P1000:2, 91:7.1
Mysticism, as the technique of the cultivation of the consciousness of the
presence of God, is altogether praiseworthy, but when such practices lead
to social isolation and culminate in religious fanaticism, they are all but
reprehensible. Altogether too frequently that which the overwrought mystic
evaluates as divine inspiration is the uprisings of his own deep mind. The
contact of the mortal mind with its indwelling Adjuster, while often favored
by devoted meditation, is more frequently facilitated by wholehearted and
loving service in unselfish ministry to one's fellow creatures.
P1000:3, 91:7.2
The great religious teachers and the prophets of past ages were not extreme
mystics. They were God-knowing men and women who best served their God by
unselfish ministry to their fellow mortals. Jesus often took his apostles
away by themselves for short periods to engage in meditation and prayer, but
for the most part he kept them in service-contact with the multitudes. The
soul of man requires spiritual exercise as well as spiritual nourishment.
P1000:4, 91:7.3
Religious ecstasy is permissible when resulting from sane antecedents, but
such experiences are more often the outgrowth of purely emotional influences
than a manifestation of deep spiritual character. Religious persons must not
regard every vivid psychologic presentiment and every intense emotional experience
as a divine revelation or a spiritual communication. Genuine spiritual ecstasy
is usually associated with great outward calmness and almost perfect emotional
control. But true prophetic vision is a
superpsychologic presentiment. Such
visitations are not pseudo hallucinations, neither are they trancelike
ecstasies.
P1000:5, 91:7.4
The human mind may perform in response to so-called inspiration when it is
sensitive either to the uprisings of the subconscious or to the stimulus of
the superconscious. In either case it appears to the individual that such
augmentations of the content of consciousness are more or less foreign. Unrestrained
mystical enthusiasm and rampant religious ecstasy are not the credentials
of inspiration, supposedly divine credentials.
P1000:6, 91:7.5
The practical test of all these strange religious experiences of mysticism,
ecstasy, and inspiration is to observe whether these phenomena cause an individual: