Here's were I'm coming from James...Dean Shapiro did an excellent job in the book Precision Nirvana showing how East meets West when applying self-management strategies to cognitive processes.  The mystical bridge seems to somehow transcend the religious teachings at some point (getting outside one's metaphysical boxes or heuristics).  Characteristic of that point are the commonalities of the "mystical experience" (like diminished ego and receptivity).  Whether Baptist or Buddhist, there is a surrender of the metaphysical matrix of religious teaching and technique and a surrender to the infinity of the crack in the matrix.  Personally, "the breath" seems a relevant task.  I like Miriam Trahan's At Ease Breathing and use it as one of the texts in my psychology of consciousness course.