But I can't practice my religion openly in America, and although I am legally allowed to advocate it, if I do so openly, I may find myself less respected in my town. My opportunities at work may be limited. My family and I could have trouble receiving government services or aid if we needed them. Currently this situation is often reversed, and the error of putting the wagon of belief before the horse of experience has produced the sorry state of religion today. Durant's wish to understand religion misses the point that religion is primarily experiential, not conceptual.
Experience is the mother of thought, and religious experience is the mother of religious thought.
Church, book, and dogma are byproducts of experience. To ask someone who has never had a deep spiritual experience to grasp such an event intellectually is akin to asking someone who has never tasted salt to understand saltiness intellectually. I don 't mean that we shouldn't use the intellect to examine spiritual experiences, but such knowledge will be shallow and incomplete. Words can help guide us toward the light, but sometimes psychedelics unbind us so we can turn around and face the light. I understood why spiritual seekers were instructed to look within, and the unconscious was revealed to be not just a useful concept, but an infinite reservoir of creative potential.