C.S. Lewis on Mysticism

[thought it would be a nice followup on my 'Filtration' post]

"I do not at all regard mystical experience as an illusion. I think it shows that there is a way to go, before death, out of what may be called this world - out of the stage set. Out of this; but into what? That's like asking an Englishman, Where does the sea lead to? He will reply, To everywhere on earth, including Davy Jones's locker, except England. The lawlessness, safety, and utility of the mystical voyage depends not at all on its being mystical - that is, on its being a departure - but on the motives, skill, and constancy of the voyager, and on the grace of God. The true religion gives value to its own mysticism; mysticism does not validate the religion in which it happens to occur. I shouldn t be at all disturbed if it could be shown that a diabolical mysticism, or drugs, produced experiences indistinguishable (by introspection) from those of the great Christian mystics. Departures are all alike; it is the landfall that crowns the voyage. The saint, by being a saint, proves that his mysticism (if he was a mystic; not all saints are) led him aright; the fact that he has practised mysticism could never prove his sanctity." C.S. Lewis, Letters to Malcolm

Passing reference was made to drugs in cahoots with 'diabolical mysticism'; Huston Smith, researcher into the religious significance of entheogenic and psychodelic substances also put the emphasis on whether altered states led to altered traits.