A Study In Illumination

It is the fashion in a modern and powerful section of that world, which interests itself in psychology, to urge that the senses are the only channels of human knowledge. Knowledge is, however, an equivocal word. It could bear a meaning, which would allow all of us to concede this point. “What has the psychologist done with the saints?” For while there are “practical” saints, i.e. those who heal men's bodies, satisfy their hunger and other physical needs, teach their ignorance, and succor them, in various more or less “sensible” ways, there are also the Contemplatives, the Ecstatics. What of their way of knowledge? What of the methods of that comparatively large body of men and women who are known as the Mystics? What of the Mystics' path to reality? Within these pages we shall explore many of those who have pondered these and simimilar issues and have left us their findings.