But our
immediate feelings have no content but what the five senses
supply; and we have seen and shall see again that mystics may
emphatically deny that the senses play any part in the very
highest type of knowledge which their transports yield.
In the Christian church there have always been mystics. Although
many of them have been viewed with suspicion, some have gained
favor in the eyes of the authorities. The experiences of these
have been treated as precedents, and a codified system of
mystical theology has been based upon them, in which everything
legitimate finds its place.[250] The basis of the system is
"orison" or meditation, the methodical elevation of the soul
towards God. Through the practice of orison the higher levels of
mystical experience may be attained. It is odd that
Protestantism, especially evangelical Protestantism, should
seemingly have abandoned everything methodical in this line.
Apart from what prayer may lead to, Protestant mystical
experience appears to have been almost exclusively sporadic. It
has been left to our mind- curers to reintroduce methodical
meditation into our religious life.
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