Materialist science seeks understanding by means of the senses, and by means of reason.
The Mystic seeks understanding without science, but instead by direct experience, direct contact one might say, with reality.
Idealists make somewhat of a hybrid. We disdain physicalism, while holding on to reason.
Mystics also disdain physicalism, but they also eschew reason—except perhaps to transmit their mystical knowledge.
The Idealist may be asked, how do you know anything, but like the mystic, we say simply, I know that I am conscious, because I experience it directly. No amount of reason can dissuade us from believing that fact, albeit, one occasionally encounters those who decry belief in free will, and therefore, IMO, in meaningful consciousness. And who knows, there may be some among us who truly have no free will? Perhaps even no consciousness?
In any case, we are “in this world, but not of this world.” While chopping wood and carrying water, we also gaze skyward and wonder, what lies beyond?
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