“The contemplative’s only safeguard is humility and self-forgetfulness and the renunciation of all desire to exploit the experience for any purpose whatever. What happens, happens. One accepts it, in humility, and sees it, without inferring anything or instituting any comparison with other experiences. And one walks on in the presence of God.”

Merton, Thomas. The Inner Experience: Notes on Contemplation. Edited and with an Introduction by William H. Shannon. NY: HarperOne, 2003, p. 60.

Comment: this is probably part of the reason it seems that contemplative Christians are few and far between … most don’t talk about it, don’t write books about, don’t mount podcasts or fund-raising campaigns around it.