The Indians have built an entire metaphysical system--the Advaita--around the Upanishadic statement: "The Self alone exists." This might be called spiritual solipsism. To experience during meditation a state confirming this belief is their highest goal. The mind's power to create its own "inner experiences" is known, a power once alluded to by Ramana Maharshi as "expectancy" but which we in the West call "suggestion." The higher phases of Buddhist psychology refer to an almost identical experience as the Advaitic, but in their reference the Self does not enter the picture and its existence is never affirmed. In Mentalism it is understood that consciousness can shed its thoughts during the experience of Mental Quiet--also similar--including thoughts of the world and even of the individual ego, but it is not therefore claimed that these thoughts have no existence too and have never had any at any time. All this shows once again that mystic experience, even in its more advanced stage, is one thing and its interpretation--usually unconsciously made and religiously influenced--is another.
-- Notebooks Category 21: Mentalism > Chapter 4 : The Challenge of Mentalism > # 111
