The man who sees no need for a higher concept of his nature than the merely physical one will see no need for a higher goal than feeding, clothing, sheltering, and amusing his body. In letting the senses, the passions, the intellect, and the ego take sole charge of his life, he quite naturally sees only mere emptiness beyond them. He doubts and refutes the intuitive-spiritual and denies and rejects the mystical. The Infinite is nothing to him so long as he prefers to remain shut in within the sense-bound outlook. This is why he dismisses mystic experience, religious feeling, and philosophic insight as mere hallucinations. But all this opposition takes place only in his conscious mind for there is unavoidable recognition in his subconscious mind. He wants to escape from himself, however, and fears the ordeal of facing himself. These words will make no appeal to the materialistic mentality which still regards all spiritual experience as the outcome of pathological conditions. Such an attitude, fortunately, has become less sure of itself than it was when first I embarked on these studies and experiments, now more than thirty-five years ago.
-- Notebooks Category 1: Overview of the Quest > Chapter 2 : Its Choice > # 394
