Admitting, then, that these psychical phenomena actually occur, we have to consider whether ecstasy and kindred states are an integral part of Mysticism.  In attempting to answer this question, we shall find it convenient to distinguish between the Neoplatonic vision of the super-essential One, the Absolute, which Plotinus enjoyed several times, and Porphyry only once, and the visions and “locutions” which are reported in all times and places, especially where people have not been trained in scientific habits of thought and observation.  The former was held to be an exceedingly rare privilege, the culminating point of the contemplative life.  I shall speak of it in my third Lecture; and shall there show that it belongs, not to the essence of Mysticism, and still less to Christianity, but to the Asiatic leaven which was mixed with Alexandrian thought, and thence passed into Catholicism.  As regards visions in general, they were no invention of the mystics.  They played a much more important part in the life of the early Church than many ecclesiastical historians are willing to admit.  Tertullian, for instance, says calmly, “The majority, almost, of men learn God from visions.[25]” Such implicit reliance was placed on the Divine authority of visions, that on one occasion an ignorant peasant and a married man was made Patriarch of Alexandria against his will, because his dying predecessor had a vision that the man who should bring him a present of grapes on the next day should be his successor!  In course of time visions became rarer among the laity, but continued frequent among the monks and clergy.  And so the class which furnished most of the shining lights of Mysticism was that in which these experiences were most common.

But we do not find that the masters of the spiritual life attached very much importance to them, or often appealed to them as aids to faith.[26] As a rule, visions were regarded as special rewards bestowed by the goodness of God on the struggling saint, and especially on the beginner, to refresh him and strengthen him in the hour of need.  Very earnest cautions were issued that no efforts must be made to induce them artificially, and aspirants were exhorted neither to desire them, nor to feel pride in having seen them.  The spiritual guides of the Middle Ages were well aware that such experiences often come of disordered nerves and weakened digestion; they believed also that they are sometimes delusions of Satan.  Richard of St. Victor says, “As Christ attested His transfiguration by the presence of Moses and Elias, so visions should not be believed unless they have the authority of Scripture.”  Albertus Magnus tries to classify them, and says that those which contain a sensuous element are always dangerous.  Eckhart is still more cautious, and Tauler attaches little value to them.  Avila, the Spanish mystic, says that only those visions which minister to our spiritual necessities, and make us more humble, are genuine.  Self-induced visions inflate us with pride, and do irreparable injury to health of mind and body.[27]