Doubters dismiss Catholic mysticism as imaginations, drug-induced hallucinations or due to mental/physical disorders.
Catholic mystics over time have had their skeptics, even from amongst the clergy. It’s possible to be misunderstood by those within the same faith. And so too it’s possible by those outside the church as well.
But the truth prevails.
Odo of Soissons (The University of Paris) to Hildegard.
It is reported that, exalted, you see many things in the heavens and record them in your writing, and that you bring forth the melody of a new song, although you have studied nothing of such things. But this does not surprise us at all, because it does not exceed your purity and saintliness, without which no one can attain to such things. 1
Nathaniel M. Campbell writes that,
Hildegard, however, did not participate in most of the devotional practices that came to characterize medieval women religious. She counseled moderation and discretion rather than the extreme ascetic practices common in later centuries;…2”
And he states that,
She repeatedly stresses that her common visionary mode was wakeful rather than in ecstasy…Her fundamental method is to treat her verbal descriptions of her visions as one would treat the biblical text. To be sure, it is God’s voice, and not her own…3”
Some like to interpret her visions as being the effects of migranes.
Wendy Love Anderson states,
…physician and amateur historian of science Charles Singer diagnosed the long-dead visionary with migraine, a “functional nervous disorder,” and this diagnosis moved into popular culture… making Hildegard the unofficial patron saint of migraine sufferers4.
And she declares that,
Dozens, if not hundreds, of twelfth-century Christians experienced visions… but even monastic visions started to become more current, as well as more controversial.5
Were the visions figments of her imagination? Catholics can use imagination, for instance to achieve mental prayer. It’s not a frivolous thing, but instead a very specialized way of praying.
St. Hildegard’s experiences were different, and not from her imagination.
There is recent secular acceptance of psychedelics, Ayahuasca, and psilocybin/psilocyn (mushrooms) as medicine. That has led some to claim that the ancient mystics were just using or exposed to these types of “medicines” as well. That you can find “God” through these medicinal practices. California has an upcoming bill to give legal access to psychedelic plant medicines, for depression, addiction, and other ailments.
For Catholics, these are not recommended, as Msgr. Stephen J. Rossetti explains in, The Dark World Cannot Heal.
Bad experiences/reactions with prescription medications can happen as well. Some wild enough to seem the same experiences as those claimed by the psychedelic users. The solution is to alert your doctor so you can be prescribed a better alternative. And as for the “religious experience”, Catholics are told to move on. To take anything that could be interpreted as mystical and “forget about it”.
St. John of the Cross, a mystic himself, advised this. As he wrote in, On the Danger of Visions, “Although visions and locutions which come from God are true, we may be deceived about them. This is proved by quotations from Divine Scripture.”
Note that not all visions are from God.
St. Hildegard kept her visions private initially until they were approved by her church superiors.
Pope Benedict XVI explained in his General Audience in 2010:
During the years when she was superior of the Monastery of St. Disibodenberg, Hildegard began to dictate the mystical visions that she had been receiving for some time to the monk Volmar, her spiritual director, and to Richardis di Strade, her secretary, a sister of whom she was very fond. As always happens in the life of true mystics, Hildegard too wanted to put herself under the authority of wise people to discern the origin of her visions, fearing that they were the product of illusions and did not come from God.
She thus turned to a person who was most highly esteemed in the Church in those times: St Bernard of Clairvaux…He calmed and encouraged Hildegard. However, in 1147 she received a further, very important approval. Pope Eugene iii…authorized the mystic to write down her visions and to speak in public.
This, dear friends, is the seal of an authentic experience of the Holy Spirit…shows complete obedience to the ecclesial authority. Every gift bestowed by the Holy Spirit, is in fact intended for the edification of the Church and the Church, through her Pastors, recognizes its authenticity.
- Barid & Ehrman, The Letters of Hildegard of Bingen Volume 1. Pg. 110 ↩︎
- Campbell, The Cambridge Companion to Hildegard of Bingen, Picturing Hildegard of Bingen’s Sight: Illuminating Her Visions, Pg. 262 ↩︎
- Campbell, The Cambridge Companion to Hildegard of Bingen, Picturing Hildegard of Bingen’s Sight: Illuminating Her Visions, Pg. 263. ↩︎
- Love Anderson, The Cambridge Companion to Hildegard of Bingen, The Context and Reception of Hildegard of Bingen’s Visions, Pg. 201 ↩︎
- Love Anderson, The Cambridge Companion to Hildegard of Bingen, The Context and Reception of Hildegard of Bingen’s Visions, Pg. 191 ↩︎
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