What's the difference between esoteric and mystic?

Esoteric


Definition:

  • (a.) Designed for, and understood by, the specially initiated alone; not communicated, or not intelligible, to the general body of followers; private; interior; acroamatic; -- said of the private and more recondite instructions and doctrines of philosophers. Opposed to exoteric.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Underlying many criticisms of medical ethics is the failure to realize that medical ethics as such is not a reform movement or an effort to inspire moral behavior, that it is not and cannot be a specialist's body of esoteric knowledge, that it requires facts and conceptual analyses from other fields to do its work, and that value arguments can be carried farther than one generally expects.
  • (2) Our current understanding of these disease processes is discussed in an effort to review the current status of both the mundane and the esoteric infections of the kidney.
  • (3) The soundtrack is supplied by vinyl rotating on vintage record players, a gumball machine dispenses yellow, black and white gobstoppers, and the room is surveilled by the beady eyes of esoteric taxidermy that includes a peacock in full plume and a splendid Himalayan wild goat grazing among the soft seating.
  • (4) Bush's fantastical lyrics, influenced by children's literature, esoteric mystical knowledge, daydreams and the lore and legends of old Albion, seemed irrelevant, and deficient in street-cred at a time of tower-block social realism and agit-prop.
  • (5) Despite a slightly esoteric focus on the importance of adobe housing, House of Earth also includes graphic sex, including "a scorching lovemaking scene on a hay bale".
  • (6) From small and relatively esoteric fields 15 or 20 years ago, both have grown enormously.
  • (7) She reels off esoteric book recommendations ("I just devoured this great book about the mistaken theories of pre-historic sexuality.
  • (8) It is seen as the province of an elite, using obscure language and esoteric skills with no obvious connection with the world of nursing; in particular, it involves statistics.
  • (9) Whatever else may be happening in music, they doggedly pursue their own esoteric fascinations and Tomorrow's Harvest is their most haunting album yet.
  • (10) The curative use of opaque, esoteric formulae is widely reported; Tobelo also have a specialized speech I call 'neo-Ternatese' used for this purpose.
  • (11) A medicolegal autopsy protocol must serve as something more than an esoteric scientific document.
  • (12) In a field dominated by big brains and even bigger egos, each mining their own esoteric field, Markram's big data approach to experimental neuroscience represents a cultural revolution.
  • (13) Far from being some bizarre esoteric theory, intersectionality is alive and kicking all around us, and not just in exclusive ivory tower gender studies clubs.
  • (14) No longer do image macros and hashtags exist merely as esoteric in-jokes to amuse bored teenagers and social media managers.
  • (15) It may also be used to meet the sometimes esoteric needs of the researcher, the unique needs of the teacher, or the preferential needs of other individual recorders.
  • (16) The heirs - directly or indirectly - to an esoteric "moslem" knowledge which has been transmitted since the XVth century by the aristocratic islamized groups, the medicine-men are also the possessors of a knowledge which has been acquired by the autochthonous groups, that are said "masters of the earth" (commoners).
  • (17) Perhaps the church perceived these women, with their special, often esoteric, healing skills, as a threat to its supremacy in the lives of its parishioners.
  • (18) Finally, contrary to widespread opinion, few candidates fail on the basis of poor answers to what have been described as more esoteric questions.
  • (19) The group is thought to overlap with neo-Nazis, adherents of conspiracy theories and other esoteric beliefs.
  • (20) Investments, whether in stocks and shares, property or in more esoteric assets like commodities, are another matter.

Mystic


Definition:

  • (a.) Alt. of Mystical
  • (n.) One given to mysticism; one who holds mystical views, interpretations, etc.; especially, in ecclesiastical history, one who professed mysticism. See Mysticism.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) They operate on a mystical and symbolic plane, which is foreign to the practice of "Western" medicine.
  • (2) According to Deborah Mattinson, his pollster, Brown " loved slogans and believed them to be imbued with a mystical power capable of persuading the most intransigent voter", and therefore went a bundle on them – not least " A future fair for all ", the surreal dud with which Labour went to the country in 2010, following 2005's equally idiotic " forward not back ".
  • (3) On involvement with the guru and a new 'family,' the experienced increased well-being and periods of bliss, and their acceptance of mystic Hindu beliefs was solidified.
  • (4) Contact was made with a ‘mystical-religious’ group that used the gas to accelerate arriving at their transcendental-meditative state of choice.” It increased in popularity with the rise of festival culture – it’s been a mainstay of Glastonbury’s stone circle and squat parties in Bristol and south London for at least a decade – but the equipment needed to dispense it remained relatively expensive.
  • (5) Animal Rescue is based on a screenplay by the novelist Dennis Lehane , author of Gone Baby Gone, Mystic River and Shutter Island, all of which have been made into films by Hollywood.
  • (6) None of the students attributed AIDS to mystical forces, while some associated it with affluence.
  • (7) As part of their studies, orphans at the centre will be taught a curriculum based on Spirituality for Kids, linked to the Kabbalah school of mysticism, of which Madonna is a follower.
  • (8) Christians believed, and believe, that the body is not only physical, but also spiritual and mystical, and many believed it was an allegory of church, state and family.
  • (9) In the interim, Phil cut the solo albums Star Spangled Springer (1973), Phil's Diner (1974) and Mystic Line (1975), and appeared on Roy Wood's album Mustard and on Zevon's debut album in 1976.
  • (10) All subjects were most likely to cite mystical causes for their disability and to believe that mystical sources would most help them to improve.
  • (11) If there’s a mystic, a European setting and an antique time-period, you should already know – if only from bitter experience of his recent oeuvre – that you’re in eighth-rate Allen territory.
  • (12) Bush's fantastical lyrics, influenced by children's literature, esoteric mystical knowledge, daydreams and the lore and legends of old Albion, seemed irrelevant, and deficient in street-cred at a time of tower-block social realism and agit-prop.
  • (13) A questionnaire was developed to assess adult recall for a range of transpersonal experiences throughout childhood and adolescence (mystical experience, out-of-body experience, lucid dreams, archetypal dreams, ESP), as well as nightmares and night terrors as indicators of more conflicted, negative states.
  • (14) Such mystical guidance always remained important to him.
  • (15) As for individuals, intent on shielding themselves from paying tax, intent on giving nothing back, I fail to see the mystical benefit of their physical presence in the UK.
  • (16) Going beyond, an attempt is made, and this, solely from the anthropological standpoint, to apply these data to the religious and mystical act of Eucharistic Manducation.
  • (17) The film reflects the conciliatory, almost mystical mood of a man who emerged from prison as a mediator, philosopher and president-in-waiting.
  • (18) The study of spatial marks implies looking for the fundamental marks of the human being as well as the existence of a mystical space that has to be differenciated from a pathological space.
  • (19) Stanford University might have been the cradle for a hundred Silicon Valley startups and the hothouse for some of its greatest technical innovations, but the Singularity University is an institution that has been made in the valley's own image: highly networked, fuelled by a cocktail of philanthro-capitalism and endowed with an almost mystical sense of its own destiny.
  • (20) I’ll call them the Mystic East, the Dead Centre, and the Wild West.