What's the difference between mystic and superstition?

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.

Superstition


Definition:

  • (n.) An excessive reverence for, or fear of, that which is unknown or mysterious.
  • (n.) An ignorant or irrational worship of the Supreme Deity; excessive exactness or rigor in religious opinions or practice; extreme and unnecessary scruples in the observance of religious rites not commanded, or of points of minor importance; also, a rite or practice proceeding from excess of sculptures in religion.
  • (n.) The worship of a false god or gods; false religion; religious veneration for objects.
  • (n.) Belief in the direct agency of superior powers in certain extraordinary or singular events, or in magic, omens, prognostics, or the like.
  • (n.) Excessive nicety; scrupulous exactness.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Pointing out that “the army has its own fortune teller”, he sounds less than happy at the state of affairs: “The country is run by superstition.” Weerasethakul is in a relatively fortunate position, in that his arcane films are not exactly populist and don’t depend on the mainstream Thai film industry for funding, but he has become cast as a significant voice of dissent in a difficult time .
  • (2) According to Buddhist folklore, it blooms only once every 3,000 years; someone feared it would encourage superstition.
  • (3) Apichatpong Weerasethakul: 'My country is run by superstition' Read more According to her lawyers, she was charged for writing “ja” – the Thai equivalent of “yeah” – in response to a private Facebook message critical of the royals.
  • (4) Whether or not his challenge can be met is irrelevant, for it pegs the legitimacy of any positive argument for religion on a zero-sum game against his construction of "pure" rationality – the singular force for Good untarnished by superstition.
  • (5) A letter in which Albert Einstein branded religious beliefs as "childish superstitions" and the "product of human weaknesses" has been sold at auction in London for £170,000 to a private collector, smashing the world record for a letter by the great scientist.
  • (6) They are left in the realm of faith, ignorance, superstition, taboo.
  • (7) At the time that printing came onto the scene in western Europe in the mid-1400s, the medical community was struggling in the depths of superstition, and little rational medicine was being practiced.
  • (8) Just as the Victorian science revolution played havoc with religious superstition, so the information revolution can now play havoc with political falsehood.
  • (9) The congregation then stands to sing Superstition by Stevie Wonder .
  • (10) First of all, folk cults are usually suppressed by a nominally communist government which officially, in good Marxist fashion, dismisses all religion as superstition.
  • (11) The influence of the Japanese superstition that females born in the year of Hinoe-Uma (Elder Fire Horse) possess undesirable characters and should not marry on the fertility of the Korean immigrant population in Japan was examined and compared with the influence of this superstition on the Japanese in Japan and the Korean population in Korea.
  • (12) The sale will be watched carefully because a letter in which he branded religious beliefs as "childish superstitions" and the "product of human weaknesses" that went on sale in May smashed the record for an Einstein letter by fetching £170,000.
  • (13) eneath the jokes, the headline fodder, the superstitions and devilish charm, there is another side to Cellino.
  • (14) Clearly, the Japanese folk superstition played an important part in discouraging Koreans in Japan from having a child in 1966.
  • (15) I mean, it was sort of like his superstition, because all players are always superstitious.
  • (16) From colourful language to bizarre superstitions and unexpected decisions, the anecdotes are myriad.
  • (17) Any police force would be shaken by the sight, but the grisly tableau's arrangement seemed designed to instill terror in young officers from parts of southern Mexico where superstition and belief in sorcery are common.
  • (18) This fact is consistent with the superstition that women born in the year of Fire-horse are ill-fated.
  • (19) What makes this all so dangerous is that it not only corrupts policy debates, it undermines serious journalism – and science and history and all other rational disciplines – by rendering their output mere arguments, no more or less credible than someone's dogma, superstition or gut hunch.
  • (20) No-one thinks that the French and Hungarians, who seem to have integrated anti-GM superstition into their cultural DNA, are going to change their minds anytime soon.