Hypnotism and hynotic suggestion : a treatise on the uses and possibilities of hynotism, suggestion and allied phenomena / by twenty authors. Edited by E. Virgil Neal and Charles S. Clark.
- Neal, E. Virgil
- Date:
- [1900]
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Hypnotism and hynotic suggestion : a treatise on the uses and possibilities of hynotism, suggestion and allied phenomena / by twenty authors. Edited by E. Virgil Neal and Charles S. Clark. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.
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![spectors, answer these questions for us. The Doctor Ecstaticus, John of Ruysbrock, is one of those who have carefully noted the several steps of the scala perfectionis or ladder of love. Id Ordo Spiritualium ISTuptiarum three stages are described. The third and highest he calls the Contemplative Life: In thij simple and intent contemplation, we are one life and one spirit with God. In this highest state the soul is united to God without means; it sinks into the vast darkness of the Godhead. Notice the words v .st darkness; in another place he uses the expres- sion nudity of mind to describe the condition of the soul in God. The treatise of the delicately naive Francois de Sales on The Love of God, is an extensive and minute guide to ecstasy. As the mystics agree on the chief points upon which our inquiry bears, we may draw our information altogether from this book.* The journey of the soul begins with Meditation; from it, it passes to Contemplation which, becoming deeper and deeper, ascends through Amorous Contemplation, Rest of the Soul in the Beloved, Liquefaction of the Soul in God, Amorous Languor, the Sovereign Degree of Union in Suspension [of the senses and of the will] and finally reaches Ecstasy, f Let us take up succes- sively the most important of these steps. Meditation considers in detail the objects proper to move us, but contemplation views the object of love in a lump, and as a whole. It takes place without effort and with pleasure. . . . and in this it differs from meditation which requires almost al- ways an effort, work and speech. The author insists upon the passivity of the soul when once she has left meditation behind: It is God who produces contemplation in ourselves according to His good pleasure, by the efficacy of His Holy Graca. A cer- tain sweet sweetness diffuses itself imperceptibly in the heart. The soul is so quietly attentive to the kindness of the beloved (bien aim§,) that she seems hardly attentive at all. This peace may go so far that all the powers of the soul stir no more, they are as asleen: the will itself does nothing more than receive the delight afforded by the presence of the beloved. •Traite- de 1' Amour de Dicu, by St. Francois de Sales. See the heads of the Chapters of Books VI. and VII.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21012271_0216.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
