetic Theory of Ego Transcendence — was, ALL YOU GUYS AT Journal of Transpersonal Psychology ARE WRONG:

THIS ETERNALISM / CYBERNETIC / LOOSE COGNITION MODEL IS THE ACTUAL WAY THAT NUKES ‘EGO’ / EGOIC THINKING.

How then to characterize their wrong model? Since my breakthorugh on this 2 weeks ago, the answer turns out to be: the false, Unity model of Transcendent Knowledge / satori/ enlightenment / etc.

Paul Thagard: Phil o Sci: Conceptual Revolutions book [link my page]:

  • The old theory = the Unity model of mystical experience
  • The new theory = the Eternalism/Control model of mystical experience

See Also

A search on “unit” at my site map only finds 1 article, thus confirming that the present new page is needed:
Rejecting Confused, Unhelpful Explanatory Constructs: Naturalism, Ego Dissolution, Neuroplasticity, Unity, Default Mode Network

Why My January 1988 Non-Branching Block U

Moving Past Mysticism in Psychedelic Science Debate Series
yesterday added link to nav sidebar as [Moving Past Mysticism]

search this site for unity:
https://egodeaththeory.org/?s=unity

Did I make pages focusing on the Unity model of mystical experience? instead of the Control-centered Jan 1988 model (eternalism including control, is the ACTUAL nature of mysticism

my email for Kitchens last night: good summary.

link to my todo list re: containing contacting Kafei. idea development page 31.
https://egodeaththeory.org/2025/08/21/idea-development-page-31/

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Author: egodeaththeory

http://egodeath.com

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