Cleaving to the Divine: Devekut, Jewish Mysticism, and the Science of Advanced Meditation

Meditation research has entered a third wave focused on contemplative states, stages, and endpoints that arise with mastery, including across traditions, yet existing empirical research is grounded primarily in Buddhist-derived practices. This paper introduces devekut, or cleaving to the Divine in the Jewish mystical tradition, as a case study for developing and refining emerging trans-traditional scientific models in advanced meditation research. Drawing on Kabbalistic and Hasidic scholarship alongside neurophenomenological meditation research, we argue that devekut offers an opportunity to enrich current frameworks in advanced meditation research in three ways: its entry points, including prayer and wordless melody, are not classically contemplative; its pathway to advanced absorption states is relational rather than detachment-based; and devekut is sometimes understood as pervading ordinary life rather than being confined to formal practice. These challenges and our proposed solutions point toward a contemplative science that can address cultural, religious, and cosmological complexity without flattening it.