Certainly some mystics have been rather strange. Still, enough psychologists have accepted the reality of the mystical experience, and have theorized extensively about it. His ideas parallel those of Patricia Diane Cota-Robles, director of the New Age Study of Humanity s Purpose and author of several books on consciousness. Mystic is a word used to describe someone who is reaching a higher level of our natural human potential. Their business has been to know a Truth ahead of others, and impart it in their own unique fashion to the culture of their time.
Some psychotic episodes bear an uncomfortable resemblance to mystical experience.
One difference involves the personality of the individual. By this standard, the ragged bag lady shuffling along the street talking to unseen companions is probably psychotic, while my own mentor, Marcia Moore, a renowned yogini, undoubtedly was not. She wrote books, gave lectures, organized workshops and other events, while running a busy household. Still, there are psychologists who distrust the mental state even of the Marcia s of the world. To them, anyone who reports experiences that cannot be verified scientifically should be carefully watched if not institutionalized.