Mystical Encounters

Need help with your research? Contact:

A good place to start. . .

Kelly Cannon Reference Librarian Phone: x3602 kcannon@muhlenberg.edu

Reference Desk Hours: Call x3600 to confirm M 3:00.-5:00 p.m. T 6:00-9:00 p.m. W 10:00 a.m.-12:00 noon Th 1:00-3:00 p.m. F 1:00-3:00 p.m.

Office hours (by appt.): Call 3602 to arrange

  Finding reference works

The 2nd edition of the Encyclopedia of Religion (2005) (Ref. Collection 203 E56) updates the classic text by Mircea Eliade by the same name. The entry on mysticism recommends key scholarly works on the different strains of mysticism and on individual mystics. Check the index for related topics.

The Encyclopedia of Christianity (Ref. Collection 230.003 E56o) gives a summation and recommended readings for examining mysticism across all major faiths, Eastern and Western. See also mysticism and related topics in the Encyclopedia of Judaism (Ref. Collection 296.03 E56of), the New Catholic Encyclopedia (Ref. Collection 282.03 N532c), and Sufis and Sufism in the Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World (Ref. Collection 297.03 O98e).

The New Age Encyclopedia (Ref. Collection 130.3 M528n) treats in a fairly scholarly way, with mixed popular and scholarly references, most of the new age religious and social elements and movements, such as crystals. More scrupulous is the scholarly reference work is Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology (Ref. Collection 133 E56o).

periodical guides. . .

Magazines for Libraries (Reference Desk 016.05 K19m) is a good way to identify the political orientiation of a periodical. See for example the section on "News and Opinion." Also good at helping to discern between scholarly and popular.

    Finding scholarly books

Books can be found locally by searching the Trexler Library Catalog; follow the path Trexler Library Home Page (http://www.muhlenberg.edu/library)Finding BooksCatalog.

To expand your book search considerably, try WorldCat; follow the path Trexler Library Home Page (http://www.muhlenberg.edu/library)Finding BooksWorldCat. WorldCat is a powerful search tool for books on any subject.

Use WorldCat in conjunction with Interlibrary Loan, path: Trexler Library Home Page (http://www.muhlenberg.edu/library)Finding BooksBorrow from Another Library.

Finding popular magazines

Periodical databases pertaining to this subject area can be located by following the path Trexler Library Home Page (http://www.muhlenberg.edu/library)Finding ArticlesDatabases & IndexesListed Alphabetically. Subscribed to by Muhlenberg College for a substantial fee, these databases can be accessed on campus without restriction, or off campus with your name and student ID number.

Academic Search Premier is a good starting place for popular magazines. The database includes a generous portion of popular sources such as Time and Newsweek mixed in with scholarly sources.      

Similarly, Omnifile will retrieve a mixture of popular magazines and scholarly journals. 

Finding scholarly journal articles

     General interest databases. . .

Academic Search Premier is a good starting place for scholarly journals, and includes the full text of about 3000 titles. Limit to "peer reviewed" to find only scholarly articles. Back issues of journals begin as early as 1990. Recent issues may not be included yet, due to publisher agreement.

Similarly, Omnifile includes scholarly titles, and a search can be restricted to "peer reviewed."  

     Subject-specific. . .

ATLA Religion Index is the premier index for scholarly religion periodicals.

For an anthropological perspective, consult Anthropology Plus.

For a psychological and sociological perspective, see PsycInfo and Sociological Abstracts .

For mysticism from a historical perspective, consult Historical Abstracts for non-U.S. history and America History and Life for U.S. history.

     Requesting articles through interlibrary loan

Journal articles not found in Trexler Library can be ordered by following this path: Trexler Library Home Page (http://www.muhlenberg.edu/library)Finding ArticlesGetting a Copy of an Article.           

      Searching for a specific journal in print or electronic format

To check to see if you have access to the full text of a specific journal, whether online or in print, follow this path: Trexler Library Home Page (http://www.muhlenberg.edu/library)Finding ArticlesJournal Locator.

Google (http://www.google.com)
Non-selective. One of the largest web crawlers.

HotBot (http://www.hotbot.com)
Non-selective. One of the largest web crawlers. Advanced search offers more precision than Google.

Google Scholar (http://scholar.google.com)
Selective. A web crawler that looks only for academic content, especially unpublished or informally published (grey or working) papers. Published, peer-reviewed items may not be full text, but are abstracted and generally available through interlibrary loan.

Looksmart (http://search.looksmart.com/)
More selective. A commercial search engine plus a directory. Items in the directory are selected for their relevance and quality, and are described in a brief abstract. For this course see especially Looksmart: Religion & Belief (http://search.looksmart.com/p/browse/us1/us317837/us317918/?p)

Librarian's Index to the Internet (http://lii.org/)
Highly selective. One of the most restricted search engines/directories. Both scholarly and popular, but all are deemed important based on assessment by a team of California public librarians. All entries are accompanied by paragraph-length descriptions.

Selected websites for this subject

     Popular

Goddess Mystic ( http://www.goddessmystic.com/

Mystic.org (http://themystic.org/)

The Mystic Scientist (http://www.starspring.com/mystic.html)

IndiaDivine (http://www.indiadivine.com/)

World Religions and 101 Cults (http://religion-cults.com)

     Scholarly

Arguably the best web portal for authoritative information on Islam, Islamic Studies: Islam, Arabic, and Religion (http://www.uga.edu/islam/) from the University of Georgia presents scholarly entries and web links on an array of topics.

For Jewish and Christian mysticism intertwined, visit Jewish Roots of Early Christian Mysticism (http://www.marquette.edu/maqom/) from Marquette University.

For tips on citing print and electronic sources follow the path Trexler Library Home Page (http://www.muhlenberg.edu/library)Research HelpCitation Guides.