> > And if a character with such a practice _does think they're on a mystical path, are they or > >are they not "deluded"?
IMO, there is not 'mystical paths', there are (sort of) mystical experiences. IMHO not every person that has a mystical experience dissapears of Glorantha and reach ultimate reality.
Well, you are a normal glorantha 'person': a malkioni bishop, a kung fu warrior, an orlanthi hunter or a durulz boater, so you need some intermediation, material or immaterial for understanding the... er... trascendence. You know the Other World, you have saints, or gods or spirits, you know that vneration or sacrifices or ecstatic worship are the methods to reach trascedental things. Perhaps you learn a Secret, so you reach deeper realities or perhaps you learn a Great Secret. In fact, you follow a path and you are not a mystic (or, in HW terms, you are a manifest mystic, probably "all" gloranthans are sort of manifest mystics in these terms).
But, someday or perhaps everyday, without any understandable reason, this malkioni bishop, kung fu warrior has a mystical experience. So they "reach" trascendence without any path, without any OtherWorld, without any prophet, or saint, or scripture, or god or myth or spirit. Withour any method, material or immaterial. You could decide that your PC has this experience, it is not beyond the game, but, IMO, it's beyond the rules.
But, when your character tries to talk about his experience, or to understand his experience or to teach his experience, there is a bit of "lie" there. Everything that you could explain is incomplete, it is only a part of ultimate reality (the Tao that we are talking about it is not the true Tao ;-)) Perhaps your character make an HeroQuest in the Hero Planes to find a meaningful explanation for his experience. It could be a good explanation. It could be give you cool magic. But it is not the complete reality of your experience. It is not mystical. In some way, they are 'failed mystics' but they are not failed people.
I think Illumination is something like that. You have a true experience of trascendence and you change your mind, but your change is not trascendental. So you try to apply your 'vision' to the world and there is a bit of lie there. For good or for bad, nobody knows.
In Glorantha, they are people that talk about that, about mystical experience (perhaps someone that had a mystical experience tries to teach it). And they form 'mystical' schools and philosophies. And they talk about enlightement, mysticism and the illusion of the world. But, in fact, they are meaningful approaches to trascendence, and they teach normal magic (or they don't teach magic but they teach meditation, philosophies, tantric practices, martial arts, etc, material or immaterial things). A member of these schools could have a true mystical experience (but also a malkioni, orlanthi, lunar, etc.) but, in fact, the things that you have learnt in the school (material or immaterial things) are not true paths to mystical experience. In that way, you are a 'failed mystic' but not a failed person.
So, there is no way of knowing if you are deluder or not deluded, because mystical experience is not understandable. But sure, your school would say you that you are deluded or that you are OK. It could be true, but only a partial truth.
Regards, and sorry for the spanglish,
Antonio
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End of Glorantha Digest
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