Arthur Versluis is Professor of Religious Studies at Michigan State University. Among his many books are American Gnosis: Political Religion and Transcendence, American Gurus, Magic and Mysticism: An Introduction to Western Esotericism, The New Inquisitions: Heretic-Hunting and the Intellectual Origins of Modern Totalitarianism, Wisdom’s Children: A Christian Esoteric Tradition, American Transcendentalism and Asian Religions, and Alchemical Lightwork: A Guide to Creating Cultures of Light and Spiritual Awakening. He is the editor of JSR: Journal for the Study of Radicalism. He is also the founding president of Hieros, a nonprofit focused on spirituality and cultural renewal. This conversation is based on his book Platonic Mysticism.

Arthur discusses the Platonic mystical tradition from Plato through Plotinus, Dionysius the Areopagite, Christian mysticism, and the American Transcendentalists. He explores the contemplative path of realizing truth, the concepts of transcendence, emanation, and the One, while examining how mystical traditions have been marginalized within modern academic culture. Versluis also considers the future of contemplative science and the possibility of integrating ancient wisdom with contemporary approaches to consciousness research.

00:00:00 Introduction

00:03:06 Platonic mysticism and the eclipse of Plato

00:10:43 Mystery traditions and the roots of neoplatonism

00:16:05 Contemplative practice and the via negativa

00:26:13 Emanation, archetypes and consciousness

00:35:32 Dionysius the Areopagite and Christian mysticism

00:46:07 The eclipse of mysticism in modern academia

00:51:10 Literature, art and the flowering of transcendence

00:58:44 Contemplative science and consciousness studies

01:05:34 Conclusion

(Recorded on May 26, 2026)

Check out the New Thinking Allowed Foundation website at http://www.newthinkingallowed.org. There you will find our incredible, searchable database as well as opportunities to shop and to support our video productions – plus, this is where people can subscribe to our FREE, weekly Newsletter and can download a FREE .pdf copy of our quarterly magazine.

To order high-quality, printed copies of our quarterly magazine: NTA-Magazine.MagCloud.com

Check out New Thinking Allowed’s AI chatbot. You can create a free account at awakin.ai/open/jeffreymishlove. When you enter the space, you will see that our chatbot is one of several you can interact with. While it is still a work in progress, it has been trained on 1,600 NTA transcripts. It can provide intelligent answers about the contents of our interviews. It’s almost like having a conversation with Jeffrey Mishlove.

Download and read Jeffrey Mishlove’s Grand Prize essay in the Bigelow Institute competition, Beyond the Brain: The Survival of Human Consciousness After Permanent Bodily Death, go to https://www.bigelowinstitute.org/docs/1st.pdf.

To order the second book in the New Thinking Allowed Dialogues series, Russell Targ: Ninety Years of ESP, Remote Viewing, and Timeless Awareness, go to https://amzn.to/4aw2iyr

To order a copy of New Thinking Allowed Dialogues: UFOs and UAP – Are We Really Alone?, go to https://amzn.to/3Y0VOVh

To order a copy of Charles T. Tart: Seventy Years of Exploring Consciousness and Parapsychology, go to https://amzn.to/4oOUJLn

Published on June 15, 2026