In the Appendix to The Hidden Teaching Beyond Yoga, I protested against the setting up of mystic experience as the goal of this quest, placing my emphasis upon the word "experience." That Appendix was written in 1940. Since then we have witnessed the deplorable consequences of methods which ignore such a protest. Especially is this true in the case of "mind expansion" through drugs. But cults have sprung up which, although catering to thirst for "experiences" through a kind of meditation, use very elementary and mechanical means that alone cannot lead to genuine insight but only to a mesmeric lulling of the thoughts. This may have a temporary value and be a pleasant experience, hence the wide spread of these cults. But the belief that initiation into them opens the door to the divine is gross self-deception. It opens a door to self-hypnotism, while the guru gives the apparently mystical experience at the time by his own personal hypnotic power.
-- Notebooks Category 16: The Sensitives > Chapter 10 : The Is Is Not an Ism > # 49
